Gregory's POV:
After making it past Dogamy and Dogaressa, we ran into some of Papyrus's puzzles. They Mostly involved turning the x's into zero's, it took a couple of tries but they weren't very hard. One of the more unique ones involved colored tiles which involved a complicated set of rules we had to follow. I tried memorizing them the best I could, but it was impossible to do in a single sitting. What confused me the most was that Frisk was calm about it and was not trying to memorize it as I was. It turns out all my worrying was for nothing because despite the chances, the puzzle generated a straight path for us. Frisk probably knew this ahead of time, which I should have been able to tell by their expression.
We also ran across another dog! Even though this one was the size of a regular dog, it had armor that was even taller than most humans. We just played with it like all the other dogs, and it went away. Now after all of that we have made it to a bridge, and standing at the other end is Sans and Papyrus. I can already tell that it is probably one of Papyrus's puzzles, hopefully we can get past it like the other ones. We both start walking across the bridge as Papyrus looks at us with excitement.
"HUMANS THIS IS YOUR FINALE AND MOST DANGEROUS CHALLENGE! BEHOLD! THE GAUNTLET OF DEADLY TERROR!" As he says this, multiple things start to show up below and above the bridge. There is fire shooting out, and a cannon! And is that a dog hanging by a rope?! Except for the dog, all the things look dangerous. He expects us to go through that! This is the first trap that Papyrus has thrown at us that actually looks intimidating. Maneuvering past these objects will be harder than simply jumping over the boards in the Pizzaplex sewers, at least then those nightmare looking staff bots where not even a threat to me unless I feel down.
"WHEN I SAY THE WORD, IT WILL FULLY ACTIVATE! CANNONS WILL FIRE! SPIKES WILL SWING! BLADES WILL SLICE!" The more he says the more nervous I become, dodging all those things at once will be extremely hard! Papyrus continues saying that the chances of our victory will be small, and he says that he will activate it. I hold my breath just waiting to see the hell we will have to endure. But as seconds pass the gauntlet is still inactive. I notice Papyrus meanwhile looks like he is getting nervous as he looks back at the trap and back at us.
"well? what's the holdup?"
"HOLDUP!? WHAT HOLDUP?! I'M… ABOUT TO ACTIVATE IT NOW!" Nothing happens as more and more second's pass by. This is the most effective trap we have seen so far, there is a real chance one of us may die from it! Practically it makes no sense for Papyrus not to use it. But maybe that's why Papyrus is so hesitant to do this. Even though he says he wants to capture us, he doesn't seem like the type of person to want anyone to actually get hurt. He kind of reminds me of the Daycare Attendant, at least while he is Sun. I would prefer to forget what happened when the lights went out.
"that, uh, doesn't look very activated."
"WELL! THIS CHALLENGE! IT SEEMS.. MAYBE… TOO EASY TO DEFEAT THE HUMAN WITH." Papyrus seems happy to have thought of a reason not to use it. Sans gives me a look of 'I told you so'. It looks like Sans was right when he said that Papyrus wouldn't kill us. I can tell that he doesn't trust me yet, but at least he is still an ally.
"I AM A SKELETON WITH STANDARDS AFTER ALL! MY PUZZLES ARE VERY FAIR! AND MY TRAPS ARE EXPERTLY COOKED! BUT THIS METHOD IS TOO DIRECT! NO CLASS AT ALL! AWAY IT GOES!" As he says this all the traps under and above the bring go away.
"Thanks, I was really not looking forward to being burned and stabbed."
"NO PROBLEM AT ALL! I SHALL CAPTURE YOU FAIRLY. WHENEVER YOU BOTH ARE READY, I'LL MEET YOU AT THE END OF SNOWDIN!" With that Papyrus runs off. I wonder what Snowdin is, it sounds like a name of a place. We walk across the bridge to meet Sans and he still has that smile, but I can tell it seems off around me.
"if i were you, i would make sure i understand blue attacks."
"When the attacks are blue, we just have to not move. One of those dogs used that attack against us earlier."
"that's the basics of it, but if you face my brother, blue attacks may act a little differently from what you have in mind."
"Differently? How does Papyrus's way of using them work?"
"you'll find out kiddos, but just have your reflexes ready." I feel a little frustrated that Sans doesn't just tell us how it works, but I know that Frisks will know what to do when the moment comes up. Walking ahead we see a sign saying, "WELCOME TO SNOWDIN" and right next to it is a small town with mostly wooden and brick houses. Most of the monsters that are there appear to have fur, which makes sense because of the cold. The first building is a shop, it would probably be a good idea to go there first before continuing on.
Walking through the door we are greeted by the sight of a rabbit monster; the moment I see her I feel a chill run down my spine. She's not Vanny but after that night in the Pizzaplex, I can't help but feel nervous.
We decided to buy some cinnamon buns. For some reason monster food seems to heal damage, so it won't hurt to stock up with it.
"It's nice to have fresh faces around here. That makes three today." She says as we place our gold on the counter.
"Three? There was another new person here."
"Shortly before you arrived, a rabbit monster such as me just came into town. She isn't related to me or my sister, so I just assumed she came from the capital. But she acted strange the whole time." I feel my heart racing as her words hit me. Vanny is hiding here, she is probably just waiting to ambush us. I look over at Frisk and I am shocked to see that they are smiling. I can tell that they are nervous, and for some reason they seem oddly happy to hear this. I know they think they can befriend Vanny, but they don't know what she is capable of!
