Disclaimer: I don't own Undertale or Doki Doki Literature Club, I do however own Our Player.
Monika and Player walk back towards the elevator. They had once again passed over the strange moving-floor puzzle, although that time they actually had to solve it. Monika was skeptical and a bit terrified of the idea of using steam vents of all things to propel herself through the air to land on a relatively small space... But her darling convinced her that she would be alright, and true enough she had been. The puzzle itself was remarkably simple, she just needed to line the arrows up properly to the steam to shoot her into the right direction, the hard part had been making sure that she wouldn't accidentally fall off.
Though, she felt the need to question why exactly the monsters would set that up that way... Monika knew it was just a video game feature left behind from before she entered, but some part of her desperately wanted the in-universe answer to that question. What kind of society builds traps on what are, ostensibly, well-traveled roads? Or are the puzzles only active because she's here? As a human, she's apparently something that all of the Royal Guard want to capture after all, so maybe they had turned them on..? Still, it didn't make a lot of sense, since these puzzles were built directly into the main paths forward.
Ultimately, Monika decided to just ignore it and move on, accepting that, maybe, they had been turned on in an effort to slow her down specifically and that the citizens of the world had some other way to bypass the puzzles.
Thus, the pair now walked forward, heading back to the elevator... When Monika let out a breath. She had seen it earlier, when they had first come up here. At the time, she had been too focused on not falling off to mention or acknowledge it, but now that she had gotten somewhat used to standing this high up, she could take stock of her surroundings...
And more fully appreciate the CORE.
Her Player didn't have to tell her what that massive device was. Just by looking at its gargantuan form, she knew. How it sat in the pits of the magma, towering over her even though it had to be more than a few hundred feet away and below her was breathtaking. Over the sound of the electrical... Almost foreboding, now that she thought about it, music of this area, Monika could just about hear the rhythmic thumping of ancient machinery in the far distance, creating energy for the entire Underground, giving every Monster in the world access to all the power it could make... And since it was geothermal, it could make quite a lot.
It was awe-inspiring... And terrifying, just how amazing these Monsters could be when it came to ingenuity. Creating a device like that, one powerful enough to run their entire civilization on purely geothermal power and magic...
Monika felt a tiny smirk come to her face, it was beautiful in a way.
Taking only a few more seconds to look upon the CORE, Monika turned and walked towards the elevator and stepped inside, her Player floating in beside her, yet again buried in the menu box.
Monika sighed softly and hit the button to take them to the next floor, and as she did, she reached up and focused, her hand hovering over her chest... And slowly, a pinkish colored heart appeared above her palm. She shut her eyes and focused further... And slowly, a bright pink Spear- the same one as she had gotten from Undyne- formed out of that Heart.
SOUL retreating back to the safety of Monika's form, the girl held the spear at the ready. She had done this not only to make sure she could still summon and do away with the weapon, but also because she feared what might lie ahead of her. Undyne had gone to this floor after all, it was possible that she or someone else was guarding the elevator... Waiting for Monika to walk into a trap.
But as the doors opened and she and Player stepped out, she let out a relieved sigh. No Royal Guards or Royal Guard Captain were in sight, just Monika, her darling, a long hallway and...
An odd-looking purple girl standing in front of a table, surrounded by something that sent a shiver down Monika's back.
Child-sized spider-webs.
Now it would be incorrect to say that Monika had arachnophobia. She didn't really like any kinds of bugs, be they insects or arachnids, though she also didn't hate them either. She was just like any other person in that regard, certain bugs creeped her out and she certainly didn't want to end up being... touched by anything with more than six legs, but she was definitely more of a live and let live person when it came to the tiny creatures, unless she found them in her house...
But seeing a spider-web the size of a small child...
That was a terrifying concept.
Because it implied one thing. That there was, somewhere in this room, a spider large enough to prey on humanity.
Swallowing, she held tightly to her spear and walked forward, sparing glances towards the ceiling as she did, waiting for a Spider-Monster to swoop down, occasionally glancing towards the walls, looking for one to lunge at her from the sides. As she approached the center of the room, Monika paused briefly, listening intently as she heard something below the walkway she had been planted on. The sound of skittering...
But just as soon as she heard it, it vanished underneath the music. Now desperate to leave this room, Monika picked her pace up.
She passed by the odd-looking girl, who, she noted, was odd looking even by monster standards. She had lavender skin and jet-black hair... As well as being dressed like a child from a different era...
