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bilgisticallykosher · 2 years

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Sanderstale chapter four: It'll probably be fine.

Logan endeavors to figure out how things work in the Underground, as well as attempting to solve some additional oddities...

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Word count: 13,388

Warnings: Arguing, suspicion, some yelling, potential threats of danger, let me know if there's anything else?

Title from Accepting Anxiety part one. My favorite joke I've ever written is in here.

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Logan didn't bother looking up when Roman left. He wasn't worried about anything happening; thus far nothing had really posed a threat.

Well, except for 'Flowey,' of course, but since they'd been with Toriel, nothing had posed a threat. Honestly, he wasn't entirely sure that she'd even left, although surely she would have overheard their plans of leaving and potentially intercepted. He did look up when, a moment later, Frisk walked in, leading Patton, a few seconds before Roman called out to them that it was okay to enter. Possibly just them being precocious, but, based on previous concerns…

He glanced Virgil's way, he had definitely caught that, based on the way that he had been glaring at Frisk, and Logan went forward into the room, Virgil following, eyes trained on them. Immediately, the phone rang, and they all looked towards the source of the sound; Frisk's pocket. They took out their phone, easily answering it. They apparently also put it on speaker, because Toriel's voice rang out clearly.

"Hello? This is Toriel. You have not left the room, have you?" Ah. That had been awfully quick. Still, she asked, as opposed to having accused them, so it was possible that she didn't actually know. "There are a few puzzles left that I have to explain." Oh, yes, heaven forbid they solve a puzzle by themselves. Logan rolled his eyes. "It would be dangerous to try them yourselves. Be good, alright?" And she hung up, Logan looking around to try and spot one of these 'dangerous puzzles.'

However, before they could get started, Frisk began to dial the phone. Logan turned, and raised an eyebrow, matching Roman's as they met eyes behind their back.

"This is Toriel." They had it on speaker again. This time, they spoke.

"What are you like?" Logan frowned, what an odd question to call someone about, let alone when they'd spent time with her earlier, and had ample opportunity to ask her previously.

"You want to know more about me?" Toriel also sounded surprised. "Well, I am afraid there is not much to say. I am just a silly old lady who worries too much!" The call ended. That was… suspiciously vague and uninformative of her. Either that, or Virgil was starting to rub off on him. He jotted down her response anyway. He was interrupted by the sound of an outgoing call again. "This is Toriel," her tone was even, and didn't sound as though they'd disturbed her, despite the fact that she'd hung up on them mere moments ago.

"Do you believe in love at first sight or should I walk by again?" Logan's jaw dropped, his arms, holding his notebook, lowered several inches. He distinctly heard Patton choking (he didn't recall him ingesting anything, but that may have been besides the point.)

"...Huh??? Oh, heh… heh...Ha ha ha! How adorable…" Surely she wasn't, "I could pinch your cheek!" Oh, good. He righted himself a little bit, composing himself. "You can certainly find better than an old woman like me." Then she hung up. Frisk dialed back immediately. Logan braced himself.

"This is Toriel."

"Hi, mom," they spoke softly again, but without hesitation, or embarrassment at calling someone, who was clearly not their mother, 'mom.' Of course, it happened, Logan knew. He could remember when Thomas was younger, he had called some older woman mom, but he had been embarrassed immediately, stumbling over his words, whereas Frisk showed nothing out of the ordinary. Interesting.

He had several running theories already; were they shameless? Did they call every older female 'mom' anyway? Were they merely very good at keeping a blank face?

"Huh? Did you just call me…'Mom'?" Frisk said nothing, "Well, I suppose… would that make you happy? To call me…'Mother?'"

"Mhmm!" Frisk gave a small smile as they enthusiastically answered. Logan's eyes narrowed slightly. Frisk did actually seem to be sincere in calling her 'mom,' despite being someone they'd just met. Peculiar.

"Well then, call me whatever you like!" She held on for a few moments before hanging up. The line hardly had time to disconnect before Frisk was dialing again.

"Oh my f-"

"This is Toriel," she interrupted Virgil's yell.

"Do you have third degree burns? Because you're super hot." Logan had a new theory: this child was deranged.

"Oh dear, are you serious…?" Roman had turned around, shoulders shaking in silent laughter. Virgil, when Logan looked behind him, looked about as confused as he was. Patton was staring at him, covering his mouth, failing spectacularly at looking like he wasn't laughing.

Toriel gave a huff of breath over the phone. Or was it a sigh? "I do not know if this is pathetic, or endearing. And after you said you want to call me 'mother'… You are an," and she paused, even longer than usual Roman did during his 'dramatic pauses'. "Interesting child." She hung up much faster this time.

This was fairly unsettling. All the same, he had to keep his wits about him. He gave a pronounced cough into his fist, seemingly jarring everyone else out of their shock. Roman cleared his throat, really looking around them again, spotting a Froggit in their path. It wasn't attacking like the last one had, Logan noted as Roman strode up to it, puffing out his chest.

"Beware, Froggit! We are on an important mission, and it would be in your best interest to not get in our way." He glowered at it, and Logan, for one, was glad that he hadn't drawn his sword, at least.

The Froggit, however, didn't seem to care.

"Ribbit ribbit." Did it just say ribbit? No, how preposterous. After all, frogs couldn't speak, how would it say anything? "Excuse me, humans." Well, son of a- "I have some advice for you about battling monsters.” Logan frowned, and made a note in his notebook. “If you ACT a certain way, or FIGHT until you defeat them…” Patton, Logan, and Virgil all moved as one, turning their heads towards Roman, who immediately raised his hands in front of himself, sputtering defensively. “They might not want to battle you anymore. If a monster does not want to fight you, please… use some MERCY, humans.”

Logan wrote all of this down as the Froggit gave another croak, assuming this would be necessary to remember. Not that Logan had any problems with his memory, but it had been a stressful day, after all. Plus, with all the surplus of information, it was hard to say if he'd remember all of it.

“Wonderful!” Roman turned around. “We have a game plan! I get to fight, and we still don't have to hurt them!”

“Technically," Logan corrected, "fighting them would imply hurting them, unless you fought with a pillow or the like.” Which, at any rate, would quite defeat the point.

“Yeah,” Patton frowned, “I'm not so sure that's a great idea. I think we should at least always try acting first! Like how we were taught!” He seemed a little sheepish at that point, before shaking it off, and focusing on Roman. “Besides, you're just so strong, they might not be able to handle you if you fight them.” He saw Roman grin at him in response, and Logan rolled his eyes. Was he really that affected by compliments?

Well, wasn't that an easy question to answer.

It was at that moment that a Froggit attacked. He looked up as he heard that pixelated noise again, watching as he saw Frisk and Roman being pulled into a fight. He vaguely noted that the music was different than the previous time, but ignored that in favor of watching what was happening as Frisk's red soul, and Roman's purple soul came out to hover in front of them.

This, itself, was another point to pontificate. He'd thought, at first, maybe it had been age, but that had been quickly dismissed, because the other three all had different colors. There were essentially no physical differences between him and the other sides, so that left random chance (he shuddered at the idea), favored color (falsehood), or personality. However, Virgil and Frisk had the same color. He wasn't exactly sure what that indicated. He'd briefly considered an inclination towards patterns, Virgil's plaid and Frisk's stripes, before dismissing the idea as ridiculous.

He was torn from his thoughts by Patton yelling.

“Okay now, remember, go press ACT first!” Patton had his hands cupped around his mouth like a megaphone. Logan clapped a hand over the ear that he was standing next to. He was loud.

“I do not believe that there's any need to shout, Morality,” Patton dropped his hands and shrugged, smiling.

“Whoops!”

“Yeah, yeah, I remember!” Roman called back before mumbling something else under his breath as he moved his heart to the button, pressing it, and turning towards Frisk. “Okay, Frisk, you already did a check last time, so the choices are a compliment or a threat." Logan noted that they'd already sent their soul straight towards the former, while Roman kept on. "I could use my sword to make an appropriate- okay, you've already chosen, I see.” Frisk calmly clicked on Compliment, then turned towards Roman.

Roman stared back. Then blinked. “Oh, are you letting me,” he gestured to himself, looking surprised, but Frisk just nodded. “Well then.” He turned towards the Froggit, and cleared his throat. “Why, hello, wonderful day, isn't it? Might I say that the lighting in here certainly brings out your eyes?” Logan heard the sound of flesh hitting flesh as what was undoubtedly Virgil 'facepalming.'

He then saw the Froggit tilt its head slightly to one side, its eyes slightly unfocused. Clearly this one was not at the same caliber of intelligence as the one who had spoken to them.

"Froggit didn't understand what you said," he informed Roman. However, even before he'd started speaking, he noticed something happening with its face. He realized it was blushing. "But was flattered anyway," he amended.

“Of course! I'm always-”

“Duck,” Frisk muttered, cutting off whatever Roman was saying.

“Sure looks like a frog to me, kiddo.” But before anyone else could respond, Logan saw what looked to be a miniature version of the Froggit in the little fight box that their souls were enclosed in. Suddenly, it jumped, pushing off from the bottom of the enclosure, towards their souls. Frisk moved their soul safely out of the way, and Roman followed suit. Frisk's soul remained unharmed.

Roman's was hit.

His soul was flickering, he had been too slow to dodge it. Logan's eyes immediately snapped to what he'd assumed to be Health Points when they'd fought the dummy. Sure enough, while Frisk's still read 20/20, Roman's read 19/20. Logan released a breath. Only one point; that was fine, Roman was fine.

“That was completely uncalled for- woah!” The frog jumped once more at his soul, which had stopped blinking, but this time Roman dodged it easily. "Why don't you watch it?"

"Don't be angry," Roman looked down at Frisk, gaze softening from the glare he had aimed at the Froggit. "That's just how monsters interact with each other. They're not used to humans." Roman looked like he was ready to retort, but then sighed, nodded, and turned back towards the battle.

Hmm. Highly suspicious, but likely useful information. Logan wrote it down.

Frisk's soul hit the MERCY button, then Spare, which immediately dismissed the Froggit from battle. Logan wrote this down, too, as a message appeared from the battle.

"Well, you didn't get any experience, kiddo, but you did get 2 gold! That's something, right?" Logan ignored Patton's apparent need to read everything out loud and cleared his throat.

"Well, that was an uncomfortably close call." When he glanced in Patton's direction, he had a strained smile on. Roman and Frisk alone remained unaffected. He didn't need to see Virgil's face to know how he felt about it; he could figuratively feel the tension that was in the air. He was proven correct a moment later.

"Hey," Virgil angrily got Roman's attention. "You wanna maybe get better at fighting, Mr. Master Swordsman?" Roman frowned, Frisk was looking between the two of them.

"That can hardly be considered my fault." 'Hardly,' noted Logan. "I'm not the one that asked it to jump at my soul."

“Froggit doesn't deal much damage,” Frisk cut in before Virgil, still glaring at Roman, could respond. Logan paid attention to Frisk, eyes trained on them to see if he could gauge anything from their body language. “He wasn't in danger.” Logan pushed his glasses up, then glanced towards Virgil. There was a wariness there which matched his own.

“Right!" Their attentions were pulled back towards Roman once more. "I only lost one HP, I'm fine. Plus, apparently some gold, where is that, incidentally?” He looked around the floor, trying to spot it, and while this was not Logan's primary concern at the moment, he admittedly was curious. He glanced around, one eyebrow raised.

"I've got it here," Frisk held out what certainly looked like a gold coin, before they held it out to Roman, who took it. Logan, intrigued, walked over, deftly plucking the coin out of Roman's hand.

"Hey!" Roman started grabbing at it to no avail as Logan held it up between two fingers, looking at it, turning it to inspect it more closely.

"Fascinating." Unbeknownst to him, Patton had also come over, and took the coin from Logan. He huffed, but said nothing.

"Oooh, it's so shiny…" the reflection shimmered in his glasses.

"Yes, now may I have it back?" Roman gently took the coin from his grasp. Patton hesitated.

"Well, shouldn't we give it back to Frisk?" Patton briefly glanced between Frisk and Roman, before making a face that Logan didn't understand, although Roman seemed to get whatever it was he was trying to say.

"Of course! I just wanted to be the one to hand it to them." Frisk gave a small smile, an eyebrow raising slightly.

"You can keep it." The three of them looked at Frisk, uncertain.

"No, truly, it's fine, I have no need of it. You're free to take what you earned. Er, somehow. I'm still not sure how fighting monsters earns the gold, but…" Roman held out the coin to them again.

"You fought, too. You should keep it," they shook their head. "We'll get more later." Logan had also surmised as much, still, that brazen confidence was there again. He pushed it aside for the time being.

"Actually, I believe that I should keep it. I'm the most adept at handling money and being organized. Frisk, shall we divide it half and half?" Logan was resolutely ignoring Roman, who was frowning, but silent.

"Mhmm."

Logan nodded to show that he heard, then held his hands out in front of him, eyes closed briefly. If Roman was still able to summon his sword, then, logically speaking (and he was), then Logan should also be able to- ah-hah! A little more difficult than usual, but he opened his eyes to find himself successful in summoning-

"Is that a fanny pack, pocket protector?" Roman laughed.

"Yes," he responded, putting it around his waist. "It makes the most sense, logistically speaking." He looked directly at Roman, smirking. "Why, are you jealous?" He smiled haughtily at him, raising an eyebrow.

Patton was holding a hand in front of his mouth, Roman was fixing him with a flat stare. Frisk was looking up at him with some sort of expression.

"No. I'm not jealous, and, quite frankly, how dare you accuse me of desiring that atrocious thing?" Roman frowned at him, hand on his chest.

"That sure sounds like jealousy to me, Princey," Logan shot back.

"I think it's a nice pack on a nice fanny." Logan's head snapped towards Frisk, who sported a neutral face, but was waggling their eyebrows.

Roman and Patton burst into laughter. Logan adjusted his glasses again, slightly distressed. This was highly irregular. He was unsure how to proceed with this, so he leveled a stare at Frisk, before clearing his throat, and holding his palm out.

"Now then, I believe we agreed on half each?" Frisk smiled and handed over the coin, which Logan put into his fanny pack, and zipped up. This elicited a residual titter from Roman. Frisk, however, went right up into the room by the talking Froggit. Roman and Patton immediately endeavored to follow them. Logan sighed, and turned to-

Where was Virgil? He whipped his head around, momentary panic easing immediately when he saw that he merely hadn't moved from where they had been before the fight.

"Ooh, a piece of candy!" They turned towards Patton's voice, and shared a raised eyebrow with each other.

"Well?" He gestured to the opening.

Virgil scowled, stalking past Logan.

"He's a giant idiot," he grumbled, catching Logan's eye out of the corner of his.

"Mmm." Logan hummed, appraising the look on Virgil's face. "This is true," the corner of his mouth twitched upward, still staring at him.

Virgil tore his eyes away from Logan, pointing downwards at the floor instead. Logan was sure that he saw a hint of a flush on his face.

"Shut up," he hurried off into the next room. Logan, of course, knew what Virgil had actually meant when he insulted Roman, but there was no reason to gloat, he supposed. He followed along, a giant bowl on a pedestal entering his sight immediately. There was a sign reading 'Take One.'

Everyone, minus himself and Virgil, was holding what looked like a wrapped piece of hard candy, much like what Thomas’s grandmother used to carry upon her person.

"Go ahead, Lo‐" Patton cut himself off, mistake barely noticeable. "Frisk says they're really good to have on hand, but we've got to take our own." What an oddly specific detail for them to 'know'. But Virgil was already giving them a look, squinting at them through distrustful eyes. So he ignored the odd request, instead proceeding to take one from the top of the pile. He looked it over as Virgil begrudgingly took one, drawn to the description on the wrapper. He read it. He frowned. He read it again.

"'Has a distinct non-licorice flavor'? What does that even mean?" Logan kept peering at it, as though it would change, or make more sense the longer he stared.

"I think it means that it doesn't taste like lic-"

"I know that!" Logan cut off Patton's unhelpful comment, "That doesn't tell us what the flavor actually is!" Logan heard a definite exhale of breath.

"Hey, look! It says it heals ten HP, that'll be good for you, Ro-ooooyal Prince." Patton hastily corrected himself, and Virgil gave him a look.

"You can call me Royal Prince anytime you want, compadre." Roman gave a Patton a look that Logan identified as his ridiculous pouty look, but what everyone else would likely refer to as the bill of a duck, or some such.

"Yeah, I probably won't."

"Alright, a little harsh, but! I'm not going to waste it now, I'll save it for when I'm down eleven, or something." Well, that did make sense, Logan supposed as he dropped the ridiculous thing in his pack.

"Are you saying that you're planning to lose more of your health?" Virgil growled at Roman, with a little bit of an actual growl, it seemed. Logan's eyebrows raised, and he saw Patton's do the same as his eyes flit back and forth between them. Virgil was being ridiculous.

"Of course not!" Roman adjusted his sash. "Just that it's better to save our resources, in case, you know, someone else gets hurt!" Virgil's frown deepened, Roman avoided eye contact. "Or, well, since it's a video game, it's inevitable that I'll probablybehurtagainohlooktheexit!" He pointed towards the door, practically running out.

"Now you wait just a second, Princey!" Virgil quickly followed him out, still glaring. Frisk hesitated, looking out the doorway before looking at Patton.

"Don't worry, kiddo, you go on ahead." Patton smiled at them. "They'll be fine. They've just gotta… talk some things out." Frisk looked at him for a few more seconds before leaving. Patton glanced at Logan out of the corner of his eye.

Logan sighed, and Patton turned to face him completely, smiling with a raised eyebrow.

"Something on your mind, Mind?" He asked, tapping on his heart logo with his left hand, pointing at Logan's brain logo with his right. Logan rolled his eyes, but otherwise didn't react.

"Anxiety is overreacting, and yet...I understand why." Patton nodded, making a soft humming noise, which gave Logan time to adjust his shirt as he collected his thoughts. "It was admittedly quite distressing seeing Creativity get injured, even if it did wind up being harmless. I believe it is only going to get more dangerous here on out."

"Yeah, probably," Patton smiled again, "but, hey, we'll switch off on fighting, and we've got healing now. Plus, you're so smart that you'll probably be able to figure out how to beat all the monsters anyway!" Logan allowed himself to preen at that, tapping on his notebook. And if deep, deep down he had doubts about that, well, he just refused to let himself think on them.

They heard Roman shout, then, and he stiffened only half a second before he identified it as not one of distress. He cleared his throat, nodding once at Patton.

“I suppose we’d better see what all the fuss is about, then?”

“Way ahead of you, buddy!” Patton did, indeed, go ahead of him, Logan following behind only a few seconds; enough for him to overhear Roman.

“Maybe I can keep this coin in my pocket without alerting Fanny Pack."

"I heard that, and no, you may not!" Logan called before he actually saw anything, glaring at Roman as he entered. He unzipped his pack, holding out his hand expectantly. Roman grumbled, but handed it over anyway, as Frisk put their own coin away.

As Logan zipped back up, and adjusted the weight of it around his waist, Frisk went over to a pile of leaves, crunching through them seemingly playfully. Logan bit back a sigh. This was hardly conducive to anything they needed to do. He crossed his arms, noticing Roman and Patton looking on as Frisk stayed in one spot with a look of intense concentration (certainly an odd way to play with leaves), and then started to crunch their way back out. But as he rolled his eyes, he caught sight of Virgil.

He was staring intently at where Frisk had stood still. Even now, as Frisk was walking back on the path, which Logan was grateful for, his gaze was locked on the leaves. He caught his eye again, and Virgil looked at him, raised an eyebrow, looked back at the spot, and back at him. Logan frowned, confused. He looked all along the small expanse of leaves, raking (ugh) his gaze across, but still couldn’t find where or what it was that Virgil was looking at. He turned back to him, and gave a small shake of his head.

Virgil’s eyes widened slightly, he looked back at the spot, frowned, and hunched in on himself, looking back at Logan peripherally. Logan tried to seem reassuring, but he couldn’t quite figure out how to communicate that through his face, especially since he had no idea what Virgil was attempting to communicate. He dropped his frown, trying to lift his eyebrows in reassurance, which at least succeeded in Virgil’s frown lessening (Logan had a feeling it wouldn’t disappear entirely until they were out of this place and back with Thomas), but that simply didn’t change the facts.

Virgil was seeing something that Logan could not.

He made a mental note to write it down in his notebook at a later period of time, as writing it down now might only make Virgil aware of what he was making note of, thereby causing him more unease.

Patton and Roman hadn’t noticed anything at all, walking down the path, flanked on either side of Frisk. They, themself, were occasionally looking back at Logan and Virgil. He supposed they’d been looking during their silent conversation, and although they could just very well be wondering when they would follow the group, the evidence seemed stacked towards the fact that Frisk knew...something. Perhaps they, too, saw what Virgil saw. Perhaps that was why they went into the leaves in the first place. As he itched to write down his theories, the noise that indicated a Fight sounded.

Frisk, who had stalled only slightly while looking back, was not taken in, instead Patton and Roman were together as a monster called ‘Whimsun’ hovered there on wings. Logan quickly whipped out his pen, writing down about the Strange Thing in the Leaves Incident, sparing the fight, and Patton's green soul, only a cursory glance. Virgil's breath hitched, as Logan walked over, still writing, to get a better view of things. Virgil outran him.

Roman had already selected Check, Frisk on the edge, looking in, shifting their weight from side to side, and the description remained floating there. 'ATK 5 DEF 0 This monster is too sensitive to fight…' Logan tapped his pen on his notebook. He wasn't sure what that would entail as far as an attack was concerned.

Patton and Roman were discussing the words with each other, until Patton went silent, turning suddenly to meet Logan's eyes, and smiling at him. Logan cleared his throat.

