The first friend you make in the underground is a talking flower. He is also the first person to try to kill you.
Flowey is unabashedly friendly, at first. It catches you off guard, going against everything you've been taught to expect from monsters. He welcomes you to the underground and offers you advice, which you gratefully accept.
"Friendliness pellets!" Flowey chirps, as bits of magic shaped like petals drift through the air towards you. You reach out to catch one on your fingertips, not sure what to expect next.
Malevolence, malice. Vicious, searing contempt. You remember, too late, that monsters can attack you in your very soul. You feel something inside of you crack, spiderweb fissures in your soul. The pain is bizarrely intangible and frighteningly intense all at once.
"What an idiot!" the flower crows, his friendly smile twisting into a hideous grin. "In this world, it's kill or BE killed! Why would anyone pass up an opportunity like this!?"
And then you're surrounded by a maelstrom of swirling petal-magic. You are about to die.
You're going to die? It's altogether too sudden. You feel like you're dreaming. What happens next does nothing to dispel this notion, because just as Flowey's attack is closing in, his cackle is cut off by a bolt of fire magic slamming into him from the side and he is tossed away with a yelp.
"What a terrible creature, torturing such a poor, innocent youth..." a voice says, as somebody steps from the shadows.
Her name, she tells you, is Toriel, and she is the caretaker of the ruins. She is tall, and obviously a monster; her white fur and goatlike features give it away instantly. But her voice is gentle, and her smile is warm, so you let her take your hand as she leads you through a crumbling doorway. She doesn't seem to mind that you're reluctant to speak, or that you don't know your own name.
The Ruins are like nothing you've ever seen before. The air is ancient, hushed and still, caught between walls of violet stone and dimly lit with magic. It's like nothing you've ever seen on the surface. Toriel fusses over you so thoroughly it leaves you at a bit of a loss as she guides you through the traps interspersed through the passages, beaming at you with an amount of pride that approaches hyperbole as you "solve" a puzzle consisting of helpfully labelled switches. At one point she props an old dummy up on its stand and encourages you to talk to it, as practice for if you are approached by another monster. You suspect that if you encounter another monster like Flowey, anything you have to say won't make a difference.
You hate using your voice. It's small and raspy and hardly sounds like anything at all, but as Toriel watches you expectantly from the doorway, you clear your throat and a few scratchy words emerge to politely enquire about the dummy's day. Toriel smiles so brightly it shines like the sun, melting all your self-consciousness away as she pats you on the head and leads you to the next room.
You do, in fact, run into a frog monster as you traverse another narrow corridor, but you barely have time to react before Toriel stands between you, giving the monster a reproachful look. It hops away hastily, and Toriel takes your hand again to lead you through the next puzzle, a floor of spikes that retract when you follow the right path.
"Puzzles seem a little too dangerous for now," she says, chewing her lip.
When you get to a long, broad hallway decorated along the sides by pillars, Toriel stops and turns to you with a concerned and apologetic expression. "I have a difficult request to ask of you," she begins, sending a jolt of fear down your spine.
It doesn't last long. "I would like you to walk to the end of this room by yourself," she says, as if she's sending you into an active warzone. She pauses to assess your expression, which you can only assume is nonplussed. She instructs you to turn around and count to twenty; you comply, and hear her robes rustling as she beats a hasty retreat down the hall. When you turn around, nobody is there.
The ruins seem so much larger than they did before, and quieter. The silence seems elegant, somehow. Your footsteps are swallowed up by it as you walk. You're hardly surprised, though, when you reach the end of the corridor and Toriel steps out from behind a pillar. She looks immensely proud. It seems this was some sort of test, to prove your independence.
She leaves you with a lecture to stay put, she has some business to take care of but she'll return. She also gifts you a cell phone and her number before bidding you farewell. You turn the small object over in your smaller hands, surprised despite yourself. You've seen so many strange things today that the familiar has become foreign to you. And you've never had a phone of your own before.
You wait for a few minutes, then, seized with an irrational fear of abandonment, call Toriel to check if her number works.
"You only wanted to say hello...?" she asks. You can practically hear the smile in her voice. "Well then. 'Hello'! I hope that suffices."
