It's a slight continuation of the last chapter's subject, which involves that of training. Only this time we're going into the mindset of someone else, just shy of being on the opposite side of the spectrum. Something along those lines.
Asgore: This is a time for fellow companions to help another in need...that can be arranged. This certain someone must understand what she's been blessed with.
Muffet: Why are you talking all deeply like that, your Majesty? Nothing too serious is happening, just something that began escalating during the quiet and needs to be remedied. Geez.~
Chapter Start!
CLANG!
Red gritted her canine teeth as she clashed her blade with Dogressa's halberd. The older canine had slashed downwards on Red, who had countered with her sword. Both of them had their blades magically dulled in order to avoid any serious injuries caused by their sharp weapons. Dogressa pulled back from the attack and slashed horizontally. Red's eyes flashed twice before she swiftly dodges the attack by ducking under it, before attempting an upwards diagonal slash. Dogressa dodged by jumping back from the slash, making skid marks in the ground with her back paws. She balanced her halberd on her shoulder for a bit while glaring at Red, her ears rippling with the wind. The same was being done for Red, her cowl pulled back, as well as her cape also rippling with the wind. Her silver soul pulsed within her chest while in the middle of their spar.
It's described as the Soul of Intuition. Another word for 'Instinct', which Red has been showing surprising amounts of, even before discovering the human soul within her.
"A Soul of Intuition...you can describe that as a soul that grants you a sixth sense." Geno Alphys explained. "It's usually the color silver, and it's sometimes represented by the owner's eyes being silver. With it, your sense to danger drastically increases, and you'll have more information to react accordingly. You'll be able to sense the degree of danger so you'll know how to handle counters and evasions, all without wasting magic. It's slightly different from Muffet sensing danger without magic, and it's slightly on different ends; instinct and reflexes CAN be linked, but while you have the upper hand in sensing the danger come, she's superior when it comes to actually reacting to it. However, both can still fall to folly with the proper exposure."
Red moved forward and slashed horizontally towards Dogressa, who easily defends with her halberd and swings horizontally once Red's attack ended. Red was swift enough to duck under the slash. Her eyes flashed a bit as she lunged forward with her blade. Since it was dulled, it did not pierce Dogressa at all. But it was still strong enough to cause her pain and send her skidding back once again, causing her to grit her teeth and plant her feet to stop her momentum. She raised her head and huffed, before charging towards Red with her halberd raised again. Red saw her raise said halberd, preparing for a sort of overhead strike. Red prepared herself for countering said attack; then she was briefly surprised as Dogressa pulled back her halberd at the last moment and instead went for a wide sweep of her halberd. Red barely managed to dodge the slash, seeing the halberd blur slightly form how fast it was swung.
"You can sense danger coming and may have more information to deal with it, but that doesn't guarantee you won't be harmed. And you can still be misled by intentional confusing movements. It also won't matter that you can sense the attack coming if you're not fast enough to avoid it, hence Muffet's superiority when it comes to actual evasion. The futility remains if someone is too fast for you to attack, or your attacks simply don't work at all. Depending on instinct alone will leave your attacks weakened when you need your mind to coordinate what kind of attack you need, how powerful to make it, as well as differentiating whether a certain threat requires serious attention or not."
Red had forgotten that Dogressa and the rest of the Pack have been through Magic Awakening as well, an their traits are now closer to that of wolves. And wolves were very swift when it comes to going on the offensive. Just because she was faster didn't make the rest of them any slower. While she was caught off-guard by Dogressa's feint, she noticed Dogressa swiftly hold the blade up to her neck, and Red stayed still, her eyes narrowed in defiance. But she didn't move an inch, as she was pinned against a tree. The elder canine took a good look at her: She was battered, her clothes were torn, her eyes were slit with restrained frustration as she kept her breathing under control...Red was just a bit stressed. They needed to stop now.
Dogressa sighed, pulling back said halberd as she dissipated it and offered her paw. "Red...We've been training for hours, non-stop. Let us go home...please?"
Red wanted to disagree, but the pleading gaze that Dogressa sent her way-along with a silent whimper-silenced her. With a quiet and soft sigh, Red does take Dogressa's paw as they made their way home. In the meantime, Dogressa was thinking about how to handle this. She can't necessarily tell Red to stop training. Because indeed, they needed to be stronger in order to be able to defend against similar threats in the future. But simultaneously, Red was recently pushing herself far too hard. It's becoming a major point of concern for the rest of the Pack, who don't have the heart to forcibly tell her to stop and rest.
