A/N: This chapter's gonna be a little weird; it's less dialogue-based, and focuses more on them exploring their surroundings. They may seem a little OOC, but they'll be back to normal by the next chapter.
Dot found herself in a golden hallway and facing Sans. Why she was there, she didn't know. She also didn't know why she was holding the toy knife Yakko held in his belt. Looking around, she realized her brothers were nowhere to be found. Where were they?
"heya. you've been busy, huh?"
"Yeah, I guess."
There was an awkward silence between them, which confused her.
"so, i've got a question for ya. do you think even the worst person can change...?"
A memory seemed to unfold, yet it was something Dot didn't remember. Standing in a snowy field, she stood in front of Papyrus, who had his arms wide open as if wanting a hug. She wanted to run into his arms, but there was something holding her back. She felt like she lost control of her body as she took the knife and decapitated Papyrus. When she felt herself regain it, she dropped the knife and covered her mouth, gasping.
"No!" she screamed, running towards him.
"W-WELL, THAT'S NOT WHAT I EXPECTED..."
"Did I really do that...?" she breathed.
"BUT...ST...STILL! I BELIEVE IN YOU!"
She hugged his head, as his body already turned to dust.
"Papyrus, I'm so sorry! I-I-I dunno what came over me..."
Sans still spoke to her in flashback.
"that everyone can be a good person, if they just try?"
She ignored him as she heard the rest of Papyrus' dying words.
"YOU CAN DO A LITTLE BETTER! EVEN IF YOU DON'T THINK SO! I...I PROMISE..."
She kissed his head, which turned to dust five seconds later. Finally, she started sobbing. Devastated at the fact that she killed her crush, it was one of the few things she'd never forgive herself for. As the flashback ended, Sans chuckled.
"all right. well, here's a better question. do you wanna have a bad time? cause if you take another step forward..."
She wiped her tears away.
"Sans, I'd never do that to him! You know it!"
He continued giving a speech as if he didn't hear what Dot had to say.
"you are REALLY not going to like what happens next."
She took a step forward.
"Sans-"
"welp. sorry, old lady. this is why i never make promises."
"Old lady? Who-?"
She gasped as an encounter began.
"it's a beautiful day outside. birds are singing, flowers are blooming...on days like these, kids like you..."
His pupils disappeared, which scared her greatly.
"Should be burning in hell."
He slammed her downwards, stabbing her with bones. She screamed as immeasurable pain was sent through her body. Then, another row of bones pushed her around. Finally, skeleton-like heads, which Sans referred to as Gaster Blasters, shot out lasers that burned Dot so badly she felt herself dying and turning into ashes.
Dot immediately woke up, gasping. Looking around, she was back at the inn with her brothers. She got out of the bed and rushed towards the window. Looking out, she could barely see a thing, but managed to find Papyrus sleeping peacefully. She let out a sigh of relief, as it was just a nightmare. Returning to her bed, she slept the rest of the night away like a baby.
The next morning, the Warners checked out of the inn.
"Hiya! You look like you had a great sleep!"
"I had a nightmare at first," Dot told her, low enough so Yakko and Wakko couldn't hear her, "but after that I was fine. Here's the key."
"Thanks. Come back soon!"
Leaving the inn, Yakko decided to take off the bandana and put it in his pants. He and his siblings decided to walk around the town for a while. They came across a sign by an igloo.
Don't want to walk to the other side of town? Try the undersnow tunnels! They're efficiently laid out.
Before they could try out the tunnels, they could hear other monsters talking partly to them and partly to themselves, distracting them. The first monster they heard was a bunny man.
"That lady over there...Something about her disturbs me."
They turned around and found a bunny lady walking what seemed to be a baby bunny on a leash.
"Isn't my little Cinnamon just the cutest?"
"Trust me," said Dot, "he's nothin' compared to this!"
She signaled to herself, but her peers shrugged it off.
"Bun-buns are so adorable...Tee hee!"
"Bun-bun-bun-bun-bun..." the smaller bunny replied.
They left and found a bear putting a gift by what looked like a Christmas tree.
"What's this?" Wakko asked.
"Awful teens tormented a local monster by decorating its tree-like horns. So we started giving that monster presents to make it feel better. Now it's a tradition to put presents underneath a decorated tree."
"Interesting..." said Yakko, nodding his head to show he meant it.
The tree, upon examination, was carefully decorated. Some of the presents were addressed from "Santa" to various locals.
"Yo!"
The Warners saw a young, armless monster kid behind them.
"You're not kids, right? I can tell 'cause you're not wearing striped shirts."
Yakko snapped his fingers, making white stripes appear over the fur of his siblings and himself, as well as Wakko's shirt.
"You were saying?" he asked with a smug smile on his face.
Monster Kid lit up.
"Whoa..."
They shook off the stripes, literally, and reverted back to their regular designs. Yakko playfully rubbed Monster Kid's head.
"Some things aren't what they seem, kid."
Monster Kid was still wide-eyed at their trick.
"The name's Yakko."
"I'm Wakko!"
"And I'm cute!"
Yakko, Wakko, and the Monster Kid rolled their eyes.
"I think I'm liking ya already," Yakko whispered to Monster Kid.
"But you can call me Dot," Dot finished.
"We'd shake your hand...if ya had one," said Yakko.
