Peter walked into the next room, curiously looking at the various details about and around. He had scarcely passed into it when the phone rang.
"Hello? He asked.
"Oh, hello? This is Toriel." The voice on the other end said. "You have not yet let the room, have you?"
"Well—"
"There are a few puzzles ahead that I have yet to explain, and it would be dangerous to solve them yourself." Toriel continued. "Be good, alright?"
"Wait I—" The phone clicked as Toriel hung up. "Well, that's unhelpful." Peter walked over to an area where a Froggit stood, and looked at it. "Hello, little fella. You're kinda cute, you know."
"Ribbit, ribbit." It replied.
"The Froggit said, "Hello human, I have some advice for you about battling monsters. If you act a certain way, or fight until you almost defeat them, they may not want to fight you anymore. If this is the case, please show mercy, human." Chara stated.
"Ribbit." The Froggit said.
"You can understand them?" Peter asked.
"A bit." Chara replied. "Now stop bugging me. It's not like I want to help you."
"Now I'm just confused." Peter said. "You don't want to help me?"
"Listen, I've been dead for I don't even know how long. Suddenly, I wake up and find myself connected to and only able to communicate with you." Chara replied snappily. "I'm not a big fan of my species overall, and am only helping you so that maybe, MAYBE we can be disconnected and I can leave or die for real."
"You were a human?" Peter asked. "Then why do you hate, well, humans?"
"It's a story I'm not getting into now." She replied. "Can we move on?"
Peter shrugged, and moving past the Froggit, walked into a side hallway. Upon entering, he noticed a bowl of candy, with a sign that said to take one. Wanting to be polite to Toriel, he acquiesced and got one piece.
"Doesn't look like any candy I know." He noted.
"That's because it's Monster Candy." Chara explained. "It is useful for healing, and has a distinct, non-licorice flavor."
"That's good, cause I don't like licorice." Peter replied, pocketing the candy. Walking backwards, he noticed the large piles of leaves scattered about the hall. Stepping in one, he found it pleasantly crunchy, so he continued walking through them, feeling that same emotion as earlier rise.
"Playfully crinkling through the leaves fills you with determination." Chara noted boredly.
"Um... OK." Peter replied. Suddenly, another Froggit hopped up to him.
"Oof!" Peter gasped as the concurrent feelings of the color draining from the world, his spider-sense going crazy, and his SOUL flying from his chest let him know he was now in a fight. "I don't think I'll ever get used to this. Um, hey Froggit! Nice shade of... white?"
"Froggit didn't understand what you said," Chara intoned. "But it was flattered anyway. Not that it should be, that was lame."
"No need to be a critic." Peter replied, sidestepping the fly-like bullets.
"Froggit seems reluctant to fight you." Chara noted.
"Uh, I don't wanna fight you either, Froggit." Peter replied.
The Froggit hopped away, croaking pleasantly.
"Looks like you got 2 gold." Chara said.
"Is that currency down here?" Peter asked.
"More or less."
Peter shrugged. "Cool." Once the world returned to normal, he went into the next room. His spider-sense warned him about a rug in front of him, so he parkoured to the other side.
"Nice instincts or spider-sense or whatever." Chara said. "That rug is actually a puzzle itself."
"Kinda figured." Peter replied. Continuing, his phone rang again.
"Hello? This is Toriel." Came the voice on the other end of the line.
"I thought so." Peter replied.
"For no reason in particular, which do you prefer? Cinnamon or butterscotch?" She asked.
He hadn't really thought about this, so he shrugged. "Cinnamon."
"Alright then." Toriel replied, and hung up.
"Not suspicious at all." He noted to Chara. She didn't respond.
"Come on now-" He was about to say, but the phone rang again. "Hold that thought."
"Hello? This is Toriel."
"... I figured?"
"You do not dislike butterscotch, do you?" She asked. "I know what your preference is, but would you turn up your nose if you found it on your plate?"
"Well, I don't really have an opinion." Peter admitted. "I've just had more cinnamon things, so... no?"
"Right, right, I understand." She replied. "Thank you for being patient, by the way." The line hung up.
"She's making you her famous cinnamon-butterscotch pie." Chara noted.
"Where'd you go?"
"Nowhere." Chara snapped. "Honestly, I'm jealous. Her pies are great."
"How do you know? Wait, don't tell me- You fell down here too?"
There was no response, so Peter shrugged and continued to the next puzzle. The spikes were back, and beside them was a pressure plate and a rock. A nearby sign noted that three out of four grey rocks recommend you push them, so Peter pushed the rock onto the plate, lowering the spikes.
