Hey, so I know there's been a lack of author notes up until now. That's cause I wrote all five of those first chapters before posting any. But don't worry, because as long as I stay inspired I should update pretty frequently.
Also, I'd like to say that I can't actually reply to guest reviews, but I appreciate all the support!
Thanks, and have fun reading this chapter.
After they had been chased by Undyne across the walkway, Frisk had reached a dead end. Soon after, Undyne had appeared behind them, laughing about how much fun she was having, before she accidentally broke the platform, sending Frisk into the abyss.
Frisk sat up on a bed of golden flowers. Déjà vu, much?
They rubbed their head, groaning. They weren't the only thing making noises. The chase had made them hungry again, and their stomach was rumbling. It wasn't like ice cream was very filling, anyway. They had to wonder how long they'd been passed out, though.
They also took a look around their surroundings. They were on a patch of flowers (as stated before) that was growing in the middle of a swampy area filled with water and pieces of platform. It seemed as if there was an endless amount of water flowing down from the waterfalls, but it was seemingly going somewhere as the water wasn't too deep. Further along there were also some big piles of trash.
Looks like you're in your element here. The hunger told Frisk.
Oh, so now you're not just insulting my friends, you're insulting me? Lovely. Frisk replied. They moved over to the piles of garbage, noticing that there were quite a few brands they recognised. They looked through the piles to see if there was anything interesting or useful in them.
What're you doing? It's just garbage. A trash heap. As Frisk ignored the hunger and kept rooting through the heap, it seemed to get more annoyed.
Your persistent garbage habit shows no signs of payoff. It told them. They finally moved on, having found nothing of interest. In the next room they saw a waterfall leading into the abyss, which proved that the water was going somewhere.
They moved further, into a part of the trash caves that headed north. On the way they saw things such as a broken bike, a beat up desktop computer, a cooler (which had two space food bars in it), and a DVD case for an anime with claw marks on the edges.
Oh, and there was a dummy like the one in the ruins, but it didn't seem too important. At least, it didn't before it got very angry and jumped in front of Frisk and started floating.
"Hahaha… It's just like you to ignore a dummy… But I am no mere dummy! I am a ghost that lives inside a dummy! My cousin used to live inside a dummy, too. Until… YOU CAME ALONG! When they saw you, they were instantly spooked out of their dummy! Horrible. Shocking! UNBELIEVEABLE! EVIL HUMAN! I'll scare your soul out of your body!" The dummy seemed completely mad, in both senses of the word. It turned red before drawing Frisk's soul. The room went dark, like it did in every battle.
The dummy didn't even seem to care about the soul's look. It summoned miniature dummies to shoot balls of magic cotton at Frisk's soul. They were easy to avoid, and some of them even hit the mad dummy. "OWWWW, you DUMMIES! Watch where you're aiming your magic attacks!" It paused and looked nervous. "…Hey! You! Forget I said anything about magic!"
Frisk tried talking to the dummy. It didn't seem much for conversation.
No one is happy with this. The hunger informed them.
"I'll defeat you and take your soul!" The dummy shouted, before getting shot a couple more times by its own mini dummies. It started floating around – angrily, of course. "I'll use your soul to cross the barrier!"
Smells like a clothing store. Frisk snorted at that, while trying to dodge more attacks.
"I'll stand in the window of a fancy store!" It said, glaring into a mirror and then turning to them with the same expression. "THEN EVERYTHING I WANT WILL BE MINE! …I guess that should avenge my cousin. What was their name again…?"
What a terrible person.
"Whatever. Whatever! WHATEVER!" As more cotton balls hit it, it got even more agitated. "HEY GUYS!" The mini dummies appeared on all sides. "Dummies. Dummies! DUMMIES! Remember how I said NOT to shoot at me? Well… FAILURES! YOU'RE FIRED! YOU'RE ALL BEING REPLACED!"
