Stroll Through Snowdin

It was all they could do to push back their feelings. The betrayal hurt. Weren't they good? Didn't Toriel like them? As far as they could tell, they didn't do anything wrong. Were they so unwanted that Toriel just took the first opportunity to get rid of them?

It didn't matter. If they were really that terrible, or that different, then there was nothing that they could do or not do to try to belong. Living with Toriel was the closest they had felt to belonging somewhere for as long as they could remember. Even if it was ultimately a lie.

Looking around, they were a bit confused. It looked like they were in a deciduous forest in the middle of winter. Somehow, underground, there were trees growing. And it was bright enough to look like there was sunlight. And the lighting was consistent, as if there was sunlight. Were they no longer underground then? They did just come through a door in the side of a stone wall that could have been part of the mountain. But the Ruins seemed too small to have reached the edge of the mountain.

The only way to find out where they were was to move forward. Luckily, although it looked like mid-winter here, it wasn't cold. There air was cool but not cold. They ran their hand through the snow at the edge of the path and molded a snowball. They tossed it between their hands a couple of times before throwing it towards the trees. The snow was cold and didn't seem to melt in their hands, but it also didn't make their hands cold to hold it.

Thank goodness for small blessings. If this meant that they could avoid hypothermia, they'd take it. They grabbed a stick from the treeline and started poking the ground with it. If there was one thing they'd learned from camps and outdoor classes, it was that having a walking stick in the snow could save your life.

They stuck the stick into the snow every couple of steps. If the snow was loos and deep, they'd like to know before they stepped into it and got stuck. Since this appeared to be an intentionally clear-cut path through the trees, they figured it was very likely to be safe. It was better to be slow and certain of their safety than quick and reckless in this case. Plus a stick could be a weapon against monsters if any monsters attacked them. Keeping them at a distance with this stick would be easier than trying to use the toy knife. Reach mattered when all monsters used ranged attacks.

Eventually they came across a bridge over a gap. It looked like there was an attempt to make a fence across the bridge to stop people from crossing it. Unfortunately for whoever built the fence, it ended up more like an archway. That fence wouldn't stop anyone unless they were super tall and couldn't crouch.

As they approached the bridge, they heard footsteps in the snow behind them. Not wanting to be caught off guard, they ran forward to try to get some distance. Then they tripped on their stick and skinned their palms.

"Human!" the person called to them. They stayed still and pushed down their panic. If this monster was going to attack them, the world would have gone monochrome. The bridge was still brown and they couldn't see their soul. As long as it stayed that way, they'd be fine. They just needed to be a non-threatening as possible so that the monster wouldn't attack them.

They heard the monster walk closer and eventually stop just behind them. "Turn around," he said, "and shake my hand."

What the hell? They turned their head to look at the monster. It was a skeleton. A real-life living (probably) skeleton. Once again, what the hell?

"Come on now, cross my heart, it's just a hand." The skeleton said. His hand was literally just bones. It probably felt like smooth rock or something. They didn't see anything in his hand so they should just take it. If they complied, then maybe he would leave them alone sooner rather than later.

Though their instincts were screaming at them not to touch the hand of something that looked dead, they complied with his request. Slowly, they reached out their hand and took his.

PTHBTHBTHBTHBT!

"Ah, the old woopie cushion in the hand trick. Never gets old." He said. He sounded like he was grinning. Whether it was a smug grin or a good-natured one, they couldn't tell. "I told ya, it was just a hand. Just a hand with a woopie cushion."

They stared. Was this guy serious? What was up with him? What did he want?

"I'm a sentry around these parts. Supposed to be looking out for humans, to try to capture 'em, y'know? Well, I'm too lazy for that. I don't really care about capturing humans." He explained. Why was he supposed to capture a human in the first place? And did that mean that there were other humans here somewhere? Well, it probably didn't matter. They just nodded and went along with it. There wasn't anything else that they could do in this situation anyways.

"Name's Sans, by the way. In case you were wonderin'. Now, my brother, he's a human hunting fanatic. Meeting you would really make his day." Sans continued. They just nodded. They were caught. Even if Sand didn't want to capture them, his brother did. He'd probably just bring them to his brother and they'd be toast. "Come on, his station is just ahead."

Sans led them to a small clearing with a cardboard station and an oddly shaped lamp. Was this where they die?

"Hm. Something tells me that you don't really want to be found yet. I got an idea though. Why don't you hide behind this conveniently-shaped lamp? Maybe pop out and give my bro a surprise when he comes back." Sans suggested.

