"Why child," said the Other Toriel. "Whatever do you mean?"
I need to go back to the Ruins, Frisk signed again. How do I leave?
The Other Toriel took too long to interpret Frisk's signs. It was easy to tell when she was done. Her face became unreadable. Her body leaned into the counter. Fingers rapped rhythmically against the counter.
"I see," said the Other Toriel in a way that showed that she did see but did not like it.
How about we play a game, Frisk signed, and see if I can't find it?
"That, perhaps, would be too easy," said the Other Toriel. "So how about this? I will hide three objects in the treasures I created for you. If you can find it before time runs out, I'll let you leave."
If I lose? Frisk asked.
"Then you stay here," said the Other Toriel. "That sounds fair, doesn't it?"
I won't leave? At all? asked Frisk.
The Other Toriel didn't say anything. That was answer enough. And if what the other sans said was any indication, then staying with her wouldn't be safe. But Frisk was determined to fix things.
*File SAVED
Frisk nodded. They waited for the other Toriel to say something else, but when they looked up at her, she was gone. The sounds of tapping fingers were replaced by the sounds of a dripping faucet.
It was time that Frisk got ready. The other Toriel had created the whole other world, but she mentioned three treasures. That meant something here was different, beyond the people. Frisk had gone through the Underground enough to memorize it—it wouldn't be that hard to find something different.
But the other sans had said that she wouldn't play nice. That was what Frisk had to prepare for.
They reequipped their Stick and Bandage, added some of the leftover food in the house to their inventory, and left the house.
The chase with Coraline had not ended when Papyrus called them. That was hardly the beginning. The chase continued through the Waterfall and into a new area called Hotland.
And Undyne continued to chase her until she got to the new area Hotland. Until she stopped.
Coraline hardly noticed the end of the chase until she heard the sound of heavy armor meeting with the ground. She turned back to Undyne, who was now against the ground.
In that moment, any ill will she had against Undyne faded away. Coraline's mind raced to think of anything she could do to help. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a water cooler. Before she could even think on why there was a water cooler present, it occurred to her. Undyne was a fish monster. She probably couldn't breathe in Hotland. The mass of heavy armor wasn't exactly helping.
Coraline raced over to the water cooler, filled up a cup as fast as she could, and tossed it onto Undyne's face.
At first, Coraline wasn't sure if it had helped at all. However, as the water hit Undyne's gills, she began to stir again. She pulled herself back up and glanced directly at Coraline. A world of emotions passed through Undyne's eyes, not all that Coraline read. Just as Coraline thought she had to run away again, Undyne turned around and walked away.
The first treasure was easy enough to figure out. The Other World was very much like the Underground, but the Other Toriel mentioned specifically three treasures—things that would be different. The very first one Frisk saw was right outside the door, in the expansive garden that Mr. Dad Guy worked on.
They raced through the flower field, ignoring the snapdragons and tiger lilies that snapped at their feet and tried to catch them in their vines. Frisk had dealt with enough mean flowers to know how to manage them.
The flower beds produced nothing. Nor did the fields of water sausage that surrounded the house on the edge of the garden. Just as Frisk was starting to get worried, they felt their soul grow heavy.
A blue attack.
"HELLO HUMAN!" The other Papyrus said. "I'M HERE TO CAPTURE YOU AGAIN!"
The other Papyrus blocks the way.
Fights were never easy, but Frisk had learned. It was not any different than a video game. They just had to know their target, and know their moves.
The menu they imagined came into view. Something else caught their eye. A flash of white, towards the tree.
The blue attack faded on their Soul, and they ran towards the tree. They reached their fingers into the knot hole. Inside was something small and round, and when held against the colors of the flower bed, looks like it was sketched in with a pencil.
"Papyrus, have you caught the human yet!?" Undyne's voice called.
It wasn't an item, they realized. It was a target?
"NO!" The Other Papyrus said. "THEY'RE QUITE CUNNING! I CAN SEE WHY MY OTHER SELF WOULD HAVE A PROBLEM FIGHTING THEM!"
There was a Soul inside.
"WHAT? Then let me handle the twerp!"
Spears replaced the bones. The tree shattered as they pierced, and Frisk scrambled to get out of the way in time.
The tree wasn't the only thing in the garden falling apart. The flowers lost their colors and wilted. Water sausages fell to the ground and crumbled to ash. Frisk found the dirt they stood on form into the uneven tile of the Ruins.
Undyne's turn ended, and Frisk fled.
"HEY! GET BACK HERE, YOU PUNK!" Undyne called.
Hotland was difficult to navigate through, for a number of reasons. Even with her raincoat tied around her waist, the heat was unbearable. The puzzles were much more difficult than what Papyrus had created, as low as bar as that might be. It actually helped out Coraline a lot, since few monsters were willing to attack her once they realized she was there to fix the puzzles.
