After having looked at a magic box that would apparently transport your belongings from place to place (which was useless to them, as the only belongings they had were their clothes), Frisk moved along the path until they saw Papyrus talking to Sans up ahead.
How did he get here faster than me? There's something up with him, Frisk thought.
"SO, AS I WAS SAYING ABOUT UNDYNE-" Papyrus cut off as he saw Frisk standing there. He looked at Frisk and then looked back at Sans. Sans looked at Papyrus, then back at Frisk. They both kept switching their gaze, and eventually started spinning around.
Seriously. What is up with these skeletons? Frisk thought, just before they both stopped and stared at them, Papyrus with a shocked/happy expression, and Sans with an amused expression.
"SANS! OH MY GOD! IS THAT… A HUMAN!?"
"ehh, pretty much."
"OH MY GOD! SANS! I FINALLY DID IT! UNDYNE WILL… I'M GONNA… I'LL BE SO… POPULAR! POPULAR! POPULAR! …*AHEM* HUMAN! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL ESCORT YOU TO THE CAPITAL! THEN… THEN! I'M NOT SURE WHAT'S NEXT. IN ANY CASE! PLEASE COME THIS WAY! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!"
"well, that went well. don't sweat it kid. i'll keep an eyesocket out for ya." Sans followed Papyrus out of the area, with Frisk closely behind him.
The rest of the walk went about the same way, with Papyrus running ahead and shouting about puzzles and usually accidentally solving them for Frisk, and Sans tagging along and not really helping much. Or at all. They also encountered quite a few dogs, but they were all too afraid of Frisk's smell to approach, even with the prospect of bones. All the other monsters kept their distance as well, but Frisk wasn't sure if that was because of them or because Papyrus was yelling at Sans about being lazy the whole way. Either way, their soul hadn't been revealed to the two skeletons yet, but everyone but Papyrus seemed to be aware that they weren't a normal human (or human at all) anyway. The monsters around here also seemed to be more wary than the ones in the ruins.
Eventually, after hearing many, many puns and seeing Papyrus break physics a couple of times, they arrived at what seemed to be the end of the path, for now. It appeared to be a town, creatively named "Snowdin Town".
"THIS IS SNOWDIN, HOME OF PAPYRUS! THAT'S THE SLOGAN, RIGHT?" Papyrus asked no one in particular.
"uhh, i dunno about that bro." Sans replied.
"WELL THEN I'LL START A PETITION TO CHANGE THE SLOGAN!" Papyrus's shouting had drawn a lot of attention, and almost all of the people outside the houses were looking at Frisk. They shifted uncomfortably, studying the town and the people who lived in it – who seemed to be studying them right back. The buildings that they could see at the moment were the shop and the inn, which both seemed to be run by rabbit monsters. They were also connected. There was another magic box outside them.
"THE INN'S A GREAT PLACE TO STAY. THE LADY WHO RUNS IT IS REALLY NICE. SHE ALWAYS GIVES ME A LOLLIPOP AND A PAT ON THE HEAD." Papyrus commented.
The townspeople seemed to lose interest in the small group, so Frisk looked at them more closely. Lots of them seemed to be furry animals, like rabbits or bears, but there were a couple others that were different, yet still suited for the cold, such as… an armless… dragon monster? Strange. A lot of the monsters they could see were grouped around a Christmas tree that had presents underneath it.
Interesting. I wasn't aware monsters celebrated Christmas too… Frisk thought. In front of the Christmas tree was an igloo thing with a sign next to it that said it connected underground tunnels to make it easier to travel to the other side of town. Seems useful.
There was also another building to the side of the tunnel igloo, but it looked just like a living house.
The three of them moved past the Christmas tree and Papyrus seemed like he wanted to keep going, but Sans stopped in front of a big building that had "Grillby's" written in big letters on a sign above it.
"UGH… GRILLBY'S... IT'S DARK AND FULL OF GREASE. PURGATORY OF FRIES... HAMBURGER ABYSS... ANYWAY, MY BROTHER PRACTICALLY LIVES IN THERE." Papyrus commented disdainfully.