Was it really a suggestion though? They walked over to the lamp that just happened to be the same shape as their body. This place made absolutely no sense.

Just after they stepped behind the lamp, a tall skeleton wearing plastic armour showed up from just beyond the clearing. The tall skeleton, Papyrus, bantered with Sans for a little bit before running off to supposedly check his traps.

What did all this even mean for them?

Sans chuckled lightly and called them again, "You missed your chance human. A few times. Ah well, I'm sure you'll run into my bro on the path. Can't get to town without passing all of his puzzles, after all." They stared at Sans. "Could I ask you a favour? You know, my bro is a good guy. I'd appreciate it if you humoured him and played along. Y'know, help boost his confidence. Having a real human do his puzzles would really make his day."

They didn't know what to say to that, so they just nodded. If they did the puzzles, maybe Papyrus would let them go after. If they showed that they weren't threatening, then maybe Papyrus would have no reason to capture them.

It was too bad that they had dropped their stick, but the path ahead looked well walked. They figured that walking should be safe, ignoring whatever monsters might cross their path. The ground itself should be safe.

As they continued forward, they proved Sans right. Papyrus was waiting just up ahead and… Sans was with him? Didn't they just leave Sans behind them at Papyrus' station?

"SANS! Is… Is that a HUMAN?!" Papyrus exclaimed.

"Nah bro, I think that's a rock." Sans replied.

"Oh. I see, you're right." Papyrus said.

There was, in fact, a small rock beside them. Why Papyrus would be focused on the small, motionless rock instead of them, they didn't know.

Sans winked and continued, "But what's that beside the rock?"

Papyrus gasped and whispered, "Is- Is that a HUMAN?!"

"Yes" Sans replied.

"OH MY GOSH! Nyeh heh heh! Human! You will face the great Papyrus' gauntlet of perplexing puzzles! Prepare yourself and come find me ahead to face your first of many tricks and traps designed to ensure your imminent capture!" Papyrus exclaimed and ran off.

If he wanted to capture them, then why did he run away?

They walked over to Sans. Maybe he'd tell them something.

"Thanks for going along with my bro. He's real excited to meet a human."

That. Was. USELESS. All they could do was continue forward. They were glad that the cool air didn't seem to be causing a chill, at least. Maybe the magic in this world made it so they always felt fine, despite the temperature. That would be super convenient. Small victories.

Up ahead was another station. This one was made of wood and looked like it was constructed well, unlike Papyrus' station. It was an odd difference, but they didn't know enough about how this place worked to know why that might be.

As they walked in front of the station, they heard a sharp bark and froze.

"Don't move! I can't see you if you're not moving, but I can smell you!" A dog appeared from behind the station.

It was a really cute talking dog.

"I don't know who you are, so don't move! I need to identify you!" The dog barked.

Suddenly, the world lost its colour. Their first real battle against a hostile opponent. Flowey didn't count because they didn't know what was going on back then.

This dog just kept barking about not moving. His bullets were blue instead of white. It was strange. When the blue bullets hit their soul, they just passed through without any pain. Maybe this dog wasn't really a threat after all?

They reached out to pet the dog, and it got really excited. "Pets? Where are these pets coming from? I can't see you, so don't move!"

They continued to pet the guard dog until he eventually gave in.

"These pets from nowhere are starting to freak me out. I'm gonna have to smoke a few dog treats after this." The dog walked away and colour came back to the world. That was a strange encounter.

Almost as strange as seeing Sans again in an icy room. The ice was very slick and nearly frictionless. When they started moving on it, they just kept sliding until they hit snow. It was odd, but made crossing the area effortless. How did Sans get ahead of them anyways?

"Some monsters have blue attacks. If you stay still, blue attacks can't hurt you. Think of it like a stop sign, except blue. Blue stop signs." Sans told them.

Did they ask about that? Why was he bringing this up now when that information would have been useful five minutes ago?

"My brother has a special blue attack. You'll need to watch out for it when you fight him." He said.

Right. When they fight him. Not if, when. They didn't want to fight anything. They just wanted to be left alone so they could find somewhere safe to live until they could figure out where they needed to go. They could only hope that by "fighting," Sans meant a battle of wits in whatever traps and puzzles were ahead. If the puzzles and traps were anything like the Ruins, then they figured they had a good shot at succeeding without any difficulty.

As they continued on, Sans was somehow ahead of them AGAIN, and was talking to Papyrus about how slow they were. They weren't slow, they just got sidetracked by a cute dog.