And five eyes... And eight limbs. Which meant... That maybe she hadn't heard skittering earlier at all. Maybe the human-eating spider... Was right here.
Monika gulped as she passed by her table, but the girl called out in a sinisterly sweet voice before she could get much farther. "Hello there dearie~! Would you like to participate in our Spider-Bake Sale? All proceeds go to real spiders!" Then, in a more sinister voice than before, the girl adds. "You're a fan of spiders, aren't you dearie?" Though her tone implied malice, everything else about the woman was personable. She was smiling sweetly, she stood up straight and in a way that wasn't invading Monika's space, and even her words weren't even all that threatening...
But despite that, Monika felt unease as she responded. "Well... They certainly keep the flies away! S-Sure, how much for a... Um... Donut?" Monika figures the best way to placate this woman would be to spend some cash, and surely these items weren't all that expens-
"Nine-Hundred and Ninety-Nine G please, dearie!"
Monika's eyes widened at the number and she took a small step back as she did. "That's... Kind of a lot, don't you think? For... A donut?" She tries to protest, but the woman simply chuckles darkly.
"Don't be silly! All of the proceeds are going to help real spiders in the future! There's no price to match that, dearie!" The woman spoke in that some ominous tone, a gentle grin sliding onto her face as she did. It was a strange look, one that revealed rows of unholy incisors and pincer-like teeth, and one meant to intimidate... Yet also attempted to be personable and like a customer-service representative.
Monika backed away just a bit, returning the smile out of habit while doing her best not to look uncomfortable, suddenly glad that she had summoned her Spear before arriving here. "W-Well, I'm sorry but I just don't have enough money to buy anything! M-Maybe another time though!" She continued to back away, and the spider-monster retracted as well, closing that dark smile of hers as she did so... But allowing her eyes to narrow a bit, her head cocking gently to one side.
Gulping, Monika scampered out of that area as quickly as decency would allow, well aware that when confronted with any kind of predator that the last thing you should do is obey your flight instinct, because it might trigger their chase instinct.
Once away from the woman, Monika stopped only for a moment to notice that she was yet again standing in front of a steam-belt puzzle like the one on the floor below, only much larger. Sparing a glance behind her and noticing that the girl had vanished from her place at the table, Monika quickly shook her head and stepped onto the platform, allowing herself to be shot into the air by the steam and land safely on the next platform. "Well... She's the second creepiest person we've met down here." Monika admits. "And she definitely has a much scarier atmosphere compared to Mettaton. I wonder if SHE'S the final boss of this area instead of him..." She muses mostly to herself, though her boyfriend glances up with a half chuckle.
"You know, I've never actually thought about how terrifying Muffet would be in real life. But the concept of a giant humanoid spider woman who... Bakes is actually really horrific." Monika didn't like the way he said the word "bakes", grimacing as she looked over at him.
"Please don't tell me you mean what I think you mean." She says to him, stepping on another platform, continuing to move forward instead of up or down since she assumed those directions went to secret areas.
Player shook his head. "She implies exactly what you think she implies." He confirms. "But she never confirms that she does that is the thing, so plausible deniability works out here."
"For now." Monika replies as she takes another steam launch. "But I have a feeling that-" She takes one final launch and lands on the other side of the room before continuing. "-I don't want that to be confirmed for me. So lets try to get out of here as soon as we possibly can." Without missing a beat, the young woman strides forward into the next cavern, finding herself standing before a huge electronic door made of solid steel and metal. She hummed in thought for a moment, considering before taking a step forward and pushing on the electronic door. "Huh..." She glanced around for a control panel, but found nothing on either side of the door, which was unusual. "Oh..."
It slowly began to dawn on Monika that, more than likely, she would be made to explore the area in order to find out where the controls to open the door were, and while she didn't mind that under ordinary circumstances... The fact that there was a humanoid and potentially cannibalistic spider-monster in the area made her hesitant. A dozen thoughts flashed through her mind, but she tried to ignore them as she stepped back on the platform and allowed herself to be sent flying back through the air.
As she did, she couldn't stop herself from looking up and gazing into the pitch dark caverns above her, wondering if some awful web was going to come for her. Monika knew that she could handle it if it did end up happening, but she wasn't exactly excited to be doing it.