"It's possible," Logan hazarded, "that this means that it might have a weak attack?" In truth, it was also possible that any attack might just reflect back at them as its only defense. However, they seemed to be in the beginning stages, if they were truly thinking of this as a video game, where enemies weren't that tough, and Roman and Patton wouldn't be attacking, anyway.

He held his breath as Whimsun's turn began.

Only to immediately release it when it appeared to send what appeared to be smaller versions of itself (already a theme with the two monsters thus far) harmlessly surrounding the two human souls in a wide circle.

"It didn't directly attack us!" Patton grinned. "Well, that's awfully friendly!"

"Or maybe we're just intimidating!" Roman boasted, although, he took a look at the trembling monster and took a small step back, giving it a smile.

"I'm not certain of that. The Check did reveal that it was too sensitive, whatever that means, so it is likely only due to its own feelings that it's not attacking, as opposed to any outside influence."

"Alright, we still have a choice on- oh, don't give me that look, Morality!" Patton had turned back to Roman, giving him an absolutely devastating look, which were colloquially known as 'puppy dog eyes.' "I was going to choose the nice one!" Roman clasped a hand over his face, blocking Patton's face from view, holding his splayed palm out in protest. "Just please, stop, I can't take it anymore! It's too adorable!"

Logan heard Virgil snort again, but when he glanced at him, he seemed to not be glaring as much as he had been. Patton laughed, and Logan brought his attention back to the fight. Roman was adjusting his sash, Patton standing, fist pumped in the air triumphantly, before bringing it down, standing akimbo. And Logan noticed something.

"Creativity," he stared down, "how many Health Points do you have?" Roman and Patton startled, smiles vanishing. Roman frowned.

"I went down to 19, after that Froggit," he nodded towards Logan. "You know that." Patton gasped, pointing towards the ground. Roman turned instantly towards him, looking like he was trying to sense the danger, and he followed Patton's finger. The frown melted off of his face and into shock.

"Did you eat the candy?" Roman shook his head.

"No," he looked up, briefly meeting Logan's eyes, before turning towards Frisk. Logan took this opportunity to look to see how Virgil was taking this. He just looked uncomfortable, slouched into crossed arms, biting his bottom lip, staring at Roman. Logan looked back at Frisk, who had begun to speak.

"That, um, sometimes happens." Logan could swear that almost sounded like a question. And since when were they uncertain? They were deliberate with their words with how infrequently they actually used them, why the reticence? And, furthermore, the most pressing, continuous question, why did they seem to know what would happen here, one way or another?

But instead of asking these questions, or even any of them, Roman had already shrugged, turning back to the Fight. HIs purple soul clicked on Console, as opposed to Terrorize, and Patton was quick to jump in.

"Don't worry- oh, they're gone already." Patton slumped a little.

"Halfway through your first word, Whimsun burst into tears and ran away," Logan said, nonplussed. What an odd occurrence. He jotted this down in his notebook.

"That was quite unusual." Roman looked around. "We didn't even get any gold for it!"

"Gold isn't important, Creativity, I'm surprised at you!" Patton wagged his finger at Roman. "What's important is that we did the right thing, and helped that little critter!"

"I think I missed the part where you helped," Virgil sneered, "was that the sobbing or the flying away from us as fast as possible?" He wryly asked them. Frisk went over by Patton, patting his leg.

"Quickly," Logan corrected.

"What?"

Patton's face, and whole body, drooped. Virgil's eyes widened, and then looked down, and slightly to the left.

"And there's no need to be sardonic, Anxiety," Logan chastised, to which Virgil flinched slightly. Something to consider, but Patton looked up, eyebrows raised, mouth quirked to one side, although not upwards.

"Yeah, don't be such a sardine!" Roman crossed his arms. Patton, Virgil, Logan, and Frisk all looked up at this, staring at him, with various raised eyebrows. Logan sighed.

"Sardonic, meaning a scornful or disdainful attitude."

"Yeah?" Roman sputtered, "Well he's still like a sardine; smelly, oily, and trapped in a tin!"

Virgil held a hand up to his temple, undoubtedly trying to process the 'insult?' He brought it back down, around neck level, palm up.

"I… okay, what?"

"You heard me, Bon Chovy!"

"Boys!" They all looked at Patton, who had his hands on his hips. "This is not the time or the place. Let's just work on keeping safe, okay?" Virgil and Roman grumbled under their breaths. "Okay?"

"Yes, Dad," both of them chorused at the same time.

"Morality is right, we should get going." Logan looked at all of them.

Frisk grabbed Roman's hand and looked up at him. Roman stared back, then sighed.

"Yes, fine, of course. Always going forward!" Roman and Frisk were halfway out the door, when Logan started after them, and Virgil turned towards Patton.

"Listen, about earlier, I'm- I'm sorry, I just-" Oh dear. Personal matters. Logan rushed out, rounding the corner, meeting with Roman and Frisk. They were staring at a point in the middle of the room, on the ground. It looked oddly hollow, for floor.

"So," Roman went closer to one of the patches, "you're sure that this won't hurt to fall down?" He crouched on the floor. Why was Roman talking about falling down? Logan frowned, moving closer as well. "Should we do it one at a time?"

"Why don't we merely step over the patches?" Logan crossed his arms, making Roman jump slightly. He ignored it. He turned his head towards Logan.

"Frisk said that we have to fall down in order to progress." Roman said, gesturing to them. Logan's eyes narrowed further as he reconsidered all the odd things about Frisk, in addition to Virgil's reaction to them.

"Mm," he raised an eyebrow, "I'm sure they did." He looked Frisk's way, and their smile faded a little. Roman scoffed.

"Yes, they did, that's why I said that they were the one to tell me." Logan reverted his gaze to Roman. He obviously wasn't catching on to Frisk's oddly confident nature, due in no small part, he was sure, to their unnatural knowledge of this place. Probably Patton either. And they seemed to be involved in whatever it was that Virgil kept staring at. He would have to ask him at a later point, should it happen again. Not to mention he still couldn't come to a conclusion about why they had run into the mountain to begin with. "But we should be fine, there's a bunch of leaves at the bottom to support our fall."

"While a pile of leaves might be suitable for a child your size," Logan raised another eyebrow at Frisk, "how can you be certain that it will sustain one, let alone four of us?"

"It's the only way through." They looked down, fiddling with their hands, "And Toriel does these, you should be okay." Roman stood up, grinning, looking at Logan, seemingly waiting for his answer. Well, odd circumstances surrounding them aside, he couldn't resist a well logic-ed answer.

"Well, she is larger than any one of us, I suppose if we proceed one at a time, it should be safe enough." That is, if he trusted what Frisk said. However, they'd been accurate thus far, and Logan saw no reason as to why they'd start speaking falsehoods now. "I am still apprehensive about the idea that you are so eager to jump into a free fall." He gave a pointed stare to Roman.

Roman stared back, unabashed, then, quickly, he smiled too widely. Logan looked over, and sure enough, there were Virgil and Patton. They seemed to have worked things out, at least, Virgil was no longer slouching to the same degree he had been, and Patton was grinning easily, looking at Virgil for another moment before surveying the rest of the room.

"What's going on here?"

"There is another puzzle here, apparently." If you could even call it a puzzle. Logan adjusted his glasses, rearranging the upcoming sentence so that it wouldn't sound as though Frisk were the one who had told them of the problem. He didn't want Virgil to think he had disregarded all the strange 'optimism' that they had displayed. "The floor is weak in the middle of the room, and in order to cross, it seems that we need to fall through."

As predicted, Patton and Virgil didn't seem happy about that. Patton had a hand hovering in front of his mouth, frowning slightly, and Virgil's hands clasped his hood from its resting place.

"I know, I know," Roman held his hands defensively in front of himself. "But it's the only way to get through!"

"Do you think it's a far drop?" Patton started to come over, until the digital noise sounded again, and Logan and Roman were drawn into a Fight.

Having his soul drawn out was rather more… textured than he remembered. It wasn't painful, or entirely unpleasant, but then again, he wasn't in as much danger against this Froggit as they had been against Flowey.

"Yellow, huh?" Roman tilted his head. "Not a terrible color for you, I suppose." And Logan still had no idea what the colors correlated to, nor did he understand what Roman meant, so he hovered over to Act in lieu of a response. He rested his soul on Compliment.

"Your skin is lovely; you must absorb a lot of water through it." He hadn't thought it was possible to actually feel Roman's sense of disbelief, but he was certainly feeling it now. Perhaps because their souls were in close proximity? He'd follow up on that later. The Froggit, however, seemed to be satisfied.

It was surprisingly easy to guide his soul away from the little flying specs, were those supposed to be flies? He marveled at the sensation for a moment as his and Roman's own purple soul dodged the projectiles.

Once Froggit's turn ended, Roman huffed, and moved his soul to MERCY. He was mumbling something concerning Logan's ability to compliment, but he noticed something else as Roman selected Spare, and they were awarded 2 more gold.

As Logan prompted him to hand over the coin to put in his fanny pack, he asked, "Roman, was Froggit's name written in yellow beforehand?" Roman looked at him and blinked. Then frowned.

"I, I don't think so?" He rubbed his chin. "I don't think I saw it yellow at all… did we?" He looked at Logan with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, just at the end there," he looked at his notebook. "Right after I Acted. I could swear its name had been white originally." Seeing that he hadn't, he wrote down the strange occurrence, and also posited a quick theory about possibly being related to the color of the soul of those who 'fought' it.

He also wrote down his theory about being more in tune with each other while in a Fight. Would it also apply with Frisk? He opened his mouth to ask, when instead it merely hung open as Frisk practically jumped onto the patchy bit of floor and promptly fell through.

He made a side note, 'Frisk has a tendency towards jumping in holes.'

"FRISK!" Patton screamed out. Roman immediately rushed over to the hole, almost bending in half to try and look down the hole. He sagged, exhaling loudly.

"They're okay." He held a thumb up. Patton wiped his brow, Virgil was trying to look uninterested, but Logan noted that he sank back, as though he had just been more forward. Logan caught his eye, and raised an eyebrow, mouth quirking up at the corner.

Virgil looked away, harshly pulling up his hood, and Logan smirked.

"Well, I guess if they're okay, it's probably fine," Virgil spoke up from inside his hoodie. "Just, one at a time."

"I wonder if we can land more gently if we let ourselves in slowly from the ground." Patton tapped his chin, as Roman stood up, stretching a bit.

"That's not a bad idea," Logan nodded once. "Additionally, it's possible that we might make a sort of stack to support the next one down," he motioned with his hands, layering his hands in demonstration of themselves, "and so on, until all of us are on solid ground."

"Well, that's boring, I'm going in head-first!" And before anyone could even react, Roman was stepping on the patch right near the one Frisk had stepped on, falling through. He struck a pose as he fell. Logan pinched the bridge of his nose.

"He's giving me double thumbs up, guys!" Patton exclaimed, returning his own double thumbs gesture right back down to where Roman presumably was.

"It's actually quite the cushy landing!" Roman's voice carried up to them. Virgil slapped his head with his hand into what was colloquially known as a 'facepalm.'

"Well, save some of that good cush for me, Prince!"

"Oh my god, you can't just shout that," Virgil was speaking into his hand, to himself.

"What? I can't hear you! These leaves are very loud!"

"Wheeee!"

Logan sighed, watching as Patton nearly leapt into the same hole that Roman had gone down. He counted silently to himself, looking at his watch before pointing at the hole at the exact moment he heard an 'oof!' Virgil smirked at him when he looked up, then rolled his shoulders, strutting up to the last, untouched patch, and giving Logan a two-fingered salute, falling through.

Logan strolled over, sat down near the hole Frisk had gone down and slid in. Roman was right, it was a very cushy landing. He glanced around, and saw Roman and Patton still brushing themselves off. Virgil’s hood was pushed back down. Frisk turned, right into a Fight with another Whimsun.

Whimsun's name was yellow, despite not having 'fought' yet. Logan wrote this down.

Frisk clicked Mercy, where, Logan noticed, Spare was also written in yellow. Flee was the typical white. Hmm. There must be some sort of correlation. Patton, meanwhile, called out to them.

"Hey, aren't you going to try to console them?" Frisk hesitated for a mere moment, then nodded hurriedly, backing out, and going back to Act and selecting the option.

"Hi." Like before, they had barely completed one word before Whimsun fled. The Fight ended. Now that Logan was concentrating on other things, he noticed some manner of door in the middle of the room, to the left of the big strip of leaves.

Frisk immediately walked over towards it, and paused before they entered, turning to look at them, waving them over. Roman was quick to follow, and by the time he joined them, they had entered, and then disappeared. Logan blinked, but Roman looked delighted.

"It's a sort of," he moved his hand in a circle, as though urging the words out. "It's like a slide, at a water park! Except in reverse! It just pulled them up, this is so cool!" They all walked over to inspect it, and, indeed, it looked harmless enough.

"Do you think we can go together?" Patton asked.

"I'm uncertain, as we've never encountered this before. I don't suppose there would be any harm in trying."

"No way," Virgil stopped him in his train of thought. "One at a time is enough of a risk, we're not trying to double that." He peered up through the top of the doorway.

"Oh, come on, we can't weigh as much as Toriel, can we?" Patton pleaded with him, hands clasped together.

"Probably not?" Virgil tilted his head to the side, "I guess, I dunno, do we really want to experiment with this sort of thing?"

"I would like to," Logan stated. All heads turned to him. "I'm curious as to if it would work, especially if we encounter more of these," he waved his hand, "doorways in the future. It could help speed up the process, if even minutely."

"You mean all the time we're wasting arguing about this?" Roman piped up, making a typical 'Princey' motion with his hand.

"An experiment would be beneficial, is all I'm saying." Although, he wasn't sure how to convince Virgil that the potential danger was likely minimal. He almost missed Roman walking towards him.

"Great!" Roman grabbed Logan under his arms with one arm, sweeping his legs up in his other arm, l and lifted him. "Surprise! Experiment time, un-hip-othesis!" Logan and Virgil yelped.

"NO!" Logan flushed as he flailed and wriggled, pushing his notebook into Roman's face to attempt to deter him. Roman continued on, practically sprinting the short distance to the door.

Hm. It really did feel like a reverse slide.

When they got up, Roman walked out of the doorway, and Frisk was standing there, smile growing into a giggle, hands over their mouth as they took in how Roman was holding him.

Logan cleared his throat, red still prominent on his face from the experience, probably, and lightly pried Roman's arms from around him. He let go easily, setting him lightly on the ground on his feet, thank goodness, and he brushed himself off as Patton and Virgil joined them.

"That was so much fun," Patton flap-clapped his hands together. "You guys were okay, too, right?"

"But of course!"

"I must admit, it was quite exhilarating," Logan looked at the two of them, to ensure that they were alright as well. After all, he already knew how Roman was, there was no reason to look his way. He saw Virgil roll his eyes, although he wasn't frowning, rather, his mouth kept twitching upwards at the corners.

Logan decided to take initiative, and continue on to the next room, although he was quite intrigued by how that particular puzzle operated. Before he could quite get into the next room, Roman came barreling in with Patton, Frisk in between them. Logan stepped aside to avoid injury via exuberance. Frisk's phone rang. They all looked at them, pulling the phone out of their pocket, putting it on speaker.

"Hello? This is Toriel." As if it could be anyone else. "For no reason in particular…Which do you prefer? Cinnamon or butterscotch?" Logan fully expected Frisk to answer, and indeed they opened their mouth, before shutting it. They turned around, looking at them individually.

They blinked, and Logan looked around, quietly surprised. He didn't really care one way or the other, both were pleasant enough, not to mention entirely irrelevant, and he was about to voice his opinion, when, even more surprisingly, Virgil spoke up first.

"Cinnamon's fine," he shrugged.

"I knew you were spicy!” Patton pointed at him. Virgil raised his eyebrow, head pulling back, glancing at Patton.

“What?”

“Well, I agree!” Roman clapped his hand on Virgil’s shoulder, his other hand coming up in front of him to form a fist. “Cinnamon is bold, cinnamon is strong, cinnamon is challenging!”

“No!” Virgil shrugged his hand off of his shoulder. “You are not doing the cinnamon challenge. We are not doing the cinnamon challenge, nobody is doing the cinnamon challenge.”

Roman scoffed, and put his hand right back onto Virgil’s head. Frisk tilted their head slightly, still smiling. Patton put his finger on his chin.

“Which one is that again?”

“The cinnamon challenge,” Logan adjusted his glasses, finger up in the air, recalling the ridiculous trend, “was a challenge issued via social media towards other users, in which those who chose to undertake it would scoop up a spoonful of cinnamon, and attempt to consume, and swallow the herb.”

“Spice.”

“The issue being that cinnamon absorbs liquid, thereby making it stick, causing the participant to cough and choke, as well as to be potentially subjected to an irritated throat, and lungs via inhalation.” He’d also read about the potential for collapsed lung, but that had likely only been a possibility, not a probability. He heard a soft noise, and realized that it had come from Frisk’s phone; Toriel.

“Well, even if that is horrible, I still like cinnamon better, I think!” Patton lightly shook the cringe off of his face.

“Oh my god, why are we even still discussing this, why does this ma-”

“Besides, it’s delicious with guacamole!” There were a few moments of silence.

“You know,” Roman slowly started, “I believe, perhaps, there’s an argument for butterscotch as well.” Logan and Virgil hurriedly nodded their heads.

“Aww, well, at least we came to a group decision!” Patton punched from one side to another. “You okay with that, kiddo?” This was directed towards Frisk, who nodded, smiling, before speaking into the phone.

“Butterscotch.”

“Oh, I see.” There was a hint of a laugh. “Thank you very much!” There was a loud click as she hung up. Logan looked around. Another puzzle, involving a rock and, from the angle that he could see, some more spikes. He went over to inspect the sign, heard very brief movement, before hearing the phone ringing again.

Oh for goodness's sake.

"Hello? This is Toriel." Logan barely suppressed an audible sigh. "None of you DISLIKE cinnamon, do you? I know what your preference is, but…" Logan legitimately could not believe that this was happening. He recalled, very clearly, that they had a conversation, very loudly, detailing what essentially came down to, despite the very odd non-sequitur, it not mattering. "Would any of you turn up your noses if you found it on your plates?"

He, in fact, remembered the conversation so well, due to the fact that it happened under a minute ago.

Thankfully, Frisk seemed to know what to do, and under a less irritating situation he would make a sarcastic comment about how unsurprising that was.

"It's fine," Logan turns around to see Roman and Patton making affirmative gestures at Frisk while they answered.

"Right, right. I understand. Thank you for being patient, by the way." She hung up again, and Logan took a moment to consider what patience was required to listen to questions regarding flavor preferences. He abruptly remembered that Toriel did not know that they had left the original long hallway. He returned his attention to the sign attempting to ignore the curious sense of unease that flared at the thought.

"’Three out of four grey rocks recommend you push them,’" Logan read to the room. How ridiculous. He turned to look at the puzzle again, and he could see a sort of steel plate, along with a clear path of worn floor leading from the stone to it. Fairly simple, even without the instructions.

“Okay, so, what do we do here?” Logan turned to Patton, incredulous. He was bent over next to Frisk. Oh. That made a great deal more sense. Frisk turned to him.

“I think we should push the grey rock,” they said, very seriously.

“Grand idea, Frisk!” Roman strode forward, “perhaps you can assist me in pushing this heavy boulder?” Frisk giggled, and Logan saw Virgil rolling his eyes hard enough to injure something. Together, Roman and Frisk leaned over, pushing the rock onto the plate, and sure enough the spikes retracted with a loud click.

They all passed the puzzle, only to encounter a Fight with another Whimsun, their name yellow, this time taking Frisk and Virgil. Virgil looked less than pleased, his red soul hovering, it had to be said, anxiously in front of his chest, while he glared, not angrily, at it.

Frisk, however, was acting very differently than they had been previously during a Fight. They were no longer smiling, and kept glancing at Virgil as though he were going to do something. Quickly, Frisk moved their soul to Mercy first, again, and clicked on Spare, which immediately withdrew them from the Fight.

“That was it, huh?” Frisk almost flinched around to look at him, stepping aside as Virgil slunk away. He sounded unimpressed, but his posture became less stiff. Ah, of course, he was nervous about the battle, although Frisk’s behavior remained unknown at the moment, he wasn’t sure why he hadn’t pieced that together earlier. Although, there was the fact that Whimsun had proven to be an easy, pacifistic enemy every other time they’d run into…

“That’s it!” Logan shouted, running finger down his notebook as the others made audible sounds of being startled.

“What is it?”

“Something happen?”

“A little warning, next time?”

“The yellow names on the monsters!” Logan looked up, excited. “Froggit’s changed to yellow after we complimented it, because it could be spared, and the same thing with Whimsun!” He saw that Frisk was smiling at him, widely, he supposed that meant he got it right, however it was that Frisk knew the answer in the first place. “When a name is yellow, the monster can be spared. When it’s white, something else has to be done.” He stared at them all a moment longer, then he grabbed his pen out of his pocket, and started crossing out his previous theories, rewriting his discovery.

“I’m so happy that you figured that out, now my life truly has a purpose.” Logan heard Roman’s deadpan directed at him, and almost rolled his eyes, but he just ignored him.

“Well now, I think that’s a very important discovery, Prince!” This time Logan did roll his eyes. He didn’t need Patton to try and placate the situation; he wasn't offended, even though Roman should want this information if he was to be 'fighting'.

“There.” Logan decisively punctuated the page before looking up. "Now we may proceed."

"I'll be sort of sad to leave this room." Patton turned to look at it again.

"What?" Roman blinked, "whyever for, Mo?" Patton looked taken aback for a moment, then grinned. And oh no, Logan recognized that look.