There was also a killer robot chasing her.
The phone vibrated, and Coraline pulled it out of her pocket.
Alphys posted a picture: Dinner with the girlfriend ;)
It was a picture of a catgirl figurine next to a bowl of instant noodles.
Dr. Alphys also wouldn't stop texting her. It wasn't that Coraline wasn't unappreciative of what Alphys was doing to help her. It was nice to have someone else in the Underground that just wanted to help
COOLSKELETON95 posted a picture: ARE WE POSTING HOT "PICS?" HERE IS ME AND MY COOL FRIEND!
It was a picture of Papyrus flexing in front of a mirror. He is wearing sunglasses. Giant, muscular biceps were pasted on to his arms. They were also wearing sunglasses.
Coraline slowed down as she realized Hotland was starting to cool down. She had walked away from the lava pits that filled the Core and into a new area, and for the first time in the Underground, she had to crane her neck to see what was above her. A hotel building, nearly double of what her house was. A logo of two Metattons with wings decorated the front.
sans stood in the doorway.
"hey there kid," said sans. "thought i'd catch up with you here. heard you're going the core. care to catch dinner with me first?"
Coraline looked over the building again.
"In there?" Coraline asked, pointing specifically to the logo.
"ah, don't worry about him. for a killer robot, he's all bark and no bite." Said sans. "i perform in here all the time. that's how i was able to get reservations."
Coraline wanted to question him further, but her growling stomach betrayed her on this one. She hadn't had a proper meal since she left Toriel's house. Papyrus' friendship spaghetti didn't count.
"Sure," said Coraline.
"great, thanks for treating me," said sans. "over here, i know a shortcut."
Frisk didn't stop running until they found their next hiding spot. The closest building they could freely enter was Undyne's house. They threw themselves in and slammed the door behind them.
It would be safe. But not forever. They had to think of something else.
Frisk pulled the treasure out of their sweater pocket and quickly checked it.
"You did it," a voice whispered in her ear. "There's still two more of us, and the other one is close by. Hurry!"
Spears skewered through the front door. Frisk locked it. They would just have to be quick, then.
They rummaged through the various drawers in the kitchen. They knocked over the pots and pans and fruit basket and overturned every container of tea they could find. Their attention turned to the piano, the last thing they expected Undyne to have in her house, and found it supporting the stool.
As soon as they pulled it out, the stool and the piano collapsed. Frisk dodged as broken keys and piano wire erupted from the device. The pots and pans clattered against the counter and flung themselves at Frisk.
Just another bullet pattern. It passed too fast for them to think of the command menu, but it was easy enough that they didn't need to.
Out of the corner of their eye, Frisk saw something else. The stove was moving. The oven was preheating. The dials on the stove began to turn, becoming faster with every rotation.
Frisk decided it was time to leave.
They ran out of the house just as it caught on fire.
They didn't have long to watch the house burn down. No sooner had they found a safe place to stand away from the fire, the flames died as the house turned to dust and ash. The cave walls of the fake Waterfall crumbled and fell onto a ground that wasn't there anymore.
Their relief of their escape was short lived. Frisk looked around, trying to find the other Papyrus and Undyne.
The area grew dark.
Darker.
Yet darker still.
They stood in the distance, but something was off. Frisk took a turn to check them and found their health depleting rapidly.
"Goodbye human!" called the Other Papyrus, in a voice that hardly resembled the real Papyrus, as he fell into the ground.
Frisk waited for a moment until they weren't moving to get closer. Plastic bones, yarn, ripped fabric and buttons filled the places where the Other Undyne and the Other Papyrus had stood.
Fake, Frisk realized. They were just toys that the Other Toriel was done with now, and so she had broken them. The whole world was fake. All the reason to get out of here quicker.
The sky grew dark overhead. Frisk looked up, and saw a shadow move over the moon.
"so, your journey's almost over, huh? you must really wanna go home."
"Wouldn't be heading home," Coraline mumbled to her vegetables. It was still monster food and it still turned to dust in her mouth, but somehow it was still filling. Somehow, it was better than whatever her dad decided to experiment with.
"no?" asked sans. "then why go through all this trouble, buddo?"
"I'm heading back to where I live now, but it isn't home," said Coraline. "I moved to a place called the Pink Palace about a week ago. I'm going back to see my mom and dad."
Sans nodded, although it looked like he didn't quite understand. Moving to a faraway place probably wasn't common in the Underground, Coraline realized.
"that makes it sound even worse," said sans. "c'mon kid, down here you already got food, friends, drink…is what you gotta do even worth it?"
"If it were Papyrus, would you do it?" Coraline asked.
