Frisk didn't think they had ever tasted spaghetti quite like this. And they found that that wasn't necessarily a good thing. They look at Sans who simply shrugs back as though to say "sorry, kid, i tried." Flowey watches them all, looking rather happy with his misfortune of being a plant for once.
"DO YOU LIKE IT, HUMAN?" Papyrus asks.
With a completely straight face, Frisk holds a thumb up weakly.
"EXCELLENT. THE HUMAN LOVES MY OBVIOUSLY SUPERIOR CUISINE."
When he isn't looking, Frisk puts the remainder of their meal onto Sans's plate. Undyne looks approving. Sans is… less so.
By that time it seems late. Though of course, in the darkness of Waterfall, it isn't always easy to tell. Everyone sits together, trying to come up with at least a little of a plan. While some suggestions- such as punching a hole through the space time continuum- are less helpful than others, they eventually come up with the idea to have Alphys and Sans try to find irregularities in time while Frisk and Undyne go to see if there's anything unusual about the spot where they first fell through to the dark area.
"HOW CAN I ASSIST?" Papyrus asks.
"hm… go with undyne and the kid for now i guess… i can call if we need you to do anything else."
"You all forgot about me," Flowey says, a bit grumpily.
"Oh forbid we don't give the tulip something specific," Undyne says.
"hey, i'm sure alphys's lab would look nicer with a peony in the window."
Flowey's face shifts to a much more menacing expression. "WOULD YOU PEOPLE PICK A FLOWER AND STICK TO IT?!" he demands. After a moment he puts his normal face back on. "Sigh, forget it, I'm staying with Frisk."
"heh, you know we're just kidding with ya," Sans says.
"Yeah," Undyne agrees. "Mostly, anyway."
Frisk shoots them all a look, then yawns tiredly.
"guess we'll start in the morning. there an inn here?" Sans asks.
"Nah, theres not enough people going through for one to turn a profit," Undyne says. "Sigh… I'll move a sofa in here. And uh…"
"papyrus can have it, i'll sleep on the floor," Sans says.
"What about the kid?" Undyne says.
… *Zzz…
Frisk was fast asleep with their head pillowed by their elbow. Undyne looks at them. "Great… they can't sleep at the table, they'll hurt their neck."
"they'll be okay," Sans says.
"Whatever. I'm moving that sofa into here." She leaves and does just that, carrying it on one shoulder.
"IT'S LIKE THE BIGGEST SLEEPOVER EVER," Papyrus says.
"Kinda. Hey Alphys, do you want to finish that anime we were watching?"
"Oh, sure!" she says happily.
"YOU TWO ARE SO WEIRD."
"Hey, it's historical, maybe if you watched some you'd know some stuff," Undyne says, going back to her room with Alphys.
"OH, CAN I WATCH WITH YOU THEN?"
"No," she says and shuts the door.
"those two really just need to date already," Sans says.
"DATE? DO YOU THINK THEY HAVE A COPY OF THE OFFICIAL DATING RULEBOOK? I DON'T THINK WATERFALL OR HOTLAND HAVE A LIBRARY!"
"i'm sure they'll be fine," Sans says, stretching. "anyway, i'm going outside. later."
Frisk is dreaming. It's a hazy sort of nightmare and they toss and turn, still seated at the table. A child falling into a cavernous maw in the mountain. A paw reaching out to them. Vague memories of a villiage that fills them with unease. Buttercups… Wake up. You have to wake up.
It shifts, no longer dreams familiar to me. Frisk dreams of darkness. Of chattering heads. Of a tall figure, turning to face them, slowly. So slowly. They're falling away from the figure, forgetting which way is up in the pitch black.
They jump slightly. Flowey looks at them, still half asleep. "Frisk? You okay?" They shake their head and pick him up. "Hey… it's okay Frisk, you're safe." Frisk shakes their head again, going outside and taking a breath of fresh air. Sans jumps at the sound of the door, managing to startle them again.
"dang… hey, sorry kid. …kid, you alright?" Sans asks.
"They had a bad dream," Flowey tells him.
Sans looks a little sympathetic. "here, kid, you want to sit?" Frisk considers, then nods, sitting with him and leaning on the house. "you know, i gotta wonder, how many times have you done all this?" Frisk looks at him. "how many times you been here? in the underground. how many times we meet?" Sans looks thoughtful. "something tells me… this time is different from the others though." His eye glows a little. "way different. you must feel in over your head… huh?"
*Yeah. No.