"Wait-"

"I just think it rocked!" Patton threw his hands up in the air. Roman and Frisk laughed, Logan sighed, and Patton sauntered off to the next room. They followed, Logan noticed that Patton had stopped walking, which he presumed to be politeness, until Roman stopped suddenly right next to him. In nearly the same spot. What were they doing…? Frisk nearly walked into them.

Logan and Virgil caught up, and saw why they had stopped. Patched flooring covered the entire ground. There was silence for a moment.

"Well, it was alright before, right?" Patton didn't sound quite as confident as his words. Roman tapped a bit with his foot, hand on his chin, thinking. Logan had a theory, however, based on what they'd experienced in the other room.

"It's likely the same idea as before. I'm not sure as to why it's all over the floor, but there's the same endpoint as there was before." He pointed at the window-like escape that they'd all passed. "The possibility of injury is quite low." Frisk was looking at him, pressed in between Roman and Patton's legs.

"Well, if smartbot over here thinks it's okay," Roman straightened his sash, still staring at the wide range of the puzzle. Frisk tugged at his pants, and when he looked down they extended their hand out to him. Roman's face relaxed into a smile, reaching out to take it, but Virgil spoke, cutting through Roman and Frisk, effectively disrupting the inevitable hand-hold.

"I'll just go!" He put a hand up on either side of himself. "It's fine, Logic said so himself."

Logan narrowed his eyes. He knew that Virgil didn't trust Frisk, but this was odd. And almost out of character. They were just going to hold his hand. "Besides, I can always bully a Froggit into telling me how the puzzle works." Virgil gave an intimidating sneer, before walking forward, and Logan watched as Roman sputtered protests about being brave enough to go first. Patton frowned, finger lifted no doubt to voice his concern about Virgil's sense of humor, and Frisk clutched their hand to their chest, eyes wide and staring.

"No-" Frisk was the first to speak up, not Patton, but Virgil had already walked onto the puzzle and immediately fell through.

"How dare he!" Roman put his hands on his hips. "He thinks that I can't handle it when I was the first one to go down the first puzzle in the first place!"

"First."

"Technically that was Frisk," Logan gestured at them with an open palm, taking note that they looked nervous, and was inching their way towards the hole that Virgil had fallen through. When he gestured to them, however, they grabbed onto his hand, tugging insistently. Logan frowned, surely they weren't scared of the puzzle, or falling. Unless there was a difference with this one, which made no sense, given that they'd seemed ready enough before.

He hazarded another guess. "Are you worried about Anxiety?" Frisk hesitated, then nodded rather forcefully. "Perhaps one of us should go after him, then?" He looked towards the other two who were now paying attention to them. "Patton, perhaps you should join him just in case, considering you've had more experience with the 'fights'," he made air quotations around the word to clarify that he knew there would be no actual fighting, as was typically used.

Roman shot him a look, undoubtedly offended that he wasn't chosen, but he had merely opened his mouth to retort, when Virgil appeared near the exit. He wobbled when he landed. Roman crossed his arms and looked away from him, even as his eyes kept flicking back towards him.

"Are you okay, ki- Anxiety?" Patton reached out towards him.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he waved off the concern. "Just a little jarring."

"So, have you figured out the puzzle solution?" Virgil shifted on his feet, avoiding Logan's eyes.

"Well, not exactly." He scratched the back of his head, before looking up at him. "There was a sign, I just don't know what it meant." Logan raised an eyebrow, indicating that he should continue. "It said, 'Stay off the leaves.'" Logan waited. Virgil did not continue to speak.

"That's it?" That didn't make sense, it had to be a clue, but

"There aren't even any leaves here." Roman's face scrunched up as he looked around. He brought up the exact problem Logan saw with the 'clue.'

"Well, there were leaves down there. I walked through some when I was going to read the sign. Do you think I affected it?" Virgil tapped his finger on the side of his leg in a manner that Logan recognized as apprehensive, but he doubted that the shifting of a few leaves would ruin the puzzle’s ability to be completed.

"You don't think it's an unsolvable puzzle, do you?" Patton looked up, eyes wide.

"That is highly unlikely, although it is certainly a perplexing situation." Logan put the end of his pen on his chin, thinking it over. "Perhaps I'll take a trip down there, myself." He looked at Virgil, who shrugged.

Logan gingerly stepped on the tile in front of him, intact, which Virgil hadn't stepped on. Nothing happened. He bounced on his toes slightly, but nothing still. He stepped one step to the side, but nothing persisted on occurring. On the one hand, this appeared to be an improvement, however, this didn't tell them the answer, and any sort of trial and error would be a frivolous waste of time.

"Wait." Logan, who was not doing anything in particular that would warrant a pause, turned to look at Virgil, who was pointing. "I think...I think there weren't any leaves on that part of the floor." Logan raised an eyebrow.

"What on Earth does how kempt the room downstairs is have to do with anything?"

"Kempt isn't even a word, you Bing rip-off." Roman muttered under his breath.

"Well," Virgil pressed on, not acknowledging the interruption, "the leaves started around the same point as this weird floor, and it sort of framed a path, so," Virgil moved his hands in a circular motion.

"So 'don't step on the leaves' is a reference to the path down there reflecting the correct path up here," finished Logan, as his face lit up with understanding.

"I don't remember what it looked like." Virgil sunk his head down into his hoodie.

"Very well, I'll go down and see what I can puzzle out." Patton gasped, and Logan immediately replayed what he said. Crap. He reached out towards him as though he were able to physically stop him. "No, don't-"

"Dad joke!" He squealed, hands pressed together. Logan frowned, but noted that Frisk laughed, Roman's arms relaxed out of their position as he gave a mocking guffaw, and Virgil's head raised up slightly. Logan rolled his eyes and scoffed.

"That was not my intention and you know it," he said without any bite. "Now, if you'll excuse me," he lifted his leg to step onto the area closest to the wall, but once again Virgil stopped him.

"Oh, I ran into some Whimsuns down there," and Logan noticed Frisk, who had since relaxed, flinch heavily, staring at Virgil.

"Whimsomes," Patton whispered to himself.

"So keep an eye out, there might still be some left." This time Logan actually heard Frisk make a noise of distress. He raised an eyebrow at them, and they grabbed onto Roman's pants, before looking at Logan's face and worrying their lip. This only served to confuse him more, but now Roman was lowering himself to talk to them.

Logan replayed Virgil's words in his head, but could find no cause of fear. He then recalled their earlier conversation, when they had seemed concerned about Virgil. Hm. Perhaps there was something concerning Virgil that made them generally distressed? Well, he'd hardly be offended, given how distressed the child seemed to make him. He wondered if that was the reason why they were so nervous around him. But then again, he, himself, had been, and continued to be, generally wary around them, and they seemed to be perfectly relaxed around him for the most part. Maybe Virgil's Anxiety was able to affect them more? He'd have to check to see if Patton had the same effect.

Well, he was on a puzzle-solving mission, although he might jot down some more theories while down there, and they needed to advance. This was hardly the time. Not to mention, Frisk had already chosen their person to discuss it with, so Logan just turned to Virgil with a curt nod.

"Thank you." And with that he stepped over onto the next area of floor, falling through. Just as before, he remained quite uninjured, landing on surprisingly supportive piles of leaves. He decided to go through a basic exploration of the room first, and he did, indeed, notice that there was a distinct leaf-less path to follow. He double-checked the sign, which proved the same as Virgil had told him.

When he turned around, it was right into a Whimsun, and he forewent going through the motion of Consoling, merely Sparing them, and resuming his way all the way to the end of the room which, sure enough, led to nowhere.

He turned around to go back to start, so to speak, and he heard the faintest bit of conversation from above.

"...don't think I would actually…" It was hard to hear, for sure, but that was definitely Virgil. Well, whatever was, he was sure that it could not be as important as finding their way out of this place. Thus, he diverted his attention away from whatever they were discussing, and turned a page in his book to scribble down their behavior, and then flipped the page to sketch a rough approximation of the layout. He walked through, cross-hatching the purported walkable space. He then encountered a Froggit.

He held in a sigh to himself as he felt the sensation again of his soul being pulled into a Fight. The Froggit 'ribbit'ed a few times. He immediately went and clicked Compliment.

"Your croaking is extremely pleasant, your vocal sac must be extravagant." As usual, it blushed. (As usual, Logan was nonplussed.) He waited, and then dodged the attack shaped like itself. The moment the name turned yellow, he Spared, gained his two gold which went right in his pack, and continued to map out the room.

When he finished, he went back over his drawing a second time on the way back, and went into the doorway, which lifted him up and out onto the original floor of the puzzle. "Mission accomplished," Logan displayed his notebook out towards all of them.

He was not met with the exuberance he expected. In fact, except for Frisk, they barely seemed to be paying attention to his work at all. Patton and Roman kept exchanging glances with each other, and Patton persisted in glancing over between Frisk and Virgil. Frisk was not looking back, just tracing the pattern Logan had drawn with his eyes, not smiling, but nodding slightly to themself. Virgil was hanging his head, turned around, arms crossed. He believed this was called "grumping."

This was completely unacceptable.

He smacked the notebook against the wall. "Excuse me!" That definitely got their attention as everyone jolted. Patton gave him a look which he knew to mean that he was disappointed, but it didn't last for long, and he averted his gaze soon after he started.

Logan had no idea what it meant, and quite frankly, he didn't care. "If we could please concentrate on getting past this obstacle, if it's not too much trouble to focus on?" Virgil and Roman glared and rolled their eyes, respectively, but Frisk stepped back, folding their hands in front of them, giving Patton room to inspect the page. With something like relief, he turned the notebook towards him. Roman and Virgil crept up, albeit a little more reluctantly.

"Okay, so, we'll just go, then, yes? Allow me!" Roman turned around with a flourish, and started out on the path.

"Wait, that's not-"

And Roman immediately fell through.

"-the right path that you're following," Logan concluded, a bit anticlimactic. He heard a bit of yelling from underneath, a pause, and then loud footsteps, resulting in Roman appearing at the odd window. He was fuming.

“Are you telling me,” he asked, glaring at him, walking slowly, step by step, towards him, “that you crossed out the path that we were supposed to follow, and left the parts that make us fall through empty?!” Roman was in his face now, pointing at the notebook. Logan calmly adjusted his tie.

“...Shading seemed the best to emphasize the path which we needed to follow, yes.” He heard a snort, and a giggle as he stared at Roman, undeterred. Roman huffed, and turned away.

“Perhaps I should just lead the way, then.” He turned the notebook back towards himself, opting to just start walking. He used his finger to mark where he was on the page, and slowly started moving forward. He turned around after a moment, to ensure that they were following him. They weren’t. He raised an eyebrow, and Patton muttered a ‘whoops!’ to himself, before falling in line. Frisk followed, then Roman, rolling his eyes, and Virgil behind him, looking down at the ground, peering to where Logan was, then back at the beginning of the patched floor.

Logan turned around and resumed, walking right into another Whimsun. He Spared them immediately, noting Patton’s aborted sound of protest at not Consoling, and they nearly completed the rest of the puzzle in peace. “I must add,” Logan stated, pointing down at the last section of the puzzle, "to be very cautious around this part.”

“Why? Is there danger?” Roman spoke up, head turning this way and that, and Logan just knew that he was going to-

“Prince, please don’t go for your sword, we’re a little snuggled together for that to be safe right now.” Ah, so Patton had the same idea. Roman scoffed.

“I wasn’t going to…” he trailed off, and Logan tilted his head, and saw him caressing the hilt with his fingers, sighing lightly. Logan sighed back, turning away again.

“No, but there is a thin line in which it is safe to walk without falling through. Which is to say, please don’t run for the exit just because we’re close.” He looked up, and saw a sign. Was this another part of a clue? This far in? He resumed slowly walking the path again, and double checked his map that this was, in fact, a safe place to be able to stand. He halted, “‘Didn’t you read the sign downstairs?’”

“Hm? No, that was you and Anxiety, we didn’t go down there, remember?” The shuffling of feet stopped as they waited for Logan to continue. Logan inhaled.

“That is what the sign said,” he didn’t dare look down, closing his eyes and feeling the surface below, which sounded a lot like the crunching of dead foliage. “The sign downstairs said to not step on the leaves, and this one, which happens to have a small patch of them right in front of the sign that asks if you read it.” He exhaled. “It is mocking me.” He heard Patton’s small laughter, and a snort. Apparently, they were mocking him, too.

No, he mentally shook his head, there was no call to be thinking like that. They just found the sign funny. He sighed and continued on, paying very careful attention to the path, even as he heard more giggles that were accompanied by the unmistakable sound of crunching through a small square of leaves. Finally, carefully, he maneuvered his way through the end of the puzzle, and he was able to turn around fully, making sure the rest of them exited properly as well.

That had been a surprising time suck, but at least it was complete, with no injuries. Well, no physical injuries. Roman nearly leapt into the next room, not even bothering to check beforehand to see if there was anything he had to be wary of, and Logan rolled his eyes, hanging back to let Patton and Frisk through, happily keeping up with Roman's exuberance. He walked in at about the same time as Virgil, and saw all three of them engaged in a Fight.

He sighed, quickly becoming commonplace for him. This was, perhaps, now past the point of being tedious. Although, he noted, turning to a blank page in his notebook, that there were now two Froggits (Froggit A and Froggit B) to be Fought.

"Your feet simply shine today!" Roman Complimented with a flourish. Patton opened his mouth, but Frisk tugged on his shirt, prompting him to look down at them. They held up a single finger, presumably to indicate that he should wait.

The Froggits both attacked the three of them, and Logan watched as purple, green, and red bobbed and twisted around each other. Perhaps if he were someone else, he could appreciate the sight more, but while he did acknowledge the aesthetic appeal, it was just the sight of a battle. Patton moved to Spare, and he did so successfully.

With Froggit A.

The second one, B, sent more flies at their souls, which they nearly didn't avoid, well Frisk was fine, but Patton and Roman were a bit slower.

"I don't understand, that always works!" Roman frowned. Logan was perplexed as well. He definitely saw the name in yellow.

"Maybe each Froggit needs its own compliment?" Patton tilted his head. Perhaps, then, both names needed to be yellow?

Frisk tugged Patton's shirt again once the flies stopped, and gave him a look. Roman looked over, as Patton pointed to himself.

"Me?" Frisk nodded, and Roman gestured to him.

"But of course! What a great idea, Frisk!" Roman gave a half a bow. "After you, I insist." And he lifted his head to look at him.

"But I'm no good at compliments!" He sputtered "That's the job of a noble Prince!" He pointed at Roman.

"Falsehood. You compliment all of us on a daily basis." Which was, of course, true. Each of them in their own way, really, as to what they all valued and took pride in. It was a talent of his.

"Well," and Logan recognized that pre-pun tone, no- "I'd say that we all complement each other!" Patton was the only one who laughed at that. Logan glared at him.

"You know very well that I meant compliment with an i, not with an e," Logan crossed his arms. Roman abruptly snickered.

Patton just grinned even wider, waving Logan off before turning back to the Froggit. He set his legs wide, clenched his fists, inhaled, and Complimented.

"I ribbet that you're really nice!"

"Morality, that hardly counts-!"

Roman and Frisk were hysterical with laughter. He peered over at Virgil, who was desperately failing at suppressing his smirk. Logan narrowed his eyes at him. Traitor.

But whatever Logan's opinion on it, it apparently did count as a Compliment, and Froggit blushed, sending its mini-self at them. Now its name turned yellow, and Logan wrote down this caveat back on the original page he'd written the rule of yellow, and they were able to Spare. They earned four gold, and Logan cleared his throat, looking down at the page, holding out his hand towards Roman.

"I believe that the issue was that both names must be written in yellow in order to properly Spare them.

"They both have the same name," Roman argued, handing over the two coins.

"Even so, each individual indicator must be yellow. If a name is written in white, it cannot be Spared." He folded the notebook up, putting the coins in his pack. Frisk didn't seem to like Logan's theory much, based on their frown, but they weren't offering anything of their own, so it didn't matter. Logan thought it made consistent sense thus far, therefore he'd keep the theory.

Now that the Froggits had gone, he was able to survey the room. Another puzzle with rocks in. Three of them, to be specific. Well, simple enough.

"Well!" Roman shouted, "this is simple enough!" He clasped his hands together, rubbing them while he surveyed the room.

"Ooh, maybe we should do it at the same time?" Patton looked at Frisk, who nodded, smiling again. "Alright, kiddo, which one do you want to push." Logan tried to ignore how much Patton was coddling them as they immediately went all the way to the rock on the right. Patton followed, leaning over them, ready to put his hands on the rock to push it, but Frisk stood up, and motioned for Patton to do the same. Logan rolled his eyes, going over to the middle one, while Roman went to the left.

"Alright," said Patton, confused, as he kept trying to lean over again, with Frisk stopping him, "uh, I guess push on the count of three?" Logan tucked his notebook under his arm, "One," he leaned over, "two," he put his hands out, squaring his shoulders, "three!" Logan pushed hard.

He almost fell over from how light it was. He sighed to himself, releasing one hand to stay steady on his notebook instead. The rock went smoothly, clicking lightly onto the pad. He looked up in time to see Roman's do the same. He looked towards Patton, and saw Frisk lightly putting their palm on the rock.

"WHOA there, pardner! Who said you could push me around?" Logan blinked. That wasn't Frisk's voice, and that certainly wasn't Patton's. Then where…?

He looked around, trying to search for a source that the voice could have come from, because there's no possible way that-

"Is- are you a talking rock?" Patton's voice comes out slightly strangled.

"HMM? Sure am, sugar." Frisk giggled, while the rest of them had varying levels of shock on their faces. Roman's mouth gaped open.

"We'd like you to move, please," Frisk voiced softly.

"HMM? So you're ASKIN' me to move over?" Frisk nodded.

"Yes, uh, please," Patton composed himself enough to add.

"Okay, just for you, pumpkins." Patton blushed and Frisk giggled again as the rock moved towards the plate. Then stopped. Not two inches from where it had started. Logan moved closer to it.

"Why did you stop?" He peered at it, trying to see if there was anything blocking its path. Roman started coming over to meet them, and even Virgil moved up a little closer.

"HMM? You want me to move some more? Alrighty, how's this?" It moved off the path towards the middle rock, Logan startled out of the way as he moved away from his original position. Roman came over on the other side, fingers tapping over his mouth.

"Actually, that wasn't the way that we wanted you to move, we need you to move that way, if you wouldn't mind?" Patton pointed towards the plate, smiling. Logan wasn't sure if the rock could even see, as it didn't have eyes, due to the fact that it was a rock.

"HMM? That was the wrong direction?"

"Yes."

"Yep!"

"Mhmm!"

"Quite."

"Okay, think I got it." The rock slid back onto the path, this time going all the way down the path to the plate." Logan exhaled. "Was that helpful?"

"Yes, thank you so much!" Patton beamed as though it had done them a great favor, as opposed to making things harder on them by deliberately misinterpreting their desires, or by not being a talking rock. They all turned to exit the room, finally, but Frisk stayed put. Patton turned, "Frisk?"

They blinked, then hurried to stand near him, walking slowly. Logan was just debating whether or not to add this to his increasing list of Odd Frisk Behavior when, as they all approached, the spikes snapped back up. The four of them flinched, and Logan immediately looked around, seeing that the rock was, once again, not on the plate.

"What do you think you're doing?!"

"What the hell," Virgil hissed out the same time as Roman shouted, marching right up to the rock.

"You've gotta speak nicely to it, Anxiety." Patton put his hand on Virgil's shoulder, which caused Frisk to toddle closer, eyes flicking back and forth from Patton, to his hand, to Virgil, and back again. Virgil apparently noticed, because he started glaring at them.

"Those spikes could have killed us!" He frowned deeper, crossing his arms.

"Actually, while they could have potentially injured us, I doubt that they would have caused us that much harm." Logan paused, considering. "And, honestly, I'm not even certain they could have injured us at all, they appear to have dulled." He peered over, adjusting his glasses to confirm. They did seem rather worn. He looked up again, Virgil's narrowed eyes focused on him now. "... Of course, that's not to minimize the effects of shock and surprise." Virgil rolled his eyes, and went back to staring at Frisk, still visibly watching, for some inconceivable reason, Virgil and his shoulder.

Now it was Roman's turn to roll his eyes as he stretched obviously, and leaned over to speak to the rock.

"Would you mind, perhaps, taking a well-deserved rest on this lovely little platform?" He gestured towards the pressure plate with a flourish of his hand. "I'm sure that it would be a perfectly comfortable spot, and it would help us, if it were at your convenience."

"HMM? You wanted me to STAY there?" Roman and Patton nodded. "You're giving me a real workout, sweet cheeks." And the rock moved back onto the plate. Roman strode back to them, grinning, and they all resumed trying to get into the next room.

Roman tried it first, lightly, slowly, hovering over the metal where the spikes were no longer out, before carefully, slowly, placing the ball of his foot down. When nothing happened, he put his whole foot down, then all of his weight. He continued walking, Frisk running over the trap, right before Patton and himself. Virgil was still turned around, staring at the rock, ensuring that it didn't move. Before Logan left the room completely, he heard the rock speaking again. "Aren't things easier when you just ask?"

After they were in the next room, Roman turned to Frisk.

"Hey, Frisk. Was that rock flirting with us?" he stage-whispered. Frisk smiled, giggling a little.

"You know, Prince," Patton elbowed him, "it's a good thing that you didn't draw your weapon." Roman turned, still grinning, even as Logan braced himself. "Then one of us would have had to pull the sword from the stone."

"In the original canon, it was an anvil," Logan supplied as he watched Frisk, smiling, walking over to the middle of the room. They had their hand outstretched, seemingly towards the table some ways down that had, he squinted, some sort of foodstuffs on it. "Incidentally, please tell me that you aren't going to eat that." They stopped, paused in the middle of the room, and turned.