"These puzzles aren't so bad." Peter noted, walking into the next room. He barely had time to notice the trap rug before being pulled into a fight again, this time with a small, pixie-like creature.
"Huh!?" He asked.
"It's a Whimsum." Chara explained. "These guys are too sensitive to fight..."
"I'm sorry." The Whimsum said, avoiding eye contact. An array of pellets surrounded Peter, but he found that not moving caused none to hit him.
"What to do..." Peter muttered. "He-"
Before he even finished, the Whimsum burst into tears and ran away.
"Um... OK." He said as the room returned to normal. Using the ceiling to avoid the rug, he went into the next room, where three stones next to three pressure plates sat near a wall of spikes. As he went to push them, he found himself in another FIGHT, this time with some strange gelatinous creature.
"Before you ask, it's a Moldsmal." Chara noted. "Stereotypically attractive, but with no brains."
Peter stared at where he imagined she was. "It's a pile of gelatin."
"No need to be rude." She quipped. "By monster standards, it's... mildly attractive? Look, just dodge the bullets."
Moldsmal's attack required slightly more finesse to dodge, but Peter quickly got the hang of it. "Can I just spare the poor thing?"
"You can't see, but I'm shrugging."
Peter quietly stood still, the Moldsmal just kinda... stood there too. The FIGHT finished, and Peter continued moving the stones, when one of them started talking.
"Whoa there, pardner! Who said you could push me around?"
"You can talk?" Peter replied, confused. "Uh, can you please move?"
"Hmm... So you're asking me to move over?" It replied.
"Yeah?"
"OK, just for you pumpkin." The rock replied, moving closer to the pressure plate. It took a few more times, surprisingly, but the stone was eventually on the pressure plate for long enough that Peter crossed over.
"Do rocks usually talk here?" Peter asked Chara.
"It's the Underground." She replied. "Don't question it."
In the next room, he came upon a piece of cheese stuck to a table. While Chara pontificated about determination, Peter kept walking to the next room.
"If you want me to stop, I can GO." Chara snapped.
"You know, you're actually nice to have around." Peter replied, walking into the next room and coming upon a ghost, seemingly asleep on the leaves.
"So are you a ghost?" Peter asked. "Cause that's a ghost."
"I'm not a ghost." Chara replied, sounding tired. "I'm not sure what I am."
"zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... (are they gone yet) zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..." The ghost said.
"This ghost keeps saying 'z' out loud repeatedly, pretending to sleep." Chara stated, sounding dumbfounded. "Wanna move it with force?"
"Can I even do that?" Peter asked, as FIGHT began. "Who is this guy, anyways?"
"This is Napstablook." Chara replied. "They don't seem to have a sense of humor."
"Oh, I'm plenty funny." Napstablook replied, starting to cry. The tears became pellets, and Peter had a hard time trying to dodge.
"Well then, good thing you aren't giving up the ghost!" Peter quipped while somersaulting. Napstablook chuckled, and seemed to cheer up.
"Do that again!" Chara suggested. "It seems to help them out!"
"Well, perhaps you need to get into the SPIRIT of the occasion!" Peter grinned. This caused Napstablook to chuckle some more, and they seemed to will their pellets to move away from Peter.
"Your quips seem to cheer Napstablook."
"Well then..." Peter cleared his throat. "Let's all raise our spirits!"
"Oh, let me show you, um, something." Napstablook said. They turned their pellets into a top hat. "I call it... Dapper Blook. What do you think?"
Peter chuckled. "Dude, that's a good one!"
"Oh gee..." Napstablook replied. "i usually come to the ruins because there's nobody around... but today i met somebody nice..." They then noticed that Peter was still there. "oh, i'm rambling again. i'll get out of your way."
Napstablook vanished.
"Nice guy." Peter noted, walking onward. A sign stated that there was a spider bake sale. "All proceeds go to real spiders. Huh." Depositing some gold in a nearby web, some spiders gave him a donut. "Hey Chara, can you tell what this is made of?"
"It has Spider Cinder in the batter."
"And what is that made of?"
"Spiders?"
Peter scrunched up his face, but kept the donut. Walking into the next room, a trio of Froggits lined the path. They seemed friendly.
"That one just said that he was wondering if there were four frogs in the room." Chara noted. "Odd."
"I don't know, but it may be connected to the tiny Froggit in that crack over there." Peter noticed, pointing at the wall, where a tiny Froggit waved.
