An: Just wanted to say...This takes place during KHIII. And I highly appreciate any fanart about this. Oh, and did I mention to be wary of Undertale spoilers here and there? 'Cause I am doing what no Kingdom Hearts world ever does. COVER ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING! So be wary of Undertale Spoilers.
Toriel's lines are mostly taken straight out of the game but there are a few differences here and there. So please forgive it otherwise.
Now, prepare yourselves for heartaches by grabbing any and maybe all the stuffed animals you have, 'cause you're gonna need them.
Frisk, Sora, and the others soon entered what could only be affectionately called the front lobby of the Ruins. As leaves were scattered quite evenly on either side of the path, leading to a set of two staircases that both led to a single doorway. In the cranny between the staircases was a big pile of leaves, and in front of it were familiar sights to both of the humans. A moving, star-like thing for Frisk, and a glowing flat green disc on the ground for Sora and his brood. Their respective SAVE points. They both silently decided now was as good a time as any to Save. The shadow of the Ruins loomed above and filled them all with determination, regardless of whether Sora and his party realized it or not.
With that side business taken care of, they followed Toriel up the stairs and into the door at the top. Inside they found themselves in a small room with switches on the ground and one on the wall. They were obviously connected to the spikes that blocked the door up ahead. However there were six switches in total –seven, counting the wall one- so there had to be either a pattern to them or only one of them was the correct one before you had to hit the switch on the wall.
"Welcome to your new home, innocent ones. Allow me to educate you in the operation of the Ruins." Toriel told them, and then promptly walked over the correct switches as well and flipped the switch on the wall. "The Ruins are full of puzzles. Ancient fusions between diversions and doorkeys. One must solve them to move from room to room. Please adjust yourself to the sight of them." She explained before continuing on through the newly opened door.
It honestly took every ounce of will power in Donald's body to not smack his palm into his face loud enough for her to hear it. That doesn't mean he didn't manage to mutter "You've gotta be kidding," which was loud enough for the others to hear. Frisk, Sora and Goofy cringed, but once again Donald was reprimanded by Jiminy, with another whack from his tiny umbrella, though this time from the top of his head, as that was where Jiminy was still perched.
"Now, now Donald, this is something we're gonna hafta grin and bear. She's definitely a motherly figure… that much is obvious. But let's not forget she hasn't seen people in a long time, and probably doesn't know our intelligence." Jiminy chastised the duck gently. Frisk, even nodded to agree with the cricket as confirmation of his little theory.
Donald grumbled, but thought about it. If she hadn't seen people in a long time, then who knows how her sanity could check out in the end. She could be even crazier than that flower! If anyone was going to keep their guard up, it might as well be him. Since lately, one just never knows the outcome of anything in these worlds these days.
"Gawrsh! That's a weird sign." Goofy piped up, pointing out the sign on the wall on the adjacent side of the door from the wall switch.
The sign read, "Only the fearless may proceed. Brave ones, foolish ones. Both walk not on the middle road."
"Wonder what that could mean?" Sora pondered aloud. "Any ideas Frisk?" He asked his little friend, making sure to always include them in everything as much as possible. However, Frisk merely shrugged and made a face that showed that they really had no idea. In truth, they never did figure out the meaning of that sign, but they did have an idea, something about choices and how there isn't really a neutral side to things. But even that could be wrong. As maybe it meant that bravery and determination were not the same thing. Just as bravery and courage weren't the same thing either.
"Hey, I think I figured it out!" Goofy quipped. "That sign's supposed tuh be taken literally. 'Cause Toriel didn't step on these middle buttons."
"Would ya look at that." Jiminy mused aloud.
"Good find Goofy!" Sora cheered.
Fisk gave two thumbs up after looking where Goofy was pointing and finally noticing for the first time that there was a little bit of a cobble stone path underneath the middle buttons. Goofy was right, the sign was supposed to be taken literally to these buttons.
Donald grumbled non kid friendly words under his breath, but he silenced his offending tongue when the others turned to look at him and felt Jiminy's umbrella gently tap him from above this time. With the sudden need to defend himself Donald couldn't help but declare. "Well it wouldn'tve killed her to let us trial and error it to figure it out."
No one took notice that Frisk winced slightly upon that statement.
"Aw, Donald, she's just bein' a good Momma. She'll probably ease us into solving puzzles on our own." Goofy told him as a matter-of-factly. Frisk even confirmed it by nodding at Donald.
"Fine, whatever." Donald huffed.
Continuing on, the group found themselves in a much bigger room. It wasn't really big in height but it was a long room, and it had water and a couple of small bridges. Once again, Toriel greeted them with more easy-peasy instructions. "To make progress here, you will need to trigger several switches. Do not worry, I have labeled the ones that you need to flip." And off she went, but not too far as she stopped in the middle of the path, in between the segments of walkway that led to the two labeled switches.
Again, Donald really wanted to smack his hand to his face but he resisted because he wasn't in the mood to be smacked upside the head by Jiminy's umbrella again. Not that the tiny thing hurt, but it was a nuisance.
Since her fascination rested on the humans mostly, there was a silent, unanimous agreement that Frisk and Sora would do the puzzles Toriel requested of them. They were easy enough, she labeled the switches in yellow chalk. Though Sora, who got the furthest one to flip, did inspect the other switch out of curiosity, only to find that it was broken anyway. So he flipped the switch he was supposed to, and he and Frisk were given praises from Toriel.
