Chapter 2 - Snowdin
Foreword: The following is an AU that has a personal interpretation of how things in Undertale like magic can operate, as well as my understanding of the game's lore. If I make an error or take artistic liberty to explain what has not been explained, like the CORE or GASTER, consider it an aspect of the AU. Additionally, this may contain spoilers for the game Undertale, if you're not aware of how things go in the game and don't want spoilers, then don't say I didn't warn you.
One bottle of ketchup.
Two bottles of ketchup..
Three bottles of ketchup...
The sound of boots treading in the snow from the direction of the ruins woke the Skeleton up, he yawned and scratched the base of his skull slightly as he looked in the direction of the sound, seeing the new arrival.
"Another one? This one's bigger too. Welp, guess I'll go greet em." said the lazy skeleton.
Ray continued to walk in the snow, noticing a snapped tree branch and he continued to walk cautiously, coming to a bridge and halting upon hearing the sound of heavy footsteps in the snow.
"Human, don't ya know how to greet a new pal? Turn around and shake my hand." said the individual behind him.
Ray turned, noticing the Skeleton wearing a blue jacket, considerably shorter than him, hand held out. Ray decided to shake the skeleton's hand, he seemed friendly enough.
The sound of a whoopie cushion going off filled the air, the skeleton started laughing and said "Ah the old Whoopie-cushion-in-the-hand trick. Never gets old! I'm Sans, Sans the Skeleton!"
Ray chuckled and replied "Nice to meet you Sans. I'm Ray Zenji. Have you seen another human around? A kid perhaps?"
Sans looked up at Ray and said "I probably should have figured someone would have come looking for the kiddo sooner or later, though I woulda thought you'd be smart enough not to get yourself trapped here, y'know on account of the barrier.". Ray nodded and said "Coming here kinda wasn't my choice, though it was just luck that I found out the kid I'm looking for is here. I uh, hate to ask this in this way but, are they okay? They're not hurt or anything are they?"
Sans shook his head and replied "Nah, I've been keeping an eye socket out for em, they're doing fine last I checked. Speaking of, they probably may have finished that second X and O puzzle by now. I should check in with my bro before he gets mad. Wanna come with?"
Ray nodded and said "Yes. Good to know that Frisk is okay." Sans nodded and said "I know a shortcut, follow me."
Ray followed Sans, if Ray had been a few LV lower, he would not have noticed the scenery cutting to black and then back again to a different snowy area, around was a larger skeleton in some kind of armor with a red neck scarf similar to Ray's, in addition, there was a small child matching the description of Frisk exactly, though their expression was the exception, being that of what best can be described as neutral displeasure.
Sans teleported, or rather, took another shortcut, to the other side of the puzzle, which apparently was some kind of multi-tile construct.
"Wowie! Another Human! A big one too, almost as tall as me!" said the other skeleton. Sans said "Well now at least they won't be BONELY."
A rim shot was heard from somewhere above.
Ray chuckled and said "That was so bad it was good." The other skeleton however, seemed to disagree and shouted "Sans! Enough with your terrible puns already! Oh silly me I haven't introduced myself to the new human yet! I am the Great Papyrus, this lazy sack of bones is my brother Sans and...Now that I think about it, I never got the small human's name. Small Human! What is your name?"
Frisk just kept their expression the same as before, not replying.
Ray noted this was an odd behavior, perhaps they were traumatized somehow by the cult from the village? Ray then said "I think their name is Frisk. Am I correct kid?"
Frisk nodded in affirmation. Ray shrugged and said "Not very talkative are you. Well at least you're alive."
Their expression changed briefly, as if that wasn't exactly true. Ray being intuitive, felt Frisk was reacting like someone who had seen their own death before, Sans also seemed to pick up on this and said "Maybe you could introduce yourself to paps now that we know the kiddo's name."
Ray nodded and said "My name is Ray Zenji, it is my pleasure to meet you Papyrus." Papyrus smiled and said "Excellent! Then we can begin with the puzzle and after you are well and truly confounded, I will capture you both! I will finally be accepted into the Royal Guard!"
Ray felt a bit, dumbfounded as Papyrus went into a tangent about how getting into the royal guard would lead to him becoming super popular with the Underground and all Ray could say was "Wait, what?"
Sans shrugged, now off to Ray's side and said "Just roll with it."
Ray turned to look at Sans, only for him to no longer be present there, instead back to where he was before. Ray looked between the two locations briefly and sighed as Papyrus then began to explain the long winded rules of the tile puzzle before them.
Frisk looked at Ray with an expression that felt like "Welcome to my life."
Papyrus had finished and then said "So, do you understand all that?" Frisk nodded whilst Ray just nodded as well, he did follow the explanation somewhat and Papyrus nodded and mentioned the puzzle was also entirely random so even he did not know the solution and then activated the switch, the tiles started to flicker between the various colors at an increasingly fast pace, before ending with just pink tiles leading forward and red tiles on the sides, Ray remembered Pink tiles do nothing and Red Tiles are impassable.
