Disclaimer: Don't own game. Own story. You know the drill.
-Chapter 8: Ice to meet you, Mr. Papyrus -
"Dimensional box, huh?" I stared in curiosity at the odd box sitting on the corner of a cross roads. A nearby sign gave a short description of it, describing it as 'instanced long distance mass storage'. Basically I could stick stuff in it and use it like a sort of safety deposit box and access whatever I put in it at any time from other dimensional boxes.
Pretty badass, and bound to be handy. And the best part is that it was free to use. I packed away some items for future use. Nothing important that I'd miss at the least. I wasn't sure I trusted it to be completely theft proof.
The crossroads itself continued forward with a fork to the left which lead up to a riverside. Another source of water to keep in mind for our survival. It'd be a bit tougher supporting the kid as well as myself, but I figured I knew enough to give us a sporting chance.
Assuming things didn't go horribly with Papyrus at least. I was putting my faith on the line here... among other things. You can't always go assuming the worst though, right? I'd spent far too long doing that on the surface.
Was it a mistake? Maybe. "Golly, you two are really something!" Oh hi, Flowey. I glanced to the sentient flower which popped up out of nowhere. "Welly well. It's everyone's favorite talking flower. Decided you want to follow us on our little adventure, huh? Isn't Snowdin a bit too cold for you?"
Frisk was definitely a bit perturbed by their presence, sticking close to me. Huh, did 'scholar' know? "Bah, Snowdin's nothing. It's not like I can feel a thing, you know!" Flowey bounced with false joy. Their smile faded to a blank expression. "I mean... I'm hollow on the inside after all. Can't feel a spark of anything good in me, Chara."
Oof... that was heavy. So he couldn't really feel anything good? That explained a hell of a lot. "Flowey... I doubt you'll accept it, but... man, that's rough. I feel bad for you." A cackle from Flowey and a nasty grin. Frisk flinched at that. "You both must think you're very clever, making up your own rules for things, trying to be nice to me and show me pity. Save it, 'knight'. Don't you have anything better to do?"
I gave a casual smile back. You have no power here, flower. "Oh i've got plenty of things I could be doing. Right now though? I think I can remind you that you should be pretending to play nice." Flowey frowned slightly before returning to their happy facade. "Golly, Chara. You really are something." The smile becomes teasing. Knowing. "I'm glad i've got a best friend like you!"
Flowey was talking to me, but...their...? His...? I guess I could call them a he since they sounded like one, but I mean... they are a flower. Ah well... He will do. His focus was on Frisk. "Word of warning. I used to have that power of yours myself once." What was he on about?
"The determination to SAVE. So did your little 'scholar'. It defaults to the person with the highest determination. Don't think it will protect you this time though. Something's changed, and all the boogeymen are crawling out of the shadows... and they want YOUR blood Chara."
Flowey bounced like a deranged slinky, before winking. "But ol' Flowey here can't have that! This is all much too interesting for you to just die! It's been a LONG time since things were this interesting. Because I'm such a friend, I even went ahead and solved a couple puzzles for you two!"
Frisk looked conflicted for a bit before speaking. "Thanks Mr. Flowey..." Poor Frisk, still shy I guess. Can't blame them with Flowey though. "Hehehehe... Don't get cocky... and remember. I know what you did." Frisk recoiled like they'd been slapped at those words. "Not that it matters now, it seems... World's changing, and it's gonna get messy."
Flowey's smile doesn't quite reach his eyes. "So riddle me this, 'knight'. Now that you are faced with a ruthless and relentless killer, what will you do? Survive, or die? Will you be able to protect your friends as well? I'll be eager to see your answer!" With a final wink, Flowey ducked into the ground and burrowed away before I could press him for what he meant.
There was no point waiting for him to come back, so we kept going, though his words did bother me a bit. I pushed the thoughts aside when I noticed there were two figures ahead in heated discussion.
One of them was Sans. Wait a tic, when did he slip past us? The other was a tall, perhaps anatomically inaccurate skeleton with a skull more vertical and geometric than Sans, though somehow refined in it's appearance. A silver-white chest plate with gold trim, orange-red gloves with gold trim, blue briefs with a golden belt, and knee-high, orange-red boots made up his rather unorthodox attire. The flapping red scarf he wore looked pretty neat though.