"Splendid! I am proud of you, little ones. Let us move to the next room." With that, she and the others moved on to the next room, where there wasn't anything but a dummy and of course another door, but at least that door was open. Except that she blocked it. "As humans living in the Underground, monsters may attack you. So you will need to be prepared for this situation. However worry not, the process is simple. When you encounter a monster, you will enter a Fight. While you are in a Fight, strike up a friendly conversation. Stall for time, I will come to resolve the conflict. Please practice talking to the dummy."
Sora thought it was odd that monsters needed a talking to instead of fighting it out, but he supposed that not everything could be solved with violence, which was a nice change from bashing Heartless all day. So he and Frisk inspected the dummy, and their perspective changed again like it did when Flowey introduced this floating heart surrounded by white walls thing. Only this time there were options, but since they weren't being attacked by white things, their hearts floated together over the options. They could choose between Fight, Act, Items and Mercy. Frisk took control over their seemingly conjoined-for-the-moment hearts and checked the Items, and surprisingly there in the Items option were Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy's names, each in their own slot of inventory. Evidently in this type of a Fight, the trio were reusable "items" of sorts. Frisk kept it in mind for now and backed out of it, and hit the Act, option. Since Frisk seemed to know what they were doing, Sora let them do what they needed and merely observed. Which was just as well, for as soon as Frisk tried to communicate with the dummy, it was obviously not one for conversation. Toriel seemed happy and then looked to Sora expectantly. He guessed he just needed to say something, and complimented its cotton. This made Toriel gush with joy about how good they were, and thus the group found themselves once again back in normal perspective, as Toriel went ahead into the next room.
"Ahyuck! That tickled!" Goofy chuckled as soon as he Donald and Jiminy were out of that weird perspective.
"If that's how it's gonna be for us for the rest of this adventure, I'm not sure I'll ever get used to it." Donald added.
"Well it certainly is somethin'." Jiminy quipped.
"Aw, I'm sure we'll get used to it, right Frisk?" Sora said cheerfully in his laid back way, putting his hands behind his head, and looked to his small friend. Well, Frisk was pretty short, so it really was hard to distinguish their age, but they were about as tall as Donald.
Frisk's demure smile didn't go entirely unnoticed, as Donald was still keeping his guard up. However, as they started signing to Jiminy, the cricket realized even as he translated that there was more to this kid than meets the eye, as apparently it does take some getting used to, but that conversation with the dummy was what one is supposed to do in order to make nice-nice with the monsters around here. Frisk even explained that 'monsters' around here did not include the Heartless. They had never seen such creatures before.
However, before Frisk could sign anything more, Toriel called for them, but Frisk quickly signed that they would be able to talk more later.
As, they entered the next room, Toriel pondered aloud if they'd be able to solve this next puzzle. This time she only went a little bit ahead, making sure the group followed behind her. The gang suddenly encountered a Froggit as they turned a corner and merely checked it, before Toriel scared it away with a stern look in her eye. The group, and especially Donald, then knew better than to mess with Mama Goat.
With the Froggit scared away, they continued on, past a sign that said something about the western room being the eastern room's blueprint, before coming to a bridge surrounded by shallow water, the bridge had spikes all over it.
"Well, this is the puzzle but…" Toriel trailed off with some unease before coming up with an idea. "Here, take my hand a moment, little one. Sora, you take their free hand, and follow my lead. As for the rest of you-!" Before she looked up or could even finish, she heard a couple of splashes from either side of the bridge, and looked to find Donald and Goofy, totally breaking the puzzle all together by simply wading in the water to get around the spikes.
"Sorry, but we're taking a short cut!" Donald shouted over his shoulder. Jiminy shrugged from atop Donald's head at her and added, "Well, I wouldn't test my luck on those spikes either if I was their size."
Behind her, Toriel heard two soft clunks, and looked to find Sora taking off his shoes. His shoes were the only things that kept the usual black and yellow theme throughout all of his outfits from his adventures, even in most of the dream worlds for the Mark of Mastery exam. Though for his current outfit, his shoes almost clashed, if it weren't for various buttons all over his outfit and the two little belts that held his gauntlets to his wrists.
"C'mon, Frisk! You can get on my shoulders." Sora suggested as he knelt down enough for the kid to climb on. Once Frisk was all aboard and secured themselves by holding onto two tufts of Sora's spiky hair, Sora secured their legs with his arms, with a shoe in each hand, and slowly stood up. "Don't worry Toriel, I grew up near an ocean, a little water never hurt anyone." He told her cheerfully and followed the direction Donald went and waded through the water towards the other end of the room, with Frisk silently chuckling on his shoulders.
The puzzle of the spikes was extremely simple but could easily be missed if one wasn't paying attention. Upon first entering the room the cobblestone path took a specific aspect of directions, upon coming to the spikes, Toriel would usually lead one in that exact direction of the cobble stones in the adjacent room, hence the sign in between. However, despite Toriel's best efforts to make those spikes come off as a dangerous puzzle even after usually being led through it by her, there was never any danger in the first place. The spikes were fake, and could be stepped on without fear of injury or error. And Frisk couldn't help but laugh that these strange new friends of theirs broke the already broken puzzle even further by thinking outside the box, almost quite literally.
Toriel was stunned to say the least, the look on her face was another reason Frisk was laughing so hard. They hadn't seen her look that stunned stupid since the timeline they chose the Fight option on the dummy but never made any moves to actually attack it, until it just floated away. The look on Toriel's face was priceless then and even now. It actually took a few moments for her to get her bearings and continue on the puzzle alone, still mystified by their ingenuity. By the time she made it to the other side, Sora's feet had dried up enough to put his shoes back on, and let Frisk safely down and off of his shoulders.
