22:1
It couldn't have been but a couple hours that Frisk was awoken again, having been stirred by the faint sound of high pitched howling. Oddly enough, it seemed to be a constant pattern, almost as if it were in a looping cycle. She opened her eyes, finding that even the light under the door was gone, signaling that Toriel must have gone to bed. She considered whether or not to investigate the ominous noise, even though the answer to that question seemed rather obvious. Creepy noises in the night usually spelled out trouble, so she rolled over and covered her ears with the pillow.
Although the pillow did its job in absorbing most of the sound, its presence was still audible enough to hinder the human's attempts to rest. She tried her damnedest to drown out the sound, but it never faded or gave way to silence. She groaned in defeat, knowing that there was no use in trying to ignore it. She sat up and got her shoes on, as she knew the sound couldn't have been coming from inside the apartment. She quietly made her way to the door and opened it, peeking her head out to look around.
Just as she'd suspected, the lights were off and Ms. Tori was nowhere to be seen; probably fast asleep in her own bed. Seeing her opportunity, Frisk crept silently from her room, navigating her way in the darkness to the front door. Luckily for her, the moonlight through the windows illuminated the room enough for her to find a clear path. Soon enough, she was at the door, unlocking the deadbolt and being careful not to make too much noise as she was opening it. Once she was on the other side of the door, she closed it behind her, turning back to face the flight of stairs.
The howling had grown louder the closer she got to the outside world, the sound reverberating off the walls of the stairwell. She slowly moved down the steps, making sure not to alert either Toriel or whatever it was that produced the sound she followed. She found the door at the bottom of the steps to be unlocked; apparently, this Sans character had forgotten to lock the door behind him when he left earlier. "Should probably mention that to Ms. Tori later." she told herself, as she opened the door and peered out.
There hovering underneath a street light on the corner across from the shop was a ghost, which ironically didn't look all that spooky. In fact, he looked rather adorable, one of those stereotypical bed sheet looking specters. "Does that make me racist for thinking that?" Frisk wondered. Either way, she was more infatuated with the ghost than frightened. And how could she not be; what with his big, black, puppy dog, eyes, blue flat cap, and tiny, black, bowtie.
It didn't take too long after she'd discovered the lonesome apparition that she also found the source of the howling sounds she'd followed; a handheld stereo that sat on the ground next to him. It suddenly made sense why the howling sounded like it was in a consistent loop, it was some kind of audio recording. A bizarre one at that, but to each their own. The ghost just hovered in that one spot, motionless and expressionless. Frisk tried to wrap her mind around this, not fully grasping the concept of what she was seeing. She wondered if this was a common occurrence, as he seemed to be going about it so causally.
While she was still pondering the likely motives, the howling finally faded away, leaving them in a deafening silence.
"Nope, not like they used to." he commented, turning to meddle with the stereo. He froze in his tracks, having spotted the human girl staring at him from the doorway of bookstore. Frisk didn't know how to react, so she just smiled and waved at the spirit awkwardly, hoping for a positive response. "O-oh... I thought this place was abandoned," the ghost broke the silence, clearly uncomfortable with the situation, "...I probably woke you up, didn't I?"
It was hard not to notice an obvious gloomy vibe that he gave off, as if their casual encounter alone was all it took to bring the spirit down (no pun intended). "... I'm sorry... I just ruined your whole night, didn't I?" he apologized, as he began to hover backwards out from under the street light, "...I'll go now... enjoy your night... sorry that I ruined it."
"Wait, you didn't-" But, it was too late, the ghost was already out of sight, lost in the darkness of the night. Frisk felt awful, feeling as though she was responsible for the strangers sadness. Even worse, he left his stereo behind. "Hey, wait!" she called out, running over and scooping up the audio device, "You forgot your stereo! Come back!" But, it was no use, the ghost was gone without a trace.
She grunted loudly in frustration, examining the stereo in her hands. She noticed something was inscribed on the top of it, and began to read it to herself.
"If found, please return to Napstablook. Or don't. I guess you could keep it, if you like. It's a nice stereo. Or you can just throw it away, it'll probably just take up too much space anyway. It's up to you. I could always get a new one. I'm sorry that you had to read so much, I probably shouldn't have explained all of this to you. I'm going to stop writing now. Bye."
"So, that was just oddly non-confrontational." the human thought, before rushing off to follow the elusive spook. She hoped he hadn't gone too far, she wasn't comfortable venturing far off away from her safe haven. Especially in the dead of night, in an unexplored world full of monsters. Her eyes darted around in every direction, examining her surroundings as she went.