"I would do anything if it meant Papyrus was safe," said sans. It came off unusually serious, so he added "ah, forget about it. i'm rooting for ya, kid."
Silence fell between them. Sans shifted his gaze ever so slightly, as if he were lost in thought. Coraline decided to break the silence.
"Hey sans," said Coraline. "What ever happened to the last human that fell down here?"
"told ya. never met 'em. too young."
"You said Papyrus was too young," said Coraline. "So did you see them or not?"
Sans looked away again. Coraline was prepared to ask him again, but stopped when he turned back.
"I made some poor judgements. Don't intent to do that again." sans said. "sorry, kid, that's just a sore subject."
"Don't you think you should give them another chance?" Coraline asked.
Sans stared at her, the pinpricks of light in his eye flickering.
"I mean, if Papyrus hadn't given me a second chance and decided not to capture me, I wouldn't be here," said Coraline. "And if I hadn't decided to give Papyrus a second chance, we wouldn't be friends."
"heh. guess that's true," said sans. "but you know, some things aren't worth forgiving."
"When I first came to the Underground," said Coraline. "I was in a place called the Ruins. And there was a woman there who helped guide me through the Ruins and taught me how puzzles worked and made sure I wouldn't attack another monster. And she took me to her house and gave me a place to sleep and food to eat. But she didn't want to let me go. She was willing to destroy the door to the Ruins before she let me go home.
"And we fought. I won and I spared her, but I realized after the fight that she didn't want me to stay because she wanted to hurt me. She wanted me to stay because nobody had ever made it through the Underground safe. Because she was lonely, and tired of losing children in her life. So before I left, I told her that I wasn't mad at her and I forgave her, but I still had to go back home to my real family. So maybe sometimes someone does something bad, but they have good intentions behind it."
Sans watched Coraline as she finished her story. The pinpricks in his eyes returned to normal, and his smile drooped ever so slightly. He took a sip from his drink, and Coraline watched as it fell out of his ribs.
"you said this woman's safe, right?" asked sans.
"Yes," said Coraline.
"and what did you say her name was?"
"Toriel." Coraline said. It sounded more like a question. That was the last thing she expected him to say.
A light blue shade appeared on sans' cheek bones. Was he blushing?
"well, i'll keep that in mind," said sans. "take care of yourself, kid. cause someone really cares about you."
The treasure wasn't part of the sled. It wasn't that Frisk was expecting it to, anyway. If the treasure wasn't on the sled, however, then it meant that it was somewhere on the route that Frisk had taken. Even with a crumbling world, that would take forever to find.
But they were already winning. They would have plenty of time to look. They were determined to win.
*File SAVED
It was harder to climb up the high hills of Snowdin without the other Papyrus carrying them, or the other sans lending them their jacket. It didn't help that the snow was hardly snow anymore, so much as it was a cottony substance that felt dry on their skin and turned to dust as the stepped on it. Yet they managed to climb it, and it was only once they were safely on the sled and ready to launch themselves did the hill collapse and crumble.
It was even harder to steer the sled as it fell apart. Frisk once again found themself thrown in the air…
…and once again landed on hard tile.
They pulled themselves up. They were back in the Judgement Hall. And someone was in front of them.
"Heya kid." The other sans said in a voice that did not sound like sans. "Thought you might show back up here."
The other sans was in a sorry state, though not as bad as his brother. Yarn ran through his entire body, holding limbs in place and keeping his smile wide. Only his button eyes seemed to be movable by his own will, and they did not look happy.
"Sorry kid," said the other sans. "Just following orders."
The other sans blocks the way. Frisk felt themself grow stiff, though not by blue magic.
A wave of bones raced towards them.
*Game over
*Load SAVE file
The other sans does not want to fight you
*Game over
*Load SAVE File
The other sans is sorry.
*Game over
*Load SAVE file
The other sans is so so sorry.
*Game over
*Load SAVE File
The other sans wishes you would stop this
*Game over.
*Load SAVE File
The other sans does not want to fight you
*Game over
*Load SAVE File
The shadow of a button was nearly covering the moon.
I won't fight you anymore, Frisk signed.
"You gotta do something kid," said the other sans. "What else was this all for, then?"
Frisk didn't know how to answer. A new wave of bones came their way.
"bßfÙ'¤ž!"
The attack was interrupted. Something now blocked Frisk's path.
e !Œ ñ0 –À enters the fight.
The soul is in this room, Gaster signed. Now hurry.
It took Frisk a minute to figure out what he was talking about, and another to get their feet to move properly. They ran a quick check around the room, and found it in the back corner where they kept their Save Point.
"You know he doesn't blame you, right?" said the other sans.
"ãÍÚùkÚ‚ü«âG×Üý,"
There was a rush of bones, and the battle was over.