They all looked sheepishly at her as she came up to them. "Well, in the next room I was going to test your independence, but that would be pointless seeing as you're all sticking together through thick and thin it seems. I'm very glad for that actually. The more, the merrier." Toriel admitted as they all walked through the door together.
Of course, all differences have to be made somewhere because of our little quartet that does not belong in this world, and this is one of them. In this room which was just a really long corridor of a room, was usually empty and Toriel used it as a test of independence to let a human walk on their own from one end of the room to the other which takes roughly twenty-six seconds of walking. Now it was filled to the brim with Heartless.
"More heartless? And this room looks even bigger than the throne room in Disney Castle!" Sora couldn't help but complain aloud, as he summoned his Keyblade. This time it wasn't just Shadow Heartless, but also a ton of Soldiers and Large Bodies as well as a few new Heartless that either looked like a pile of leaves, or like Flowey.
Before Sora, Donald, and Goofy could even leap into the fray, and quickly tell Toriel to get Frisk somewhere safe, a wall of fire that went all the way up to the ceiling and to the other walls had materialized in front of them, and slowly pushed into all the Heartless, demolishing each and every last one. The natural born Heartless poofed into dark smoke and the man made one's poofed into dark smoke and hearts that floated away and disappeared back to Kingdom Hearts itself. Not that to this day, anyone knows for sure just what Kingdom Hearts is just yet…but still.
"You didn't do that, did you Donald?" Sora asked his water fowl companion curiously.
"Uh-uh, you?" Donald asked back, just as confused.
"Well, I think Miss Toriel's got more up her sleeve than we thought." Goofy quipped.
"What make you say that Goofy?" Sora asked, turning around to face his friend only to find that Goofy was looking in Toriel's direction in awe. Following his friend's gaze, he gasped and jumped back a bit to see that Goofy was right, as Toriel had a little bit of fire magic crackling out her fingers of her out stretched hand.
At the shocked gasp from Sora and the shocked and panicked expression on his face from what she could see at the corner of her eye, she diffused the magic and lowered her hand. "So those things are called Heartless, correct?" She suddenly asked in a low solemn tone, not daring to look in their direction for the time being.
"That's right, but unlike the local monsters down here, they don't have any intelligence, only instinct. And that instinct drives them ta tear out folks' hearts, and by extension, their souls I guess, no matter whose it is, but mostly if they have even a sliver of darkness in them." Jiminy answered her. He didn't know why but he felt a strong, regal vibe come from her when she used her magic and spoke just now.
"I see…" She replied in a solemn tone once more. Then she took a deep breath and put on a gentle smile. "Well then, I actually have something I must attend to quickly, so I must leave you for a while. Please remain here. It's dangerous to explore by yourselves." She warned through her teeth. Then her face genuinely lit up as she continued. "I have an idea. I will give you a Cell Phone. If you have a need for anything just call. Be good, alright?" She said as she handed the Cell Phone to Frisk, before walking away towards the other end of the room and disappeared through the door.
"Is it just me or did she suddenly feel like royalty fer a moment?" Goofy asked out of the blue.
"No, I felt it too. I thought I was the only one." Jiminy pipped up. "I wouldn't be surprised if she were a Queen, or had been once. Not much of a kingdom down here so far." Then the cricket gasped in surprise, as he caught sight of Frisk heading for the other end of the room, and quickly hopped off of Donald's head and jumped onto Frisk's shoulder to try and talk some sense into them, his old job from being Pinocchio's conscience was kicking in. "Frisk, I'm shocked at you. We really should stay here like Toriel said! An' besides, Sora and the others can protect you in case more Heartless show up."
Frisk gently lifted Jiminy off of their shoulder and put him on the ground so they could be understood better by signing. They signed vigorously for a while and Jiminy kept silent for once, nodding at the one sided conversation when it was appropriate.
"And you're absolutely sure about this?" Jiminy eventually asked once Frisk's signing died down a bit. Frisk nodded, and the cricket let out a relenting sigh as he hopped back on to Frisk's shoulder. "Well alright, if you're so sure. I'm gonna hafta tell it back to them now, 'cause it is kinda important. An' besides, we might as well tell you our story since you're finally willing to tell us yours."
Frisk nodded with a smile. It was a fair trade.
"What'd they say?" Sora asked, trying to hide the worriedness in his voice.
"Quite a bit actually. Now, have a seat fellas this is quite a long story and is as hard to grasp as our adventures as a whole if we were to tell them to some complete stranger." Jiminy replied, then just barely caught himself and glanced at the child behind him as he mostly faced the others. "Uh, no offense Frisk." Frisk was very understanding and smiled while shaking their head to show that no offense had been taken.
So Jiminy continued, and explained the whole of this world. That this Underground was inside a mountain known as Mt. Ebott, and the small legend behind it that long ago, Monsters and Humans ruled this world, until one day they were suddenly at war with each other. The humans won and sealed the monsters underground with a magic spell. As the years went by silly legends started to be spread that if someone were to climb Mt. Ebott, they would never return. Frisk was wise enough not to mention how the spell was to be broken, there was no need to give that much information all at once, they'd find out by the time they got to Waterfall anyway. That aside, Frisk was a time traveler of sorts, and had already been through all of the Underground many times. However, Heartless had never appeared before now (to Frisk's knowledge), and neither had Sora and company. This was all playing out similarly to how it usually goes, but otherwise is completely new and different.