The maternal canine sighed. Unfortunately for her maternal pride, she couldn't get through to her daughter on her own; she needed some outside assistance...
"I don't think I've ever invited you into my house...honestly, I don't know how I didn't think of that already." Muffet wondered while tapping her chin and tilting her head. She then shrugged. "Oh well. I invited you now, and that's what truly matters!"
"More like you dragged me along..."
"Same thing.~"
"HOW?"
"It's rather simple, Red Dearie. But we don't have to go into that right now, we have more important things to delve into." Muffet waved that off as well, which only served to annoy Red a bit more. That is, until her annoyed expression turned to surprise when Muffet opened the door to her house and stepped in.
"The work ethic of these spiders is outstanding..." Asgore wondered, quite impressed as he was being served by multiple spiders, whom were serving him croissants and tea. "And the fruits of their labor are amazing as always!~"
"I can definitely appreciate their skill with tea." Gerson nodded happily as he sipped a bit of tea while sitting across from Asgore.
"And these crumpets aren't too shabby either! Fuhu!" Undyne grinned, her sharp teeth easily tearing into her own croissant, only pulling back after it was completely devoured. As she went for another, she blinked and noticed Red and Muffet coming into the room. "Ah. Red's finally here. Good, now we can get down to business."
"Business...what are you talking about?" Red blinked, turning towards Muffet in suspicion. "You had something to do with this, didn't you?"
"I don't know what you mean.~" Muffet casually waved off the question. "The three of them simply asked to come to my house. And I gladly let them in without much of a hassle. Like Undyne, I do take my effectiveness in hospitality quite seriously. I happen to be quite good at it, with some help from Undyne herself. She also takes her hospitality skills quite seriously, if you haven't experienced it already. However...I'm not exactly as passionate about it as she is."
"You sound like taking hospitality as seriously as I do is a bad thing. I can't imagine how." Undyne rolled her eye as she then turns to Red. "Anyway punk, we were invited here to talk to you about a couple things."
"And what would those things be...?"
"Your mother called Muffet, who is closest to you outside of your foster kin, and she this called us in because she has a feeling we'd be able to understand your actions the best." Gerson added while setting down his cup. "You've been overexerting yourself lately, Red. That's no good." Red narrowed her eyes a bit and turned her head away for a bit. "You shouldn't worry your Pack like that, young'un. Care to tell us why you're working much harder than usual."
"And do believe me when I say that hard work is very important. But I noticed that you've been getting much more intense than usual." Undyne said while narrowing her eye slightly. "Originally, I simply thought that you were taking training more seriously, and there's nothing wrong with that at all. However, Dogressa has been telling me that you've been training at home as well, which again, there's nothing wrong with that. But then she tells me that you haven't been resting nearly as much as you should have...that's when I felt the need to step in. Since none of them really have the heart to forcibly tell you to rest, they felt helpless. Luckily for them...I do."
Red blinked. "What are you talking abo-"
SMACK!
...
...
...
"...OoooooOOOOOOOWWWWWW!" Red whimpered as she nursed the top of her head, which Undyne unceremoniously hit without warning. "What was that for...?!"
"For being such an idiot." Undyne said irritably, a vein pulsing her head with her fist raised.
"I told her." Muffet shrugged while shaking her head with a sheepish smile.
"Twice I've been told that...how exactly have I been acting idiotic...?" Red muttered while still nursing her head, growling just slightly. Though Undyne's criticizing gaze immediately silenced it.
"...Ya really wanna know how? It should be rather obvious." Undyne groaned while scratching the back of her head.
"Now now, Undyne, you're not giving the poor girl a chance." Asgore reasoned with a sheepish smile. He then reached out and gently begins petting Red's head, showing Red a caring and nurturing smile. "Red...Undyne is simply worried about your well-being. She's being as...passionate about it as she is about the issue is because you've begun making the very same mistake she used to make while she was training under me at your age, and she wishes to, how you say...'nip that issue in the bud' before it grows out of control and becomes dangerously detrimental." Red blinked a bit and raised her head, wondering what he meant by that. "Undyne at the time was extremely dedicated to training as hard as she could so she could defeat me. I was pretty comfortable with her aiming for that goal. Though I began to see just how dedicated she was and how far she was willing to take it. At some points she would insist on pushing herself far beyond her current capability. She would sometimes pass out from the exhaustion, and be unable to use her magic for the next couple of days afterwards."