Walking back outside we see a Christmas tree in the center of town, which is weird since Christmas is many months away. Apparently, the monsters in Snowdin don't even know what Christmas is, but they put presents under the tree because a monster was tormented by local teens. We also meet a Monster Kid who knows we are kids as well. Apparently, it's because we are wearing shirts with stripes. I don't know how that shows that we are kids, but maybe it's a thing with monsters. We also visit the library and a place called Grillbies, the whole time I am a nervous wreck. I keep looking around any room I'm in for any sign of Vanny.
Finally, we reach the end of the town, and up ahead we see Papyrus. As we approach, I notice that he is looking at us with uncertainty.
"HUMANS. ALLOW ME TO TELL YOU ABOUT SOME COMPLEX FEELINGS. FEELINGS LIKE… THE JOY OF FINDING ANOTHER PASTA LOVER. THE ADMIRATION FOR ANOTHER'S PUZZLE-SOLVING SKILLS. THE DESIRE TO HAVE A COOL, SMART PERSON THINK YOU ARE COOL." Papyrus's voice has a hint of sadness to it, I can tell that this is very important to him.
"THESE FEELINGS… THEY MUST BE WHAT YOU ARE FEELING RIGHT NOW! I CAN HARDLY IMAGINE WHAT IT MUST BE LIKE TO FEEL THAT WAY." I know that Papyrus was really talking about himself before. I know how it feels to want other people's friendship. Being homeless didn't exactly give me many options to meet other kids my age. Papyrus tries so hard that he wants to hold up the image that he has many friends already. Papyrus continues and is about to say that he will be our friend. I feel thankful at the idea that we don't have to fight him, but he changes his mind saying that he has to capture us.
We then enter a battle as Papyrus, and we spare Papyrus for the first turn. Papyrus attacks and sends bones at the bottom of the screen, which is super easy to dodge. Hopefully if all of his attacks are this easy, this battle can be quick and easy. Even though I have doubts that we can get through the entire Underground without fighting, Papyrus I fully believe can be talked out of this. From what I have seen from him, he doesn't really want to do this.
The battle continues like this for a few turns before Papyrus says that he will use his blue attack. A whole wave of blue bones appears and none of us move, as long as we do this it should be easy. After the bones are gone, I see Frisk's soul move to the right corner of the screen, and they gesture for me to do the same. My eyes widen as our souls turn blue and a bone quickly comes from the left, thankfully we are able to dodge it.
So, this is what Sans meant by Papyrus attacks work differently! It would have been so much easier for him to tell us earlier, but hey at least we know it now.
"You have the power to turn our souls blue!"
"YES, I SEE THAT YOU ARE QUITE IMPRESSED BY IT. SUCH A THING I AM USED TO." We get hit a few times as the battle goes on, despite the nature of Papyrus's puzzles he is actually pretty good at fighting. As we go on Papyrus gets more excited with the thoughts of popularity after he catches us. But he seems more and more hesitant to continue the fight. Deep down I think he knows what will happen to us if he sends us to the capital, but he doesn't want to believe it.
"BEHOLD…! MY SPECIAL ATTACK!" I prepare to dodge out of the way of whatever could be coming but instead all we see is a tiny dog chewing on a bone.
"WHAT THE HECK! THAT'S MY SPECIAL ATTACK! HEY! YOU STUPID DOG! DO YOU HEAR ME!? STOP MUNCHING ON THAT BONE!" The dog's eyes go wide as it runs off. Papyrus is still annoyed at the dog stealing his attack, but he is still ready to continue the fight. I don't know where the dog came from but it definitely saved us from having to face whatever the hell that attack would have been. Eventually Papyrus decided to spare use, and the fight ended. Papyrus is saddened by the fact that he'll have to tell Undyne that he was unable to capture us, as well as saying that his friend quantity will remain stagnant.
"You know, you can be our friend if you want." I say quietly, Papyrus maybe a little oblivious to the intentions of Vanny. But I can tell he is a good person. Papyrus turns to face us as his face lights up.
"REALLY!? YOU WANT TO BE FRIENDS, WITH ME? WELL THEN-"
"How sweet. But it's a shame you're having so much fun, WITHOUT ME!" My face goes pale as I turn around to see Vanny twirling a knife in her hands. I have been so focused on Papyrus that I forgot about the fact that the crazy rabbit lady was even here!
"HUMAN, I AM PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE THAT I NO LONGER WISH TO CAPTURE YOU. I SHALL GRANT YOU THE PRIVILEGE OF BEING MY FRIEND." Vanny giggles at Papyrus' blindness to the situation.
"Thanks, that's so nice of you. Unfortunately, this is where it ends." Papyrus still doesn't seem to understand completely as Vanny starts to skip towards us.
"are you sure about that hops?" We all turn to see Sans standing behind us. How did he even get there, there is no way he could have gotten past us without us noticing.
"YOU DON'T WANT TO GET IN MY WAY!"
"Well funny enough, I do."
Author's Notes:
Gregory and Frisk have spared papyrus, but Vanny has other plans for them. Fortunately, Sans was waiting for this moment to happen and is ready.