Monster Kid rubbed his head against Yakko's leg.
"How's this?"
The Warners laughed. Yakko patted Monster Kid's back.
"It's good enough, I guess. Well, see ya around!"
They walked away. Nearby, a bear seemed to be talking half to himself, half to the Warners, similar to the bunny man they talked to earlier.
"This town doesn't have a mayor. But if there's ever a problem, a skeleton will tell a fish lady about it. Thaaaaaat's politics!"
The Warners snickered.
"He's probably talkin' about Papyrus," Dot muttered.
"What, is he all of a sudden the answer to everything now?" said Yakko.
"Yeah," said Dot, "sue me."
Yakko and Wakko rolled their eyes as they passed a bar. They probably couldn't go in; they were underage. More monsters talked as they walked by.
"Everyone is always laughing and cracking jokes, trying to forget our modern crises...Dreariness. Crowding. Lack of sunlight. I would join them, but I'm just not very funny."
Instead of replying, they merely listened to what others had to say. They'd nod, but it was to keep themselves from feeling depressed.
"We all know the Underground has problems, but we smile anyway. Why? We can't do anything, so why be morose about it?"
It was disturbing to think that people would behave like the Warners just to forget they were doomed for all eternity. That made them think: what would they do if they had the same fate? Would they become bored and despondent? Go insane...in a bad way? Die in the worst way possible? Merely imagining it felt terrifying. When they stopped walking and snapped back to the present, they found themselves in front of a machine that made ice.
"Uhhhh...I think we went the wrong way," said Yakko.
They returned to the path and found a building.
"Librarby..."
They laughed.
"You've gotta be kidding!" said Dot as they walked in.
A green lizard with glasses stood by the counter.
"Welcome to the library."
Yakko was about to say something, but he was cut off.
"Yes, we know. The sign is misspelled."
They chuckled. People like the lizard must've been committed to not correcting the mistake. As they went to check out some books, a yellow monster lady caught their attention.
"I love working on the newspaper. There's so little to report that we just fill it with comics and games."
"Now that's our kind of newspaper!" said Yakko, as he and his siblings approved.
The monster next to her coughed.
"When I was younger, my teachers gave me word searches when they ran out of assignments. I thought they were a waste of time. But look at me now...I'm the number-one word-search creator in the entire Underground!"
A red Loox stared at the kids as they went to find some books. Dot noticed and turned around.
"What are ya lookin' at?"
"That look in your eye...You're someone that has trouble doing Junior Jumble, aren't you? And you, that look in your eye..."
She signaled to Wakko, who turned around.
"You're someone that has trouble doing crosswords."
"Yup," said Wakko, impressed.
Yakko turned around, hoping to get something out of her.
"But you, that look in your eye...You're someone that has trouble doing neither! You must have the entire universe under your control."
"Are ya kiddin'?" said Yakko. "Of course I do!"
Looking back at the bookshelves, Yakko picked up a green book on the far right and read it to himself.
Love, hope, compassion...This is what people say monster souls are made of. But the absolute nature of the "soul" is unknown. After all, humans have proven their souls don't need these things to exist.
"That's true in Plotz's case."
Wakko chose the book next to Yakko's.
Monster History Part 4
Fearing the humans no longer, we moved out of our old city, Home. We braved harsh cold, damp swampland, and searing heat...Until we reached what we now call our capital. "New Home." Again, our King is really bad at names...?
Dot chose a book on the far left, which was a school report about monster funerals.
Monster funerals, technically speaking, are cool as heck. When monsters get old and kick the bucket, they turn into dust. At funerals, we take that dust and spread it on that person's favorite thing. Then their essence will live on in that thing...Uhhh, am I at the page minimum yet? I'm kinda sick of writing this.
Dot let out a courtesy laugh.
"Come on, I want a better one!"
She took a blue one out from the shelf next to her, hoping it was better written.
While monsters are mostly made of magic, humans are mostly made of water. Humans, with their physical forms, are far stronger than us. But they will never know the joy of expressing themselves through magic. They'll never get a bullet-pattern birthday card...
She was satisfied with the result. Wakko took out a yellow book next to her, wondering what it had to say.
(Here I am...Writing this book. A person comes in and picks up the book...They start reading it...!) Oh, sorry. I'm still writing that one.
"Oh, poo! I got jipped!"
Yakko picked the last book.
Because they are made of magic, monsters' bodies are attuned to their soul. If a monster doesn't want to fight, its defenses will weaken. And the crueler intentions of our enemies, the more their attacks will hurt us. Therefore, if a being with a powerful soul struck with the desire to kill...Um, let's end the chapter here...
This left a bad feeling in Yakko's stomach, but he ignored it. They walked out of the library and continued walking forward, stumbling across Sans and Papyrus' house. One mailbox was overflowing with unread junk mail while the other was labelled "PAPYRUS" and was empty.
"Aw," said Dot, "poor Papy."
To cheer him up, she took out a piece of paper and wrote a letter in the shape of a heart. In the style of a pop-up letter, the heart was folded in half. The front said To: Papyrus. If he opened it up, he'd find a cut-out of Dot giving him a thumbs-up and this message:
You're the coolest!
Love,
Dot.
She slipped it into the mailbox. The thought of making Papyrus feel better filled her with determination.