"Seriously...?"
"Seriously." Gerson nodded. "Me and Fluffybuns always told her that it was alright to work hard. But the way she was going about it, she was greatly exhausting herself from overexertion. And not just her body, but her mind and emotions. And a monsters' magic is strongly connected to their emotions, so when Undyne's stress of over-training began messing with her emotional state, it began interfering her magic. She couldn't summon any magic because she allowed the stress of training to completely disrupt it. If she didn't properly rest, she wouldn't be able to properly use her magic at later times."
Red blinked in confusion as Asgore and Gerson told her all of this, causing her to look towards Undyne. Said mentor huffed as she folded her arms and looked away, though she didn't bother hiding her embarrassed blush that much. To be honest, that was rather stupid of her to push herself so hard with little to no rest. She now understood that Red was doing the exact same thing she was, and opted to put a stop to it as soon as she could.
Pushing herself out of her thoughts, Undyne turned to Red while folding her arms. "After a few attempts, I realized that Asgore was right. Over-training and stress are not a good combination. Which is why I made sure not to make the same mistakes with my own students. Over-training and stress are very severe detrimental to one's progress. They're both very severe obstacles to one's true potential. The times I felt that Papyrus was too stressed or seemed to be pushing too hard, I made him take an extended break before continuing. The same went for Asriel, but by that time I knew what I was doing, mostly."
"Mostly...?"
"I managed to somewhat avoid most of Toriel's ire because I went much easier on him than I originally planned. That, and I admit that I've grown rather fond of the little brat after a while. He's gone through quite a lot of things that he didn't deserve, I thought that he needed some slack. And that slack definitely helped him open up around me. The dude has plenty of insecurities still roaming around even today, and I'm usually the one he comes to for advice if he doesn't feel like opening up to his folks. And I'm kinda doing the same thing here." Undyne said as she picked up a cup of tea that a nearby spider handed to her, and sipped a bit of its contents before pulling back with a sigh. "Alright Red...what's the matter?"
"What do you mean...?"
"You know exactly what they mean, Dearie." Muffet said while sipping a bit of her own tea, and few spiders gathering around her. "There's no use in hiding it from them. They're very much familiar with what you're feeling. All you have to do is describe it to them, and they'll help you progress quite handily."
Red pondered on whether or not she should really tell them what's been on her mind. Muffet was her best friend, and thus she'd be able to know more about her outside of her family. But Muffet was clearly able to tell that the depth of this issue was not within her ability to resolve on her own, so she had no issues for calling for help that would properly understand Red's inner plight. Suppose that was the sort of mentality that carried from her owning a business. Even if it's subtle, Muffet is rarely doing anything alone. She always had her spiders helping her. Even if her relationship with said spiders is...rather difficult for others to understand. But what matters now was that Red needed someone who can understand her, and she called the three people who were capable of such a thing.
Red sighed softly as she lifted her head towards the three adults. "When I regained a few of my memories, I do remember training to be a member of the Royal Guard back then...but...because of what happened back then...that Ambassador was lying there dead...I didn't know that monsters could absorb souls...I did go to look at those plaques around in Waterfall...how someone became a terrible beast with unfathomable power...that's supposed to be me, right...?" Red wondered with lowered eyes. "I couldn't even understand what happened before I was ultimately sealed away. And even after I was unsealed and regained some of my memories, I still can't fully understand...someone both let me take the fall for whoever killed that human ambassador, and tried to demonize me as some nameless fiend...but that doesn't really matter..."
Gerson frowned. All he was informed was that a monster absorbed a human soul and was swiftly punished with intense severity. He was not informed that the supposed culprit was a little girl, and neither was Asgore or Toriel. Especially someone he indirectly knew. If he did know this specific detail, he would have investigated much deeper into it out of concern for her. He never would have thought that the Artifact held her prisoner. "Red...are you blaming yourself for everything that's happened?"
"It doesn't matter how it happened or why..." Red said bitterly. "I was used to start a mass conflict that resulted in a completely one-sided war in the past. I had completely failed as a Royal Guardsmen before I was even able to officially start...had I been a bit more cautious and approached the assignment more carefully...gosh, had I been there sooner, all of that could have been avoided. As for the last one, I could have prevented that humans death and none of what happened afterwards would have happened...but I allowed him to die on my watch before I could even get there...it's my complete and utter failure...that's why I've been training harder than ever before, pushing myself so hard. I don't want something like that happening again because of me..."