"thought so. well you know something kinda comforting about the time loop stuff? none of it matters. it might take a few dozen times for you to do anything, but you have that time. you'll be alright in the end. ok?" Frisk nods. Sans smiles a little. "hey kid, y'know… sleeping used to come really easy to me. in fact, i could do it with my eye sockets closed."
Haha. *Terrible.
"oh, come on, that one was hilarious," Sans says. Frisk smiles a little. "ha, there, i knew you had a little sense of humor hidden away somewhere. anyway…" he closes his eyes. "you don't have to worry, kid. we've got your back." Frisk nods a little and closes their eyes. They fall asleep again, holding Flowey's flower pot and leaning against Undyne's house.
They get an early start the next day. Undyne gets a few supplies at the turtle shop and polishes her armor, just in case it's needed while Sans makes breakfast. After everyone eats they start heading out to their respective stations.
"Well I guess I should get back to the lab," Alphys says after getting ready. "Let's go, Sans."
"ok."
Undyne clenches a fist. "You'd better be nice to her or I'll kick your b-"
"ok," Sans says again, leaving.
Undyne grits her teeth. "Papyrus, I'm going to have to kill your brother."
"PLEASE DON'T."
"Then I'll have to lock him up in the capital jail or something."
"THAT'S A LITTLE MORE ACCEPTABLE."
The others start the journey to the edge of the Waterfall area. Having Undyne with them more or less guarantees Frisk's safe passage. When they arrive, they start looking over the area. I start to observe them before I sense a presence and hear a voice…
"You need to direct them. Find the gray ones. Some stand within the world now. Some stay between the spaces between seconds."
The voice fades. So we're being cryptic then? Hm… I wonder if there's some way of freezing time. That would certainly get in between seconds. I look at the laws, studying them.
Meanwhile Undyne prods at the ground around her arena with her spear. "Doesn't look like anything around here leads to that dark place."
Flowey sighs. "Guess we shouldn't've expected it to be easy, huh?" He strains to look around. Frisk kicks a rock around. "Hey Frisk don't go too far, okay?" They look over and nod.
"So are you like… their babysitter or something?" Undyne asks. Flowey gives her a look. "Hey I'm just trying to figure out what your deal is."
"We're friends, you've heard of those right?"
Undyne rolls her eyes, stabbing at a rock. "It's just weird, how's a mutant flower from Alphys's lab meet up with a human kid? …Wait wait wait… you said you had a soul! Were you a human or something?"
"What?" Flowey asks in confusion.
"Yeah, and maybe you were friends before and you disappeared and king Asgore got your soul and-"
"I was a monster, not a human."
"Ah," Undyne says. "Well I had a good guess. Who were you then? Can't imagine you always went by such a dumb name."
"There's nothing wrong with my name," Flowey says.
"Yeah… except all of it."
Flowey sighs and checks on Frisk, who's still playing around. "Well I don't really care, just so long you don't bring them to Asgore."
Undyne is a little somber as she looks at them too. "It… would be hard, I mean not because they're fast and run away a lot, it's just that… they're just a kid." She looks away quickly. "And truth is, that whole goody-two-shoes shtick I made fun of kinda… reminds me of someone."
"Yeah, I know what you mean," Flowey says.
"No you don't," Undyne says. "You're nowhere near important enough to know who I'm talking about." Flowey laughs. "W-why are you laughing?"
"Oh, it's nothing."
I change part of the laws that I think will affect the way time flows in the world, and almost to my surprise… it seems to work. Papyrus had been talking to Frisk, but stops mid-sentence. Frisk is startled by the sudden silence. They pull on Papyrus's arm, to little avail. They turn around and go to Flowey, nudging his pot. When that doesn't work, they go to Undyne, tugging at her shirt. They're both frozen still. Frisk waves their arms in front of the two. No response. They frown, looking around a little, then start moving towards Hotland, presumably to see if Alphys or Sans are still moving.
But the area ahead of them doesn't load. Separated from time, and now space as well, Frisk stumbles blindly ahead and realizes that the area behind them has disappeared too.
Frisk finds themself in the dark. Looking around, they clutch their stick tightly. They are silent as they walk through the empty world. They can't afford to make noise. They fear what will find them. But even as I watch them, stumbling through the deadened world, I can't help but realize they seem less and less eager to move on their own. Experimentally, I push them to go north. They look uncertain for a moment… then turn, moving up. I move them east and west… the results are the same. They have nowhere to go, and no one to turn to.
Except me, of course.
Don't worry, Frisk. Do what I want and I'll get you out. Lets just find those gray ones first.
AN: Alright, story is officially completely posted on AO3 so I'll finish getting it posted here this week.