Since that one was closer, Monika decided to head for the bottom floor first. After a few tries, she eventually hit the ground on the bottom cavern and walked forward, stepping into the next room before sighing. Two conveyor belts were in this room, one ahead of her and the other to her immediate right. Seeing that the closer of the two was rolling in the way she didn't want to go, Monika stepped onto the bottom one and onto another platform, where she could then access the belt moving right. Before she stepped on, Monika looked ahead, counting the moving lasers that stood between her and the bend. Sighing, she gingerly stepped onto the belt and was whisked rightward.
Seeing the orange attacks, Monika frowned for a moment before nodding to herself. If blue was stop, then orange was probably move. She moved forward and allowed the orange light to bathe her before coming to a complete stop just before the blue lights passed over her. Her theory was right, orange is go and blue is stop. Briefly she questioned why the creator of the game had decided to use unusual colors for this purpose, but Monika decided that it was probably a stylistic choice, choosing not to question it.
She repeated the process a few more times until coming to the bend at the end of the cavern and bracing herself to start running to avoid being flung off of the side. But as she came closer to the edge, Monika noticed that the conveyor turned on its own. She let out a small sigh and carefully stepped onto the next conveyor when the time came. After a moment, she came onto the final platform and strode forward into a small room with a electronic control panel and a large screen in the center. On her right would be a note, and Monika walked over before picking it up. "Shoot the opposing ship, you have just one shot..." She grimaced a bit at that warning but set the paper down where she found it before stepping back to the console and glancing at the controls.
She plays with them for a moment, eventually figuring out how it all works. One button controls the horizontal axis and the other controlled the vertical one, allowing her to move small boxes out of the way of an opposing ship. "Oh... Well that's hardly as bad as I thought." She says after playing around with the boxes for a moment more, figuring out exactly the way that the boxes can be positioned.
After a moment, the girl figured it out and the boxes were out of the way of her ship, allowing her to easily zap the other ship, shattering it apart with an interesting sound effect. Behind the sound effect from the game, there was a slight rumbling noise from somewhere in the cavern to her north and Monika smiled. "Alright, there's two ways to go so probably we should check out the top cavern next, right honey?" She asked, turning to her darling.
Player hadn't been paying much attention, instead lazily floating around now, watching the ceiling. Briefly, Monika wondered if he was watching out for her spider, but she chose not to dwell on that as he responded. "Yep! I will at least confirm that the next step to opening this door is to go to the top cavern next, then its as easy as moving along."
Monika smiled and left the room, heading back towards the conveyor belt that was heading back the way she came. As she stepped on, Monika made a quizzical expression, raising an eyebrow... As she spotted... What looked like a cactus on the side of the conveyor belt, sitting on its own rock platform. "Um-"
"Its a visual gag." Player replied. "Wanna stop and smell the flowers?" He giggled to himself and Monika shook her head while smiling in confusion.
"This game has some weird humor..."
"You have no idea."
After solving an identical (though slightly easier) puzzle of the same nature in the top cavern, Monika and Player stepped through the now opened metal door and into a large corner-shaped hallway, but as soon as they passed that small area by... Monika shuddered with uncertainty. "Oh... I thought we'd have a little more time before this part..." She says as they walk forward, staring up at a gargantuan spider web in the upper corner above a doorway. She also noticed that the music had gone silent, and the flooring had changed. What had once been hard metal had turned back into purple colored stone... And she was very unhappy to see it, because that shade of purple was the same as the kind as the spider-girl's skin.
"I... Also thought there was more to do first." Player admits. "And this time I don't think its you changing things in the game, I think I might have just been straight up wrong..." Player explains. "Which... is a first..." Player seems to be surprised himself, but Monika smiles.
"You've been right about everything else so far, don't get too upset about missing one detail." She reassures him, reaching a hand out and mimicking a patting motion on his arm, desperately wishing she could actually pat him... But knowing she can't. "Although... I really wish it wasn't this detail." Monika admits.
"Scared of spiders, dear?" Player asks her, looking down at her with what Monika assumes is a genuine expression of interest. She can't tell exactly, since his face is... Well opaque, but she can tell from his tone.