"You can see that?" Chara sounded surprised. "Huh, good eyes I suppose."
Suddenly, another FIGHT began. A Moldsmal and a Miggsop stood in the way.
"The Miggsop isn't evil, it's just with the wrong crowd." Chara told Peter.
"The Moldsmal is the wrong crowd?" Peter shrugged and let the Moldsmal go.
"Finally, peace and quiet!" The Miggsop cheered, and started dancing. It continued doing so until Peter let it dance away.
"This world is strange." Peter noted.
"You're not wrong, but at least it's mostly friendly."
The phone rang again. "Hello?" Toriel said. "I have realized that it has been a while since I have cleaned up. I was not expecting to have company so soon, so there are probably a lot of things lying about here and there."
"Oh?"
"You can pick them up, but do not carry more than you need." Toriel continued. "Someday you might see something you really like, and you will want to leave room in your pockets for that."
"She has a good point." Peter noted as the phone turned off. Walking into the next room, he scaled the spike wall and proceeded, finding another hallway that seemed to loop.
"What's up with this?"
"The room just changes perspective." Chara noted.
"But how?" Peter asked. "That breaks the laws of physics to no end!"
"It's magic. Don't question it too much." Chara replied as another FIGHT started. Suddenly, Peter found himself facing two vegetable-like monsters. "Also, these are Vegetoids. Serving size is 1 monster. They aren't monitored by the USDA."
"Ha ha." Peter quickly dodged around their pellets. "How do I get around them?"
"Do I look like I know?" Chara replied.
Peter felt like they were doing more and more damage until, finally, he used his web shooters to web them together, effectively ending the FIGHT.
"Interesting." Chara said. "You shoot webs out of your wrists?"
"It's part of the spider aesthetic."
"You may be a bit too committed to that."
Peter shrugged. "Gotta say, this is causing me to rethink every time I've eaten vegetables.This whole place is one big danger zone!"
"You don't have to stand there and take it!" Chara pointed out. "You can fight back! Punch em, make them back off! You're relatively muscular. One good hit and they'll be running!"
"Toriel said that these guys don't mean to be bad." Peter replied, continuing on. "They're just saying hello."
"You still can't always win without fighting." Chara insisted. "I mean, having the moral high ground on that could get you killed down here."
"But what if I can keep the high ground and come out on top? These aren't bad guys. I fight those types of people all the time. I'M the intruder here, and I can defend myself."
Chara was silent, maybe in thought. Peter couldn't tell for sure, because he couldn't see her. But he could see Toriel, who was bustling around a large, open room.
"Oh dear, that took longer than I thought it would!" She said. Suddenly, she noticed Peter and ran over. "How did you get here, my child? Are you hurt?"
"A bit." Peter admitted. "The Vegatoid things did give me pause-"
"There there." She interupted, healing him with a wave of her hand.
"Oh, neat." Peter said.
"I should not have left you alone for so long." She continued. "It was irresponsible to try and surprise you like this."
"Like what?"
"Oh no." Chara said, sounding worried, as Toriel look sheepish. "I thought something like this might happen."
Peter wanted to ask her what she meant, but turned his attention back to Toriel.
"Well, I suppose I cannot hid it any longer." She said, excitedly. "Come, small one!"
"I resent that." Peter stated, following her. "And what do you mean, Char? What's going on?"
Chara didn't answer as Peter followed Toriel into a cozy cottage near the walls of the Ruins.
"Do you smell that?" She asked. Peter sniffed.
"Pie?"
"Surprise!" She exclaimed. "It is a butterscotch-cinnamon pie."
"Told ya." Chara quipped.
"You're not being very helpful." Peter muttered.
"I thought it good to celebrate your arrival." Toriel continued. "I want you to have a nice time living here, so I will hold off on snail pie for tonight."
Peter, who had been observing the house, spun around to face her. "Living... here?"
"Yes!" Toriel nearly squeed. "Here, I have another surprise for you." Before he could say anything, Toriel led him down a hall, and showed him a children's bedroom. "This is it. A room of your own. I hope you like it!"
"Um, listen Ms. Toriel ma'am, this is very kind and all-" Peter tried to say, but Toriel interrupted him.
"Oh, dear, is something burning? Um, make yourself at home!" She then rushed off, probably towards the kitchen, leaving Peter standing there, dumbfounded.
"I should have warned you." Chara sadly said. "She's been alone for some time, but now that she has someone to take care of... I don't think she's every going to let you leave."