My attention was drawn to his chest plate however. Some manner of symbol on it that I recalled seeing in some book somewhere perhaps? A downward black triangle with three rectangles under it. Shaking my head, I brushed the thought aside. The person before us, was this Papyrus? My question was answered the moment they spoke.
"So, as I was saying about Undyne," Papyrus exclaimed, before pausing a moment to look our way, then to Sans, and back, taking multiple double takes along with his brother. He bent down next to his shorter sibling, bringing a hand to the side of his face to whisper to them as both Frisk and I stood stock still.
"Sans! Oh my god! Is that... a human?!" He sounded quite breathless. Not hard with him being a skeleton and all. "Uuuh... Actually I think that's a rock." Gesturing behind us, at a moderately sized conveniently placed boulder. Papyrus blinked after a moment. "Oh." Sans grinned, continuing his japery.
"Hey. What's that in front of the rock? " He pointed right at me. Papyrus sat there, stunned for a moment, his face alight in awe. "OH MY GOD! Sans... is... is that actually a human? I've never seen one before." Papyrus, bless his soul, sounded like a kid on Christmas day. "Yep bro, that's a human." That's right Papyrus. Soak it in. We're 100% awesome human.
Papyrus's eye sockets grew even wider. "OH MY GOD! Sans! I finally did it! Undyne will... I'm gonna... I'll be so... popular! Popular! Popular!... Ahem... Humans!" Papyrus gestured proudly at me and Frisk. "You shall not pass... this area! I, the GREAT Papyrus, shall stop you! I will then capture you! And you will be delivered to the capital! And..."
Papyrus faltered a bit, a look of confusion crossing his face. He paused a moment, rubbing the top of his skull, and seemed almost like a lost child. "And... I'm not actually sure what happens next! In any case! Small human, taller human! Continue... only if you dare! Nyeh heh heh heh heh heh!" And with that, Papyrus ran forth, his scarf flapping behind him, as he laughed the whole way. He was clearly having a grand old time.
Sans leaned against a tree at the path side, grinning to himself. "Well, that went well." I leaned on the tree across from him. "I'd say it did. He looked like he was having a grand ol' time." Frisk shuffled about a bit before speaking. "Papyrus... is nice. Needs friends." They looked to me.
"Frisk's pretty on the ball, huh. Yeah. My bro is... well, he can be a bit too energetic and eccentric for some people. So he has trouble making friends. Papyrus is all the family I got left, and he means the world to me." Sans sighed to himself, seeming a bit sullen for once. It was... strange seeing him like that. "I wanna do right by him."
I smiled a bit to myself, before shaking my head. "You know Sans. If you just wanted us to be his friend, all you'd have to do is ask. He seems a bit on the excitable side, but not a bad person. I don't think you'd have to go through all this trouble just to make him happy." Sans swept his hand as if brushing my words aside.
"Hey. Don't sweat it, kid. I'm just doing what I feel's right... and you know, I'm feeling pretty good today. Feels like I can afford to care for once. See you two around, I'll be keeping an eye socket out for you." A wink, and Sans was off, leaving the two of us.
Nothing to do but follow along, we continued. Another sign, with a guard shack nearby. This one with big bold letters saying 'absolutely NO MOVING!' Wait, what? Frisk continued forward, only to freeze as a head popped up from behind the counter of the guard stand.
Some variety of humanoid dog monster. Black around the eyes and ears, with the rest of them a pleasant fluffy white. Oh Christ, they were wearing a cotton candy pink muscle shirt and leopard-print stretch pants. "Did something move?" They grumble, a slightly smoldering dog treat sticking out of their mouth.
"Was it my imagination? I can only see moving things... If something WAS moving... for example, a human... I'll make sure it never moves aga-" Before they can even finished their thought, Frisk was petting them. The dog monster guard, Doggo judging by the plate on the counter saying 'Hi! My name is Doggo!', freezed up in surprise.