In turn, the gang explained to Frisk that they were from other worlds, and unfortunately the Heartless were after the light the Keyblade brought and the light in heart of the world, but they would also always attack anyone with darkness in their hearts, but mostly the Keyblade bearer because they were scared of the Keyblade itself. They also explained that they were also looking for a keyhole, which usually hid inside a magical object, which also usually housed the heart of the world. At the mention of that informational tidbit, Frisk signed to them that they had an idea of where it might be, but it was all the way at the end of the Underground, and it would take a while to get there. Though Donald groaned, they were all okay with that, for at least for once they had an idea of where it would be. Then of course, they explained why it was so important for them to be here and find the keyhole. If they didn't, then eventually this world would be consumed by darkness and disappear from existence. That's what happened to the majority of Jiminy's world, and all that's left of it is a giant whale named Monstro and the inside of his enormous stomach, just out there floating in space. Thus, Jiminy eventually came to Donald and Goofy's world and became the chronicler of their adventures with Sora thus far.
This world was on the brink of being swallowed by darkness, even though they were on the ever important mission of getting Sora to learn the power of waking, they couldn't ignore the silent plea for help from the heart of this world.
Sora even explained that his world was swallowed up by darkness for a while, and ended up in another world called Traverse Town, a world that seemed to be the default for anyone to end up in if their world got swallowed up by darkness, but only if you were lucky enough to survive it in the first place. All darkness usually goes somewhere, and that somewhere was behind the Door to Darkness in the Realm of Darkness, and its and endless labyrinth of despair, darkness, nothingness and natural born Heartless, the ones without the emblems.
"Woah there Sora, isn't that telling them too much?" Donald asked, hoping to stop the conversation from getting too dark for the small child.
"Well, they need to know what happens…But I guess you're right." Sora replied and scratched the back of his head with slight embarrassment. But then he had an afterthought. "But if you do ever end up in Traverse Town for whatever reason, find a guy named Cid, he'll help you get your bearings for a while, and remember to support the local Moogle merchants, they're helpful too."
Frisk wasn't really sure what they would do with all that information. They promised themselves and a certain skeleton that this would be the last run through the Underground, no more Resets. And now, it seemed that resetting wasn't going to be an option anyway if darkness was close enough to swallow up the world, if they dared to reset after all this, Sora and his friends' efforts would probably have been for naught. They couldn't let that happen, and they refused to let it happen, no matter what Chara would try.
With all the facts on the table, they finally decided to get a move on as soon as Frisk explained that Toriel wasn't going to return anytime soon, and would be finished with whatever it was she was busy with by the time they got there. Though, with Heartless added to the equation, they couldn't guarantee that she'd be perfectly alright even if it was obvious that she could take care of herself if things got dire.
Thankfully however, she called the Cell Phone as predestined as soon as they walked into the next room with a Froggit off to the side and another set of save points in a pile of leaves. She had called to ask if they had left the room, which the gang all sweated nervously at, though she thankfully continued and mentioned in her over worriedness that there were more puzzles up ahead that she hadn't explained and reiterated that it was best not to continue exploring until she returned, finishing off with another motherly "be good, alright?"
When she hung up, they saved, playfully crinkling through the leaves filled them with determination. Then Frisk led them to the room that was off to the left and showed them the candy bowl that had a sign that said 'take one', so they got a piece for each of them. Though Frisk frantically signed to Jiminy to translate that it was best not to take them too quickly or else the bowl would fall over. Well, Sora was much taller than Frisk, so he got a piece for each of them without tipping the bowl with ease. The candy had a distinct, non-licorice flavor.
They all then left the candy bowl room and talked to the Froggit who suggested to give Mercy after acting a certain way towards monsters when they encountered them. Continuing on they bumped into a Whimsun, and tried to console it, but halfway through the first word of the sentence it burst into tears and ran away, so they continued on their way. They came to a room that had obvious cracks on the ground, it was technically a puzzle, but Sora and the others had the uncanny ability to think outside the box, thus Sora picked up Frisk and held them bridal style as he and the others jumped over the cracks and continued onto the next room. Here, Toriel called again and asked if they preferred cinnamon or butterscotch, needless to say the vote was split. Donald and Jiminy preferred cinnamon, while Sora and Goofy preferred butterscotch, though Frisk also said butterscotch as the tie breaker since in the last timeline they said cinnamon. After Toriel hung up, they took one more step into the room and she called again to ask if it wasn't that they detested their opposite choices, she knows their preferences, but would they turn up their noses if they found it on their plate? The communicative gang unanimously said no and that they could easily eat anything. She thanked them for their answer and their patience and hung up again.
"She's not gonna call again if we take another step is she? I mean I understand being over protective to an extent, but even I know kids need room to grow on their own, and I'm only an Uncle of three!" Donald complained.
"Aw, she'll always be worried, that never goes away no matter how old yer kiddos get." Goofy replied, speaking from experience. "I worry about my Maxie all the time, even if he is old enough ta take care of 'imself. He'd get along well with you Sora, an' you too, Frisk!"
"If we do run into him, maybe we can go to a Powerline concert." Donald couldn't help but quip. Goofy caught the duck's joke from all the way back when Max was just a teenager and chuckled in his signature laugh, which was contagious enough to make Sora, Frisk, and Jiminy laugh even though they didn't know what they were laughing about.
"I wouldn't mind meeting him if we do run into him." Sora said off handedly once their chuckles died down.
"Certainly! I'd sure like that!" Goofy replied cheerfully.
Frisk smiled through the whole conversation between them, they could relate because they knew Toriel's story very well and she did have a good reason to be a worrywart, but it was for the best to not to tell their friends that sad tale, it was better for them to find out when the time came. After all, what's life without surprises?