"Not really, but... You scared me earlier and... Being eaten is a pretty awful way to go." Monika shudders as she steps forward into the next room... And immediately grimaces. Even from here, Monika can see the huge amount of spiderwebs covering the ground, the walls and the ceiling... And god the ceiling. That was the worst part, she decided, all of those awful writhing forms up there. They were cartoonishly colored, but there must have been dozens of spiders above her... All of them writhing or hanging loosely in their own webs. Just looking up at them made her swallow and she felt her skin crawling. So much so that she checked to make sure that her skin wasn't actually crawling with anything. "Okay I've changed my mind, I might be a little scared of them." She admitted.
"I... Do not blame you." Player replied, staring up at the spiders as well. "I'm so glad I'm incorporeal at the moment, holy hell..." Player wasn't scared of spiders either... At least not that much, though ever since he was a boy the idea of spiders crawling on him had always been terror inducing. Probably a holdover from when mankind was young and everything was a danger to them...
And it seemed that was the case for Monika as well, as the woman slowly pushed forward, forcing herself to walk towards the massive web at the center but stopping just before entering it. Monika drives her spear through the webbing at her feet, clearing a small path ahead for her to walk through, though as soon as she takes a step in...
Thwack!
A sticky shot of webbing erupts from the darkness to her left and plunges into her leg before suddenly yanking her, throwing the Club President off of her feet with a grunt. Monika is barely able to sit up, the webbing that she hadn't touched trying its best to pull her down. Though it failed to keep her down, she's remarkably slow to pull herself free from the white gunk, and as she manages to do it, Monika catches a horrific glimpse of a pair of purple eyes glinting in the nearby darkness.
Her own eyes widen and adrenaline floods her chest as she notices a second pair of eyes, followed by a single eye in the center, also glinting at her, allowing the girl to free herself and get to her feet. "Okay wait! I'm really sorry about that but I don't have enough money at all!"
Muffet reveals herself, spiders above her revealing a pair of spotlights which shine down on the queenly web that the girl had made for herself. "Well that's just too unfortunate, dearie." Muffet replies with a dark edge to her voice. "After all, that money would be of such good use to Spiders as a whole. But that's okay, I can think of a few other ways you can pay us back." Muffet bares her teeth, taking on that awful grin... But this time without any effort to look charming. "After all, I heard that a human just like you came through the ruins recently. I heard that they hate spiders. I heard... That they killed spiders." Muffet's tone grows more hateful as she speaks, a dark look forming in her purple eyes. "So they need to pay us back somehow... And if they can't pay with their money... Well... Their SOUL would fetch a very high price."
Monika, now standing up, gets on guard with her spear while the world around her and Muffet darkens. "You can't have that." She warns.
"I know. If you were in a giving mood, we wouldn't be here."
"Muffet traps you..." Player says, reading out the flavor text given to him by the Menu Box. "I'll give you one hint for this... Outlast."
"Alright, what are my options?" She asks him, glancing over, but before Monika can receive an answer, Muffet speaks up.
"Dying is an option!"
"I wasn't talking to you!" Monika retorts with a glare while Player glances through her options.
"You can Check or pay her some gold."
"Why would I do that? Check." Monika makes an odd face at her darling, who seems to give her a strange look in return. "Obviously she's going to want way more money than I can give her. I doubt bribing her off would work."
"I suppose..." Player admits, and reads her stats. "Eight Attack and no Defense. If she invites you into her parlor, kindly step away."
"Little late on that front..." Monika prepares her spear. Fighting has been the right call twice now, so maybe a bit of violence will be needed to get this woman away too... But then again... Those cases were special ones, ones where her enemy wouldn't let her go if she didn't fight them... So maybe fighting isn't the way to go after all... Still, she's not afraid to defend herself.
Yet Muffet just giggles at her. "Oh don't look so red dearie, its a terrible color on you~ I think purple would suit you better!" As she speaks, her hands glimmer purple and Monika is suddenly bound by webbing... Or rather, her SOUL is. A thin wire of purple magic slides through it, and though its uncomfortable, Monika seems unharmed. No, the part about this attack that worries her is how she's suddenly been hoisted off of her feet, the battle physics allowing her to float in tandem with her SOUL... But unlike normal where her body is in control, it looks like the SOUL is the part she needs to move to allow her to move as she tests these new physics, sliding up and down on two other webs above and below her, near the ceiling and near the floor respectively.
Putting herself back on the ground, Monika glares at Muffet and touches the magic, trying to push her Passion through the Spider's magic and take control of it... To no avail, the woman simply not feeling Passionate enough to do so. Even though Muffet had been threatening her, Monika didn't feel the same kind of terror she had against Undyne, or that feeling of need she felt against Toriel... Or the rage she had with Flowey.