"What?! I've been pet!... Pat? Pot? Pet?" They barked out in confusion, not sure which word to use. More petting from Frisk. Kid... "Where's it coming from?!" Doggo called out in surprise, not really upset about it though if their tail was any indication.
Eventually Frisk let up, still as a statue now. Doggo looked around in confusion, clearly not seeing either of us for some reason. "S-S-S-Something pet me... something that isn't m-m-m-moving... I'm gonna need some dog treats for this..." Having said that, they rushed off.
A few more yards and Sans again... "Hey there. Uh... I forgot to give you a handy bit of advice. You see, some monsters, especially my brother have a special kind of attack. It's called a blue attack. Real easy to tell since it looks light blue."
Sans rustled through his coat a bit. "Now all you gotta do is not move, and the attack won't hurt you. Pretty wild, huh? Might be hard to remember so I came up with a handy little mnemonic for that."
Sans dug through a bit more fervently. "Now imagine a stop sign. When you see a stop sign, you stop, right? Stop signs are red... so imagine a blue stop sign. Simple, right?" Wait, what? I stared at him blankly. "So when you're in a fight just imagine blue attacks like blue stop signs." He winked, and slipped me a piece of paper. It had his number on it. -Sans' number obtained-
"Oh, and my brother's just up ahead again. Catch you there." Not even a few feet and the forest opened to a clearing with... Papyrus and Sans talking again? But... I turned back to find Sans wasn't behind us. What in the world...
"You are so lazy! You were napping all night!" Sans shrugged. "I think that's called... sleeping." Papyrus wagged his boney finger at Sans "Excuses, excuses!" I decided to break up the argument by clearing my throat. "Oh-ho! The human and tiny human arrive!"
Papyrus posed heroically "In order to stop you, my brother and I have created some puzzles! I think you will find this one... quite shocking! For you see..." Papyrus grinned proudly, as Sans winked knowingly to us.
"This is the invisible... electricity maze! When you touch the walls this orb..." Papyrus hefted a shimmery metal ball in one hand. "Will administer a hearty zap! Sound like fun, human and smaller human? Because... the amount of fun you will probably have... is actually rather small I think." He idly rolled the ball between his two hands. He was really hamming things up with this.
"Ok, you can go ahead now!" Wait. But he still had the orb. Well, no looking a gift horse in the mou- "I think the human has to hold the orb, bro. " God damn it Sans. Papyrus proudly strutted through the maze, orb in hand. It's at this point I realized there's... another hole in their puzzle. Sans just kept smiling knowingly. "Here. Hold this, human." He hefted the orb into my hands.
Papyrus quickly returned to his side of the puzzle, following the same path, leaving deep footprints in the snow. "Ok, now try humans! There is no way you can possibly best... my... maze... oh..." Following his footprints through the maze with Frisk, we both handily reached the other side, standing before him.
Papyrus stared for a moment, a mix of shock on his bony face and... was that relief? "Incredible, you slippery snail! You solved it so easily... too easily! However! The next puzzle will not be so easy! It is designed by my brother, Sans! You will surely be confounded! I know I am! Nyeh heh heh heh!" And with that, Papyrus swiftly moon walked into the distance. Wait... what?
"Well Sans... that was a thing. Seems like he's having a lot of fun though." Sans nodded to himself a little as he followed along beside us. "Yeah. Thanks, kid. It... means a lot. By the way, you know that outfit he's wearing? We both made it once upon of time for a costume party. Hasn't worn anything else since come to think of it." Sans rubbed his chin as the snowy landscape passed by.
"Heh... man, isn't my brother cool?" Thinking on it, Papyrus actually was kinda starting to grow on me a bit. That enthusiasm of his was contagious for sure. "You know, I was a bit skeptical at first, but he seems like a great guy."
My thoughts were interrupted by Papyrus crying out. "Human, much smaller human! I hope you are prepared!... Sans... where is the puzzle? " Papyrus seemed bemused now. Sans walked over, and pointed to the ground. "S'right there, Paps. Trust me, there's no way they can get past this one." Looking to where he's pointing, there was what seemed to be just a sheet of paper.