"That's for the mouse," they said, shaking their head, and turned around to look at the table, hand grasping at air. This was about as equally disconcerting as their answer. Logan's face twisted in confusion, and he chanced a glance towards Virgil. Although he glimpsed Logan out of the corner of his eye, he shook his head and quickly looked away, focusing on Frisk. Logan abruptly realized that whatever it was that happened before, must be happening again.

Virgil didn't seem keen on discussing it further, so Logan looked back at Frisk. Their hand was already down. He must have missed it happening. Logan resolved to keep an even closer eye on Frisk, writing down that a hand stretch likely accompanied…whatever it was that they were doing. Maybe he could figure out what this was, why Virgil appeared to be the only one who could see it, and what it meant. For all of them.

-----

@callboxkat @katelynn-a-fan @dwbh888 @royal-stormcloud @thefivecalls @awkwardjester @ollyollyoxinfree @intruxiety @brain-deadx0 @the-grounded-raven @just-your-typical-trans-guy @grouptalekindnesssoul @the-hoely-bleach @anvil527up @fanficloverinthesun

@go-just-me-fan @nonbinary-octopus @vicdehart @going-dead @extra-ordinary00 @skeletonsloverockcandy @trans-and-not-trending @whatschooldoesntteachyou @invisible-bunny @ignoremeeeeplsssss @theblackcatscratchpost

#sanders sides #logan sanders #virgil sanders #roman sanders #patton sanders #my stories #sanderstale chapter #frisk

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psodtqueer · 4 years

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So I noticed something in the new episode, and finally decided to make a theory about it.

(POF - SVSR at 3:16)

Patton has the blue eye w/ flame thing Sans (from the game Undertale) also has (the flame is fanon and not canon, but is still highly associated with Sans)

Time to theorise the shit out of this.

Okay, so Sans and Patton are two very different characters. Except for making puns, I didn’t get why Thomas would make the connection between Patton and Sans at first. but. I think this is to make a link between Patton and the main theme of Undertale: DETERMINATION.

In this scene patton says “But in your face I saw this pain and so-“ before getting cut off by Thomas. At the end of the video he says “Like I told you before: sometimes I don’t know the way. But when I told you that.. you were so scared. I couldn’t bear it. So I said to myself ‘Alright Patton, Thomas needs you. You’re responsible for his morality. You can never not have an answer for him.’ And then I promised you I’d keep fighting.” That sound pretty damn determined to me.

‘But why would Thomas choose Sans? And why the eye?’ At first I tried to analyse the scene in Undertale where Sans has the blue eye / uses his powers: the judgement hall. (For people who don’t know Undertale: the judgement hall scene is where Sans confronts Frisk about their actions throughout the game. If you do the genocide route (kill everyone you come across) you will have to face Sans in a boss battle. He uses his powers here, causing his eye to turn blue, just like Patton’s eye in this scene.) But I couldn’t find a single reason for Thomas to choose it (lemme know if you do find something), except just because it was the easiest way. The connection to DETERMINATION might have been stronger if Thomas had chosen Frisk or Chara, but simply making Patton’s eyes horizontal lines (like Frisk) or red (like Chara) probably wouldn’t have gotten the point across. The other option would have been changing Patton’s entire outfit to Frisk’s or Chara’s, but that would’ve been to obvious. By using Sans, and particularly the judgement hall scene where DETERMINATION is very much present, Thomas made a simple and easily recognisable link.

TL;DR: I think Thomas used the connection between Patton and Sans to show that Patton is very determined to do the right thing.

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perfectly-princely-emo-nightmare · 4 years

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The SandersTale AU

BECAUSE I DONT CARE HOW CRINGE IT IS, I STILL LOVE UNDERTALE

Deceit is Flowey/Asriel. You meet him as a snake, or “Deceit”. Mega Deceit is a multi-headed Basilisk. “Dorian” is when he is not a snake and has a soul

Patton is Toriel, as he fits the maternal role; soft spot for kiddos—or Thomas in this case.

The Orange side is Sans, since we don’t really know a whole lot about him. For this au, he is Apathy and I’ll probably call him Ethan.

Remus is Papyrus. Weird, loves puzzles and pasta, and obsessed with being a famous royal guardsman. Pure cinnamon trash roll. Has a brotherly relationship with the head of the royal guard.

Roman is Undyne. Head of the royal guard. Badass and scary, but also extra and is totally not crushing on the cute royal scientist.

Said cute royal scientist is Virgil. Wears black lab coats. Has a dark past that he’s ashamed of. Obsessed with anime. May or may not be crushing on the hot royal guard captain.

Mettaton is Remy. Remy is Mettaton. I’ll let you figure that one out.

Logan, of course, is Asgore. Kind and gentle but is seen as cruel by his ex-husband Patton. Wants what’s best for his people. Ultimately doesn’t want to fight anyone.

Bonus:

Talynblook

Joan as Grilby

PICANI IS GASTER IVE SOLVED IT I mean what

Nate is Mad Dummy because of reasons

Thomas is Frisk

I might leave Chara as a darker version of Thomas since Chara is similar to Frisk

Annoying cat instead of annoying dog since I created it and I love cats

I.....don’t know who to have as Temmie. Any suggestions?

#prinxiety #sanderstale #sanderstale au #undertale #undertale au #logan sanders #patton sanders #virgil sanders #roman sanders #deceit sanders #remus sanders #remy sanders #emile picani #logicality #sympathetic dark sides #sympathetic deceit #sympathetic remus

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swimmingseafish · 4 years

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Sanderstale

Hi folks! Here it is! I officially have the first two chapters of Sanderstale complete, so I am now sharing them. Most of the Sides haven’t appeared yet, but they will soon. Have chapter 1 here. Chapter 2 will be in a separate post, but they’re both on ao3.

tagged: @hideyseek @ironwoman359 @shrimpangie

(ask me if you want to be tagged in the next chapter!)

summary: A child named Thomas travels through the Underground, makes many friends, and finds himself.

In other words, Thomas plays the role of Frisk and works to somehow save his old friends, his new friends, and himself, while getting used to powers he never expected to have.

CW: Mentions of suicidal thoughts/ideation and semi-explicit depiction of child abuse (fairly brief, but mentioning it just in case).

Read it on ao3!

Chapter 1: The Fall

Thomas did not enjoy falling, especially for this long.

Falls were supposed to be short. When he jumped off of picnic tables or tripped and scraped his knee or moved out of the way too slowly, there had been immediate and painful consequences.

He’d hoped this might be quick too, maybe.

Or—

Maybe not.

He honestly wasn’t sure at this point what he’d wanted when he’d jumped into the mountain.

*****

Thomas had grown up in an orphanage. He’d never known loving parents, just the orphanage head, Mr. Caplan, who had wanted to hear as little out of the children as possible. Mr. Caplan was far more concerned with how much they could work and how much money he could make out of them.

But Thomas had two amazing friends, Joan and Talyn, who he would defend with his life. He could barely remember a time before Joan, and he’d known Talyn nearly as long.

He’d spent the majority of his ten years of life being a protector. He was there for Joan when they couldn’t stand being alone. He snuck Talyn their medicine when Mr. Caplan locked it away. He walked Joan to the nurse, Miss Ellery, down the street when Mr. Caplan refused. He calmed Talyn down from their third panic attack of the day after Mr. Caplan tore their notebook.

Thomas could get through anything as long as Joan and Talyn were all right.

One day, though, Thomas went too far.

Mr. Caplan was furious—again. Joan and Talyn had stolen a couple of apples from the fridge because they were starving. They were on rationed food as a punishment for breaking the pencil sharpener the week before, but Talyn especially had needed more because they needed to be able to take their medicine and keep it down.

Joan and Talyn had stood together in the kitchen, holding hands, terrified and clinging to each other while Mr. Caplan raised a ruler over his head, clearly meaning to bring it down on them.

Thomas walked in right then. He’d been looking for Joan and Talyn. He saw the situation and didn’t hesitate, yelling, “NO!” and jumping in front of the blow.

The ruler crashed against the bridge of Thomas’ nose. He was already off-balance from the jump and the extra whack knocked him over.

Thomas hit the ground, bruising his knees. He tried to get up, but he only succeeded in raising himself up on one knee and holding his arms out in front of Talyn and Joan, who were completely frozen in shock.

Mr. Caplan sneered, swaying a little on his feet.

“What are you going to do, kid?” he slurred, laughing. Thomas was shaking, but he stared up at Mr. Caplan with fire in his eyes.

“I’m protecting them from you!”

“Thomas…” Joan whispered.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah! And I won’t stop! Ever!”

“Thomas…” Talyn breathed.

“Hmm…I think I’ve had about enough of your insubordination, and enough of you, kid.”

Thomas couldn’t properly remember what happened after that, but he woke up outside in the rain, curled in a ball at the bottom of the steps. His head hurt so much, and he had bruises all over his arms and legs.

Mr. Caplan was standing over him. The words were blurry, but Thomas remembered him saying that Thomas better not come back or he’d get rid of Thomas permanently. And he remembered the door slamming.

Thomas didn’t know what to do, so he sat by the side of the orphanage, shivering, for about an hour before Joan and Talyn came out. Joan had a black eye, and Talyn was holding their right arm tight against their body.

He apologized a thousand times, devastated, but they told him to stop.

They gave him their apples, wrapped in a towel they’d managed to nab from the kitchen. They hugged him, not caring how wet he was, and added to the water drenching his clothes with their tears.

They only left when they had to go back inside before curfew.

And they told him to leave the village. To protect himself. To stay safe.

Thomas huddled outside until the rain stopped. Under the stars, soaking wet, and sadder and more terrified than he’d ever been, he made a plan.

He’d heard of a place where there was magic, and maybe monsters, too. People never came back, so no one ever went there anymore. But maybe, just maybe, some of the magic could help him get Joan and Talyn out of the orphanage, and maybe it could help all three of them find a home.

And, if not…maybe it would still be better than this.

Thomas began walking towards Mt. Ebott.

*****

The wind whistled past Thomas’ face, cold where it passed his tears. It sliced past the cut on his nose and blew away the thin piece of cloth he’d used as a bandage. The light at the top of the mountain’s cavern grew farther and farther away.

Had all of this been worth it? To…to die, at the bottom of a mountain? To never see Joan and Talyn again?

He wasn’t worth anything, though—he couldn’t save his friends. Why should he save himself?

Thomas closed his eyes just before he hit the ground.

#sanderstale #my fics #my writing

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sparkletastic-cookiedough · 5 years

Photo

Okay.....

It’s not the best thing in the world. BUT FROM NOW ON I AM ONLY DOING CUTSCENES. Doing the walk cycle was hell and it dosent evn look that good. So now you only get the important stuff. Sorry but as someone who can;t code I have to do all the walking by hand and it is not very fun.

#Sanders sides #Thomas sanders #SANDERSTALE #undertale #pixel art #i know it sucks #my art

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prokage · 7 years

Note

oh fuck it's thoms sanderstale

CURSED

#Anonymous

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cyberramble · 2 years

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I'd love to see a Sanders Sides Undertale AU where Patton isn't Toriel <3

#sanders sides #patton sanders #thomas sanders #SandersTale #UnderSides #Sanders Sides Undertale AU #Let Patton be violent <333

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swimmingseafish · 4 years

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Chapter 2: New Friends

Chapter 2 of Sanderstale!

tagged: @hideyseek @ironwoman359 @shrimpangie

summary: One child meets another.

CW: Brief mention of suicidal thoughts.

Read it on ao3!

The most surprising part was that Thomas wasn’t dead.

The second-most surprising part was the *poof* of golden flower petals that erupted into the air when he hit the ground. He’d expected to hit cold stone.

Covered in petals, Thomas just laid on top of the squished flowers for a while, dried tears still on his face. Any tears that might have tried to follow them had been scared away by the shock of surviving the fall. He stared up at the dot of light, just barely visible at the top of the immense cavern above.

What do I do now?

I guess…I’ll just get up and start walking. Maybe…maybe there’s magic down here…maybe I could still save them.

Thomas stood up slowly, wincing a bit. His legs were sore from hiking all the way up Mt. Ebott. He looked up at the sky and stretched his arms out—

Angry faces, tears, frozen friends behind him—

And took a deep breath. He was still scared, but he was resolved, and he had somewhere to go. He still wasn’t sure he deserved to be alive, but if he could help Joan and Talyn now, then he had to do whatever he could.

He was filled with determination.

Then an incredibly loud scream split the cavern.

“EDEN!!!”

Thomas jumped backwards, tripped on a stem, and promptly fell on his butt, conveniently throwing the source of the scream directly into his line of sight.

His jaw dropped.

In the center of the golden flowers, where Thomas had been standing, was another child. They had straight brown hair that fell to their shoulders and bangs that were just slightly too long. Their entire body was tinged red and they were floating about six inches off the ground. Oh, and they also were transparent.

Thomas was looking at what he could only describe as a ghost.

“EDEN!” The ghost child screamed again, spinning around frantically. “Where are you?! Where—”

Their eyes fell on Thomas, and they stopped dead.

“You are…not Eden. You are a human.”

Thomas tilted his head to the side.

“…Yes. Aren’t you?” A quiet “Aren’t you? Aren’t you? Aren’t you?” disappeared into the distance, and Thomas realized that the ghost’s voice hadn’t echoed in the cavern at all.

Their face shifted from shocked to closed, and they stepped back.

“Why are you here.”

Thomas shifted in the flowerbed. He didn’t want to explain all of it. Not to this strange child and maybe not to anyone ever.

“I climbed the mountain and I…fell down here.”

Their face didn’t change, but Thomas felt like he was being inspected. He could feel their curiosity, but he also felt a strange animosity from them, like they were prepared to dislike him on principle. That suddenly dropped away, and he wondered why, until they said:

“No. You jumped.”

Thomas felt a shock go through his entire body, and his surprise showed clear as day on his face. The ghost child’s expression shifted in a way he couldn’t describe.

“N-no I didn’t,” he squeaked out.

The ghost child now looked like they were trying to smile and frown at the same time.

“Don’t lie.”

“I…don’t want to talk about it.”

“Okay.”

The two of them sat in silence for a minute before Thomas broke it.

“Hey…I keep calling you ‘the ghost child’ in my head, but…I’d like to use your name instead. My name’s Thomas, and I use he/him pronouns. What’s yours?”

The other child looked over at him, then looked down at their hands, flexing them a few times. “My name is Chara. They/them.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Chara.” Thomas hesitated for a bit, and then continued. “There’s some stuff that I don’t want to talk about, and I bet you have some too, but I’d like to ask you questions if that’d be okay with you. You can ask me too, if you want.”

Chara looked over at Thomas. Their face was blank, but Thomas could somehow tell that they were confused, which in turn confused him. He was good at reading people, but not so good that he could read emotions off a stoic child he’d just met.

Stop it, you’re getting off topic, they’re going to think you’re ignoring them! He quickly returned his brain to the conversation and his focus to Chara’s face.

“You…care that I’m okay with it?”

“Yeah! My friends care about how I feel, and I care about how they feel. I’m not your friend yet, but I’d like to be—”

“You shouldn’t. I’m not a good person.”

Well, Thomas couldn’t let that go. He didn’t know them very well yet, but he never let his friends talk badly about themselves, and he wasn’t about to let Chara do that either. He stood up, brushing off the flower petals, and said something he’d once heard Nurse Adri say:

“Let me be the judge of that.”

Chara’s face twitched before settling again. “Well, if you’re so determined…fine.”

Thomas grinned, bouncing on his toes. “Okay! First question! Who’s Eden?”

Chara immediately looked back at their hands again. “…I can’t remember.”

“You can’t remember?”

“That is what I just said.”

“But you said I wasn’t Eden. How’d you know that if you can’t remember who Eden is?”

Chara’s eyebrows furrowed just a little. “I don’t remember his face, but I remember that Eden is my best friend, and that Eden’s not human. Eden’s a monster.”

Thomas was spooked a little bit, but he asked, “What do you mean?”

Chara saw Thomas’ expression and let out a tiny huff of laughter, though it didn’t sound like they were particularly happy. “Not a monster like humans. A monster like a magical creature that lives underground.”

Thomas’ brain was exploding a little bit, but he managed to say, “Oh.”

Chara snapped their fingers twice and then turned to face Thomas. “All right. It is your turn to answer questions. I believe you asked me four. So, I get to ask you four.”

Thomas shook his head to dislodge his confusion. “Okay. Go for it.”

Chara nodded, a tiny twitch of their head. “How old are you?”

“I’m ten,” Thomas said, and then, immediately forgetting the rules they’d set up, asked, “How old are you?”

Their face closed again as they said, “I thought it was my turn to ask questions.”

“Oh no, you’re right, I’m so sorry—”

“I believe I am eleven, though—I am not sure, but that seems right.” They stared at Thomas for a few moments before continuing. “Do you know where we are right now?”

“I think we’re inside…under…Mt. Ebott, but at this point I’m not really certain of anything. My world’s kinda been turned upside down today.”

Chara stared at Thomas and then burst out laughing.

“What?” Thomas said, smiling a little. Their laughter was contagious.

“You fell down on your BACK, Thomas! You were upside down!”

Thomas started laughing too, and for a good five minutes, the cavern was filled with the laughter of a living child and a dead one, releasing the pent-up tension and uncertainty. Both children completely forgot the question game.

But it didn’t last long. As quickly as they started laughing, Chara stopped again, leaving Thomas to expel the last few laughter notes on his own.

“We are in the Underground,” they said, their eyes shining. “I just remembered. That’s what it’s called. And we are close to the Ruins. We should head there now.”

Thomas wasn’t inclined at this point to shoot down an offer of directions, especially from his new friend who apparently loved terrible and accidental puns. But he had to ask anyway:

“Why?”

Chara’s bright energy dimmed a little, and Thomas could sense their returning doubt. “I’m not sure,” they said, “but it feels like home, a little.”

“Will there be magic there?”

“Probably. There is magic in most places here, I think. Why?”

Thomas stepped carefully off of the flowerbed, scuffing his shoes against the cavern floor to remove some seeds stuck to the bottoms. The lights in his sneakers flickered feebly, the LEDs waterlogged and worn from use.

“I thought that maybe I could use magic to help my friends.”

Chara’s face closed completely, and they turned away from Thomas. “I do not think monsters here will want to help humans. I do not, either. But you…you are different. Maybe they will want to help you.”

Thomas had so many questions. He could see—and feel—that Chara was hurting, but he couldn’t help them. And he couldn’t help himself, really, either, though that wasn’t new. But he could walk with them at his side to the Ruins, and maybe they could figure something out.

“O-okay, then! Let’s head toward the Ruins.”

The two children left the flower patch, walked down a short hallway, and then turned into another cavern that had only grass and a single golden flower. It was larger than the others. Thomas tried to nudge Chara, but his shoulder went right through them and he stumbled forward a few steps. They both let out matching yelps of surprise.

“Sorry! Sorry sorry sorry, I forgot you were a ghost,” said Thomas frantically, automatically checking them for scrapes and bruises before remembering again that they were a ghost.

Chara looked more astonished at the overwhelming number of “sorries” than at the bumping. “No, it is okay.”

“I just—sorry, geez—”

“You do not need to apologize—”

“—wanted to ask you something—is that a monster?”

Chara’s eyebrows rose a little. “Is what a monster?”

And then the golden flower lifted its head and grinned.

“Howdy!”

#sanderstale #my fics #my writing

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swimmingseafish · 4 years

Text

Sanderstale Prequel: Jen

So, this is a Sanderstale prequel fic that I wrote in literally one day. It’s somewhat OC-focused, but I’m pretty proud of it, so I’m posting it here too.

tagged: @hideyseek @ironwoman359 @shrimpangie

summary: The journal of the second heir to the human throne, before the human-monster war. Could also be described as the personal accounts of Princen Cal of Medeis, featuring their family and monster friends and one particularly violent Entity.

CW: violence (mentioned at least), several implied deaths, possession, and an almost-drowning (but very vague).

(Please let me know if I need to tag anything else for this fic. I don’t think I’m leaving anything out, but I’m not positive.)

Read it on ao3!

Entry 1

(I have a strange urge to write this like a letter, and no one’s going to read this anyways, so they won’t care if I’m a dork.)

Hi, book of blank lined pages.

Father says I should keep a journal and write an entry once a week. He thinks it’ll help me prepare to help rule the kingdom one day. Or at least, I suppose, to deal with paperwork.

I mean, I guess it isn’t a bad idea. We’ll see how this goes.

It was nice to meet you.

- Cal

Entry 2

Greetings, still-mostly-blank journal.

People write important events down in journals, right? I think that’s how it works.

Well, I had my naming day this week! I’d been SO looking forward to turning eighteen. I finally got to stand in front of the kingdom and introduce myself to the world as Calyx, they/them, second heir to the throne of Medeis. Immy was very proud of her little sibling (me).

Prince Emile of Bellua was there, too, out of royal formality and respect. His naming day was a few months ago. I still don’t know him very well, but he seems nice, and so do his parents, which is good. Eventually, Immy and I will have to negotiate with him on things like borders and taxes, so we better at least kind of get along.

Hey, you know what? Since it’s my naming day and I insist on writing these like letters, I might as well name you, too. How about Jen?

(So, I like alliteration. Sue me.)

See you next week,

Cal

Entry 3

Dear Jen,

Mother and Father have been particularly stressed this week.

We’ve been working with Bellua to build and maintain a reservoir on the Regio, which is the largest river in the area and also happens to be the border between our two kingdoms. But the negotiation of exactly where to put the dam has been an absolute nightmare.