Moving right along, the puzzle in this room was easy, they simply moved the rock over the pressure plate switch, but they did take note of the sign on the wall that said three of the four rocks be pushed. Just as they were about to leave, Toriel called again and asked if any of them had any allergies*. They all looked at each other with perplexed faces, even Frisk was confused having never gotten that phone call from her before, but they went through the rounds of each person silently shaking their heads of not having any known allergies, and then they all replied 'no' into the speaker end. Goofy wondered aloud as to why she was asking, but she didn't really elaborate and said "No reason, no reason at all..."and promptly hung up.
"Kids these days have all sorts of allergies, from peanut butter to cinnamon, but since cinnamon is out of the question it could be dust that she's referring to." Donald said to ease Goofy's confusion, while nobody noticed that Frisk flinched at the word 'dust'. Everyone else nodded their heads in understanding, so they moved on.
In the next room Sora broke the puzzle again by carrying Frisk and jumping over all the cracks on the ground, but they had to wait a bit as Donald and Goofy decided to actually do the puzzle and instantly fell into their own holes. When they reemerged from the direction they came from (from Sora's perspective) the two humans and the cricket heard Donald mutter in admiration how clever this puzzle was, and watched as he and Goofy carefully took their time testing the ground and retracting their respective testing feet if a fissure formed as they carefully figured out the path they had seen in the floor below. They made it through in due time, and in the next room it was evident what the sign in the single rock room was talking about as here there were three rocks. Two of them were easily moved onto the corresponding switches, but the last one was sentient and needed to be asked to stay put after they asked it to move a few times just to get it on the switch.
Within the next room was a mouse hole nearby an old piece of cheese on a table, the cheese was so old that it was stuck to the table, and there were save points, so they saved again. Knowing the mouse might one day leave its hole and get the cheese…It filled them all with determination.
Moving on into the next room they came across an interesting sight. There were a few Heartless, all looking like piles of leaves, (they didn't have emblems so they were pureblood Heartless), harassing a ghost…a very timid but polite ghost that kept saying sorry each time a…Leafpile Heartless lashed out at the ghost.
"Hey! Sit tight we'll get those things away from you!" Sora called out as he summoned his keyblade. Luckily there were only three Leafpile Heartless, so this would be an easy fix as Sora came up with a plan. "Now please close your eyes and don't move okay?"
"O-o-okay, I guess…I'll close my eyes for a bit." The timid ghost said as he complied.
As soon as the ghost's eyes were closed, both Donald and Sora threw Firas at the Leafpiles. It only took two Firas to dispatch each of them, easy pickings.
"Okay, you can open yer eyes now!" Goofy called out. The ghost did as he was told because he didn't want to be rude and looked around to find that the Heartless were gone.
"Oh, those weird things are gone. Thanks, I guess. My name's Napstablook by the way. Wanna see something cool?" Napstablook promptly cried and made his tears fly up and form a top hat. "I call it Dapper Blook."
"Hey, that's pretty good!"
"Ayhuck! That sure looks spiffy!"
"It looks great on you!"
"Couldn't've worn it better myself!"
Two thumbs up from Frisk.
"Oh, gee…" Napstablook said in awe as happy tears started welling up in his eyes. "I usually come to the Ruins because there's nobody around…but then those things tried to bully me but then somebody nice saved me…Oh, I'm rambling again…I'll get out of your way." With that, he vanished into thin air.
So the group continued, Frisk made sure to get a spider donut from the spider bake sale in the room straight ahead before the others went to the upper left room. Toriel called one last time to mention how it had been a while since she cleaned up the house and the Ruins themselves, and since they arrived so suddenly she was a bit unprepared, and since there were things lying about the Ruins, they were free to pick them up, but warned not to carry too much as one never knows when they'll find something they really like, and then she hung up. Every now and then they'd come across a monster and do their best to make friendly acquaintances with them be they wiggling their hips and having meaningful conversations with Moldsmals, sparing other monsters before getting to spare the hivemind Migosp, eating their greens from Vegetoids, and making sure that Loox knew they had no intention to bully them. All while they solved puzzle after puzzle, marveling with a one long noted whistle at the perspective puzzle, and figuring out that Donald, Goofy and Jiminy had their own unique uses as "Items". Donald was the reusable healer but needed time to regenerate his Cura use meter before the magic could be used again. Goofy was capeable of making monsters laugh at his clumsy antics so that helped speed up the sparing process, and Jiminy was an extra tattle, in case one needed an extra hint on how to please a monster enough to spare them quickly. At one point they ran into Napstablook again as he had fallen down a hole of one of the puzzles, claiming that he couldn't get up and then realized a little too late that he could just fly because he was a ghost, and shortly vanished again.
As they moseyed along they fought the occasional Heartless that wandered into their path, and found a faded ribbon down a hole that strangely had a name engraved in it that Frisk had never noticed before, Strelitzia. They recognized the name as the scientific term for a Bird of Paradise, but since it was engraved on the ribbon, they assumed it was the name of a girl, but they thought nothing else of it though there was a newfound sadness about it that Frisk hadn't felt since the first time they realized what happened to the owners of these discarded objects.
In any case, they couldn't dwell on it so they and the rest of the gang continued on after Frisk equipped the ribbon and they found a toy knife near a balcony that overlooked more very abandoned ruins, it also bore a name that Frisk didn't recognize or notice before, that of Lauriam, there was a strange sadness Frisk could feel from the ribbon suddenly, and a strange darkness from the toy knife, and then it was gone, as if a passing and forgotten again memory had been on and jumped off of a train of thought. Regardless, they and the others had to keep moving on, so Frisk equipped the toy knife but kept the stick and band aid they already had on them, until finally they came into Toriel's front yard which they guessed because they saw a house just beyond a cinnamon tree. Speaking of the worrywart goat Mom, they watched her as she came out of the house, muttering about how whatever she was doing took longer than she thought, and hadn't noticed them yet even when she stood by the tree and dialed her Cell Phone. One ring was all it took since she heard the receiving end's ring and had looked up at the same time to finally notice them all.