Annoyed, Monika instead tries to struggle with the webbing, trying to break free of it. Maybe if she was able to, she could run away like she had with the dogs before.
Yet the magic line through her SOUL holds firm, and the spiderlike woman chuckles at her. "Keep trying, it only entices us Spiders more..." She giggles, and to Muffet's left, Monika sees something, a spider holding up a sign with the following text written on it:
"Up next:" And then a picture of a glowing white spider.
As the small creature skittered away, Monika suddenly felt something through the web, and noticed a horde of white magical spiders skittering towards her from the darkness. Her eyes shot open and the woman quickly jumped up to avoid them, only to be forced to let herself fall back down as spiders erupted towards her from the other direction. But even the floor was unsafe, as they came rushing her way yet again.
Monika deftly avoided the spiders, though grimaced as she did, feeling her skin crawl. Again, the idea of spiders crawling on her, trying to attack her SOUL of all things... It was horrifying.
Muffet chuckled at the squirming girl, rubbing one set of hands together while the other set lifted a teacup and kettle. "So easily scared by spiders, I see now why you were so unwilling to pay earlier. It wasn't about the money at all, you just hated us. Well that's fine, we'll get you to make up for it, dearie~" She assured her... And then Monika watched in abject horror as she tilted her kettle forward... Pouring herself a glass of spiders.
"I really hope its not true that she drinks those..." Player mutters, seeing what must have been dozens if not hundreds of spindly legs sticking out of the top of the cup, all writhing and wriggling in the air like a hundred hairy worms, the spiders frantic in their efforts to right themselves, though they didn't seem overtly concerned with escape... A fact that only seemed to concern the pair more.
Shuddering, Monika pulled herself together and grabbed hold of the string again. "We need to get out of here before she either makes us drink it or makes me into a pie." Decidedly, Monika was against both of those options... Though she wasn't sure which one she hated more, at least in the latter option she would be dead. Sadly though, her attempts to free herself from the string only resulted in another giggle from the spider-woman who, while Monika wasn't paying attention, now mysteriously was holding an empty cup.
Deciding not to think about the implications of that, Monika focused on the sign which warned her of the next attack, and sighed as it was more spiders.
The spiders raced towards her yet again, and Monika quickly leapt between the three web-lines, pulling her feet and arms up this time as to make absolutely sure that no spiders would end up crawling on her, though by now she was certain- these were magic in nature, not real spiders. It seems that this woman's care for spiders was genuine... At least enough so that she wouldn't risk one of them getting hurt in the process of fighting Monika.
As the attack concluded, Monika paused to think. Struggling with the lines wrapping her SOUL up obviously wasn't working, and she didn't have any other ideas so maybe... "Player? What are my other options?"
"Well..." Player opened the box up again and glanced inside. "You could try paying her?" He offered. "Thirty gold seems to be her going rate."
Monika sighed through her teeth at that idea, but nodded. "I guess it does make sense. Someone with this much avarice might be more reasonable if I paid them... Fine, please give me the gold, hon." Monika extended her hand out and Player handed her the gold coins, which she immediately offered to Muffet.
"Here!" She held it out to her. "A bit of money! It isn't much but... I hope its enough?" Monika said, a part of her worried that the money wouldn't be enough.
A part of her that was vindicated as soon as the baker accepted her gold, giggling as she did. "Not nearly enough to pay off your debts, dearie~ But enough for me to be gentle this round~" She assured her with a diabolical smirk, and the spider flashed a sign, revealing a picture of a spider... And a donut?
"It says here that Muffet lowered her ATK stat, so no need to worry too much if you end up getting hit on this round, dear." Player stated, and Monika gave him a silent nod and a small smile in return.
Once more, Monika began to avoid the incoming spiders, but just as the girl got into a rhythm, she felt something else bouncing along the web line and her eyes widened before suddenly, something hard and round bashed into her forehead, snapping her head back out of surprise and shocking force!
"Ow! What-?" Monika reopened her eyes, still holding her head from the attack, only to see another set of donuts rushing towards her! They were unlike the spiders, instead bouncing between the web lines in a seemingly random pattern, the only common thread being that they had to obey some laws of gravity.