Papyrus thoroughly messed up his own invisible maze puzzle. First, he held onto the orb that was supposed to shock them, so they accidentally shocked him instead. Then the made a trail through the solution of the maze when he gave them the orb. They could have just walked around, but a stare from Sans made them reconsider.

Unlike his brother, something about Sans didn't seem so harmless.

They made sure to bump into the walls a couple of times to really sell the idea that they were struggling with the invisible maze. The shock was about the same as the one that they'd get when playing Operation. It was more surprising than it was painful or shocking.

"Human! You have somehow bested my invisible electric maze! Never fear, for I, the great Papyrus have more puzzles in store for you. You will never get past me! Nyeh heh heh!" Papyrus shouted as he walked off.

"Thanks for playing along human." Sans said. They really didn't have a choice. Whether they believed that Sans was secretly threatening them or hoped that Papyrus would let them go, they still needed to pay by his rules until the end. Ultimately, the reason why didn't matter. They were just being pushed along through this adventure.

Papyrus had prepared several more puzzles and traps. A golf puzzle that was completely avoidable, some toxic frozen spaghetti that was impossible to eat, a hidden button with an obvious map, a coloured tile puzzle that randomly generated a straight line solution, a junior jumble puzzle that was just a piece of paper on the ground, pressure plate puzzles where you could step on each pressure plate only once, and the only real puzzle, an ice sliding puzzle to reach and touch some buttons. At each puzzle, they followed Papyrus' rules and they got to keep going a little longer.

Along the way, they mat more dog guards, but they were all cute and nice, besides the bullets. They found that if they pet each of the dogs, then they'd let them pass by. The exception being the two adult dogs who were probably a couple? They had to roll around and pretend to be a puppy before those two would let them pass. Those two seemed to be the most intelligent of the dogs, recognizing them as some kind of monster that they'd never seen before.

At this point, they could only wish that that was true. If they were a monster instead of a human, maybe Toriel wouldn't have abandoned them. Somewhere along their adventure, they tried calling Toriel. She had put her cell number into their phone in case they ever needed her.

She didn't even give them the option to leave a message. She blocked their number.

At least Papyrus was distracting. If they paid attention to his "traps" and "puzzles," then they didn't have to think about how Toriel had abandoned them.

They took their time following the path between puzzles and tried to enjoy the fresh air. The cool air was refreshing. The Ruins were too small and stifling anyways. Even if Toriel changed her mind and let them come back, they decided that they didn't want to. If she kicked them out, then she didn't want them, and going back would only mean that she could kick them out again.

They kicked some snow poffs and jumped over rocks, trying to ignore the thoughts of the Ruins that kept coming back to them.

A few times they were stopped by snowdrakes, ice caps, and a gyftrot, but they just ran away when that happened. They didn't want to spend time getting to know the monsters here like they had in the Ruins. There was no guarantee that they'd be able to stay here. Getting to know them would just hurt more later when they were forced to leave.

Eventually they came upon a narrow path with a bridge and cliff painted on it. Maybe this was supposed to make it seem more dramatic or better guarded than the path actually was? Papyrus and Sans were on the other side of the fake bridge and painted cliff, bantering again.

Papyrus unleashed his gauntlet of deadly terror, which would have been deadly if it were moving. And if the narrow bridge really was the only way over there. It would have been easy to walk around.

"It seems to unfair to just beat the human with this. And I, the great Papyrus, am nothing if not fair in my traps and puzzles!" Papyrus claimed, "So I'll just. Put it away."

The flamethrower, axe, blade, and other deadly objects disappeared into thin air from whence they came. It must have been magic.

"I'll wait for you on the other side of town, human! Where we shall fight for our honour and I shall capture you! Nyeh heh heh!" Papyrus exclaimed before, once again, running off.

They walked across the rope bridge on the ground and stood beside Sans.

"Thanks for all that, human. I know that Papyrus said he'd fight you to capture you but… Well. Don't be too hard on him. He's all the family I've got, y'know?" Sans asked. What did he think they were going to do? They intended to run away if Papyrus really tried to capture them. "Welp, remember the blue stop signs."

Could Sans offer helpful advice at least once? That would be nice.

They walked past the large sign welcoming them to Snowdin Town. As they did, they considered the monsters from the snowy area. Everyone they had come across called them human or you or puppy. They had though that Toriel was just one of those really open-minded people who didn't call you by any particular name or identifier until you had properly introduced yourself. It seemed that this pattern was common throughout the Underground. At least this part of it. Maybe it was different in different places Underground, but the Ruins and Snowdin both seemed to share this cultural phenomenon.