"How did you get here, my children? Are you hurt?" Toriel asked worriedly as she looked Frisk and Sora over, they had forgotten to have Donald heal them, and Sora didn't have a Cura in his magic slots yet. "There, there, I will heal you. I should have not left you alone for so long. It was irresponsible to try to surprise you like this. Err…Well, I suppose I cannot hide it any longer. Come small ones!" She cooed soothingly, and was surprised at herself for giving her surprise by mention away. Then she walked towards the house. Sora didn't mind being called small right along with Frisk, simply because she was taller than him too, by about a head.
They followed her and saw that there were save points in front of her house, so they saved quickly. Seeing such a cute, tidy house in the Ruins gave them all determination. Stepping inside the house, Toriel greeted them again. "Do you smell that?" They did, and even sniffed the air, letting the soothing aroma fill their lungs, whatever it was smelled really good. "Surprise! It is a butterscotch-cinnamon pie. I thought we might celebrate your arrival. I want you to have a nice time living here. So I will hold off on snail pie for tonight." She said bashfully. "Here, I have another surprise for you." And then she went into the hallway on the right.
No one dared to comment on her mentioning to live here as in permanently for the second or third time since meeting her, they all wanted to ask Frisk about it, but decided wait until they were alone and out of Toriel's earshot. So for now they humored her and followed her into the hallway.
"This is it…" Toriel said cheerfully as she took each of Frisk and Sora's hands into hers and led them to the first door on the left. "A room you will share together. I hope you like it!" She gushed as she gently rubbed the tops of their heads. Suddenly the scent of the pie changed ever so slightly that it was a wonder that she caught onto it faster than the rest of them. "Is something burning…? Um, make yourselves at home!" She said a little nervously and dashed off to save the pie.
By making themselves at home, they decided to check out the room they were given. Inside, the room was adorable and coral-orange looking. There was bucket of cool looking toys that actually weren't that interesting at all. A box full of kids shoes in a disparity of sizes, none of which would've fit Frisk or Sora. An empty photo frame that was really dusty, a closet, and oddly enough only one bed. Well, she did say she was unprepared, but she may have forgotten to mention that she wasn't prepared for two humans to have fallen as well.
"Awful cozy." Goofy quipped as he took in the room in approval of raising a child Frisk's age in.
"Sure is, now onto business so's we can get the elephant outta the room." Jiminy started. Sora caught on and decided to be the true instigator of the question on everyone's mind before Donald had the chance to blurt anything out harshly.
"Right. Hey, Frisk? Was Toriel serious about us living here? Like, living here forever living here?"
Frisk looked down sadly and slowly nodded before starting to sign their explanation slowly.
"Frisk says that Toriel is so lonely here in these Ruins by herself, and has always wanted to raise children of her own, that anyone that falls down here, she takes in as her own. If we ask to leave, she may try to stop us, but with the Heartless popping up she may be more compliant because it's a little more dangerous here lately." Jiminy translated solemnly. Everyone understood the implications and remained quiet for a bit, until Donald decided to say his peace.
"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm tired from all that walkin' and there's a bed right there, and for all we know that pie Toriel made needs to cool. So how 'bout we sleep on the decision to not leave just yet for the sake that we need a nap for Pete's sake."
Everyone nodded in agreement that that was a good choice for now. So they shut off the lamp in the corner and piled onto the bed. Jiminy had hopped down from someone's shoulder for a second so he wouldn't be squashed like the bug that he was, before hopping on top of the dog pile once everyone was settled. Donald and Goofy nestled themselves on either side of Sora's shoulders, and Frisk laid their head on Sora's chest though the rest of them was sprawled across Goofy's legs on Sora's left side. Jiminy finally nestled himself in Sora's hair, making a nest in it, which was a lot easier now since the Keyblade wielder's hair had calmed down a little recently.
While they slept Toriel stepped in and smiled warmly at the adorable sight of them, and left a slice of pie for each of them a great distance away from the bed so they didn't accidentally step in it once they got up and untangled from themselves. Even Jiminy was getting his own tiny slice, on a doll sized china plate from a tiny tea set. "Sleep tight, my children." She whispered toward them as she slipped back out of the room without any of them stirring.
Later when they awoke, they were all delighted to find a slice of pie for each of them, and Jiminy was especially tickled pink to find a plate and a piece of pie just his size. The cricket was wise enough to jump over to the plates first to grab a hold of his slice, and waited for the mad dash of the others to settle so they could all dig in together, common courtesy after all.
They all sat in a circle, with plates in hand and forks in the air, they simultaneously shouted "Thanks for the food!" to the heavens, promptly sticking their forks into the pie. One bite was all it took for their taste buds to crash into heaven, and take a wrestling match countdown before they even remembered to take the forks back out of their mouths for more of this dangerously delicious butterscotch-cinnamon pie. Eventually they started chowing down like normal, but the sweetness was so good that they took their sweet time eating the pie, savoring the blend of flavors and taste.
Halfway through their pies however, they remembered what needed to be done, and slowed their eating even more as they became melancholy over the decision to leave this sweet lady to endure even more loneliness. No one wanted to say anything, as the implication itself was too heartbreaking, but somehow the words just said themselves as they came out of Sora's mouth.