The mini dummies all looked shocked as the mad dummy started shaking itself around during the rant. It was getting cotton everywhere. The mini dummies all left and the mad one started laughing maniacally. "Now you'll see my true power: relying on people who aren't garbage!"
Mechanical whirrs filled the room. "DUMMY BOTS! MAGIC MISSLE!" The mad dummy yelled. Where the mini dummies usually sat were some mini dummies – that were also robots. They shot missiles at Frisk, which they easily dodged. However, the missiles swerved around and came back for their soul. It seemed they were homing missiles. None of the attacks hit the dummy that time.
Also, the mad dummy was doing an armless ska dance. "DUMMY BOTS! TRY AGAIN!" Once again, Frisk dodged the attacks, but this time they were able to aim a couple missiles at the mad dummy.
"DUMMY BOTS! You're awful?" As soon as the mad dummy made that observation, the dummy bots launched a much more complex attack. Frisk barely managed to dodge all of them, but they did get more to hit the mad dummy.
Mad dummy is bossing around its bullets. The Hunger observed.
"DUMMY BOTS! FINAL ATTACK!" The final attack was so difficult, Frisk wasn't able to avoid all of the bullets. As more and more of the magic missiles hit them, they went mad with rage. Their claws grew on their hands and feet, they grew taller and wider, their eyes went bloodshot and their teeth all turned into fangs, with their two normal fangs turning almost sabre-tooth tiger length. They were about the size of Undyne by the end of the transformation into their beast mode.
The mad dummy was muttering to itself about how the bots were worse than the others, but Frisk didn't care. As soon as it was their turn, they'd rip it to shreds.
Haha, yes! The Hunger applauded Frisk's decision, as the dummy threw a knife at them. It looked sheepish for a second before saying it was out of knives.
It then started yelling and exploding outwards and flying everywhere, before threatening that Frisk would have to stay stuck fighting it forever. At this point, Frisk had slightly calmed down a bit. They had shrunk slightly as well, and their claws and fangs were turning back to normal. They realised the mad dummy was cackling loudly and exploding everywhere again.
Suddenly, it started getting hurt by what seemed to be... acid rain? The dummy looked just as confused as Frisk felt, before getting annoyed and leaving. In its place, Napstablook appeared. They realised that the acid rain must've been its tears.
"…sorry, i interrupted you, didn't i? as soon as i came over, your friend immediately left… oh no… you guys looked like you were having fun… oh no… i just wanted to say hi… oh no…."
The battle ended, and Frisk's soul retreated back into their chest. They was lucky it wasn't their turn, otherwise…
"well… i'm going to head home now… oh… um… feel free to 'come with' if you want… you didn't look so good back there… but no pressure… i understand if you're busy… it's fine… no worries… just thought i'd offer… since we're friends…" Napstablook floated off.
Ugh, how anticlimactic. Why are you even friends with a useless ghost, anyway? You can't even kill it! Frisk ignored The Hunger and followed Napstablook into a big room with some glowing water to the left of the entrance and some normal water in the middle.
Napstablook was floating above the normal water. "hey… my house is up here… in case you want to see… or in case… you don't…" They floated off to the middle northern room. Before following them, Frisk had a better look around the room. There were three paths to the north, one to the east and one to the west – as well as the path to the dump that Frisk had come through.
There was also a sign that read "North: Blook Acres, East: Hotland, ?: Temmie Village." They decided to put off exploring for the time being, as it would be rude to explore before at least visiting Napstablook. They moved over to the middle northern room, and saw two strangely shaped houses – one blue, one red.
Frisk tried opening the red one's door first, but it was locked, so they tried the blue one instead. It opened and they stepped inside. The house was rather small, and the wooden floorboards had holes in them in some places. As they walked in, Napstablook (who was wearing headphones now) turned around to face them in surprise.