Monika did her best to dance around the donuts, but as she did, she lost track of the spiders, feeling two hit her- one skittering up her leg and the other crawling along her chest, managing to get at her SOUL. Both caused her to cry out in pain, the skittering leaving a set of horrible scratches, and the one on her SOUL causing a horrible burning pain to erupt out of her chest, so painful that Monika almost wanted to drop to her knees. It had been a while since someone had managed to strike at her SOUL directly, and Monika had forgotten how bad that pain truly was.
Thankfully though, the attack concluded, and Player grimaced. "You lost a few points of health there. But I think it might be okay to wait for healing."
Monika shook her head, still reeling from the pain of the blows, but nodded to him. "Alright that's fine by me." Monika looked over, seeing that Muffet still wasn't spareable. She was going to hold off on using violence for now, but she still wasn't opposed if this kept dragging on... As Monika tried to think of a way to convince Muffet to let her out of this, she took a moment to listen to the unique battle music given to this lady. The music was upbeat and fast paced, yet it definitely had a somewhat sinister edge. In that way, Monika supposed, it was very spiderlike in its presentation.
Briefly, she questioned if others could hear the music, but decided that wasn't important enough to worry about right now.
Because on the spider's sign was something new. A single picture of a cupcake.
"How much should I give her for this next one?" She asks her Player quietly.
"She wants- ooh! A discount for this attack. Just ten gold." Player said, offering her the money.
She passed it along to Muffet, who giggled again before perking up. "Oh! You know what? I forgot something important, I still need to feed my pet, and introduce you two~! I suppose we can make that a two-for-one special, can't we, dearie?" Grinning with that same sadistic look, Muffet's magic glimmered in her hands again.
"I really should stop paying you..." Monika decided, realizing that, while it apparently reduced her attack, it wasn't convincing Muffet enough.
This time, things were immediately different. Monika lifted herself off the ground to avoid the incoming spiders, but noticed that, somehow, the web strings attached to her soul were moving... Tilting Monika over, the gravity increasing the speed of the spiders as they slithered her way. Monika barely avoided them, taking a few hits as she did so... Until suddenly they stopped... And several web lines appeared above her...
As suddenly, Monika was off the ground, floating above a huge pit in the floor. Gravity seemed to be affecting her now too, albeit in a way much less than it would without the battle physics, as she was being pulled towards the pit...
Where she finally saw what had been skittering around earlier. It hadn't been Muffet after all, no... It had been that thing underneath her. It had to have been. It was titanic, a hulking thing that resembled a cupcake the same way it resembled a spider. Monika's eyes widened as the beast began to ascend after her, only to realize that it wasn't ascending- its owner was lowering her webs down towards it, trying to feed Monika to the behemoth! Thinking quickly, Monika began to ascend the webs, but Muffet had anticipated that... And Monika looked on in horror as dozens of spiders began to rain down on her! But she knew better than to let them stop her from climbing.
Monika grit her teeth tightly as the spiders rained down on her shoulders or dropped onto her SOUL, digging their talons into her body or essence, causing her to squirm in pain, but never allowing it to slow or stop her ascent up. She tried her best to move through the tiny gaps between the constructs, but there were too many for her to manage at once, and the girl's own internal panic wouldn't let her drop back down for even a second, terrified of the monstrosity below her.
The onslaught finally came to an end as Monika felt her arms starting to slip. Even though Muffet's attacks didn't cause bleeding like Undyne's did, they might as well have. By the time the spider-queen lowered her back down onto solid ground, Monika felt ready to collapse. "No choice on this one... Give me something hon." With a worried look, Player hands Monika a Unicycle, her last one, and she munched it down while Muffet giggled.
"My my, that attack nearly had you. Its a shame that person told me about you, I might have let you pass by otherwise, its so much extra effort to kill a Human than it is for a monster." The girl chuckles darkly again, and Monika grits her teeth as another round of donuts and spiders flies by, this time the girl had a better grasp on how to avoid the attacks, though she did unfortunately take a small hit midway through, the donuts taking her by complete surprise while she was distracted by the spiders.
As the attack came to an end however, Monika panted and readied her spear. This time she was going to make a stronger point than she had by just paying the spider. A vibrant pink glow came over the room, but it wasn't her SOUL causing it. The spear was glimmering brightly in the darkness, casting shadows over her face as her eyes narrowed.