Why can’t we just put it by Lake Aureus? That makes the most sense. It’s basically a reservoir on its own already—just dam the river and add supporting structures to make the lake deeper. And that lake’s relatively empty of life for some reason, even though the water’s clean, so we wouldn’t be encroaching on protected species or monster homes.

But no one asked me, so.

Actually, hold on a second. I’m going to try something.

***

Back two hours later to say that Immy absolutely loved my idea and will be pitching it to our parents tomorrow morning. Huh. Maybe I should speak up more.

Good night, Jen.

- Cal

Entry 4

Dear Jen,

I’m no longer sure if speaking up was a good idea or not.

It’s managed to convince Immy and my parents that it’s time for me to handle a project on my own. Which should be a good thing! And I’m happy that they consider me responsible enough for that! It’s just that the project in question happens to be this infernal DAM. It’s fascinating, but the paperwork and scheduling and negotiations for workers and who does what when are absolutely EXCRUCIATING.

Also, I’ve spent nearly every day this week with Diana, the royal architect, which, again, SHOULD have been fine, if we hadn’t gotten into an argument five years ago with her daughter that led to us completely cutting off communication. Diana would not stop talking about Daisy.

“Yes, your highness, I agree that we should add more supports on that side. By the way, have you considered asking my daughter to help? She’s becoming quite a skilled architect herself.”

“It’s such a shame that you and Daisy don’t talk anymore, your highness.”

“Daisy actually came up with this particular design. Isn’t she doing such a good job?”

“Did you hear

I was going to keep writing out things that she said, but I got frustrated, so nope.

I like Diana, but I had good reason to stop talking to Daisy. So, also a big nope on talking to her.

I wish just one thing in my life was straightforward. Wait, no, definitely not. Nothing about me is straight.

***

I just laughed for a good five minutes over a pun I’ve made a billion times. I’m definitely exhausted. I need to at least try to get some sleep.

Night, Jen.

- Cal

Entry 5

Dear Jen,

Sorry, I know it’s been a month since I’ve last written, but I’ve gotten so much done!

Diana and I completed the plans for the Vis Dam three weeks ago, and it’s been under construction ever since. I’m due to go and supervise the end of construction in a few days.

I’m, quite frankly, a little nervous. I’ve put so much time and effort into this project, and it actually seems like it’s paying off.

As long as it’s not like the Cat Herding Incident of 1845, I think we’ll be good.

I’ll update this more once I can finally say the project’s complete.

- Cal

Entry 6

Dear Jen,

So! Things have happened. The Vis Dam is finished, thank goodness, but that didn’t quite go as planned.

Let me break this down for you:

I, in my ridiculous ceremonial robes, arrive at the dam. Prince Emile’s there, along with several other monster nobles that I don’t know and a host of human and monster workers.

I make small talk with Emile for the next hour or so until the dam’s officially complete. I learn that he really likes tea and that we both enjoyed this one children’s book series about space gem people. He is incredibly pleased to learn that I’d read it and that I am actually willing to listen to him talk about it. (People need to give this guy a place to nerd out more often, clearly.)

Both Diana and Daisy are there. I say hi to Diana and then proceed to ignore them as politely as possible.

It’s time for me to dedicate the dam, and I make my speech from the second-floor platform, just underneath the area that would vent water. It should be noted, and it cannot be emphasized enough, that this was not my idea. I would have been fine giving my speech from the top of the dam. But Diana decided, along with my parents, that it would be better to give a speech about the two kingdoms getting along if everyone was on the same level, literally. So, she added in a large, retractable platform lower on the structure. Why it was beneath the water vents, I have no idea. It might just be because that was in the center. Regardless, that’s beside the point.

Everyone else stands around me, while I stand with my back to the dam. It should be noted that the water vents were supposed to be OFF.

I finish my dedication of the dam to peace and harmony between humans and monsters, and everyone starts applauding. The vent directly above my head, determined to ruin my day, opens, blasting me and a dozen other assorted monsters and humans off of the dam and into the reservoir below.

This was not a short fall, by the way. It was a good 200 feet down at least. The only reason we didn’t all die was that someone caught us with blue magic just before we hit the water, holding us still for a brief second and then letting us drop 2 feet instead.

I, also, am terrible at swimming. We—Immy and I—had to take classes as children, but we only ever had to get good enough to be able to survive. Immy’s a swimming champion. I can tread water for five minutes. I was not (and am not) equipped to survive in a raging river.

Fortunately, just as I was about to go under for good, I felt my SOUL turn blue again. I was forcibly yanked from the water so hard that I flew over the water and smacked into my very furry rescuer. He felt so guilty that he couldn’t stop apologizing, despite the fact that he’d saved my life and he had no reason to feel sorry (as I promptly told him).

Turns out, his name was Patton, and he’d been practicing his blue magic by working on the dam—moving parts into place alongside the other workers. His specialty is healing magic, but his parents both served in high positions in the Belluan military, so they had insisted he learn more combative magic as well. He’d done great with fire magic, he told me, but the specific SOUL magic types had proven more difficult, hence the practice.

Right then, Emile, who’d apparently escaped being thrown off the platform by the waterfall of death, ran over, asking if I was okay. I quickly assured him that I was and that he didn’t need to worry, though it was appreciated.

And then:

“Oh! Prince Emile Dreemurr, meet Patton Hart. He saved my life.”

“Ah, n-nice to meet you, Patton.” Emile’s cheeks turned bright red as he dipped his head to Patton.

“It’s nice to meet you too, your highness!” Patton said, bowing and then bouncing back up. He glanced at me, still soaking wet, and then at Emile, standing there in pristine royal robes. “I see you’re not a go with the flow kind of prince.”

All three of us immediately burst out laughing, but Emile couldn’t stop staring at Patton the whole time. Prince Emile, who I’d officially decided was my friend now, clearly had a GIANT crush on the boy who saved my life.

I went home after talking to both of them for a little while longer—and after getting a towel. My robes were soaked. I think I’m going to need new ones; I don’t trust that velvet to last after that much exposure to dubious-quality water.

Patton, Emile, and I are planning on meeting up next week. I’m determined to play matchmaker. Also, they both seem like amazing people, and I haven’t had a close friend outside of Immy in years. (Don’t be offended, Jen—I’m counting humans and monsters, not journals).

Wow, this entry got long. I’ll be back sometime soon. It’s after midnight and I have to debrief Mother and Father tomorrow on this whole fiasco.

But overall, a successful day, don’t you think?

Night!

- Cal

Entry 7

Dear Jen,

I love these two.

First of all, there was an absolutely GOLD moment that I have to share.

We all met up at my home, the castle in Medeis, since neither Emile nor Patton regularly made trips to the human kingdom, so I figured it’d be fun for them. Patton got there first, and we were sitting in what is best described as the living room and chatting.

Emile, arriving next, didn’t know that Patton was there already, and for reasons unknown decided to open the door while making what were arguably the strangest noises I have ever heard in my life. It was like he was trying to be an entire orchestra introducing the beginning of a children’s play but could only generate notes via his own voice and using the vowel “da” at various pitches and intensities.

I actually didn’t even know it was him at first, to be honest, until he stopped, popped his head around the door frame, and instantly turned bright red upon seeing both me and Patton.

Does he just enter every room that way? Is that something he reserves for friends? Not the blushing thing, but the singing thing. I didn’t ask because he was already embarrassed, but now I REALLY want to know.

Second, on a more general level, things I learned from this experience:

1. Patton probably has a crush on Emile too, based on the evidence of my own eyes. (No, Jen, I refuse to elaborate. That would take up at LEAST all the rest of your pages.)

2. Patton will make puns endlessly unless he is stopped. (And Emile will definitely not stop him ever.)

3. Emile will reference various fantasy books endlessly and cannot be stopped. (This is not a bad thing. He clearly loves them.)

4. Patton, despite being the only one out of the three of us that isn’t an heir to a throne (and the youngest by a couple weeks), has the best head for leadership and politics.

5. All three of us care too much, apparently, and have been told so several times by our family and friends, especially Emile. He says not to hold it against his parents, though.

6. Patton’s a pacifist and refuses to fight anyone in a real battle, though he is trained for it. Luckily, there aren’t really any real battles he’d need to fight in. We’re lucky enough to live in a remarkably peaceful time.

7. Emile is simultaneously stronger and weaker than you’d think. He’s built, with broad shoulders and muscles clearly built up from years of training. But we practiced fighting together, and he’s the most skilled at magical attacks. His trident is really something else. I’m a skilled martial artist, but I’m not a mage, so I can only beat him about half the time.

8. Emile is trying to grow a beard with only VERY limited success. I asked him why he bothers when he already has more than enough hair, and he bopped me (very lightly!) on the head with his trident.

9. I laugh a whole lot more around Emile and Patton than I normally do.

The only other person I’ve been this close to was Daisy, but she broke my heart at age thirteen and I have no desire to revisit that experience. (Maybe the fact that I’m still stuck on it five years later is an issue. There really should be like…mind doctors or something to help with things like that.)

But anyways, I’m not in love with either of them, for sure. Though Immy would get a kick out of it if I fell in love with Emile—she’d say I managed to arrange my own marriage.

I do love them as friends, though, even though we haven’t spent too much time together. I think I get attached quick.

Hopefully we’ll get to do this again a lot in the future.

I’m not sure how much time I’ll have to write in the next few months. Harvest season’s coming up, and I still have to do maintenance on the dam. But I’m dedicated to this now, even though I think my dad’s forgotten he suggested it. Don’t worry, Jen. I won’t abandon you.

Have a good few months,

Cal

Entry 8

Hey, Jen. It’s been a while, huh?

I had a feeling it was going to be hard to keep this up consistently.

Anyways, I’m nineteen now, so there’s that! And yes, past me, you did get to hang out with Patton and Emile much more, don’t worry—I’m now confident in calling them my best friends. And they’re still dancing around each other like the goofballs they are. (To be fair, they’ve had more pressing concerns recently.) Even Emile’s little sister, Princess Linda, needles him about Patton constantly. That’s a good sister right there, and I say this with the full knowledge that I would hate it if Immy did this to me.

I also got to meet Patton’s friend Camden, a tortoise monster, and Camden’s little brother Gerson, who is the most optimistic child (and potentially person) on the face of the planet. Camden wants to be a professional photographer someday, and his work is excellent. He’s hilarious and laughs at pretty much any badly planned joke, which I’m starting to think is a prerequisite for being Patton’s friend.

And Gerson—I still cannot get over him. He’s seven years old and knows so much about the world and current events, but he never lets it affect him negatively. He always looks at the bright side. A monster kid like that, even if he’s not a boss monster, is going to live for centuries.

Oh yeah, current events. I guess I should put that in here too. God knows I need to talk to someone about it.

Tensions between humans and monsters are on the rise and have been pretty consistently for the past year. I didn’t know until three months ago when a skirmish broke out on the border—right by the Vis Dam, in fact. Three humans were grievously injured, and one was killed, but five monsters in total were turned to dust.

Immy and my parents had been trying to handle it quietly with Emile and his parents, but there have been an increasing number of humans terrified of monsters in recent years.

Someone—a palace worker named Silenda—went through the records from the long-ago battles between humans and monsters. She found out that monsters could absorb human SOULs while humans couldn’t absorb monster ones, and she told her brother, who unfortunately was both unable to keep his mouth shut and worked for a very popular newspaper. The information spread quickly, and there are some in our kingdom who have used it to stir up fear.

I actually was a little hurt that my parents didn’t trust me or Immy with this information. And that once they did let us know, they only told Immy. She had to tell me. But I do understand. She’s the Crown Princess. She’ll be queen one day.

But I’ll be her advisor and strongest supporter. Shouldn’t I know, too?

Ugh. I’m still bitter about this and it’s not remotely the point.

The point is that we’re starting to see skirmishes on the border, and neither ruling party wants that. But both countries have so far been unable to stop the fighting. The small factions are operating independently of the leadership.

We might have to call in the military to calm down the situation if it gets any worse, and I can’t see that going remotely well.

I said at the beginning of this entry that I’ve still been seeing Patton and Emile. And I have. But it’s gotten a lot less frequent over the last three months.

Patton’s been working with the medical corps of the Belluan military and volunteering on the “front lines” of the skirmishes, healing whoever he can. Camden’s out there with him, documenting everything for posterity. Gerson mostly stays home, but Camden’s had to bring him once or twice.

Emile’s doing his best as Crown Prince, but it’s been hard on him. He doesn’t hold much power on his own yet, and he feels like if his parents can’t do anything, what could he possibly do?

I’ve been reaching out diplomatically to the leaders of the small factions as best I can to try to get them to stop. Silenda’s been helping me; she’s a surprisingly fast writer, and incredibly brave and strong and a true believer in justice. She also blames herself for everything that’s been going on.

I’ve told her repeatedly that I, at least, don’t blame her, which is true, I don’t. I blame her brother, a little, and the newspaper some, but mostly I blame the people who decided that the only answer to being scared is to kill.

Why did I have to jinx everything by writing that we live in peaceful times?

I wish I could have a conversation about this with someone besides you, Jen, but everyone’s just so busy and overwhelmed and stressed. All I can do with them is endlessly throw solutions around and have none of them work out. At least I can get my thoughts out this way.

Until next time.

- Cal

[On the next three pages, several entries were started and then scratched out.]

Entry 9

Jen—

I turned twenty, and I think I might be losing my mind.

We tried military intervention. It didn’t work. Our soldiers, instead of holding the monsters back and protecting our own citizens, decided to go rogue and wipe out the entire monster battalion.

Bellua and its rulers were rightfully devastated and furious, and they were about to declare war on us.

My parents, Immy, me, and several other councilors held a meeting in the throne room to determine our best course of action. Eventually, they got around to asking my opinion.

I opened my mouth to suggest literally anything other than war. Reparations, peace talks, giving up territory. My best friends were monsters and I had—and still have—absolutely no desire to fight or kill them or their families.

But then I felt like my body was taken over by a stranger. I couldn’t control my movements or my voice. I watched, a horrified passenger in my body, as my voice made a persuasive argument for declaring war before Bellua could.

And they listened.

My parents. My sister. All the councilors.

They listened.

And they declared war.

What’s wrong with me?

I couldn’t—didn’t—say those things.

I love my friends so much that it feels like I have a star living in my chest.

Sil almost slapped me when she found out what I’d done. Instead, she quietly gathered her things and left, tears running down her face. I love her too, and I’ve never told her.

And I might have just lost all of them.

Who do I go to for help? Who would believe me? Even if they did, what could they do?

What the hell is going on, Jen?

Entry 10

It happens nearly every day now.

The Entity—that’s what I’ve chosen to call it—comes for me in the morning. I go through my routine mechanically, or, at least, my body does. Then the Entity and I join the royal council to make plans and move troops.

I’m a general now. Me. All I thought I would ever do was help Immy and run paperwork. And maybe build more dams.

I fight on the field, too. The Entity favors lightweight javelins and shatters SOUL after SOUL with them.

I think dust is permanently stuck to my boots.

I can’t make it stop.

Entry 11

Immy’s worried about me. But she’s all for the war now. And the Entity exerts control even when it’s not speaking for me. I can’t take its words back, so I can’t tell her what’s wrong.

Patton’s worried about me. He’s tried to send me messages using the little spiders that serve the matriarch of the Spider Clans. The Entity won’t let me write back or even read them, and it hurts every single time. The most I’ve managed to do is protect the spiders. The Entity wanted to squish them.

I don’t know if Emile’s worried about me or if he even cares. I’ve seen him leading charges on the battlefield, too. I don’t know if he’s seen me, but I hope not.

I haven’t heard from Sil. The Entity won’t let me reach out to her, either. But I thought I saw her next to Emile, once. I hope she’s safe, or as safe as anyone can be in this broken world.

Entry 12

I caught my reflection in the mirror today when the Entity was in control. They turn my eyes this weird pale red color. It’s not even pink. They just dull my eyes.

Appropriate, I guess.

I’m twenty-one today, for whatever it’s worth.

Entry 13

The Entity can control time.

Today, I managed to break free of their control for a split second and shatter a bottle of squid ink on a table filled with valuable intelligence. I could sense how angry they were. And, of course, how angry everyone else was. Immy just about took my head off.

But then I felt a warm sensation in my chest, blinked, and somehow it was 7 AM that morning again. I saw a flicker of bright golden light for just a second before the Entity, still irritated, quickly ran through my morning tasks again and headed back to the throne room. They kept me on a tighter leash this time, and I didn’t have another chance to break free.

How did they do that?

More importantly, if they’re controlling MY body, is that something THEY can do or something I can do? Because if I’m the one who can do that…

I need to conduct some research.

Entry 14

I’m exhausted. I’ve been doing most of my research at night. The Entity has far less control at night.

I still try to stay awake all day, though. I need to keep tabs on what they’re doing with my body.

Hence why my brain is dead right now. But I need to catalog what I’ve found.

My SOUL is red. I’ve known this since I was a small child. SOUL colors are logged at age five, as soon as it’s definitely safe enough to enter into the sort of magical connection necessary for a SOUL to appear on someone’s chest.

No one else in my family has a red SOUL. Immy’s is purple, Mother’s is dark blue, and Father’s is green. (Sil, though not my family, has a yellow SOUL.)

I’ve never met anyone else, as far as I know, with a red SOUL. That’s what started me on the track of thinking that SOUL colors might be important.

According to the old texts I found in the library, all the other SOUL colors are thought to be linked to personality traits or convictions. Light blue is patience, orange is bravery, dark blue is integrity, purple is perseverance, green is kindness, and yellow is justice. But red is never labeled, not in any of the texts I looked at.

Finally, at the very back of the library, just as the sun was coming up, I found a book so old and covered in dust that I was worried I wouldn’t be able to read it before it fell apart.

That book said that red SOULs store immense power, but they’re not linked to any specific trait. Red SOULs are said to be blank slates. People used to be afraid of them, apparently, because they feared they could be possessed by demons.

Well, if the Entity isn’t a demon, I don’t know what the fuck it is.

The part I still don’t get is the “immense power” line. The only humans who can use magic are mages. I’m not a mage. I know I’m not a mage. We’re tested for that as kids.

But I’ve never tried to see if I could control time because as far as I knew, that was impossible, and it’s a little late to learn.

And there’s always the chance that this could in fact be the Entity’s power, not mine, and I’m going on a wild goose chase in the middle of a war.

I don’t have much else to do, though, do I, Jen?

[The next pages are filled with tally marks and scribbled notes in various different pencils and markers. There are drawings of SOULs on several of the pages, and spilled candle wax and dried tears adorn a few as well.]

Entry 15

Well, I still can’t make those glowing time-points. But I do actually have a surprising amount of stored magic. It was just sitting in the center of my SOUL. I would never have figured out how to access it if it weren’t for the Entity.

I’ve seen and felt them reset a couple more times since that first day, usually when they say something that they consider less than optimal. They’ll just reset and repeat that moment over and over again until it meets whatever the fuck their standards are.

We’re four years into the war, now. I skipped noting a couple of birthdays in there, somewhere, but I’m twenty-four now. Twenty-four, and there’s still a demon living in my head, forcing me to kill.

Emile’s parents were assassinated last year. Not by me, but the Entity supported it. My parents are still alive, but I’m not sure how long that will last, giving the blood-and-dust nature of the world right now.

I know Sil’s one of Emile’s top tacticians now, thanks to the intelligence the Entity has gathered. I’ve seen Camden’s war photography, including a photo of Gerson, much taller than he used to be but still just a kid, standing out in front of their home with a giant hammer in his arms. Patton’s still working on the front lines, healing as many people as he can. He still refuses to fight. I admire him so much for being able to make that choice and stick to it. I wish my hands were still clean.

Linda’s serving under Emile now, too, but as a soldier. She’s far too young for this.

Maybe we’re all too young for this.

Immy scares me the most. She still supports the war, but more out of fear than anything else. She sounds like those fearmongering men from so long ago.

She makes me wonder if the war is even the Entity’s fault.

Maybe it would have happened anyway.

Entry 16

I found my power.

But I don’t control time—or at least, I don’t know how.

I erase memories.

The Entity stayed down in the dungeons—that’s another thing we never used to have, or at least use, here, really. But anyways, the Entity stayed down in the dungeons for too long, and night fell. So, I had a little bit more control than usual.

I reached out with just a little bit of my magic and tried to make one of those glowing stars that allow the Entity to reset. Instead, one of the prisoners cried out.

“Where am I? What happened?” They looked around wildly. “Wait…WHO am I?!”

That absolutely wasn’t what I meant to do. And I couldn’t figure out how to bring the memories back. It looks like, when I erase memories, they’re gone for good.

But I needed to figure this out. I tested my power on one more prisoner and figured out that I can erase only specific memories if I try hard enough.

Writing this out, I’m shocked at myself. I’m experimenting on people. And I don’t even feel that bad about it.

What’s wrong with me? I’m so numb to suffering at this point. I’m numb to the world.

I miss Patton, Emile, Camden, and Gerson…and Sil. But they’re better off without me.

I don’t know what I can do with this power. I’ll keep fighting the Entity. Maybe I can break free. Maybe that’ll be enough.

What else can I erase?

[There’s an interval of at least twenty blank, crisp pages.]

Entry 17

It’s almost over. After five years, it’s almost over.

I managed to free myself from the Entity for now. I won’t say how because I don’t have time, but they’re not happy.

Medeis won, if you can call it that. Sil, as the monster ambassador, and I managed to get Immy to agree to seal the monsters underground rather than exterminate them. The war’s done a number on us all.

Sil still hates me. She doesn’t understand. She can’t. She never will. Neither will any of them. They’ll all hate me forever.

Sil has teamed up with a group of other mages to create the Barrier. With me, that makes seven.

The Entity doesn’t like this. They want to kill all the monsters.

I won’t let that happen.