If only above ground was the same. Humans had some weird obsession with labelling everyone as a boy or a girl and had that determine the things you should like and how you should act. It was something that made them stick out back above ground. It made them weird when they didn't feel like they belonged to either group. Underground, it didn't seem to matter.

These monsters didn't know anything about them, not really. Still, all of them just called them by their species or deferred to "you." In Sans' case, he sometimes used bud or buddy, but that wasn't gender specific. It was just another word for someone who was hanging out or doing you a favour, regardless of gender.

It was odd, but a nice realisation. Even if they didn't belong in the Ruins, or above ground, or even in this part of the Underground, being a girl didn't change anything. They weren't abandoned for being or not being a girl. Toriel abandoned them because they went downstairs when she told them not to and didn't go back up when she gave them a chance.

Even if they didn't quite belong down here, being a human and all, they still felt more at home in this nonsensical magical place full of monsters and traps, where residents communicated by throwing bullets around, and where "traps" were puzzles for children. It was by no means safe here, not physically. They could potentially starve, or some monsters could take their soul or accidentally hurt them with their bullets, but they still felt safer here than they did above ground at school or at home.

Wasn't that saying something. They felt safer here, where the denizens of the deep could accidentally kill them when trying to greet them, than when they were in the presence of adults who were supposed to protect them.

If they thought about it too long, they might start crying. They pushed the feelings down and made their way into town. They had some monster money that they got after the "fights" with the dog guards. It wasn't much, but they were able to purchase a couple of cinnamon bunnies from the shopkeeper and paid in advance for a room at her inn.

They spent the day wandering around the town and occasionally interacting with the townspeople. There was a wolf throwing chunks of ice into the river that circled the town. Apparently the ice followed the river to the major power source of the underground.

Many people also liked to talk about the two skeleton brothers. Apparently they moved to town relatively recently. Snowdin Town was a small, insular community just like the Ruins. Relatively recently, they learned, meant some time in the last thirty years or so. For some reason, most monsters didn't want to live in a cold environment.

Maybe most monsters were cold-blooded? Or maybe they couldn't do heat magic to keep themselves warm? Or maybe it was just that they didn't have fur or didn't like snow?

They were curious, but didn't know how to ask about it without outing themselves as a human or sounding insensitive. They just kept quiet while different townspeople talked at them.

Sans and Papyrus, by virtue of being recent additions to the town, were quite a hot topic. Many people regarded Sans as the town's prankster or comedian. He seemed popular, but no one seemed to have a very deep relationship with him. They just liked his sense of humour.

Papyrus on the other hand, the townspeople didn't seem to appreciate very much. They thought he was too loud, constantly talked about the same things without regard for anyone else, and wore silly clothing. That's what the general opinion was, anyways. They had no room to judge, since they weren't a monster and knew nothing about fashion trends here.

They spent some time in the library, reading school reports from children about the Underground and what they thought of humans. Apparently, most monsters didn't really have a reliable source of information about humans. No wonder the townspeople couldn't identify them as a human on sight. It also made sense that the dogs just let them go when they were supposed to try to capture a human.

So how did the skeletons know what a human looked like? Well, Sans at least. Papyrus had to ask him if they were a human or not. Maybe it was because their bodies were shaped like human skeletons?

They'd probably never get an answer to that question.

After a long day of walking through the snow and exploring the town, they turned in for the night. They didn't have a lot of money left, so they probably wouldn't be able to stay at the inn again if they also wanted to be able to pay for food.

It was a pleasant surprise the next morning, when they found a complimentary breakfast and a small note in their room. The steamed vegetables and small cinnabunny were delicious and surprisingly filling for being simple vegetables and a pastry. They must have been magic food. It healed their scraped palms too.

The note was a simple inquiry about their parents, and if they knew that their child was staying by themselves for the night. They were touched that the rabbit running this place would care about them, even though their only interaction was paying for a room and some food.

This town was nice. The people here treated them kindly. They also knew that they couldn't stay. They didn't belong here. Kindness and respect were things that they learned that they couldn't have. If they learned nothing else from their time above ground, it was that weird kids like them didn't just get those things free of charge. They always had to change themselves or pay some cost. The cost of the respect and kindness here wasn't yet apparent. They didn't want to rack up too much debt without knowing how they'd have to pay for it.

They decided to leave.

Two cinnabunnies, a spider donut, and a slice of Toriel's pie. They had enough food for a day, maybe longer if they ate sparingly. That would just have to do.

The braced themselves for the journey ahead and set out. They made their way out of town, hoping to find whatever they were looking for.