"yeah, that sounds about right. anyway, i'm going to get a snack. have fun you two." Sans said, before heading inside.
"I'D FOLLOW HIM JUST TO TAKE HIM OUTSIDE AGAIN, BUT TO DO THAT I'D HAVE TO GO INSIDE, AND I DON'T WANT TO DO THAT. SO I GUESS IT'S JUST YOU AND ME NOW, HUMAN!" Past Grillby's were a couple more strange monsters and a path split, with one way going north and the other going east. To the east there was also another large building called the… librarby? It took a couple seconds for it to click, but eventually Frisk realised it was a library. "I LOVE THE LIBRARY. THE BOOKS ARE ALL ARRANGED BY COLOR… THIS SENSE OF ORDER! IT FILLS ME WITH POWER!"
Frisk took a detour to see what was up north, but realised it was only a small area, with another house that had some living rock creatures in front of it, and some strange ice making machine that a werewolf-like creature was picking huge blocks of ice out of and throwing them into a river. Papyrus, who had followed Frisk, said "THAT FURRY PERSON THROWS ICE ALL DAY. NOBODY KNOWS WHERE IT GOES. HYPNOTIZING, ISN'T IT?" They agreed and headed back down to the proper path.
Right past the library was a big house with two mailboxes next to it, one of which was overflowing with mail, and the other empty. For some reason, Frisk had the urge to look inside the empty one, which was labelled "PAPYRUS".
"HOW NICE OF YOU TO CHECK MY MAIL FOR ME! …WAIT, NO. THAT'S VERY STRANGE." Papyrus said when they took a look inside. They shot an amused look at him before looking back inside the mailbox. "STOP LOOKING IN MY EMPTY MAILBOX. THAT'S MY EMPTINESS, NOT YOURS."
When Frisk straightened up and moved along, Papyrus said "THIS IS MY HOUSE! THOUGH I GUESS IT'S TECHNICALLY SANS'S HOUSE TOO. BUT I PREFER NOT TO DISCUSS HIS PART OF IT. HIS ROOM IS... IT'S LIKE ANOTHER WORLD! A WORLD WHERE THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO VACUUM. YOU'RE BEST STAYING AWAY FROM THAT STRANGE PLACE." Frisk laughed at that.
"SO, HUMAN. WE'VE BEEN TRAVELLING FOR A WHILE NOW… WOULD YOU LIKE TO COME INSIDE AND REST? OR EAT? OR SOMETHING ELSE HUMANS DO?" Papyrus offered.
"Well, actually Papyrus… I'm not really like most humans, so I don't need to rest, or eat." Frisk said. It wasn't exactly true – they still had to consume blood, but it was true that they didn't need to rest.
"REALLY? WOWIE! THAT'S JUST LIKE ME! EXCEPT I STILL EAT." Frisk looked at Papyrus curiously, but made no comment.
"WELL, IF WE AREN'T GOING TO GO INSIDE… THEN I GUESS IT'S TIME…" Papyrus said, offering no explanation as he rushed off to the east, past another igloo and what looked like a shed.
Confused, Frisk wandered after him, until the snow started getting very thick. They stopped, barely able to see anything through all the snow, until Papyrus's silhouette appeared. "HUMAN. I AM SORRY FOR THIS, BUT TO PROCEED TO WATERFALL… YOU WILL HAVE TO FIGHT ME. IT WAS NOT MY IDEA, BUT MY FRIEND UNDYNE'S. SHE WANTED ME TO TEST YOU BEFORE LETTING YOU INTO WATERFALL, AND IF YOU PASS THE TEST SHE WILL GUIDE YOU THROUGH THE AREA."
Frisk shrugged, unconcerned. Their powers made them stronger, faster and more resilient than all of the monsters they had met so far. They hadn't been hit once. Why would this be any different? "That's all right, Papyrus. Let's get this over with, okay?"
"IF YOU SAY SO, HUMAN!" Papyrus drew out Frisk's soul and initiated the battle. He gasped dramatically as he saw their soul. "HUMAN! YOUR SOUL! IT LOOKS NOT OKAY! ARE YOU OKAY?! ACTUALLY… NOW THAT I THINK ABOUT IT, YOU LOOK NOT TOO OKAY EITHER! YOUR EYES ARE ALL RED AND BLOODSHOT!"