But Muffet giggled once more. "Go ahead if you'd like. All it would do is prove what that person said! That you really are someone who kills innocent spiders! Who hates them and attacks them even while they're just minding their business!" Despite her giggling, her eyes told Monika something else.
The girl was... Angry.
But...
"Wait! I never hurt any spiders at all! Not even on my way into this room!" Monika protested. "And Snowdin is too cold for Spiders... And I didn't see any at all in Waterfall so..."
"Well of course not! Waterfall and Snowdin are both either only okay or terrible places for spiders to live! Somewhere warm and dark is much more our speed... Such as the Ruins! Where you killed those innocent spiders!" A little angry at her now, Muffet seemed unable to keep her composure, letting out a snarl and looking like she wanted to lunge towards the other girl, but held herself back just barely.
"Wait again! The Ruins? I promise I didn't hurt a single spider through that place!"
"Lying~" The spider-woman sing-songed, reverting back to her more laid back attitude. "Now hurry up and make your move, I think my pet is getting hungry again~"
Monika grits her teeth. Attacking this woman was only going to make her assume that, indeed, Monika was as evil as the person who'd offered money for her SOUL had been, but if she doesn't attack... She's not really sure what to do.
Yet as the girl considers her options, the tiny spider holding up the sign informing her of the next attack suddenly seems to glance back into the shadows and sets the sign down to skitter away...
Monika decides to wait until the little guy returns, and sure enough he does, holding up a piece of paper and tapping Muffet's leg to get her attention. By now, the spider-woman was getting impatient and looked ready to make her own move, but before she could the little guy reappeared "Hmm? Oh what's this... A telegram from the spiders in the Ruins?" She speaks as if she can understand the little guy, Monika, in spite of herself, finds it a little cute. Although her heart is pounding a bit as Muffet picks up the paper and starts to read it.
After a moment, she perks up. "Hmm... Well its unfortunate. Even though you were quite stingy with your money, the spiders in the Ruins say that you were quite... Kind to them..." She sighs, seeming to deflate a bit as she does, looking almost remorseful, though not quite as much as Monika would have liked from someone who was trying to kill and bake her into a pie earlier. "I'm very sorry, this entire thing was quite the misunderstanding, and I admit I feel a bit bad about trying to kill you over it. Even if you are stingy..."
Monika sighed and held her hand out to Player, she could tell that the woman was still soliciting her for money even while apologizing. "Okay okay, here's... fifty gold." She offers the coins to Muffet, who takes them excitedly.
"Why thank you dearie!" She immediately perks back up, leaning back in her spider web. "Feel free to leave, and come back at any time! Any friend to the spiders in the Ruins is a friend to us here~!"
"And Muffet is sparing you." Player informs Monika with a nod.
"Spare. Now lets keep going..." Without much more than a nod towards the Spider-Queen, Monika quickly left the room and headed for the next one.
Monika stepped into the next room and paused briefly, taking a glance at the wall nearest to her. "Undertale the musical... A tragic tale of two star crossed lovers kept apart by the tides of fate." She muttered, reading the poster that was hanging up, displaying a picture of Mettaton in what appeared to be a dress. "Hmm... I have a feeling he's talking about us." She looks over at Player, who chuckles a bit, knowingly.
"Unfortunately not, I'll say that much. Though, someone should tell him you're into guys, the dress doesn't work here." He replies with a hint of sarcasm, though Monika puts a finger up.
"I thought I mentioned that to you before~" She teases her Player slightly, smirking as she does. "Even if you were a girl, I'd still love you all the same, because you're my Player and that's what counts~" She trails a finger against his chest, and though he can't feel her and she can't feel him, he seems a bit flustered and glanced away nervously, giggling as he does so. Obviously Monika wasn't sure about this, she had considered herself straight earlier when dealing with Tsundereplane, but she couldn't deny that feeling in her chest. Even if her Player had been female for whatever reason, she was sure she would have loved her all the same.
"That's true... Alright, well I guess I have nothing to worry about with Mettaton then."
Both chuckle a bit more before taking a few more steps forward, only to be stopped as Mettaton calls out from a balcony above them.
"Oh, that Human!" He begins, and Monika looks up, spotting a box shape in the room above her. "Could it be?" His eccentric voice rained down on her as he poked his body out, revealing that, sure enough, he was in a dress. "My one true love?" He moves to the stairs leading down from the balcony, grabbing the sides of his dress as he makes his way down to her level, eliciting a small grin from the girl despite how much she disliked some of the way the robot treated her. She couldn't help it- this game was funny at times.