Papyrus said nothing, spun around in circles in such a manner that he spinned out of the area, though his smile never left, there was a hint of annoyance on his face.
Ray and Frisk just crossed the puzzle and Sans followed behind them. Sans took this opportunity to perform a [CHECK] on Ray, his expression went dead serious and his footsteps suddenly echoed with a stalking intent. Ray looked behind only for a trail of footprints leading up to him being present, but no sans.
Frisk didn't seem to be surprised by this, probably having gotten used to it.
Sans teleported into the Ruins, checking for dust, but finding none. Eventually he saw Toriel leaving her home and he Teleported back to Snowdin, specifically, to the edge of the bridge where Papyrus was waiting.
Papyrus shouted "Sans! Must you teleport every time you decide to move?" Sans shrugged and his serious expression was gone, he then said "Tibia honest, yes."
Papyrus groaned and did not reply to sans' pun, merely facepalming.
Sans despite not showing it on his face anymore, was deep in thought. The adult human had a LV of 40 and his EXP was frighteningly high, however there wasn't any dust laying around snowdin or the ruins and none of the monsters except possibly Gerson were old enough to worry about dying of natural causes. Which must mean all that LV and EXP had to have been gained killing humans. He would have to for once, put some effort into watching this human. A LV. of 40, he can't afford to be lazy around such a potentially dangerous human, especially with Papyrus around.
Ray and Frisk had a silent walk through Snowdin, occasionally a monster or two would attack, however Ray kept his promise and Frisk seemed to be familiar with how to deal with them passively. Eventually they reached what appeared to be a button puzzle with an ice skating aspect to it, Frisk expertly moved through the puzzle, completing it on the first try, opening the path ahead.
As the two walked, Ray said "So, you seem good with puzzles."
Frisk just gave a thumbs up in response, his face's expression remaining the same neutrally displeased one.
Ray felt there wasn't really much room for small talk and so he decided to get to the point.
"Did you, run away from that village?" said Ray. Frisk stopped and gave a surprised look at Ray, one with a mix of confusion and possibly fear.
Ray sighed and said "Relax, I'm not from there. I was hired to investigate some disappearances on Mt. Ebbot, I ended up asking the wrong questions and found out a little too much about the village, so they chased me to the summit and I tripped and fell down the hole leading to the ruins. Not that I couldn't take them all down, I just didn't have enough bullets on me to do that."
Frisk relaxed and sighed in relief before walking forward, there was, briefly on their face, a displeased look as if they did not really want to start walking, yet they did anyway and Ray followed. The more Ray observed Frisk, the more he felt his actions were, hesitant, as if he was fighting some kind of outside control in futility.
Ray then said "Kid, Don't take this the wrong way but. You don't really want to be here do you?". Frisk kept walking, but shook his head slightly. As they walked to a field of snow poffs, Ray spoke again, saying "So it's not that you don't want to talk, it's that you can't talk.". Frisk nodded.
It seemed he could barely nod or shake his head and make expressions, but anything else was beyond their power. Ray was about to perform a [CHECK] on Frisk when a dog's face came out of a snow poff.
Ray could not resist saying "Cute doggy." and was about to lean over to pet the dog when the dog rose out of the snow poff in heavy armor and holding a spear.
The Battlespace came and Ray saw Frisk's Red Soul of Determination. Frisk in turn, glanced at Ray's Yellow Soul of Justice.
Frisk took out a stick and tossed it, the Greater Dog fetched it and the two played fetch for a while. Then the Greater Dog swung his spear around. There was that numbing feeling in his skull again and Ray looked at Frisk briefly and flashes of memories briefly flooded him along with a sense of Deja Vu.
Frisk being cleaved in two by the Dog's spear.
Ray grabbed his head, he didn't know what was going on. Frisk was still alive, not harmed at all and was expertly dodging Greater Dog's attacks, then why did he just see those images? Frisk then started to ignore the existence of Greater Dog, so they inched closer and then Frisk petted them. Eventually Frisk pet them to maximum pet capacity and then the battlespace ended, with Frisk sparing Greater Dog.
Greater Dog barked then licked Frisk in the face, his expression unchanged and then Greater Dog flipped around, it's tail and butt hanging out of the armor as it walked forward, unblocking the path.
Ray looked over at Frisk so just stared at him in return. Ray had questions but he doubted Frisk could answer them in his current controlled state, so they continued onwards in silence.
Arriving at the Bridge, Papyrus and Sans were waiting for them. Papyrus shouted "Humans! Behold the Gauntlet of Deadly Terror!" A variety of rope held objects, being a cannon, a dog, two spears, a flail and a torch, all aiming at the bridge. Papyrus went into a tangent about how this puzzle would leave only the slightest hint of the possibility of victory and that once he said the word, it would begin.