The trio listened attentively to Red as she admitted her hidden plight to them. Even in a situation that was almost entirely out of her control, Red was blaming herself for the death of the ambassador by not being there soon enough to protect him, then accidentally absorbing his soul, and getting sealed away; which left monsters to be demonized due to the dangerous ability that monsters have been revealed to have. She was the first one to demonstrate that possibility, and that was enough for them to be persecuted, their numbers vastly reduced, and sealed in the Underground/scattered across the world. The burden weighs heavily on her know that she remembers those things, and she's been unconsciously punishing herself for it.
"...Okay Dearie. What of it?" Red looked towards Muffet, who tilted her head curiously. "You definitely have a proper mindset going for you. You're just like me. When something goes seriously wrong for you, you don't complain for too long. No, you'd rather get productive so you can do something about the dire situation you face. That's all well and good. Truly. Now...here's where you fumble. You're so intent on going about and redeeming yourself on what you see as a failure, you're unintentionally distancing yourself from your loved ones. To be fair, we could have intervened earlier, so that's on us. But still, we're all taking responsibility for this, alright?"
"H-Huh...?"
Asgore nodded to Red, as did Gerson. The former spoke up again: "Red...no matter how the situation came about, how it proceeded and ended, you ultimately feel personally responsible. That itself is fine if it's truly something you can't live down. However, taking it to this extreme is not good for you. The path of redemption is not meant to be walked alone. There is no need for you to distance yourself from the others to make amends for what you see as a failure on your part." He then lightly placed his paw on Red's head again, lightly petting her. "Red...by all that you can recall from your memories, you have been alone for a very long time. No loving family, no reliable friends, and many mentors who did not believe in you. You pushed on despite all of these emotional disadvantages, and you were rewarded with imprisonment. That is definitely an unfortunate string of circumstances. However, that is no longer the case. You now have a loving family, many loyal friends, and mentors who are more than happy to help you learn whatever you need to. Is that right?"
"Yes...?"
"So...why would you not consider turning to them during your times of stress? At first, you had no one alongside you who would truly care about your plights, so you yourself did not care about your plights either...but now you have plenty who would not only happily hear you out, but would gladly help you through whatever troubles you may have. Red, you're not alone anymore. No one is going to punish you, and you certainly shouldn't be punishing yourself. You're surrounded by those who'll support you no matter what, so you shouldn't worry about being rejected from one 'failure'. Not one bit."
Red blinked softly as she turned to Undyne and Gerson, who were both nodding towards her with bright smiles, but Undyne's was much brighter. A clear indicator of the faith that she had in the canine, despite her naive way of thinking.
"Red Dearie...do you remember what I said?" Muffet suddenly asked, gently taking Red's paws and holding in him her middle hands and began caressing them. "It's perfectly understandable for you to be serious when it calls for it...but there's also a time for which you need to relax. There's no need to push yourself harder than you possibly can to the point of torture, simply to make amends to monsters. You're doing fine. No one is going to leave you behind for something you had little to no control over. Least of all me, and to an even lesser extent, your Pack."
"Muffet...but I..."
"Hush, dear. I'm a spider. And like a web, I'm going to stick to you no matter how much you believe that you're not worth it. You're not going to get rid of me that easily, so you can go ahead and erase any thought that even indirectly hints at that possibility. And the Pack will sooner shave their fur in the middle of the worst of blizzards than let something like this stop them from loving you. You know why? You're the Pup, and they'll do whatever they can however they can to make sure you're safe and happy. You're finally being given the love you've been starved of when you were young and alone back then. Don't waste something so special, Dearie. Enjoy it and embrace it."
Red pouted for a little while, looking towards Muffet with narrowed eyes. Her silver eyes glared at the spider in front of her, and they seemed to be sparkling quite a bit. "...You're the spider who's always going on and on about your business, your spiders, your pastries, and your rather ridiculous obsession with money...why are you so effective at making me feel better?"
"Whether through words or through actions, that's what best friends do for one another!~"
Red blinked in astonishment, then she slowly smiled, more soft and genuine as she clasped her paws with Muffet's hands. "Yeah! You're...you're my best friend!~"
"There you go, Dearie! You're back on track!" Muffet beamed.
"Geez..." Undyne sighed as she lifted herself from her seat and stretched. "Alright. Now that we've gotten that sorted out, I'm gonna head home. You should too, Red. You're gonna have to apologize to your Pack so that they can stop worrying about you."