Picking it up it's... oh Christ. In big colorful words across the top it reads 'Monster Kidz word search'. It looks like it's been hastily printed out or photo copied even. Minimal effort at best. I just gave Sans a look that said 'seriously?' before putting it down and walking over to them.
"Sans... THAT DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!" Sans just shrugged, taking Papyrus' shrill scream in stride. "Whoops. I knew I should have used today's crossword instead." Papyrus seemed ready to blow a gasket. "What?! Crossword?! I can't believe you just said that! In my opinion... Junior Jumble is easily the hardest."
Sans, ever the one to take things in stride, barely reacted. " What? Really, dude? That easy-peasy word scramble? That's for baby bones." Papyrus stared at Sans in disbelief. "Un... believable. HUMANS! Solve this dispute!" Lost for how to respond, I looked to Frisk.
Frisk without hesitation piped up. "Junior Jumble is." Not wanting to feel like a third wheel I piped up as well. "Yeah. Junior Jumble is totally a brain buster!" Papyrus became overjoyed, triumphantly posing. "Ha! Ha! Yes! I told you Sans! Humans must be very intelligent if they also find Junior Jumble so difficult!"
And once more it was us and Sans. "Man. He's something else, huh? Thanks for saying Junior Jumble, just to appease him, kid. Yesterday he got stumped trying to 'solve' the horoscope, you know. Just the kinda person he is."
I looked to Sans as we continued. "Say... why'd you give me your number?" He just gave a knowing smile. "Like I said earlier. Feels like I can afford to care for once." Cryptic... but not ominous at least, unlike Flowey. Sans was definitely someone who knew more than me though, and wasn't keen to share yet.
We passed by an already deactivated puzzle, the spikes receded, allowing us to keep going forward. Two hooded dog monsters approached, and were swiftly dealt with when Frisk tossed the stick they had been carrying about into the woods. Well that was...
"How'd you know that'd work, Frisk?" The kid just shrugged. "Dogs like sticks?" That... well... that was actually kinda logical I guess? What the heck, I'd roll with it. A bit further on we came across a sort of switch puzzle following a similar principle to the ones in the ruins.
Step on the panels, and turn all the Xs to Os in the process then push the button when they're all Os. Except this one was already done for us. A few golden flower petals rested near one of the buttons... Flowey's handiwork? It seemed they had kept their word... but to what end were they going with this?
Not long past the spikes for the puzzle stood Papyrus. He seemed more in a chatting mood rather than a 'catch the human' mood this time. "Greetings humans!... And brother! You know... sometimes I wonder what my brother would do without someone as cool as me in his life!"
A far more complex version of the last puzzle sat before us. Papyrus rubbed his chin. "Human... How do I put this... " Being called human was starting to wear on me a little. "You could call me Chara, you know. That's my name." Papyrus tilted his head thoughtfully. "Chara, hmm? An interesting name for a human. Anyways... as I was saying."
He gestured to the puzzle before us. It seemed... a bit of a mess on closer examination. "While you and your companions were on your way here I decided I would try to improve upon the puzzle by making it look more like my glorious face but... in the process I appear to have... broken it. I suppose what I am saying is..."
Papyrus posed dramatically, his scarf flapping in the wind. He... actually looked rather striking like that. "I, the Great Papyrus, will solve this conundrum! Then we can both proceed! In the meanwhile, please feel free to try the puzzle yourself. I'll try not to give away the-"
Click. Before he could finish his thought, Frisk had flipped a switch hidden on a tree and stepped on the button, solving the puzzle via some sort of fail safe. "Heh. The clever 'scholar' is at it again I see."
Papyrus did a double take a moment before working up the composure to speak again. "It would seem you've solved it! And without my help... I'm impressed. You must care about puzzles like I do!"
Placing a hand to his chest plate, Papyrus put on a most sincere expression. "It has been much a pleasure to have a rival of wit such as you two. Why, this next puzzle might even be too easy for you. Now then, onward my curious companions! There is more to be had before we reach Snowdin yet!" Papyrus pointed onward, seemingly having forgotten that he was supposed to be capturing us, so lost in the moment was he.