"Y'know, not once have I ever been homesick since I started my journey. Even after the islands got swallowed up by darkness and I woke up in Traverse Town, I jumped at the chance to explore all the new worlds that were finally accessible to me thanks to having met you guys. Not once did I worry about anybody from the islands other than Riku and Kairi, not even my own mother. Heck, I didn't even think about her until that moment we talked to Rapunzel, back in the Kingdom of Corona, as she worried about her mother finding out that she snuck out of the tower. For once I'm in a place that's like home away from home. And now, I'm more homesick from the thought of leaving Toriel here all alone to have to suffer who knows how many years to wait for someone to fall down that hole."
Frisk tapped the floor twice to get Jiminy's attention so that he could translate for them, though patiently waited for him to finish his bite. Once Jiminy swallowed, Frisk started signing and the cricket promptly translated.
"Frisk has been through this process many times, and each time it doesn't get any easier to opt to leave, but it's the only way for everyone to be happy. Toriel will be fine, I promise. There's actually someone who visits her from time to time and keeps her company by telling her jokes through the door that leads out of the Ruins."
"She likes jokes?" Goofy asked hopefully. Maybe they could make her laugh before they left. That could probably ease her worries a little.
"You have no idea…?" Jiminy repeated as he translated but couldn't help but add his confusion as he said it.
"Whelp, let's go tell her the worst jokes up our sleeve." Donald quipped as he finished up his pie. The others followed suit, scarfing down the rest of their pies and got up to follow him.
They found her in a sitting area in the other direction of the front lobby, by a warm fireplace, the fire was strangely cool enough to stick one's hand in, but no one dared to tempt fate. She sat in a cozy looking chair reading an old book and even had reading glasses on. "Up already, I see? Um, I want you to know how glad I am to have someone here." She greeted them, and their hearts sank at that statement, and it didn't help them any as she continued to say lonely things. "There are so many old books I want to share. I want to show you my favorite bug-hunting spot. I've also prepared a curriculum for your education. This may come as a surprise to you…But I have always wanted to be a teacher…Actually, perhaps that isn't surprising. STILL." She made a face at the single word and to this day, Frisk had no idea why. "I am glad to have you living here. Oh, did you want something? What is it?" She asked innocently. She was so innocently sweet that they couldn't bear to break any sort of news to her just yet. Luckily Sora thought of a plan b for now.
"Uh, we just wanted to thank you for the delicious pie! And we're going to wash these dirty dishes now, right guys?" Thankfully the others caught on and said their own compliments, even Donald added that he needed to get the recipe sometime.
"Oh, I'm so glad you liked it! But you don't have to go through the trouble…" She gushed.
"Uh, no, it's okay we insist! It's the least we can do for you letting us, uh, live here." Sora replied nervously, though he had enough enthusiasm in his tone that she didn't catch the nervousness.
"Alright, just call for me if you need anything." She said as they headed into the kitchen and heard them reply 'We will!' in unison. She gently shook her heads and muttered, "What sweethearts," under her breath.
In the kitchen they all breathed a whispered sigh of relief, well they had to keep their voices down, as she was sitting right outside the kitchen.
"Alright, how're we gonna do this?" Sora asked, and everyone turned to Frisk for guidance.
Fortunately, Frisk did have a plan in mind, but they had never tried this before even with the knowledge that she really liked terrible puns and jokes. So it was a fifty-fifty chance that it would even work. Frisk, through Jiminy's translations, said that it was better to tell her the jokes when she blocked the door that led to the exit of the Ruins. The only way to get her down there, (Frisk did also explain that the exit to the Ruins was down the stairs in the lobby), was to ask to leave. As heart breaking as the notion was, it had to be done. But first, they did what they told her they would do and cleaned those dishes, making sure they ignored all the white fur that was near the drain. Donald said he had a million jokes up his sleeve from having gotten his nephews joke books and having had to sit through plenty of them as the boys passed on the jokes to each other, so it was settled that the Duck would be the joke instigator.
When they were finished, having dried and stacked the plates neatly, with Jiminy's tiny plate placed carefully next to the stack, they went to do the inevitable. But as soon as they greeted her, her sweetness overpowered them again.
"Oh, hello! Did you want to hear about the book I am reading? It is called '72 Uses for Snails.' How about it?" They couldn't help but agree to hear about a few snail things. "Here is an exciting snail fact. Did you know that snails…Make terrible shoelaces? Interesting." They all couldn't help but agree regardless that Sora, Donald, and Jiminy wondered how that was even a fact about snails when it was obvious in the first place. "Well, bother me if you need anything."
"Well, actually there is something…" Sora started, but trailed off.
"Oh? What is it?" She asked sweetly and curiously for all the glory of her innocence, this was going to be heart wrenching to do.
"Um, how do we get out of the Ruins?"
She hesitated for a long while not bothering to look at any of them before coming to a decision on doing something she should have done a long time ago. "…I have to do something. Stay here." She finally replied without emotion. She put her book down and got out of her chair, and headed towards the stairs.