Camden’s dead. Linda’s dead. My parents are dead. Immy, Gerson, Patton, and Emile are still alive, and so are thousands of others. You don’t get to take them too, do you hear me, you absolute sack of shit?

You think this is a game.

You think that what you do doesn’t matter.

It matters to me. It matters to Immy, and Sil, and everyone else in my world.

After we seal the monsters underground, I’m going to erase you from this world. I’ll erase you, and I’ll erase the memory of monsters and magic ever existing from the minds of every human on this planet.

I’ll almost certainly die in the process, but I don’t care. They’ll have a future, and the monsters will be safe from you and the humans like you.

There’s no future for me anymore.

You’ll have no host and no memory of your purpose or identity. You’ll be gone for good.

They’ll be safe. They’ll be safe. They’ll be safe.

I love you. All of you. More than words could ever say.

Goodbye.

- Princen Calyx of Medeis

#sanderstale #my writing #sanderstale prequel

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swimmingseafish · 4 years

Text

Chapter 4

Finally getting around to posting Chapter 4 of Sanderstale on Tumblr. Sorry for the long wait, guys! (I don’t even know if anyone’s following this fic on here, but if anyone is, sorry!)

tagged: @hideyseek @ironwoman359 @shrimpangie

summary: Thomas gets to know Patton a bit more and unlocks a power he doesn't yet understand. Chara tries not to deal with half-remembered memories. And Chara and Thomas talk, just a little.

CW: nothing really, just angst.

Read it on ao3!

Thomas had no idea how he managed not to cry as he maneuvered onto his knees and took the monster’s hand. His legs shook, barely holding his body up, and he was breathing hard, but he let go of Patton’s hand as soon as he was standing. Thomas glanced at Chara, but they had absolutely no emotion on their face whatsoever, and he was too overwhelmed to figure out what they were feeling right that second. They were staring at Patton, who was in turn staring at Thomas, ignoring Chara completely. It seemed that Patton couldn’t see Chara, either.

“Are you hurt?” Patton asked, sounding concerned. He studied Thomas intently, but it didn’t feel intrusive, just worried.

“I’ll…be okay,” Thomas croaked out, his voice hoarse. He swallowed and realized his throat hurt. “Your name’s Patton?”

“You’re not okay now, though.” Patton frowned. They knelt next to Thomas, lifting one hand, and Thomas flinched. Patton drew back slightly, complicated emotions dancing on their face, and held both their hands up. “I won’t hurt you, kiddo, I promise. And yes, my name is Patton. I use he/him pronouns.”

Thomas resisted the urge to step backwards out of Patton’s reach, both because he didn’t want to be rude and because he wasn’t sure he could move. Instead, he asked, “What are you doing?”

Patton held one hand out to the side, and it began to glow a soft green, the same color as baby grass blades. He smiled tentatively. “I’d like to heal you, if you’d let me.”

“With magic?”

Patton chuckled slightly. “Yep.”

If he wanted to hurt me, he probably would have already.

Thomas hesitated for just a second longer and then nodded, wincing. The motion made his head spin.

Patton slowly moved the glowing hand towards Thomas and touched it gently to Thomas’ arm. A green glow enveloped Thomas’ entire body. He felt energy rush back into him and the pain in his throat vanish. The entire process only took about ten seconds, but Thomas felt much better afterwards—and simultaneously not better at all.

Thomas chanced a quick look at Chara again. They were still observing the situation with a blank expression, but he could have sworn that he saw a green glow around their body as well. As soon as he blinked, it was gone.

“There, kiddo,” Patton said, nodding and smiling gently. “You should be all right now. Follow me—my home is this way. You’ll be safe there.” He looked past Thomas with a frown, and his eyes flashed. “No strange flowers or other monsters will hurt you again.”

Thomas was unsure what he should do. Patton wants to protect me. I’m pretty sure that much is true. I don’t know anything about him…but I want to trust him. He nodded his head the tiniest bit. And I think Chara wanted to keep going this way originally, so I guess we might as well go with Patton.

He turned his head to see what Chara thought, but they just continued to stare at him and Patton blankly, so he figured the decision was up to him. Still looking at Chara, he said, “Okay.”

Thomas jumped as a wave of anger went through him, accompanied by a mix of other things that he couldn’t identify in the moment. But…I’m not mad. I’m upset and scared and hopeful and probably other things too, but I’m not mad. What…

He looked closer at Chara’s face. Their expression remained mostly the same, but their eyebrows were furrowed just slightly. Thomas had been trying to avoid talking to Chara in front of Patton, but he temporarily forgot completely about that and asked, “Are you mad at me?”

Chara’s eyebrows shot up and their eyes focused on Thomas’, accompanied by a burst of surprise in his chest. They opened their mouth to say something, but Patton interrupted them.

“Oh no, of course not! Why would I be angry with you?” Patton took Thomas’ hand between the both of his, the pads of his hands (paws?) just slightly rough. Thomas could feel the tips of claws, safely sheathed. “None of what just happened is your fault, kiddo. I’m just happy I was able to protect you.”

I can feel their emotions.

Chara shut their mouth and crossed their arms.

“I come through here every day to see if a human has fallen down. You’re the first one in years, though.” Patton stood up, brushing dust off of his tunic. There were a host of emotions brimming in his eyes. Thomas blinked as he realized one of those emotions was pain.

There were other humans? What happened to them? Was Chara one of them? Do they know Patton? I need to talk to them.

Patton pulled his shoulders back, twisting his face into a smile. Thomas couldn’t decide if it looked forced or not, but it definitely looked uncomfortable.

“Now, why don’t we pat on over to my house?” Patton said, gesturing toward the door. This elicited a quiet giggle from Thomas, and he could swear he heard a sound from Chara as well, though he looked to them and their face was still blank.

The two of them followed Patton out of the cave and down the corridor. Chara floated next to Thomas, shivering as they hugged their arms against their body. They now refused to look at either him or Patton, instead looking straight ahead into the darkness.

In the next cavern, the walls were made of purple brick, and there was a large staircase and a set of doors. A pile of red leaves sat in front of the stairs. Patton walked up the staircase first, then looked down, waiting for Thomas to follow him. He smiled, and this one looked more hopeful than hurt.

Thomas took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He thought of Joan and Talyn, trapped and waiting for him on the surface. He thought of Chara, angry and lost right next to him. And he thought of Patton and the unknown Ruins and the mysterious world that he had to venture farther into in order to leave.

He was filled with determination…

…and was immediately nearly blinded by a brilliant golden light. A tiny golden star-like object had appeared in front of him, spinning around on its own axis.

“Thomas, what did you DO?!” Chara hissed.

“I don’t know!” Thomas whispered back. He reached a hand out and touched the star. It was warm, but it didn’t burn him.

“You coming, kiddo?” Patton called down from the top of the stairs.

Thomas hesitated, then took a deep breath. “Hey, Mr. Patton?” He pointed to the star. “Can you see that?”

Patton peered down from the top of the stairs. “The leaves?”

Well, that answers that question. “Um…sure, yeah! The leaves! They’re really pretty!”

Patton laughed. “Well, I’m glad you like them, but I think it might be time to leaf them alone and head up the stairs.”

Before Thomas could even react, he heard a snort. Chara had clapped both hands over their mouth and was doing their utmost to keep a straight face. He smiled a bit, and they glared at him, but he was certain they weren’t really angry this time.

“Okay!” he said, running up the stairs as fast as he could. He was out of breath when he got to the top. He glanced down, and the star was still there, spinning in circles.

“You didn’t need to run, kiddo!” Patton chuckled, smiling at Thomas. “You remind me…” His face darkened for a second like a shadow had passed over it. “Never mind. Let’s get going.”

*****

Chara was feeling far too many things, and they were not happy about it. They floated along, a semi-reluctant observer, as Patton led Thomas through the button and lever puzzles at the entrance to the Ruins.

Patton held Thomas’ hand tightly.

Too tightly.

Just enough that it was wrong.

…

They wanted to hold Patton’s hand.

*****

“Good job!” Patton said brightly as Thomas pulled the last lever. “You’re a natural puzzle-solver!”

Thomas blinked, the compliment taking a moment to register, and then smiled tentatively. He’d met very few adults even remotely like Patton and still wasn’t quite sure what to make of him. This was compounded by the fact that all Thomas had done was pull a few levers and step on some stones on the floor. He didn’t feel like a puzzle expert.

Patton walked a bit farther down the corridor and gestured for Thomas to follow, which he did, feeling the texture of the cave floor through his worn-out sneakers. Chara floated along, slightly behind Thomas’ right shoulder, still silent.

The small group came to a stop beside a worn dummy. Its body was cone-shaped, and it stood on a simple base. It was entirely made of cloth and looked to have a horse-shaped head. The head was tilted slightly to the left. Thomas noted the patches on the dummy in particular, as if someone (maybe Patton?) had repaired it multiple times.

“Now, I would prefer it if you could avoid fighting, but some monsters you encounter may start fights regardless of what I want,” Patton said, starting to cross his arms. He stopped and put his hands behind his back instead. “So, I want you to know that you should be able to resolve any conflict by talking to them. I’ll come intervene as soon as possible to make sure they leave you alone.” He brought one hand out and patted the dummy on the head. “How about you practice by talking to the dummy?”

I’m underground, with a monster named Patton and a…ghost? spirit?...kid named Chara. I just met a flower named Flowey who tried to kill me. And now I’m supposed to talk to a dummy.

…Maybe it’s a monster, too?

Thomas approached the dummy slowly, tilting his head just a little to match the dummy. “Um…hi! It’s nice to meet you!”

There was no response. Behind him, Chara said dryly, “It does not seem much for conversation.”

Patton, on the other hand, was beaming. “Excellent job, kiddo! That’s exactly what you should do. Now, let’s continue—there are some more puzzles up ahead.”

*****

Patton wouldn’t let Thomas try the spike puzzle on his own, instead walking him through it carefully while holding his hand.

They supposed Patton never had enjoyed letting children near sharp objects.

*****

Patton led Thomas to an incredibly long hallway.

“I want you to walk to the end of this room by yourself. I’ll be waiting for you there.”

Thomas stared down the path, confused. “Um…”

“Don’t worry, kiddo, you’ll be safe.” Patton patted Thomas’ head gently, squishing his hair just a little, then walked very quickly down the hall. The corridor twisted, and as Patton rounded the first bend, Thomas lost sight of him.

“I—” Thomas put down the hand that he’d reflexively lifted up. “Okay?” He’d wanted to ask why, but he wasn’t sure enough of Patton yet to do that. Even the nicest of adults sometimes hated being asked why they were doing something.

He started off down the corridor, Chara trailing behind. His boots made a soft rustling sound against the stone floor. It was weirdly peaceful and tense at the same time. Thomas wanted to stop and talk to Chara, who was still upset, but he didn’t really want to leave Patton waiting. He figured he’d talk to them later.

As Thomas walked further and further down the hallway, he himself got more and more upset. Patton had left him…well, not alone, but Patton didn’t know about Chara. But he shoved his feelings away and focused on his footsteps and the faint red glow of Chara that he could see out of the corner of his eye. This wasn’t the time.

Thomas and Chara finally arrived at the end of the hallway and found Patton behind a pillar. Patton came out, laughing just a little. His smile seemed forced again.

“Excellent job, kiddo.”

Thomas furrowed his brow just a little. Did I do something wrong?

But instead of that, what came out of his mouth was, “Are you okay?”

Patton’s smile slipped, and he sighed, his shoulders sinking just slightly. “Yeah, kiddo. I just have to go prepare a few things for you at my home—” he winced almost imperceptibly here— “before we go there together, and I need you to wait here while I do. I wanted to make sure you could act on your own, so I had you walk down the hall alone.”

Oh.

“Oh.”

Thomas couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“Is that okay with you?” Patton asked, his face screaming, please say yes, please say yes.

So Thomas said, “Yes.”

Chara made a noise of some kind behind Thomas, but he couldn’t really process it. He was desperately focusing on the way that Patton smiled, for real this time. I did what he wanted. He’s happy. That means I have to be okay.

“Here, take this,” Patton said, holding out a small, rectangular device to Thomas. He flipped the casing open and saw buttons with numbers and a small screen. “You can call me on this cell phone if you need anything. My number’s saved in there.”

Thomas just nodded.

“I’ll be right back,” Patton said with another smile, walking backwards until he reached the entrance to the cave and disappeared.

Thomas lifted his shoulders up and down and sighed, sliding down into a seated position against the column. He realized he was shaking and took several deep breaths, and then immediately realized he was being watched. He looked up and saw Chara floating in front of him with their arms crossed.

“What is going on with you?” they asked, a frown twisting their face. “You are not okay. You did not want…him…to leave. Why did you lie?”

Thomas took a breath to answer, but instead, he just burst into tears. Chara jumped backwards a bit, shocked. Their red glow reflected off of the tears in Thomas’ eyes and blurred their shocked face just a little before Thomas shoved his face into his hands and hid them from view entirely.

He wasn’t sure how long he cried, but when the tears finally started to subside, he opened his eyes to Chara on his right. They had sat down next to him and were hugging their legs to their chest.

Thomas let out a watery laugh, and Chara turned to look at him. “You know, I wanted to talk to you about what’s going on with you, but now we both have stuff going on.”

Chara’s eyebrows jumped, but they quickly settled their face again. “I asked you first.”

Thomas turned his head away and focused on the torn denim of his jeans. “I don’t like lying. I’m sorry I did. But I didn’t want to hurt Patton.” He could tell that Chara was confused, so he added, “Patton looked like he really wanted to go and set his house up before I got there. And I didn’t want to make him stay if he wanted to go.”

Chara was still lost. “But…you wanted him to stay.”

Thomas shrugged a little. “Yeah. But that doesn’t matter.”

He felt a shock go through him as Chara finally got what he was saying. They shot to their feet.

“You put his feelings above yours.”

Thomas nodded. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“You are crying. Doing that hurt you.”

A couple stray tears fell down Thomas’ face, and he brushed them away, leaving streaks of dirt behind. “But it helped him.”

“But it hurt you!” Chara dropped back to the ground and put their head in their hands. “I…do not understand why you put a monster you barely knew ahead of yourself. Even if he is…much nicer than is…safe.”

Thomas shrugged again, unable to explain himself any better. Something about Chara’s wording was odd, but he put it aside for now. “It…it helped him. And that’s more important.”

“You do not think you’re important.” It was more of a statement than a question.

“…No. Not really.” Thomas didn’t see why this was such a surprise. Chara couldn’t possibly think he was important. They barely knew each other. And I’m really not important. I couldn’t even help two people up on the surface without getting hurt and being forced to leave them forever. How could I possibly be important?

“You really are different,” Chara said, letting out a broken laugh. They opened their mouth to say something else and then stopped, pointing to the far corner of the hall. A small, gelatinous creature had rounded the bend, and it squished toward the two children.

“That is called a Moldsmal, I think, though I am not sure how I know that,” Chara said, bemused. “I do not think they are dangerous.”

Thomas’ chest glowed, his SOUL reappearing. He stood up and stepped backward, his body instantly hitting the column. “Are you sure?” he whispered.

“Not…particularly. I really am not sure of anything,” Chara said, a bit grumpily.

The creature squished around in a weird way, but it didn’t attack, and it wasn’t moving any closer. But Thomas’ SOUL was still illuminated.

Thomas figured he might as well try something, even if it was incredibly random, so he took a step forward. “Um…hi! I don’t want to fight, but do you want to dance, maybe?”

He bounced up and down, trying to imitate the Moldsmal’s squishing. It squished along with his bouncing. It had no face, but it seemed pleased. It squished away down the long hall, and Thomas’ SOUL faded back into his chest. He turned to look at Chara.

Chara’s face was twisted with the effort of withholding laughter, and it startled a small giggle out of Thomas. Both children took a deep breath to calm themselves, but they immediately looked at each other and started laughing in earnest. Thomas could feel the tear-stained skin of his cheeks stretching as he smiled, and his SOUL resonated with the confused joy and released emotions that belonged to both him and Chara.

After about a minute, Thomas remembered that he’d wanted to talk to Chara, so he made a concerted effort to stop laughing, coughing in his haste. Chara’s last few giggles trailed off into the silence as he got ahold of himself.

Thomas turned to them. He wasn’t sure where to start, but he knew he needed to. He could feel the fingers of his left hand pressing together into a not-quite fist as he began, “Okay, if you don’t want to talk about it, that’s completely okay, but…how did you know what a Moldsmal was?”

Chara blinked. “Oh. I do not know.” Thomas tilted his head, and they frowned. “I am not lying. I did not know what it was before I saw it, and then I just…did.”

“Maybe you only remember things when you see them again.” Thomas’ mouth turned down to match Chara’s as he realized something. “Wait, so, then…do you know Patton?”

Chara’s face closed. Thomas could feel their anger and frustration and sadness, and he quickly backpedaled. “Like I said, if you don’t want to talk about it—”

“Yes.”

Thomas stopped. “Oh. Okay.”

Chara flinched a little. “Stop putting me first. I don’t deserve it. And you need to know. Because there is no way I am leaving.” They looked down at their hands. “I…want to remember everything. And I think you are right. I think I can only remember when I see the things…and people…I forgot. So, I might as well come with you. And if I come with you, we are going to see Patton again…so you should know.”

Thomas nodded. “O—I mean, all right. Go ahead.”

Chara dipped their head just a little. It was an oddly formal gesture. “I cannot remember everything, but I think my life on the surface was…not good. I came down here the same way you did; that much I know for sure.” Their hands were together in their lap, and their right thumb rubbed the fingers on their left hand almost obsessively. They were no longer looking at Thomas but instead into the distance.

“Patton, his husband, and his son took me in,” Chara continued. “I lived with them for…a few years? I think?” They shook their head, frustrated. “I am not sure. I can’t remember any of their faces or names except Patton’s. And I can barely remember them at all. But remembering them hurts. And I am upset with them for some reason that I cannot remember, or potentially multiple reasons, but I still care about them. It does not make sense.”

Thomas tilted his head again, this time simply confused. “Why not?”

Chara’s eyes focused on Thomas’, their fingers still rubbing together. “I do not understand why I can feel both.”

Thomas thought about this for a second. “Well, if you can be happy and sad at the same time, why can’t you feel other things at the same time?”

Chara frowned. “What?”

“When I left my friends, I was happy that I’d stopped them from getting hurt, but I was sad that I had to leave. And I was sad that I wouldn’t be able to help them anymore.” Thomas smiled just a little, but he felt his eyes begin to tear up again, just a bit. He blinked the tears away. He needed to be able to see Chara. “If I can feel two things at once, why couldn’t you?”

Chara turned away from Thomas completely, drawing their knees into their chest. Their voice muffled against their legs, they said, “I don’t want to. Not towards people. I don’t know how.”

Their shoulders shook, and Thomas could hear their jaggedy breaths. He realized that they were crying, and he wished desperately that he could hug them. He inched a bit closer.

“Would it help at all to know that I care about you?”

The crying sounds stopped, and Chara lifted their head, turning it so that Thomas could see half of their face. The tears on their cheek shone bright, like tiny red sunbeams in the dark. They laughed, the sound brittle like cracked glass. “Thomas, you barely know me.”

“I know some things about you, though,” Thomas said, moving to Chara’s side. “I know that your name’s Chara. I know that you laugh really hard and that you like silly puns. I know that you feel stuff stronger than most people, and I know that you hate lies and most humans. I know that you want to understand things, just like I do, and that you’re not afraid to ask questions.”

He stared into Chara’s eyes, hoping that they’d feel his sincerity. “I know that you’re hurting, and I want to help, even if you don’t understand why. And I know that I want to be your friend.”

Chara exhaled, one final tear making its way down their face. The corners of their mouth tilted upwards. “You are right. I do not understand you.” They got to their feet, and Thomas followed suit. When they brushed their tears away, no tear tracks remained, just a few sparkles that faded away into the dark.

“But I would like to be your friend, too.”

#sanderstale #my writing

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swimmingseafish · 4 years

Text

Chapter 3: Your Best Friend

The next chapter of Sanderstale is out!

tagged: @hideyseek @shrimpangie @ironwoman359

(let me know if you want to be added to or removed from the taglist!)

summary: In which Flowey appears, Chara remembers some things, and Thomas is too selfless.

CW: traumatic memories and vague mentions of abuse.

Read it on ao3!

Chara was alone in a grassy field.

They had a feeling that being alone wasn’t a new experience. The bigger problem here was that they shouldn’t be alone right now. They should have Thomas. They didn’t quite know what to think of him, but he was oddly kind, and he was the only person they knew or could remember.

“Thomas?” they called, spinning around in a circle. “Thomas? Thomas?!”

But nobody came.

They sat down and put their head in their hands. Just their luck. Why had they tried to be optimistic? Nothing good ever came of that.

Then, a hand tapped their shoulder, and they nearly shrieked.

Instead, though, they jerked their head up as fast as they could. A blurry, fuzzy figure was standing above them. Chara couldn’t make out the figure’s face, but surprisingly, they weren’t scared at all. When Chara stood up, they realized the figure was just slightly taller than them.

The figure waved and held up a black object.

“Howdy, Chara! Smile for the camera!”

Suddenly, they were in a kitchen made of grey bricks. A different, taller figure wearing a purple tunic stood at the counter. The room smelled like cinnamon.

“Hey, kiddo. Did you want to help me bake?”

Their location changed again, this time to a garden filled with flowers. The largest figure yet bent over the flowerbeds but turned to Chara as they stepped forward.

“Howdy, Chara! Would you care for a cup of tea?”

The field.

“Haha, I got you! I left the cap on…on PURPOSE!”

The kitchen.

“Of course you can have more pie, Chara! But you must finish cleaning your room first.”

The garden.

“It’s too cold? I shall heat it up for you right away!”