Many abandoned storefronts and other businesses lined each side of the streets she traveled on, along with a few ran down houses. This felt too reminiscent of life in the human world, where she often wandered similar streets in low income neighborhoods. There are hard times for everyone in this world, she supposed. Maybe that's why it concerned her so much that she gets this stereo back to it's owner, because she knew what it was like to lose something during these hard times. Only, no one was willing to help her when she did.
"Napstablook!" she called, heading down each street, avenue, and road she could to find the shy ghost. She found herself traveling by a park, as she noticed an overall shift in her environment. At some point, she'd wandered out of the ghetto and into what appeared to be a warehouse district, full of many large and towering buildings. Small spotlights on the ground illuminated a sign off to the side of the sidewalk, which read "Welcome To Snowdin". "Snowdin," Frisk marveled at the name, looking all around at the land, "There's no snow here."
After realizing that she was taking the name too literal, she contemplated whether or not to turn back and give up on her search. A young woman like her had no business wondering around all alone, late at night in this unfamiliar city. She looked down at the electronic in her hand, re-reading the engraving to herself. Something stirred up inside of her, an immense drive to continue forward. To find Napstablook and see his face when she returned his stereo to him.
It filled her with determination.
She pressed on and journeyed further into Snowdin, hoping to find some sort of direction of where to locate her missing specter. Luckily for her, the sound of faint music in her ears caught her attention, drawing her to follow. Seeing that Napstablook had a love for music, surely he'd be drawn to a place where it was playing. Then again, it was a bit of a stretch to call what he was listening to 'music'; it was more like someone recorded themselves screaming for several minutes. Actually, that sounded a lot like modern day music, so she withdrew her prior opinion.
Soon enough, she happened upon a diner, with a red neon sign above it that read "GRILLBY'S". Frisk swore she recognized that name,,but couldn't remember where she heard it. It soon dawned on her that Ms. Tori's skeleton friend had made mention of it earlier that night, right before leaving. Maybe she'd bump into him here, get the chance to meet the man who stole the goat lady's heart. From what she saw, he appeared friendly enough.
She wandered up to the window, looking in to see monsters of many different shapes and sizes eating and having a good time. Again, not too much different from the diners and bars she'd been in before. Her face lit up in astonishment when she spied a pack of dogs clad in matching black suits sitting around a table playing cards, a squeal of glee escaping her. The most noteworthy of the dogs was the big guy that towered over the other four (along with everyone else in the establishment), whose tiny head seemed to be staring dimwittedly off into space.
Another dog with matching white fur as the giant one sat to his right, though, much lower than him. He too wore a spaced out expression, as if their brains operated on the same wave length. To their left sat two other dogs, one male and the other females. The only details that differentiated the two near identical pooches were the males bushier eyebrows, furrier muzzle, and swooped back cowlick, and the females, thick and fuller eyelashes. At first, she assumed them to be siblings, but the passionate kiss that they shared made her hope the contrary.
And last, there sat a black and white dog at the far right of the table, who oddly enough wore a pink tie instead of the black ties the others wore. Along with the peculiar color choice, he had a visible habit of smoking what looked like a bone shaped dog threat. That couldn't have been healthy for him, his other dog friends should urge him to quit. Or maybe it was perfectly fine and she was just concerning herself too much. She wasn't able to hear it, but she watched as the dog broke out into an obvious coughing fit.
"Yeah, no, definitely not okay." Frisk thought, recognizing that the canine needed to kick his bad habit fast. Suddenly, reality hit her. "What am I doing, I'm supposed to be returning this!" She scolded herself for getting side tracked from her mission, "The dogs can wait!" And with that decided, she entered the diner. Smooth jazz seemed to be the preferred background music, as it seemed fitting for the atmosphere of the establishment.
"Sans, are you even listenin'?"
"Hmm?" the pint-sized skeleton with the permanent smile grunted, having been awoken by his lengthier brother's squawking, "'Course I am, brotha'."
"Is that so?" his brother, Papyrus, doubted, "Well then, mind tellin' me what I just said?"
"You were gabbin' on about how you're gonna be in the Royal Guard someday." Sans answered, slouching forward on the table.
"Give the devil his due, I'll commend you on your lucky guess," Papyrus remarked, partially impressed, "If only you'd put that brain to schemin' instead of nappin' your life away, we'd made more of a name for ourselves."
"Not everybody can be as smart as you, Paps." the skeleton in blue informed, showing a bit of admiration towards the one in red.