They followed her, headed down the stairs and found her a few feet from the base of them, as they approached, she spoke without turning fully to them, only enough so that they could hear her. "You wish to return 'home,' do you not? Ahead of us lies the end of the Ruins. A one-way exit to the rest of the Underground. I am going to destroy it. No one will ever be able to leave again. Now be good children, and go upstairs." With that she headed deeper into the corridor, but they caught up with her after about ten feet. This time when she spoke it was much more solemn. "Every human that falls down here meets the same fate. I have seen it again and again. They come. They leave. They die." A cold shudder passed through all but Frisk at the word 'die', never had they heard the word alone spoken so coldly with heartache. "You naïve children…If you leave the Ruins… They…Asgore…Will kill you. I am only protecting you, do you understand?...Go to your room." She continued walking again. They easily caught up to her again as she had stopped at a corner. "Do not try to stop me. This is your final warning." She walked straight ahead with the dignity of a Queen, they all noticed. Once more they caught up to her, and this time she was by the door, which had the same emblem as the one on her robes. This was it, there was no going back, and they would do their best to make sure no harm came to her as they would do their best to convince her to let them though. But for now, she still stood her ground. "You want to leave so badly? Hmph. You are just like the others. There is only one solution to this. Prove yourselves…Prove to me that you are strong enough to survive." She then turned to face them with no emotion but heartache etched into her eyes.
"What did the judge give the thief who stole the calendar?" Donald asked quickly and loudly. Which thankfully made her pause enough that their perspective didn't change into the white walls thing.
"Twelve months!" Goofy replied with enthusiasm. The joke worked enough that she blushed from trying to hold in her snickers.
"It's working, keep 'em coming fellas!" Jiminy cheered. Frisk was very glad to see this plan working. A certain skeleton that their friends had yet to meet would be proud.
"Why did the doctor take his eye chart into the classroom?"
"He wanted to check the pupils!"
On and on, joke after joke Donald and Goofy persisted, Sora and Jiminy even joined in when they managed to guess a few of them. After five jokes, she broke her defensive stance and started howling with laughter, like it was the best thing she'd heard in a while, like not since the last time she enjoyed the jokes of her buddy just outside the Ruins. After twenty jokes, she was laughing so hard that she had tears in her eyes, the only thing she regretted was not being able to write these down and relay them to that same friend of hers. Finally she threw in the towel by waving a hand at them, her sides not able to take it anymore.
"Oh, I haven't had such a good laugh in ages. I thank you for that, my children." She congratulated them cheerfully, but her tone soon grew tired and sad, knowing what must be done, every child must leave the nest at some point after all, even if the mother feels it's not yet time. "But you're right, you would be unhappy trapped down here. The Ruins are very small once you get used to them. And with the Heartless suddenly popping up, its not as safe here anymore. It would not be right for you to grow up in a place like this. My expectations…My loneliness…My fear…For you, my children…I will put them aside." She turned away from them and took a deep breath and prayed to the rune on the door with all her heart and soul that these children would be safe and stay safe as they passed through this door. "If you truly wish to leave the Ruins…" She paused, knowing that was a silly thought, they obviously wanted to leave even if reluctantly if she did read their faces correctly. "I will not stop you. However, when you leave…Please do not come back. I hope you all understand." She then turned around and hugged each of them, though Goofy made sure to pile on a group hug to make sure she knew that they did love her, platonically.
When she let go, it was the hardest thing to do since the last child left her with one last hug."Sora, you are a Keyblade bearer are you not?" He was caught off guard by the question and the fact that she knew what he was, all of them were, but he nodded all the same. "I have not seen one for cen-! For many years." She corrected herself. "The last time I saw one, Heartless plagued him wherever he went as well. I will never forget his name because it's such an unfortunate one to have, to the point that I get the feeling that something must have happened to him, as with all of my children that have passed through here. His name, was Ephemera. Now whether he's still alive or not, I do not know for certain, but if you do by some chance come across him. Please, give him my regards."She added with a demure smile before taking a step back. "Goodbye, my children." She then walked away from them, but turned to look over her shoulder that they waved their goodbyes over their own shoulders. She smiled demurely at them and forced herself to face ahead and away from them before she broke down into tears, she didn't want them to remember her like that. She wanted them to remember her as a loving motherly figure who tried her best to protect her children, despite that they wanted to leave the nest early.
Sora's Keyblade didn't materialize on its own when they faced the door head on so it must've already been unlocked. They let Frisk do the honors since this was their world. They walked through another corridor and then another door, finally coming into a room with a rather unpleasant sight.
"Oh no, not you again." Donald groaned. The others made their own noises of disgruntlement as Flowey sat there before them with a rather smug look on his face.
"Clever. Verrry clever. You think you're really smart, don't you? In this world it's kill or be killed." Flowey said all too creepily in a 'pleasant' manner, it only got creepier as he continued. "So you were able to play by your own rules. You spared the life of a single person. Hee, hee, hee…I bet you feel really great. You didn't kill anybody this time. Except those creatures that don't belong in this world like a few of you. But what will you do if you meet a relentless killer? You'll die and you'll die and you'll die. Until you tire of trying. What will you do then? Will you kill out of frustration? Or will you give up entirely on this world……and let me inherit the power to control it? I am the prince of this world's future. Don't worry, my little monarchs, my plan isn't regicide. This is so much more interesting." His really creepy evil face got bigger as he cackled manically, before he retreated back into the ground and disappeared.
"Remind me to ask to remove any yellow flowers in the gardens back home, Goofy. 'Cause I ain't gonna sleep right for weeks otherwise." Donald quipped. Goofy nodded, and nervous but understanding chuckles were elicited from Sora and Jiminy. Frisk just let air through their nose loudly in a deep breath, in an effort to soundly relate to them without having to sign to Jiminy.
They continued forward through the final door that would lead them out of the Ruins and into the rest of the Underground. Now only two questions remained…Where else would their journey take them? And who was Strelitzia, Lauriam, and most importantly, Ephemera?
*You can only get the Allergies phone call from Toriel if you skip through the text from the beginning and up to that point.