"That doesn't look very activated." said Sans, after Papyrus seemed to refuse to say the word, though Ray's intuition seemed to read Papyrus' face.
Ray then said "So, you forgot the activation word?". The Expression on Sans and Frisk's faces seemed to give off the air of the phrase "Bingo!" without saying anything.
Papyrus replied "How Absurd! I remember the word perfectly! It is just, this puzzle seems too easy to defeat you with! I am a skeleton with standards after all! I must beat you fair and square! Away it goes!"
And so away the gauntlet went. Ray shrugged and looked over the side of the bridge as they crossed and noticed it was just a wooden platform with guard rope laid out over a painted rock formation, a few splotches of painted trees here or there gave it away if one looked hard enough.
Sans poked Ray from behind and he turned to see a sudden, serious and hostile expression.
Sans said "I'll be watching you. If you don't want to have a bad time, I suggest you follow the path the kid is on."
Before Ray could reply, Sans teleported out of sight. Ray felt obvious killing intent from him and though Sans was only at LV. 1 last he [CHECK]ed, Ray could sense considerable threat from him.
Continuing onwards they eventually reached Snowdin town, it was peaceful enough, there was what looked like a Christmas Tree in the center and none of the monsters seemed to recognize Ray or Frisk as human, were they really that oblivious? This seemed to be the case.
Flowey propped up from an exposed tile in TRUE LAB by the DT Extractor, reading over some notes on the table and then looking over at the Extractor, a sadistic grin coming over his face.
As Ray and Frisk were both still energetic, they elected not to stay at the Inn. Frisk loaded up on cinnamon bunnies at the shop, though he seemed to be saving a donut. Ray had purchased one himself to try out the taste, having split the gold some of the monsters gave them earlier for "Being nice enough to watch the magic attack patterns."
Ray was used to dodging knives and arrows and the patterns of the Monsters down here were easy enough to figure out, especially since he was powerful enough to manipulate the battlespace directly thanks to his LV.
The Cinnamon Bunny was good, though he felt it kind of melt as he swallowed it, suggesting it wasn't made of physical material but rather magical material instead. The two eventually continued onwards through a snowy field, it was almost impossible to see, though Ray and Frisk seemed to easily navigate it by going forward, Papyrus blocked the path ahead.
Papyrus spoke, saying "Humans! I am glad you have so thoroughly enjoyed my puzzles, but alas! The time has come to capture you. I cannot help but feel we are already good friends, despite having never met before today! No! It cannot be! Thus! I the Great Papyrus! Must capture you now! Prepare yourselves!"
The Battlespace came and Papyrus readied his magic, Ray could tell with his intuition that Papyrus did not have any killing intent. Frisk seemed to have some difficulty evading Papyrus' attacks, however Ray was here to present a second target, forcing Papyrus to send attacks at him every now and then. Ray took less damage and had a lot more HP than Frisk, so he often would intervene if Frisk couldn't keep up, getting between them. Ray remembered Toriel's words and did not draw his firearm, instead charging at Papyrus in a tackle then rolling forward and as Papyrus got up, he leg sweeped, only for it to miss, not because Papyrus evaded it, but because somehow, Ray's aim was off, he felt heavy and looking at his and Frisk's souls, they were now blue.
Papyrus chuckled and said "Very good human! But getting so close lets me easily turn you blue! Not to worry, I am sure we will have much fun now! Don't forget to jump!"
Papyrus sent a flurry of bones forward, Ray felt less able to manipulate the battlespace and did his best to evade the bones, jumping and leaping over them when necessary, after the attack, Frisk sent a fake hit at Papyrus, doing 1 damage and turning Papyrus' attention to him. The battle continued like this for about another minute before Papyrus seemed exhausted and said "Humans! It's clear that." he panted. "That you cannot, endure this...much longer. Therefore!" he paused, catching his breath more. "I am sparing you. Yes, the Great Papyrus is showing mercy to you, because I am quite certain we can become good friends. For some reason it feels like we are already friends."
Ray and Frisk notice the battlespace end and Papyrus seemed to lament that he'll never get into the Royal Guard now and all he wanted was to make friends, Frisk walked up to him and held his hand, Papyrus then said "Could it be, that you want to be my friend?" Frisk nodded and Papyrus' face was lit with joy, his head spun around and silently looked at Ray with a gleeful face, Ray just shrugged and said "Sure, why not."
Papyrus was clearly overjoyed, explaining that if they ever wanted to Hang out, they should see him in Snowdin Town. As Papyrus ran towards Snowdin, Frisk looked at Ray briefly and then walked over towards Snowdin.