"oh… you really came… sorry, i… wasn't expecting that. it's not much, but make yourself at home." Napstablook said. They looked around. There was a fridge, a TV, a desktop computer (on a desk, obviously), and a couple of CD players on the ground. That was it. There was literally nothing else in the house, unless you counted Frisk and Napstablook. Or maybe the window.
Frisk had a closer look at the computer. Its internet browser was opened to a music sharing forum. "uh, do you wanna… listen to some tunes… or something…" The ghost asked. Frisk turned on the CD labelled "Ghouliday Music".
"oh, this one… once you learn the lyrics it's hard not to sing along…" Napstablook then proceeded to "sing". "ooo ooo oooo ooo ooo oooo oo oo ooo oo ooo" They decided to switch on the one labelled "Spookwave."
"dang… that ambience… it's like my whole body is being spooked…" The musical ghost commented. Finally, Frisk tried the last CD, which was labelled "Spooktunes."
"oh… a classic spooktune… they don't make songs like this anymore…" Since Frisk was done with the CDs, they moved onto the TV. "oh… that's my tv… there's a show i like to watch on it… sometimes…" The channel changing knobs were melted onto the TV and it was impossible to move them. The sound dial was in perfect condition.
Frisk decided to inspect the last thing left in the house, the fridge. "oh… are you hungry… i can get you something to eat…" Napstablook moved over to the fridge before they could stop him. "this is a ghost sandwich… do you want to try it…"
"Uh, sure. I've never had ghost food before." They decided it was worth a shot. They attempted to bite into the sandwich. They phased right through it.
Well, that was worth your time, wasn't it?
Sarcasm will get us nowhere, Hunger.
Maybe, but it makes me feel better. It's not like I can do anything else.
"oh… nevermind…" Napstablook commented. "after a great meal i like to lie on the ground like garbage… it's a family tradition… do you want… to join me..." The ghost offered. Frisk shrugged and nodded. "okay… follow my lead…"
They moved to the centre of the house and laid down on their backs. "here we go… you'll lie down as long as you don't move."
No shit, Sherlock. Frisk wasn't sure which one of them had thought that.
"so… only moved around when you want to get up, i guess." Slowly, the music faded away, and an image of the cosmos appeared in Frisk's vision. They couldn't see the house, only the objects in the house, Napstablook and themselves, and the stars. They felt like the mysteries of the universe were unravelling for them.
Holy fuck, what was in that ghost sandwich?! We're tripping balls!
Language, Hunger.
The two – three? – of them sat there for an immeasurable amount of time, before getting up. Slowly, the cosmos faded from view and the house returned.
"well, that was nice… thank you…" Frisk realised that the music had turned off, so they moved to turn their favourite on. It was, of course, Spookwave. As they left the house, they could still hear it echoing through the caverns.
Allow me to quote Napstablook – "Dang, that ambience!" The Hunger didn't respond. Fine, be that way. But you can't talk to anyone else.
As Frisk made their way back to the main cavern, they realised they were hearing something other than the music. "…what the HECK is that music?" Frisk realised they recognised the monster who was talking as one of the turtle things.
There was also one of the seahorses with abs, which said: "I-I DUNNO, BUT IT'S SPOOKIN ME OUT." For some reason, it winked.
"…this is worse than Shyren." The turtle said, which was quite mean in Frisk's opinion. To both Napstablook and Shyren.
The seahorse replied, "No way, Shyren is way less scary." It winked again.
"…if you're so scared, why do you keep winking?" The mean turtle said. Frisk had been wondering the exact same thing.
"THESE ARE WINKS OF FEAR!" It winked once again.
"Forget it. This beat is too…" The turtle paused. "…filthy." After uttering the mean comment, it left the room.
The ab horse looked panicked. "Wosh! Wait! Don't leave me!" It winked again. "Is this creepy music my punishment for being creepy?" It was still winking. "Please… stop… I'll never creep again!" With a final wink, it ran away crying in fear.
Well, that was certainly interesting… Frisk commented, trying and failing to hold back laughter.
For once, I agree with you. The Hunger said.