You wait another five minutes, checking out the features of the phone while you wait. It's a rather basic model, and sturdy as well, as you find out when it unexpectedly begins to ring and you drop it. It bounces on the stone floor twice before you recover it and hit the "talk" button.
It's Toriel, of course. Just checking in to say that her errands are taking longer than expected. She calls again five minutes later to say that a dog has nabbed the target of her errand, which of course is not flour and why on earth would you think that. She hangs up with a reassurance that she won't be long.
Some time goes by. You sit on the cold floor and scratch patterns in the dust with your stick. The next time the phone rings, you pick up eagerly, only to be treated with the sound of heavy panting from the other side, a few sharp barks, and the sound of Toriel faintly shouting in the background, "Come back here with my cellphone!"
You decide that maybe it's better to keep moving on your own. You're beginning to feel a little nervous hanging around in the ruins by yourself anyway.
You peek out through the doorway that Toriel left from. Nobody seems to be around, but, oddly, there are piles of autumn-turned leaves piled on the floor. You look left, you look right. The air is still as ever.
The sound of crinkling leaves soon fills the hall as you bound forward into a pile of them. It reminds you of the surface, and you feel a surge of determination to get back home.
You continue on through the ruins, solving puzzles and every so often encountering the odd frog-like monster or small fairy that looks so abjectly terrified of you that it bursts into tears before you can say a single word. They seem content to let you be as long as you make it clear you don't want to fight, which is immensely relieving.
Having recovered her cellphone, Toriel calls you three times to ask, in quick succession: if you prefer butterscotch or cinnamon, if you really can't stand the one you don't prefer, and if you have any allergies. You say butterscotch, and reassure her no on both other accounts. Perhaps you should feel a little guilty for not doing as she asked, but exploring the ruins on your own is so much more interesting, and besides, you can take care of yourself.
Besides the numerous puzzles, on your way through the ruins you encounter a rock that talks, a mouse eyeing a pile of cheese half fused to a table, a spider bake sale, and a ghost pretending to be asleep. The last of these blocks your path, and, unwilling to step through them, you instead try politely asking them to move.
The ghost drifts upright, looking looking phenomenally discouraged, but not particularly threatening. It cries acid tears at you, and you step out of the way, attempting a patient smile like Toriel might do.
The ghost gives a little wobbly "heh", and sniffles. You tell a little joke, which elicits two "hehs" from them.
"thanks for being nice...you really dont have to bother..." say the ghost. "im blook...i mean, napstablook...um...so...im sorry i attacked you...ill show you my special trick, but its not like you have to look if you dont want to..."
Napstablook's eyes fill with tears, which alarms you for a moment before you realize that all of them are flowing upwards into a nebulous shape on top of Napstablook's head that quickly forms itself into a top hat.
"do you like it..." they ask, forgoing the rising intonation on what is clearly supposed to be a question. "i call it dapper blook..."
They look at you earnestly, awaiting your response. You feel like your eyes are wide as saucers. Napstablook is beginning to look discouraged again when you burst out into applause.
"oh gee..." says Napstablook, completely taken aback. They ramble for a moment about how they usually come to the ruins to be alone, and then abruptly apologize and disappear into thin air.
The underground, you're quickly realizing, is a very strange place.
Eventually, after you stumble through several more puzzles and successfully pacify some stray monsters, you reach a house. It's a small, cozy-looking place with a tree growing out of the rock in front of it, bereft of leaves. Toriel rushes from the house, trying to call you on the phone before realizing you're standing right in front of her.
"How did you get here, my child?" Rushing over to you, bewildered, she gives you a quick once-over. She notices the scrapes on your knees and hands from the ruin puzzles and kneels in front of you, taking your hands and letting magic soothe your hurts. She chides herself for leaving you alone in the ruins, accidentally letting slip her plans to surprise you in the process. "Err..." she says, a look crossing her face like she's been caught in the act,"Well, I suppose I cannot hide it any longer..." She stands up and beckons you to follow her to the house. "Come, small one!"
A/N:
Hey, have another chapter! This time, stuff actually happens! We'll be seeing some real action pretty soon, though ;D
R&R, folks! I'll love you for it. Hope you're enjoying it thus far, or are at least able to read it without cringing.