Field.

“Now you’re smiling for NOOOOO reason!”

Kitchen.

“I love you too, Chara.”

Garden.

“Nothing but the best for the future of humans and monsters!”

It cycled, fast and then faster. Chara was completely lost in a sea of vague memories, but they were happy. They felt loved here, not lost and adrift with only a strange human boy for company. However nice he might seem, Thomas was not family. These memory-monsters felt like family.

*****

“Thomas? Thomas? Thomas?!”

“Chara? Chara, I’m right here!” Thomas cried, reaching his hands out to his friend before remembering that he couldn’t touch them. He felt devastated as they sat down and put their face in their hands. What happened? Why can’t they see me?

“What?” asked another voice.

Thomas turned to the flower, who had moved closer, head cocked to the side. “Who’re you talking to?”

Thomas thought very quickly.

The flower—the monster—can’t see Chara? Why not? Should I tell them about Chara? No! I don’t know them. I don’t know anything about monsters, really, except that Chara thinks they’re better than humans. I’ll go with the safe option. Maybe they’ll leave it alone.

“I—um—I—it’s a human thing!” babbled Thomas. “I have an imaginary friend! Don’t worry about it!” He couldn’t help but follow Chara as best he could out of the corner of his eye and was astonished when he saw that they were wandering around the cave, looking at things he couldn’t see—unless they were just admiring the walls, which he supposed was a possibility. And…they were…smiling?

The flower tilted their head the opposite direction, then returned it to the center. Thomas had a feeling that they would be shrugging if they could. “Well, that’s not suspicious at all… let’s get back to business. I’m Flowey! Flowey the flower. He/him, if you want to know.”

“H-hi,” Thomas said. He was about to introduce himself, but Flowey didn’t give him enough time before chiming back in.

“You’re new to the Underground, huh, kiddo?” The flower started grinning manically, and Thomas noticed that he didn’t appear to have pupils. “Maybe little old me could help you out.”

There was an abrupt clicking noise, and Thomas felt an odd pulling sensation in his chest. A red glow filled the cave, Flowey’s grin only growing.

“W-what did you just do?” Thomas’ hands went to his chest. He touched something in the shape of a cartoon heart. It pulsed gently in rhythm with his heartbeat.

“That’s your SOUL!” Flowey said gleefully. “The very—”

“STOP!!!”

Thomas jumped and looked wildly around the cave. His eyes landed on Chara, curled up in a ball on the floor with their hands over their ears. Flowey continued his speech, but Thomas was no longer listening.

He ran over to Chara and called their name.

******

Chara continued to watch as the happy feelings and monsters flew by them. Field. Kitchen. Garden. Field, kitchen, garden, field-kitchen-garden-fieldkitchengarden—

The scenes sped up, moving faster and faster and faster until they became a blur. Chara felt like they were being lifted up by cinnamon and hugs and laughter and love and joy and HOME, and it was both alien and nostalgic. They never wanted to leave.

They floated up higher and higher, high enough that they should have hit the ceiling of the kitchen, but they never did, spinning around in circles, laughing. They felt free. They felt like a child. They felt safe.

And then they fell.

They were still incorporeal, but, somehow, they hit the ground extremely hard, red light radiating from the impact point. They figured they would have gotten a bruise if they were alive, but they didn’t dwell on that long because they were extremely miffed that they’d been kicked out of…whatever that had been.

“HEY!” they screamed, leaping to their feet. They grasped at their side for a weapon but found nothing. “That…that was RUDE! VERY RUDE!!!”

The room was silent.

“WHO DID THIS? WHERE DID YOU GO?!”

The room continued to be silent.

“I want to see them again!!” they shouted, tears forming in the corners of their eyes.

Still nothing.

“I…I miss them…” Tears ran down their cheeks, and they gave into sadness for a split second before driving their emotions back towards anger.

“And I can’t even really REMEMBER them! Is that YOUR fault? What’s WRONG WITH YOU?! I HATE YOU! I HATE THIS! YOU’RE HORRIBLE!”

A new voice spoke out of the darkness, and Chara froze.

“Would it be too much to ask you to behave for once? Speak properly! And do NOT call me names, you insufferable, horrible, BRAT!”

Chara couldn’t move.

“If you refuse to talk, why should you be outside at all? You are clearly not fit to interact with society if you cannot speak like a normal person.”

“What—”

“What is this nonsense you keep bringing up? That does not exist. You are being silly.”

“St-stop it!”

“Do NOT tell anyone about this, do you understand me? Or you will regret it.”

“Shut UP!” Chara jammed their hands over their ears, though it did nothing to block out the sound. “BE QUIET!”

The room didn’t listen. Instead, it shifted voices and timeframes as rapidly as the locations had shifted, overlapping them into a chaotic discord in Chara’s head.

“Oh, sweetheart…I’ll give you back the knife later. It’s not safe right now.”

*cough* “What did you children put in this pie?”

“Turn off the camera? Okay.”

“Chara! What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”

“Children…you must be more careful when baking.”

“I don’t like this plan, Chara…”

“Please wake up!”

“You are the future of humans and monsters!”

“Six, right? We just have to get six…”

“Chara…we love you.”

“Please…stay determined.”

“I’m sorry, Chara. I wasn’t strong enough.”

“I hate this I hate this I hate this I HATE THIS!” Chara screamed at the top of their lungs, drowning out the other voices. “STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT!!!” Too overwhelmed, they collapsed into a tiny ball on the ground, hands still over their ears, eyes shut tight, screaming “STOP!!!” until their voice was hoarse.

When they finally had to pause for breath, they heard a new voice. “Chara?”

The constant barrage of memories stopped dead. They opened their eyes and uncurled just a tiny bit, seeing a familiar human face and a hand outstretched in their direction. “T-Thomas?”

He smiled, but Chara could tell he was worried about…them? No, they must have gotten that wrong.

“Yeah. Are you okay?” he asked, bending down slightly.

“I…will live,” Chara said, rubbing their eyes with the heels of their hands. Then, they looked back up at Thomas and blinked. “Thomas, your chest is glowing.”

*****

Thomas had nearly forgotten about the whole Flowey situation. Screaming friends would always overrule strange flowers, even if said flowers were being extremely threatening.

“Oh. Yeah. Flowey said that this was my SOUL.”

“Flowey?” Chara asked.

Thomas pointed to the flower, who was still smiling, and randomly wondered if Flowey’s face hurt. “I was going to ask you if you knew what was going on, but…”

“I do not,” Chara said, climbing to their feet. They brushed nonexistent dust off of their pants. “But—”

“HEY!” Flowey shouted, having finally noticed that Thomas was distracted. Both Thomas and Chara flinched. “Stop talking to your imaginary friend and listen to ME!”

Thomas snapped to attention, his arm darting out defensively in front of Chara. They looked incredibly taken aback, but Thomas barely noticed. He was now laser-focused on Flowey, who appeared to have spontaneously generated eyebrows solely to show his irritation.

“I’m trying to teach you something here,” said Flowey, drawing out the “ee” sound for just slightly too long. It grated on Thomas’ eardrums. “The least you could do is fu—freaking listen!”

“Sorry sorry sorry sorry,” Thomas said quickly, holding up his left hand. His right arm remained in front of Chara. “Could you maybe say that again?”

Flowey’s eyebrows disappeared, and his smile returned. “Absolutely!”

Thomas realized he was shaking and took a couple deep breaths to calm down. He turned to look at Chara and saw that they were just staring at him. He wanted to ask them if they were okay, but he was afraid of Flowey getting angry again, so he gave them a small smile. They blinked once, but didn’t say anything, so Thomas turned back towards the flower, resolving to check on them as soon as it was safe.

“So, short version!” Flowey said cheerfully. “That red heart? That’s your SOUL. It’s pretty weak, but it gets stronger the more LV you gain.”

Thomas heard Chara inhale sharply beside him. He glanced to the side, and they had one hand on their head and their face scrunched up. He started to ask, “What—”

Flowey interrupted him. “LV stands for LOVE!”

“No it doesn’t, no it doesn’t, no it doesn’t,” Chara whispered, over and over.

“And it’s your lucky day, because I can give you some! You want some LOVE, don’t you?”

Five small white dots appeared around Flowey’s head, and Thomas felt like someone dumped a bucket of ice water down his back. Flowey’s grin grew impossibly larger, and Thomas could swear he’d somehow grown fangs. All the while, Chara was still whispering, “No, no, no, no, no—”

“LOVE is shared through little white…friendliness pellets!” Flowey trilled. “All you have to do is catch them!”

Thomas was confused and scared and didn’t think that this was a good idea, but he had no clue how to get out of this any other way.

“Are you ready? Move around! Get as many as you can!”

I’ll…maybe I’ll just catch one.

Thomas took two steps to his right so that he was standing in front of Chara. To their quiet one-person chorus of “No,” he reached a hand up and caught just one of the “friendliness pellets.”

Instantly, the pellet vanished, and Thomas dropped to the ground, gasping. He felt like he’d been punched in the stomach, but REALLY hard. (Or maybe kicked? He wasn’t sure.) At the same time, Chara’s voice stopped abruptly. Thomas wanted to turn around and see if they were okay, but his lungs didn’t seem to be working. He couldn’t get enough air, and the pulsing of his SOUL and heart had gone into overdrive. With an immense amount of effort, he lifted his head.

Flowey was still there, but his face had changed yet again. His eyes were giant black holes, and he definitely had fangs this time. His face was stretched wider than should have been possible with an open-mouthed smile that, despite its size, somehow didn’t really look happy at all.

“You IDIOT. In this world, it’s kill or BE killed.”

Desperately trying to breathe, Thomas managed to gasp out, “Chara…”

Flowey froze for a split second, his grin vanishing before reappearing two-fold.

“Shut up. D I E.”

A ring of “friendliness pellets” surrounded Thomas, slowly closing in, but he had a more pressing concern. “CHARA!”

“Shut UP!” Flowey shrieked, the smile still stuck on his face. “This is supposed to be FUN! You’re ruining it!”

A quiet, sad, and bemused voice spoke right next to Thomas’ ear. “I am all right, Thomas.”

Thomas let out a small sigh, the tension dropping from his body for a split second and then immediately returning. “No, you’re not! We’re kind of about to die!”

“I am already dead, I think,” Chara said. “I would worry about yourself—wait, what are you doing?”

Thomas had maneuvered himself onto his knees, groaning, and put his arms around Chara, though it was more like making a large circle around them than giving them a hug.

“I…do not understand.”

Thomas laughed, just a little. “I’m protecting you. The pellets will hit me, not you.”

Chara’s jaw dropped, and they tried to shove him away. Their hands went straight through his arms. “No! Thomas, I am dead already, stop it!” They glanced around, but save moving through the bullets, there was nowhere else to go.

Thomas smiled at them, tears running down his cheeks. “No, I won’t. And no, you’re not.”

He shut his eyes tight and thought of Joan and Talyn. He hoped as hard as he could that they’d be safe and okay someday and not miss him too much. He’d wanted to go back for them so badly, but he wouldn’t be able to now.

They’d run away, maybe, and find a nice home with somebody like Nurse Adri. They’d be happy, and go to school, and pet lots of kittens, and always have enough to eat. They’d love and be loved, and someday, they’d get everyone else out of that orphanage too.

They’d have a future, and maybe Chara would too.

That was worth it.

And then, because the universe could not stop jump-scaring him, apparently, a crash and a shriek forced his eyes open. Flowey was gone, as were the pellets. Standing in Flowey’s place was a new monster. This one was tall and fluffy and had short, curved horns on top of their head. They wore a purple tunic emblazoned with a strange symbol—a circle with wings above three triangles. Their arm was stretched out, and their hand was smoking faintly.

“What a terrible creature, torturing a poor, innocent child,” the monster said, disgust clear in their voice. They closed their hand, and the smoke disappeared.

“Who are you?” Thomas asked, his voice trembling.

The monster turned to him, a gentle smile on their face. Their eyes were bright sky blue. “Please don’t be afraid, kiddo. My name’s Patton. I’m the caretaker of the Ruins.”

#sanderstale #my writing #so much happens in this chapter folks #also copying and pasting removed my bolds and italics #I think I added them all back in but they're definitely right on ao3 #edit: I'm not sure this actually successfully tagged anyone #tumblr's being weird :P

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swimmingseafish · 4 years

Text

Random update on my Sanders Sides Undertale AU: I now have about 31 full pages of characters and backstory in a Word document and I still haven’t written the actual fic yet, though I’m starting now. This is a very interesting process 😂😊

(Also, I think my tag for this AU will be sanderstale, which I’ll reiterate again later when I make my first post with an actual fic attached and tag people, but I’ll say it here too.)

EDITED: I changed the tag to sanderstale. I think I like that one better. Still potentially subject to change in the future, but I’ll let you guys know 😅

#personal #sanderstale

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bilgisticallykosher · 2 years

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Sanderstale Chapter Three: I really dig the purple.

Masterpost | Sanderstale Masterpost | AO3

My discord server

Previous chapter | Next chapter

Words: 7684

Warnings: Roman's got a sword, mentions of Fight-ing, arguing, little bit of yelling, """dangerous""" puzzles and feats of bravery.

The next room was… very purple. There was a big, closed door, and a bunch of square-like structures on the ground. He guessed there was nothing to be said down here for a good interior designer, but then again, they were underground in some sort of cave or something. Really, he supposed that this was all pretty impressive.

“Welcome to your new home, innocent ones,” they all jerked their heads up to Toriel as she spoke, “Allow me to educate you in the operations of the Ruins.”

She smiled at each of them, Frisk was acting shy, Patton grinned back, Virgil looked nervous, and Logan, who was ignoring everything else completely in favor of staring wide-eyed at Toriel, pen and notebook out.

They watched as she walked around, stepping on some of the squares, pushing the ones she walked in down into the ground, until the door slammed open. Ah, perhaps, they were some form of button or trigger? Roman hoped that they all didn't have to do that; he hadn't been paying enough attention to the order, although he could at least see which ones were pressed in.

“The Ruins are full of puzzles. Ancient fusions between diversions and doorkeys. One must solve them to move from room to room. Please adjust yourself to the sight of them.” She turned to exit through the door. It looked like it would stay open, at least. Roman moved first to follow her, but Logan shouted before she could leave.

“Wait!” Toriel turned back, eyebrows raised, her mouth relaxed. “Are the buttons attached to some sort of internal mechanism to open the door? How did this practice come about? You said that they're ancient fusions; are these the original puzzles, or have they been updated since then? Additionally, what is this location, how many more inhabitants are there, and how long have,” he hesitated for the briefest of moments, “er, creatures like you dwelled here?” Patton gave a gasp and a whispered, ‘Logan!’ at the phrasing, Roman cringed. Sure, he might have been thinking the same thing, but he would have at least had the tact to not say it to her face.

He chanced a glance at Toriel, her eyes were growing ever-wider, a small crease in the middle of her forehead. She, at least, didn't look terribly angry, but Roman had the distinct impression that she was close to having her mouth hanging open. He looked around, and saw that that was, indeed, the case for Frisk and Virgil.

Logan didn't even seem to notice, pressing on, looking up from his notebook and staring around at his environment instead, taking it in. “And you're under a mountain, I can hardly think this is a thriving environment for anyone to survive for long. Is this the reason behind the legend?” He finally stopped, looking at Toriel, pen poised. Roman let out a low, downward-descending whistle. He heard Patton give a small snort, and he was pretty sure that Virgil made a quiet, strangled noise in his throat. He couldn’t tell if he was agitated or amused or impressed, because he couldn’t quite manage to look away from watching as to what Toriel’s reaction would be.

She blinked three times, Roman counted, and cleared her throat, expression changing into a smile.

“Well, that is certainly a lot of questions that you have, however, while I am unsure if I will be able to answer them all completely, I will do my best.” She tilted her head in thought, and put a finger to her cheek. “As far as the puzzles are concerned, I am afraid that while I do not know the specifics of them, I can tell you that they are mostly based in magic. It is a very ancient custom among our culture, dating back eons, originating from recreation. The puzzles that you see here are the original puzzles from when they were implemented."

She tilted her head to one side, seemingly attempting to remember the questions that Logan had practically accosted her with. "Our current location is known as The Ruins, within the greater area known as The Underground. The few hundred citizens that dwell down here are known as Monsters, and we have been down here under this mountain for several centuries, at the least. It is," she exhaled, "...quite complicated, and a very detailed issue, one that may perhaps wait a little while,” she concluded with her hands clasped in front of her, smile softer than it had been before.

Frisk broke out into applause as she finished, their smile bright. The sound woke Roman up enough for him to notice that he had joined the jaw-drop club. (Of course, he was always jaw-droppingly gorgeous, but now he was just stunned.)

“That was...indeed impressive. I- How did you manage to remember all those questions. Let alone in order!” Roman tried to nonchalantly shift himself into standing more at attention again.

“But,” Roman turned towards Patton, whose eyes were turned down, “I don’t think you’re a monster at all! You’ve been really nice to us!” There was a moment of awkward near-silence, where the only audible sound was Logan scratching away with his pen, furiously writing, until Toriel chuckled.

“I appreciate the sentiment,” she began, smiling wider at Patton, “but that is what our people is called, just as you are all humans. It is merely a name.” Roman brightened, being reminded of an all-too-familiar passage.

“And, after all, what is in a na-”

“Princey, this is not the time for Shakespeare,” Virgil cut him off. Roman choked on the very words that had begun to form on his lips.

“Excuse you,” Shakespeare plus dark persona equalled, “Twelfth Fright,” he hadn’t even had to pause to think of that one, he was happy to note, “that was the perfect set-up, if you hadn’t noticed.” He crossed his arms and frowned.

“You said ‘magic’ was employed in the puzzles’ construction? I’m afraid that I don’t understand.” Logan was either purposely, and quite effectively, ignoring everything around him, or he was really just that much of a nerd.

Well, that was a conclusion easily reached.

“Ah, well, all monsters are able to use magic.” Roman looked up, head turning towards her as he stopped coming up with at least 5 more nerd-related nicknames for Logan. That sounded like something worth noting. “I realize that this may seem a bit unusual among humans, and I am unsure how prevalent magic usage is anymore, but it is an inherent quality for monsters.” Roman was staring at her, contemplative, Logan was writing again, and he actually almost felt Virgil's unease from where he was standing.

“However, this is perhaps a concept best explained through example as opposed to merely words. Follow me and we shall be able to explore these concepts together.” With that, Toriel turned around again, and walked through the door. Roman burst out into excitement, drawing his sword once more, resulting in another variety of shocked screams.

“Don't worry, everyone! I'll be able to protect you from all the scary, magic-wielding monsters!” He made a few (safe from hitting anyone) mock parries.

“Creativity Sanders!” Roman winced, lowering his sword. He hated when Patton used his full name like that. That never meant anything good. Sure enough, Patton waved a finger in his direction. “Just because they’re called monsters doesn’t mean that they are monsters!”

“That doesn’t make any sense, Morality.”

“You know I don’t always explain myself well, Lo-Lo.” Logan mumbled something under his breath. “I just mean that, even if that’s what their species is, well, Toriel saved us, and she’s being so nice, helping us, and answering all of your questions, and,” he looked around at everyone, “didn’t you notice how sad she was when she was explaining being here?” Roman hesitated. He hadn’t. And he doubted that Logan had, maybe Virgil, he was more attuned to this sort of thing, naturally. Roman deflated a bit.

“No. I didn’t. I was so caught up with what she was saying, that I never realized how she was saying it. Now that you mention it…” he thought back, realizing that he had, indeed, looked down near the end of her extra long answer.

“That doesn’t mean that she’s trustworthy, P,” Virgil’s low tone cut through the atmosphere. Frisk turned towards him, staring at his frown with some sort of sad expression, themself.

“What, do you think that she was faking being sad?”

“No, but just because she’s sad about being trapped, doesn’t mean that she has our best interests in mind. I know she saved us from Flowey, but what if she has her own agenda? And didn’t you notice how she said ‘your new home’ before? What does that mean? Is she planning on trapping us?” Virgil’s eyebrows constricted more, and he looked angry, “We need to be able to get out of here to get back to Thomas, I don’t like the idea that she’s helping us get acclimated to this place. And, if they’ve been trapped, does that mean that we can’t get out either?” Virgil crossed his arms, avoiding eye contact now that he finished speaking. It was silent for a few minutes while they all thought this over.

“There’s a way out.” Frisk spoke up. They all turned towards them again. “She’ll tell us, you can trust her.” They stared at Virgil out of the corner of their eyes, but they spoke with certainty. They certainly were an optimistic child.

Roman wasn't entirely sure how he felt about it, but, well, it wasn't as if they could just sit back and not try. If what Virgil said was true, and he was desperately trying to not think about the possibility that it was, then they would have to deal with it if it came up. Now, however, there was no reason to dwell on such possibilities, it would only hinder any potential progress. So, he guessed he was agreeing with Frisk. They had to be encouraged anyway. Roman grinned, large and toothy.

“Of course, Frisk! I'm certain that you're right. I don't think any of those issues that Anxiety mentioned are bound to come up anyway,” he waved a hand in Virgil's direction, who flinched. Roman scoffed to himself, it wasn't like he thought he was going to hit him. Frisk just still smiled at him. "You're as brave as this old Prince, aren't you?"

"We're not that old," Patton muttered.

"Thank you for your bravery, my little monarch!" Frisk's eyes widened, and it took them a beat, but they smiled wide, and looked elated. Aw, well now he'd have to call them that more often.

“Sure, kiddo, we'll let her help us along no problem.” Patton smiled down at them before turning towards Virgil, “Not that your points were bad, they were definitely good to hear about all possibilities so that we could make the best decision we could.” Virgil rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, looking away from them all.

“Whatever.”