"True, but it never hurts to be second best," Papyrus said, as he straightened his tomato red scarf, "I mean really, Sans, here you have so much potential as brother of one of the most intelligent monsters in all the Underground, and you squander it!" Sans stared at the plate of cold fries smothered in ketchup on the table in front of him, figuring Grillby must have brought them while he was snoozing. It didn't bother him that they were cold, he preferred them that way most times.
"Ya need a dummy like me by your side, brotha'," he explained his half assed logic, taking a gooey fry and eating it, "That way people have someone to compare and contrast your genius to." Hey, maybe that wasn't so half assed after all. Even his brother considered his reasoning.
"You're not wrong," the slender bones retorted, "Oh, but the day will come when all will recognize my wittiness, and I won't require any such comparison! Until then, keep playin' the dummy!"
"No problem, but you might need to give me a 'hand'." Sans joked, earning a death stare from his unamused sibling.
"One night, Sans," Papyrus yelled lividly, "One night, that's all I ask!"
"Jeez, Paps, ya need to lighten up," Sans chuckled at his brother's annoyance, "Maybe Grillbz can help ya out." The aforementioned blue fire man just so happened to be passing by to deliver an order to another table.
"Please, stop including me in your jokes." Grillby requested, as he continued his work.
"Ah, you love it!" Sans dismissed his request, eating another fry.
"What I need is a brother whose only solace in life isn't these ridiculous puns!" Papyrus exclaimed, smacking the smaller bones on the back of the skull.
"Ow!" Sans groaned, rubbing the sore spot. The red clad skeleton slouched down in the booth, sighing out of frustration.
"That, or a third man in our crew." he added. They'd been looking for new recruits for some time, needing that extra hand for some of their trickier jobs. Unfortunately, being notorious for botching many of their major heists only earned them mockery and disrespect from the other gangs. Nowadays, they were considered nothing more than a couple of stickup men, lowest of the low in their line of work. He couldn't help it though, having to carried most of the weight himself while his brother dillydallied. All he needed was an underling, someone he could learn the ropes.
He couldn't help but stare at the peachy stranger that wandered around the diner, who was decked in a purple and blue striped dress. They were a puzzling sight to behold, one that held one of those music players in their hands. "Hey, Sans," he said, nudging his brother, "What's that?"
"What's what?" Sans asked, having been preoccupied by his fries.
"That fella over there," Papyrus specified, pointing at the stranger, "What are they? I've never seen their kind before." Sans glanced up, laying eyes on the one the other referred to. It didn't take him long to draw a conclusion based on their physical characteristics.
"Looks like a human." Sans answered, surprised.
"A human," Papyrus blurted out, shocked by this sudden knowledge, "Here, in the Underground?" His outburst drew the attention of the human to their presence, appearing concerned by their staring. "Oh my god, they've spotted us!" Papyrus squeaked, feeling both giddy and frantic at the same time. The human just stared at them, as they just stared awkwardly back. After a few minutes had passed, they began to approach the two skeletons. "They're coming this way," the taller skeleton whispered, "What do we do?"
"Maybe try and recruit them?" the smaller skeleton suggested, shrugging.
"Sans, that's brilliant," Papyrus praised, "If we successfully enlist a human into our crew, we'll be the biggest thing in the Underground since Onionsan!" He immediately prepared himself to sway the human, only to draw the conclusion that he had no idea what to say. "Quick, Sans, what should I say to them?" he asked.
"I dunno, just steal a line from Undyne." Sans answered. Just then, the human was at their table, mustering up a welcoming smile.
"Hi-" they tried to greet the two.
"Listen, numbskull, it takes balls of steel to join the Royal Guard, and all ya shown me is shit for brains!" Papyrus yelled, showing aggression. The human was visible dumbfounded by his outburst, not knowing how to respond.
"Ya should probably try a different line." Sans insisted, realizing his brother was bombing hard. Papyrus slammed his fists on the table, stood up, and got right in the human's now frightened face.
"Fight me!" he roared, causing them to wince.
"Okay, forget Undyne," the smaller bones said, now completely embarrassed as he pulled Papyrus back into the booth, "Should probably have went with a formal introduction."
"I mucked it up, didn't I?" Papyrus inquired, realizing he may have went at it wrong.
"If ya spelled it with an 'F'," Sans grumbled beneath his breath, "Nah, Paps, ya did fine."
"My apologies, Human," Papyrus apologized sincerely, feeling ashamed, "Please, have a seat, I'll order you some pasta!"
Frisk stood there, still unsure of how to process what just happened.