"Good work with that last one there. This next one... Well it'll be something. Uses a bit more tech than the usual puzzle. Hope you two are ready." Sans goes on ahead, following his brother.
A short bridge over another gap, and a straight path of metal tile stretched before us. Papyrus and Sans were on the other side next to a... rather esoteric looking machine. "Small human, Chara! You will love this next puzzle! It was invented by the great Dr. Alphys! See those tiles? With a flip of the switch, they will change color, and each color has a different function!"
An awkward silence fell over the place for a good few minutes. "Annnd I've forgotten what each one does! Per...haps we should just skip this one. Just to be safe." Papyrus hurried onward, Sans following casually behind. Another X and O puzzle greeted us, though this time with ice involved... and it seemed it had been solved as well.
Sliding across the ice to the other side, we ran into a field of... "Snow poffs!" Frisk exclaims cheerfully. And this is a snow poff as well I suppose... And another... oh hey. This one has 30 gold in it. Surprisingly, nothing ambushed us while Frisk played around with the... snow poffs? What even is a snow poff. They just seemed like large balls of snow but something about them was... confounding. Over all an anti-climax.
By now though I had become thoroughly chilled to the bone and lights were visible ahead. We had to be getting close to Snowdin. A rather long wood bridge over a sizeable gap was all that stood between me and a warm building now. That and Papyrus on the other side. Oh.
"Humans! This will be your final and most dangerous challenge yet! Behold! The gauntlet of deadly terror!" At his word, and assortment of rather unpleasant looking objects lowered and rose around the bridge. That and the annoying dog, swinging softly from a rope, and looking terribly balefully at me. Frisk just looked forward stone faced. Their default expression really.
"When I say the word, it will fully activate! Cannons will fire! Spikes will swing! Blades will slice! Each part will swing violently up and down! Only the tiniest chance of victory will remain! Are you ready?! Because I! Am! About! To! Do! It!"
A long and awkward pause, with the soft creaking of the various hanging unpleasantries being the only thing really breaking it before Sans spoke up. "Well? What's the holdup?" Papyrus seemed to be getting rather nervous now. "Holdup? What holdup? I'm... I'm about to activate it now!" Another drawn out pause.
"That, uh, doesn't look very activated bro." Papyrus's nervousness reached a fever pitch, sweating bullets now. "That... that's because... Aaaaugh! I can't do this! Take it away, take it away!" Papyrus waved at the various devices, and they retracted, the dog giving one last bark before it vanished.
Papyrus gave a heavy sigh of relief once it was gone. "I am a skeleton of standards! This is all too direct! Not at all sporting for my great human rivals! Much too dangerous... what are you looking at? This is another decisive victory for the great Papyrus! May we meet again, my daring rivals! Nyeh heh heh!" With that, Papyrus was off... again.
Crossing the bridge ourselves, I couldn't help but give a sigh of relief myself. A cheery wide sign with the words 'Welcome to Snowdin' decorated in Christmas lights greeted my gaze. Finally. I was feeling pretty dead on my feet. Seeing such a warm and cozy looking little town in the midst of this harsh cold land filled me with determination.
"Feeling pretty bone tired, Sans." That got a small chuckle out of him. "You look it, kid. You ok? You kinda look a little... Chara? Chara!" And like that, the strength drained right out of me. It felt like someone pulled a power plug from me. I could hear both Sans and Frisk shouting in surprise, but it seemed awfully distant.
I really screwed up this time, didn't I mom? Probably pushed myself too hard. Oh hi there Mr. Ground. Coming up to meet me again I se-
MsYakumo: Whoa nelly. I think this was my longest chapter yet. Mostly because so much happens on the way to Snowdin. Some of the ripples have started to take form, and not to use a cliche phrase, but the stakes have never been higher. It seems Flowey has a bit better of an idea of what's really going on that anyone else... but what's his angle in all this?
Over all this chapter was a little bit rough to write compared to the others, but it should get a bit easier beyond this point. My over all enthusiasm and some of those wonderful comments and feedback people have left have been quite helpful in staving off the dreaded writer's block.