Ray shrugged and said "That was quick. Guess I'll follow."
Later at Sans and Papyrus' house, Frisk and Ray had a, very interesting hangout to say the least, involving spaghetti. The taste was, a bit bitter and bland compared to most spaghetti Ray had had, though the noodles were very thin and silky in texture. He thought it was okay, but Frisk's facial expression suggested they did not care for it, though they said nothing as usual when Papyrus assumed they enjoyed it to the extreme.
Heading back out towards Waterfall, Ray and Frisk stopped by Sans' sentry station there after a monster explained the Echo Flower to them. Sans asked Ray if he wanted to get something to eat at Grillbys, Ray nodded and Sans spoke again, saying "Follow me, I know a shortcut."
One shortcut later...
Sans and Ray were sitting at the stools, Ray wasted no time digging into the burger and Sans elected not to play a ketchup related prank on him, though the whoopie cushion trick and odd pun here or there was still a thing. Ray had quickly gotten used to it for some reason, indeed Sans' jokes were seemingly hilarious despite their lazy construction, for some reason, he just made them work. Must be the way he delivers them Ray thought.
The light centered in on the two of them, a circle, outside the circle, it was dark and you could barely see, it wasn't like the battlespace, it was more like the space between space that Sans called his shortcuts, what little of Grillby Ray could see seemed to be frozen, as if time wasn't passing outside of the bubble between the two.
Sans spoke, with a serious tone. "I'll get to the point. You've been getting the same headaches I get since coming here, right?" Ray looked over at Sans briefly and swallowed what was left of his burger and nodded, saying "Yes, I also recently got flashes of, well, something that might have happened, but didn't."
Sans nodded and replied "Yeah, I figured. I can notice these things more often than not due to my magic, for you, it's probably your high LV. Tell me bluntly, who did you kill, and why?" Ray sighed and said "A lot of people here and there, some in self defense, some who deserved it, a few others who didn't, but I was misled to believe they did. I found the true culprits and gave them what was coming to them though. Never seen a monster before today, haven't killed any. There's this one flower that I think has it coming, they mentioned something about resets."
Sans drank some ketchup and then said "Well, normally I'd make a pun and be lazy but, something's been bugging me for a while now and I don't like it. So I'll explain everything as best I can, seems out of character I know, but I can't afford to be lazy anymore, not with the flashes of memory I've seen."
Sans paused and Ray listened intently, Sans then began explaining what he knew about Resets, timelines jumping left and right, everything supposedly ending, how he now has memories of doing the same thing over and over, of knowing Frisk before actually meeting them. He couldn't fully remember it all, but the vague recollection was there. He knew about resets primarily from his days as a scientist.
"Dr. G, the Royal Scientist before Dr. Alphys, not that anybody remembers G but me, due to the way my magic works. Basically, he studied determination, him and me, we theorized that insanely high amounts of it could be used to manipulate time and we studied those glowing star points that only skeletons and humans seem to know exist. Save Points. You've come across a few of them right?" Ray nodded, saying "Yes, Frisk interacts with them every time we come across, I tried touching one but my hand phased through it, whereas Frisk was able to physically touch them. Flowey mentioned I wasn't the most determined one down here and thus because of that, I can't reset." Sans replied "That confirms our theory then. The most determined being in the underground can manipulate time, how, not sure exactly, but G said the CORE works in a similar manner. It uh, it doesn't actually generate geothermal energy, that magma you see isn't actually molten rock, it's a magical byproduct of some process that then in turn generates heat energy for the CORE to power the underground with, but that's a secondary purpose. The main purpose of the CORE is to tap into a well of infinite latent energy, called the Void. That uh, that didn't go so well." Sans continued.
There was a bit of silence, Ray wasn't exactly sure how all this worked but he was always somewhat able to understand things like Time Travel and non-linear casuality from the sci-fi shows and anime he's watched in the past.
Sans' serious tone ended, and he said "Well, that's all just a theory anyway."
Space around them returned to normal, nobody seemed to notice anything significant had happened and Sans stepped off the stool and said "Well, break time's over I guess. Oh by the way, I'm flat broke, could you float the bill? It's only 10,000 G."
Ray gave a death glare over at Sans who returned with one of his own, before shrugging and chuckling, saying "Relax, I'm only joking. Grillby, put it on my tab." Grillby nodded and Sans waved as he left. Ray noticed Sans didn't even touch his burger and he looked over at Grillby who said it's probably cold by now. Ray sighed and left, thanking Grillby for the food. Frisk was waiting back in Waterfall, Ray eventually caught up and they continued onwards.
Somewhere and nowhere at the same time...
"How very interesting..." a voice said, no physical body present.
"I wonder how this could have happened... Strange, the files are in a different format, something or someone has changed the game..."
"This next experiment...Shall prove Very, Very interesting..."
To be continued...