"I do agree. You have a family now, so do go to them and enjoy their pleasant company. They'll surely appreciate that you've calmed down and are now willing to spend time with them again, outside of training." Asgore said with a small smile, before following Undyne out.
Gerson also began following the two of them out, before he stops for a moment and turned towards Red. "...You're much too young to be stressing yourself out so much, so do allow yourself to relax. I mean, look at me. I'm one of the oldest monsters you'll ever see, and the main thing I'm focused on is living my life as happily as I can, and defend that happiness as best as I can. That duty hasn't changed, which is why I'm actively out of retirement. It's a pain...but I'm willin' to endure it for the sake of my loved ones. Though I do wish to return to retirement as soon as I can. I have things I wanna do in peace ya know. Wa ha ha!~" he waved happily as he began leaving the house. "New experiences, good and bad, help you grow into a better person. Take that knowledge, and keep improving in mind, body, and heart."
Red blinked softly. Gerson felt guilty for not fully remembering her despite their very limited interactions, but he definitely won't forget her now. This filled her with a bit of gratitude and genuine happiness. She soon stands up on her own and begins leaving Muffet's house as well. "This really helped me out, Muffet. Thanks for straightening me out a bit. I'm gonna go back home, but I'll call you later!"
"That sounds rather lovely, Dearie! I'll see you later!" Muffet beamed as she waved farewell to her dear friend as she was on her way to exit the premises. Muffet palmed her cheek a little as she lowered her eyes. She was rather pleased with the knowledge that she's helped out a friend with a personal emotional problem. Now she could get back to her own business for a moment, beginning to tidy up her house. As she does, her mind began to wander for a bit.
It's very nice that I was able to help my dear friend overcome this problem. Red's strong, yet more insecure than I thought. Ahuhu...she nags Asriel for acting troublesome, yet she's not that different.~
And luckily for her, neither is Muffet herself. Being mischievous is a very enjoyable pastime for her.
Dogressa blinked a bit as she heard the door being knocked on for a bit. Endogeny was lying on the ground, currently being fed by Ice Wolf and Doggo, while Greater Dog and Lesser Dog tried to keep the Amalgamate balanced and stable. With one large orifice, it was a bit awkward, but they were still able to do so. Dogressa made her way to the door and opened said door so she could see who was behind it. She was greeted by Red, who was very eager to see her, wrapping her arms around her and nuzzling into her bosom. Dogressa blinked in surprise.
""Red...?" Dogamy asked from behind. "Are you okay? How are you feeling, dear?"
"Fine...I...I'm sorry...I haven't been fair to all of you. Training hard is fine, but not giving my body and mind any decent rest is going to reflex poorly on my performance in the future, and it's also been distancing me from my time with you." Red whispered for a bit, before tilting her head upwards to meet Dogressa's eyes. "So...I'm going to take a break. A long one, so I can spend much more time with all of you. Is that okay...?"
Dogressa slowly smiled as she returned the hug while licking her daughters nose. "Nothing to apologize for, my dear Puppy. I was simply worried about you, and I'm glad that you're actually considering taking some time off for a bit. We'll definitely make up for most of that training time."
Red smiled, relieved that she was forgiven so easily, even though she felt like she should have been. Suppose close family does that, and this was what it was like to actually have one. There's no way she wouldn't be thankful to have such a wonderful family with her when she previouslh had no one, lack of memories or no. At this moment...she wasn't worried about never regaining every bit of her lost memories, because there were still a few essential blanks here and there. If she happens to regain them anyway, great. If not, that was fine too. She was perfectly fine with living in the present with the Pack that dearly loved her, and she loved them all in great return.
Without any reservations, she closed her eyes and sighed. "Thank you, Mama..."
Well Red's being properly taken care of. Starting out, Red had close to no one who was truly worried about her well-being, so she unconsciously didn't really worry about herself, so long as she was protecting others who needed protecting. But now that she DOES have a family, she'll be more mindful that someone cares when she overdoes it, or when she gets really hurt. She's thankful for having such loving friends and family in this new life of hers.
Asgore: Others could use happiness like this within their lives. This is one of many. Look forward to bonds growing deeper.
Muffet: Goodness, you're doing it again! I usually see a problem that needs solving and do so. Then you take it a step further regardless of the results. *Sigh* I do wonder if this is becoming a troublesome habit of ours...
Asgore: ...It might just be. Not that I mind too much.
Await the next chapter, readers.~