He gave her a small bow...
And started to sing.
"Oh my love." He danced around her, using his wheel to do so. He offered Monika his hand to take to dance with him, but pulled it back as she rolled her eyes and reached out for it. Clearly she was meant to be "part" of his play, but not part of his play.
She glanced towards the seats to find a few people in the audience. Which made her snap her head back towards Muffet's area, confused as to why there was a stage here for a moment, but as she opened her mouth to question it to either her boyfriend or her... Robot boyfriend, she guessed, he continued.
"Please run away." He danced around her more.
"Monster King. Forbids your stay." At this point, Monika noticed a melody had started accompanying Mettaton's words, though this one didn't seem to be coming from the world itself and, after a moment of searching, she spotted a musician above them both in the rafters. One that looked suspiciously like Mettaton-
Humans must. Live far apart."
"Even if. It breaks my heart."
"They'll put you. In the dungeon."
Despite his robotic tone, he had a wonderful singing voice, and Monika almost felt sad. Despite everything, the robot was really putting his everything into his performance and... Monika would be lying if she didn't see a few parallels between the song and her own existence at one time...
He went silent for a moment, and Monika listened in, waiting to hear the rest... She was so lost in the song, that she had hardly noticed the falling rose petals that had started to come raining down around her, though when she did, she glanced up and sure enough there was a monster pouring them over a fan, not that Monika cared about that, still invested in the song, waiting to hear the rest...
"It'll suck."
Aaaaannnd her investment was ruined, her eyes drooping into a glare at the robot for getting her emotions higher than they should have been. Player seemed to be repressing a giggle though, which managed to bring enough of a smile back to Monika's face for her to refrain from chewing the machine out.
"And then you'll die a lot."
"Really sad."
"You're gonna die."
"Cry cry cry. So sad it's happening."
Then, at once, the music and Mettaton stopped, taking stock of Monika's unmoved position.
"No, seriously~" His tone shifted back from emotional singer to diabolical showman almost immediately, and it instantly put the girl back on edge as she could almost see his eager grin. "You're going to the dungeon! Toodles~!"
Monika moved to, well, get anywhere but there, but just before she could-
The floor fell away below her, and Monika could barely let out a scream before she was plunged back down somewhere else...
Author's note: This one was a bit more difficult than others to write for whatever reason. I don't think I really cared for the Muffet fight in general, so sorry if that broke anyone's immersion throughout it, I just wasn't really feeling it in general. Still, Muffet has god-tier theme music. Next time, whenever that may be (sorry for the relatively slow uploads by the by, I'm doing better but I'm definitely not on the same grind I was during August for whatever reason), we'll be returning to Frisk and the Girls to tackle the Natsuki Problem in what will possibly be a double-feature. So stay tuned.
Now onto reviews!
Cgp: I agree with the statement Monika is best girl and I wish she had a redemption to make her better and to have her reunite with the other girls
Me: Well then stay tuned, I think she's doing a good job turning over a new leaf so far... As for the girls, we'll see
Guest: Oh, I totally agree about the game being overshadowed by the Genocide route. Real shame too, makes me glad that I played this game on release with no prior bias or judgements, just that it seemed cool to have the option to fight or spare and the whole remembering of past saves is what really pulled me in.
Me: I was not so lucky, my very first interactions with the game came in the form of Undertale's Stronger Than You variants and the very first Megalovania cover by Milkychan all the way back when. In fact, I'd never even seen the other two routes of Undertale until well into my dive into the Genocide fanbase, when I decided to watch Jacksepticeye play through the whole thing. That said, Player basically acted as my mouthpiece last chapter. I adore the Genocide Route for its boss battles and especially the music, but Pacifist and even Neutral have their good qualities that I think gets really badly overlooked by the fandom (outside of Asriel, which everyone adores.)
MysticBoywastaken: i just wish there was an option on the menu for the fights of genocide with the ending of pacifist, and not killing those enemies. like sans' boss fight would still happen but you would spare him.
Me: It would be cool but it wouldn't suit the game's story I think. It would somewhat defeat the purpose.
A Guest: Oh, this is interesting...
Me: Glad you think so!
ZombieSlayers: Let's go more Monitale!
Me: Happy to provide my friend!
Alright that's everyone so, as always...
Until Next Time True Readers!