"Yes, I'm fine Papyrus." Frisk consoled him, though they were worrying about their eyes. They were getting hungrier and hungrier... What if they couldn't hold themselves back if something happened? "It's been like that for a while. Shall we get on with the battle?"
"HMM… WELL, IF YOU SAY SO HUMAN! I TRUST YOU!" It was Frisk's turn first, so they decided to do the logical thing; what anyone would do in a situation like this…
Flirt!
"Hey Papyrus, if you were a vegetable, you'd be a CUTEcumber!" They said, snickering to themselves when Papyrus looked rather flustered. They weren't sure if it was from the flirting or the pun, but it didn't really matter.
"WHAT?! FL-FLIRTING!? SO YOU FINALLY REVEAL YOUR ULTIMATE FEELINGS! W-WELL! I'M A SKELETON WITH VERY HIGH STANDARDS!" Papyrus stuttered.
"I have zero redeeming qualities." They replied.
"OH NO! THAT HUMILITY… IT REMINDS ME OF, MYSELF! YOU'RE MEETING ALL MY STANDARDS! I GUESS THIS MEANS I HAVE TO GO ON A DATE WITH YOU...? LET'S DATE L-LATER! AFTER I CAPTURE YOU!" Papyrus sent a wave of bones at Frisk, none of which went anywhere near them. They didn't even need to move. They decided that they didn't want to risk hurting him, since they really didn't know exactly how strong they were.
"I don't particularly want to fight you, Papyrus…" They said.
"SO YOU WON'T FIGHT… THEN, LET'S SEE IF YOU CAN HANDLE MY FABLED 'BLUE ATTACK'!" Papyrus sent a wave of bones towards them in a manner that was much more deadly than his last attack; but the bones were all blue, so Frisk just stood completely still and nothing happened to them. Sans had warned them about this attack.
However, just at the end of the attack, they felt their soul get dragged down, and their body with it. As they tried to get up, they noticed that their soul had turned blue, instead of its normal red. Before they could process this information, they felt a sharp pain in their whole body as a small bone they hadn't noticed hit their soul.
"YOU'RE BLUE NOW. THAT'S MY ATTACK! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!" Papyrus cackled. He soon noticed something was off, though, as Frisk snapped their head back up with their now completely bloodshot eyes glaring at Papyrus. They dug their feet into the ground, which seemed to have grown claws, along with their hands. They pushed against the effects of their blue soul while growling in primal rage. Before Papyrus could react, they pounced at him like an animal, ripping at him with their claws, tearing through his battle body's armour and snapping his spine.
Papyrus stared up at Frisk in shock as his body turned to dust, watching as their body went back to normal. As soon as Frisk went back to normal they gasped in shock at what they'd done and started sobbing.
"Papyrus...! I-I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry!" They exclaimed as their body was wracked with sobs.
"IT'S OKAY, HUMAN! IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!" Papyrus said, before his head turned to dust as well, leaving just his scarf in the snow.
WHATHAVEIDONEWHATDIDI – PAPYRUS! Frisk thought in panic. Oh, god, I'm so sorry Papyrus… I wish… I wish I could just turn back time…
They wished it with all their heart as they heard Sans approaching and calling "hey, kiddo, where's paps?"
*TIME TRAVEL NOISES COMMENCE*
"…MY FABLED 'BLUE ATTACK'!" Papyrus said as he sent a wave of blue bones towards Frisk. They were so startled they almost forgot to stay still, but remembering what had happened the last time they had been hit they forced themselves to stand still. While they were trying to wrap their head around what had happened (What was that? Was I hallucinating? If so, why was it so lifelike?), they felt themselves get dragged down again. They quickly lifted themselves to their feet and avoided the small bone that had caught them off guard last time. They decided to concentrate on not getting hit again and think about what had happened after the battle was over.
"YOU'RE BLUE NOW. THAT'S MY ATTACK! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!" Papyrus cackled once again.
*Meanwhile…*
I could've sworn this just happened…