“So then,” Roman began, dramatically walking forward, “let's go, onward and-”

“Wait!” Roman jolted mid-step, nearly out the door, Frisk right behind him, turning around, angrily glaring at Logan.

“What is it now, Charlelame?!” Logan just leveled his own half-glare right back at him, pushing up his glasses.

“I was merely going to suggest that we look at the sign in the room before we depart. I believe it's a clue to solving the puzzle.”

“But, the puzzle’s already solved, Loga-ic,” Patton reasoned. He mumbled to himself, “Man, this is gonna be hard to get used to again.”

“Yeah, if the door's already opened, why should we care?”

“Because if we're to solve these puzzles through the rest of The Ruins, then we should become accustomed to solving them,” Logan concluded walking up to the sign. He began to read aloud. “‘Only the fearless may proceed. Brave ones, foolish ones. Both walk not the middle road.’ Ah. I see.” Roman squinted. He saw what? Virgil made a noise in his throat.

“You solved it already?”

“Oooh, I think that I did, too!” Patton bounced on his feet a little. He turned to Frisk. “Did you want to solve it, too, kiddo?” They just walked over and pointed to the two buttons that Toriel hadn't walked on. “Great job, Frisk!” Roman was looking back and forth between all of them, Virgil and Logan shared a look, too. Obviously once they'd seen the solution, they'd be able to ‘solve’ it. But Roman guessed that none of them would call either Patton or Frisk on it.

“Very good, Frisk. Now, may we get on with our journey?” Logan rolled his eyes and gestured towards the next room, allowing him to go first. He walked forward, hand at his sword, just in case, Patton following with Frisk, then Virgil and Logan. Toriel immediately smiled at them.

“To make progress here, you will need to trigger several switches. Do not worry, I have labelled the ones you need to flip.” Roman was ready to do so, but Logan was already wandering off to go and read a sign that was on the wall.

“‘Stay on the path.’ Oh, my apologies.” Roman suppressed a snort. Was he actually saying sorry to a sign? He walked back to the group, and leaned over to read the sign closest to them. “‘Lean in to read signs’?! Really, now.” He crossed his arms, notebook still in hand. Frisk had already wandered over slightly further down the path. Roman and Patton quickly followed behind them. They were at the first switch, Toriel blocking the second bridge. Patton took it upon himself to read the brightly-written message printed on the wall.

“‘Please press this switch,’ and look,” Patton pointed at something written there. “Toriel signed it!” Roman hastily tried to cover up his laugh into a cough. He was an actor, of course, so he was reasonably sure that he managed that well. He made sure to keep his hand casually on his face as he glanced at the wall with the switch again.

In addition to the message that Toriel had written, in bright yellow marker, no less, there were a number of big arrows, blatantly pointing towards what was the only option to select. Frisk flipped the switch. Toriel, and by proxy, Frisk, Patton, Logan, Virgil, and Roman himself, moved further down into the room. Toriel stood right in front of the doorway, blocking what looked like spikes. He winced, that was some 'puzzle'.

Before Roman could get a good look at the two switches on the next part of the wall, Frisk was already going to flip one.

“No no no!” Toriel chastised as they went directly for the switch that Roman could see did not have the arrows pointing towards it. “You want to press the other switch. I even labelled it for you…”

“Wow,” Logan muttered, standing midway to them on the path, “they are superfast at being wrong.” Roman looked at him, biting his lip in amusement, before turning back, hoping that Frisk hadn’t heard him. Patton was gently guiding them towards the labelled switch, reading out the new text.

“‘Please press this switch too.’ Go ahead!” Frisk flipped the switch, and a metallic, earth-shaking clunk resounded throughout the area. Roman peered past Toriel, noting that the spikes had retracted.

“Splendid! I am proud of you, little one. Let us move to the next room.” Toriel glanced over them all, smiling a little brighter, and left.

“Ah,” Logan piped up, “‘Stay on the path’ were not instructions for etiquette, it was a clue to complete the puzzle.” He pointed at the ground, gesturing to the lighter purple. “Note how it winds towards the individual switches necessary to retract the spikes, yet not to the other, incorrect one.”

“Wow, I wouldn’t have noticed that at all, great job!” Logan looked proud, chest puffing out at Patton's praise.

“Of course.”

“Yeah, really great, Logic, wonderful skills of observation there,” Roman turned around from his place by the wall, and watched Logan’s eyes narrowing in suspicion as he took in his compliment.

“Why, thank you, how kind of you.”

“Oh, no problem, buddy, just, I wonder if you saw the other clue in the room?”

“What?” Logan’s eyes became wide, and darted around. “What possible other clue did I miss? Was it something in the water? I will admit to not giving it thorough analysis-”

“No, I was more referring to,” Roman put his finger on his chin, and counted out five beats, giving a faux pondering expression as he did so. “Oh, I don’t know,” he abruptly gestured behind him with both arms, “the giant glaring arrows pointing at the switches, maybe?” Logan huffed.

“That is not what I was referring to and you know it. Those were clearly added by Toriel, after the puzzle’s construction.” He put the hand not currently holding his notebook on his hip and glared at him.

“Hey, uh, maybe we shouldn’t insult anyone who might have had a hard time figuring out the puzzle?” Patton interrupted tilting his head at Frisk, raising his eyebrows in an obvious manner. Roman crossed his arms petulantly and glanced at Frisk. They didn’t seem like they were offended...they were looking between Logan and himself a little nervously. Roman took a moment to feel bad about not considering Frisk’s feelings, although he was half convinced that they went to the wrong switch on purpose. He sighed.

“Alright, fine, fine, good job Logic, good job everyone involved, now let’s go. Onward!” He turned, quite valiantly, and drew his sword again, pointing it before him like a steel compass. A shiny, sharp, steel compass. Logan sputtered.

“Would you put that thing away?” he hissed out between his teeth. Roman turned his head long enough to stick his tongue out at him, then turned his head back, smirking. He walked right up to Toriel, sword lowered, of course, and saw some stuffed figure further on in the room. She politely waited until all five of them had entered.

“As humans living in the Underground, monsters may attack you.” Roman got a little niggle in the back of his mind at that, and while that had happened before, he was certain that it was just because of the imminent danger posed by monsters potentially attacking them. “You will need to be prepared-”

“Ah-hah!” Roman swung his sword forward again, pointing it at what was the closest thing to a danger in the room, whatever that stuffed thing with the big nose was.

“-for this situation,” Toriel finished, eyes wide, staring at the sword. Roman heard no fewer than two individual palms meeting their owners’ faces.

“Don't worry, I’m well prepared to vanquish any evil foe who dares try to do us harm!” Instead of mock-slashing as he would normally be tempted to do, he decided against it due to the crowding in the room. He whipped his sword up, vertically, right in front of his face, looking quite dashing, if he did say so himself. Which he did.

In the ensuing silence, he heard another palm hitting face.

“...Ah.” Toriel slowly walked over to him, holding a hand out as though going to touch his shoulder. “I think, perhaps, that may not be necessary. In fact, I am about to teach all of you how to better deal with such a scenario if it should occur. Why not place your sword down, at your side once more?” She didn't seem terribly upset at him interrupting her, at least. Still, he relented, returning his darling to its hilt with a pout, crossing his arms.

Toriel breathed out, lowering her hand. “Thank you, my child.” Her what? She had already faced everyone in general, but he caught Patton's eye as he turned. He looked generally happy, and unbothered by it. Maybe it was just a thing, like how Patton called people kiddo…?

“Now, as I was explaining, the process to handle the situation is simple. When you encounter a monster, you will enter a fight. While you are in a fight, strike up a friendly conversation.” He heard Virgil make a noise in his throat, Toriel either didn't notice or was ignoring it. He looked, noting how uneasy Virgil looked. Granted, he'd sort of looked that way from the beginning of their journey, anyway, but at least it was nice to know that he wasn't the only one who thought that Toriel's advice seemed ridiculous.

“Stall for time. I will come to resolve the conflict.” Roman rolled his eyes. This was outrageous! He was a Prince! A prince who had all the skills of a knight! A Prince-Knight! This was not how battles were supposed to go! “Practice talking to the dummy.” Roman pinched the bridge of his nose, collecting himself. He needed a moment.

When he looked back up, Frisk and Patton were already walking up to the dummy, before he heard the same blippy sound that he'd heard before with Flowey. He instinctively put his hand on his sword, before realizing, it was a dummy. He doubted he'd need to step in to save them. A light drumming overtook the other piano-y music that he'd gotten used to.

This time, he was able to get a look at their hearts- well, souls. He crossed his arms. Red and green. Nothing against Frisk, of course, but Roman should have been the one with a red soul. He'd have to look at Virgil and Logan's if they ever had theirs drawn out again. Which, honestly, he hoped that they wouldn't, considering the circumstances last time. Patton's was green, though? He scoffed to himself. That wasn't right at all!

He noticed that the area surrounding them turned black and white again, but this time there was more to look at. There were four orange buttons and some writing on the ground. Hmm. He stepped closer, along with Logan; Virgil was looking back and forth around the room as though something was going to happen.

He could finally see better, the buttons seemed to have options on them, and his eyes immediately drew to the first one that said FIGHT (it even had a picture of a tiny sword on it!) Of course, they didn't choose that one, but rather he saw the green heart float gently over to ACT. Logan was scribbling like crazy in that notebook of his, and when Patton's soul pressed the Act button, the word Dummy appeared, and when he further pressed that, two more options presented themselves. Check, and Talk. Frisk’s red heart floated over to select Check.

Words immediately took form in front of them. Roman's jaw dropped. Patton, unaffected, read outloud.

“‘Dummy. A-T-K, zero. D-E-F, zero.’” He heard Frisk giggling. “‘A cotton heart, and a button eye, you are the apple of my eye.’ Awww, that's so cute! Look, Log- look, a poem!” He was grinning at Logan as he pointed at the words that were literally floating in midair as though he wouldn't have been able to see them on his own. Logan cleared his throat.

“Yes, thank you, Morality. Very nice. However, I believe that you can simply pronounce those as ‘attack’ and ‘defense.’” Roman blinked, jaw slowly closing. This really was a video game.

“So, kiddo,” he returned to the matter at hand, speaking to Frisk again. “What do you think we should do now?” Patton's green soul floated over towards the ACT button again, but Frisk went directly for a button on the right which read MERCY, clicking on it, revealing ‘Spare’ and ‘Flee’ as options. Frisk's red soul clicked over Spare. Nothing happened.

They did the same thing again. Mercy, Spare. Nothing. Mercy, Spare, nothing. Mercy, Spare, nothing. Mercy, spare, nothing. Mercy, spare, nothing. Mercy, spare, nothing, mercy, spare, nothing, mercy-

“That's a great idea, buddy, but maybe we should try doing something else?” Patton's voice was forcing a cheery tone, his grin strained. Frisk kept going and Roman lost track of how many times they'd done this.

“The definition of insanity is repeating the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Frisk flinched a bit at that, but didn't turn around.

But Roman did.

“Hey there, Dictionary,” he spoke, putting emphasis on the first symbol, hoping that Logan would get the point (which, judging from the way he adjusted his glasses, he did.) “Did you have a point that you wanted to make that work would actually help us?”

“I was merely suggesting-”

“Hey, guys,” Patton spoke up.

“Oh come on,” Roman whirled around to face him, “you can't expect me to just not say anything.”

“No, guys.” He pointed at the dummy, which was vibrating before Frisk hit Spare again. Then it abruptly floated up out of the battle space, leaving. The words, ‘YOU WON! You earned 0 XP and 0 gold.’ floated in front of them before color came back into the area. Roman was flabbergasted. He looked at Toriel, whose mouth was a flat line, as were her eyebrows, eyes wide. Then, she looked to the side, where the dummy had once stood, and raised an eyebrow. Frisk was smiling gently.

It was silent for a moment. They were all staring at the dummy. Then,

“WHAT THE-”

“The next room awaits.” She spoke at the same time as Logan, effectively silencing him, while he proceeded to gape. Toriel moved to the next room, giving one last wary look at where the dummy had sat.

“So, Frisk,” Patton began as Frisk looked at him. “That was, uh, an interesting strategy?” Logan composed himself.

“The dummy tired of your aimless shenanigans.”

“Logic!”

But Frisk just turned towards Logan with a big grin; they looked amused.

“Frisk,” Roman composed himself, “that was a training dummy, those are meant to be hit, and fought!” He demonstrated a few punches to the air, “Why didn't you choose a more active option?”

“The dummy was for speaking, Prince, not fighting! I'm surprised at you!” Roman groaned.

“But Morality, it's for training in fighting. It can't even talk back! How is that supposed to help us? Besides, it would be much more useful for them to get training in case of an emergency!” He flipped his left hand out, arguing his case.

“That does seem logically sound, Morality.”

“Ha! Even Logy BlahBlah agrees with me!” Logan squinted, and mouthed 'Blah...blah?' to himself.

“Well, okay," Patton argued, "I see where you're coming from, but! Even though Frisk had a slightly… different take, we should still be listening to Toriel. She'll help us get out.”

Virgil made another noise, and Roman caught it enough to see the facial expression he made. His eyes were off to the side, his whole head was down. He looked up when Patton spoke, though.

“You don't think that there's something wrong with her, do you, Vi-iiiiinxiety? I mean, Frisk trusts her, right?” Virgil leveled Frisk with a soft glare. Frisk had stopped smiling

“Yeah, I know.”

“Anxiety,” Patton breathed out. Virgil flinched slightly, then pulled his hood up and resumed looking at the floor again. Logan had his finger on his chin, quiet, while Patton was visibly upset.

Things were quiet for a moment while Roman silently fumed at him. How on earth could he say that? Let alone right in front of them! Then again, Virgil did occasionally have good instincts, but this was outrageous! He glared slightly. Well, he would show him!

“Well, we can't just stand around here, either way. The next room!” And he dashed ahead, corralling Frisk on his way, Patton immediately following. Logan and Virgil came through only a few moments later.

“Ah, hello. There is another puzzle in this room. I wonder if you can solve it?” She made them room, walking just ahead. Logan immediately perked up, pushing through Roman and Patton to take a look around, Frisk going with him, but only watching. While he was doing whatever he was doing, Roman caught Patton’s eye, and gave an overly-dramatic (he didn’t know any other way to be) eyeroll. Patton smiled a little, but didn’t give his usual toothy grin. Roman lifted an eyebrow and inclined his head towards him.

Patton tilted his head slightly to the side. Hmm, he didn’t look okay to Roman. He glanced over to where Virgil was, who was watching Logan with a side-eye, then stared right back at Patton. He gave a wry smile, pursing his lips. Roman relaxed into a soft smile, eyebrows going up and down twice, and Patton gave him a real smile that time, which Roman returned.

“Ah-hah!” Logan was standing proudly before a sign, notebook raised in the air in a triumphant pose. “I’ve got it!” But before he could elaborate, there was that same pixelated noise from before, and suddenly Frisk and Logan were pulled into another, according to Toriel, fight. Roman gasped, hand immediately drawing his sword.

“STAND-” Patton cleared his throat, Roman had a weary look, before turning towards him. He raised an eyebrow, arms crossed, Roman pouted and gestured at his sword. Patton frowned at him. Ugh, what a todaditarian, this was totally unfair! He put his sword back in its hilt with a pout and crossed arms. Patton grinned at him, letting out a tiny laugh.

“Now that that’s quieted down, Creativity, Frisk, I think it wisest to ‘Check,’” he actually did the air quotes with his fingers, “this, Froggit apparently, before we do anything else.” Toriel started rushing back. Logan cleared his throat as his- yellow, huh?- soul floated over, and hit Check.

“‘Froggit, Attack 4, Defense 5. Life is difficult for this enemy.’ There, now that’s- oh.” Toriel burst into the fight, somehow; Roman would need to figure out how to do that. For all his threatening to save them from danger, he wasn’t actually sure if he could manage that. He should definitely be involved in more Fights, though, he hadn’t had his own soul out since...Well, never mind that.

He watched, mildly fascinated as Toriel glared fiercely at it, and it slunk off to one side. Logan, of course, started writing while looking at Toriel, who was sending an extra glare at Froggit. The YOU WON! message flashed in front of them again. As the blackness faded away, Toriel stepped aside and Logan and Frisk walked back over to them.

“The sign states that ‘the western room is the eastern room's blueprint,’ which I believe means to reference the path on the floor, here.” He gestured at the blocky, odd-looking path on the floor slightly lighter in purple color than the rest of the room. “As you might be able to see, the eastern room is actually, in fact, a floor covered in spikes-”

“It's what?!”

“-which should be safe to walk through if we follow the pattern here. Really, Anxiety, there's no need for yelling.”

“Fiends!” Roman shouted, pointing suddenly towards the eastern area, regrettably without his sword.

Although perhaps that was a good thing, if he'd had it, it would have been a near miss for Logan, who had moved to ignore Virgil and turn towards himself.

“How dare they think they can harm us with their fiendish traps of dangerous spikes?!”

“You used ‘fiend’ twice, Your-Royal-Whineness.” Roman glared at Virgil's dry comment. Couldn't he see that this was a problem?!

He took a second to be momentarily impressed by the insult.

“I don't think the spikes should pose a problem, Prince," Logan called their attention to him. "For one, I am confident in my ability to solve the puzzle correctly. Additionally, well, if you would all come here to see...” He waved them over, and, still glaring suspiciously, Roman as well as Patton, Frisk, and Virgil, walked over for a better view of the bed of spikes.

They weren't nearly as tall as he had suspected. Or as sharp. Hmm. But that didn't take away from the fact that they were spikes. He crossed his arms, avoiding looking at Logan. He'd gone back to look at the path anyway. Roman could see him sketching it out before returning. “Now, if you don't mind, I'll lead the way.” He turned, presumably to do just that, but Toriel was standing in the way, looking hesitant.

“This is the puzzle, but…” she looked them over again, her eyes landing on Frisk and stretching out her fuzzy hand. “Here, take my hand for a moment.” Logan stared at her, eyes going wide before narrowing abruptly, lips a firm line.

“You're joking, surely.”

“Come on, don't be a spoil sport,” Patton reached forward, grabbing Toriel's hand, and Roman could swear he saw him adjusting his hand in a manner that would allow him to quasi-pet the fur that Toriel had on hers. “And it's Toriel, not Shirley!”

Toriel and Frisk burst into laughter again, while Roman chuckled appreciatively, what a classic, and a bit harder when he saw Logan's glare was accompanied by an eyebrow twitch.

Frisk took Patton's other hand, and Roman immediately grabbed onto theirs. He wiggled the fingers of his free hand at Logan, grinning.

“Pass.” Roman scoffed.

“What, afraid that you'll like it too much?” He smirked “Ask Woemeo over there how magnificent it was!” He shot a glance over at Virgil, who was glaring at him even deeper. He felt a pang of guilt shudder through him as he remembered the less-than-ideal moment the two of them had shared in that Valentine's video, as it so often did whenever he remembered how he'd treated Virgil in the past.

“Sorry.” Virgil rolled his eyes and looked away, which Roman took to be a good sign. He brightened again. “Well, maybe you two can just,” hold each others’ hands, “break the chain and walk separately like the edgy rebels you are.” Now Logan rolled his eyes.

“Whatever,” Virgil shrugged, still surveying everything with flitty, squinted eyes. Toriel watched them for a few moments more, Roman looking back at her, smiling patiently. She evidently decided that they were ready, because she turned around and started slowly walking. Patton was following her specific steps, Frisk followed Patton's, and Roman followed Frisk’s. He could hear Logan muttering to himself.

“One down, three to the right…” Roman was sure the other two would be fine. Also, he hoped that they wouldn't have to come back this way, because he wasn't even remotely paying attention to the path, instead watching Frisk thoroughly enjoying themself, swinging their joined hands, a little skip in their step. Patton, on the other hand (ha, literally the other hand) was much more cautious, not lifting his eyes from the task at foot, tongue sticking out slightly in concentration until they reached the other side.

“Puzzles seem a little too dangerous for now.” Toriel stood watching them as they all climbed off the spike puzzle. Roman saw Logan distinctly roll his eyes, even as he concluded mumbling.

“And then two more to the right. Yes, quite a fearsome challenge.” Thankfully, Toriel had already gone on again. Rude, much, Logan? Roman dropped Frisk's hand, crossing his arms, ready to say something, concentrating so much that he almost didn't notice Frisk scampering back towards the spikes. Right back onto the squares they had come off of.

And about to run onto ones that they had not.

“NO!” Patton, Roman, and Logan all shouted, Virgil flinched aside. They all instinctively reached out as Frisk ran onto the spikes that had not been on the safety of the path.

Which promptly retracted beneath their feet.

Roman scrunched up his face, confusion taking over, arm frozen from where he'd reached out to try and grab Frisk up by their shirt before they got hurt. Which was…apparently not happening? Which was good, of course. But it was a bit disconcerting to see them running and jumping around back and forth on the spikes which they had just been told were dangerous. What a weird puzzle.

“You've got to be kidding me.” Logan grumbled, making an obvious big X over what had to have been the drawing of the path that he'd done to solve the puzzle. “Dangerous,” he scoffed under his breath. Patton had gone back onto the puzzle, and was currently bouncing up and down on one of the spike plates.

“They're… all harmless?” Roman asked, dropping his arm.

“Certainly looks like it to me!” Patton said, gently getting off of the puzzle. “That's a nice little bit of insurance, just in case we forgot,”

“I had it written down. On this very notebook, which I am currently holding.”

“Or Lo's page went missing or got dirty or something.”

Roman sighed, trying to pump himself up again, as he once again entered the next room, ready to throw himself into the next task, and waited for the others to follow, idly drumming his fingers on the hilt of his sword. Toriel glanced at the motion before meeting his eyes, and he smiled lightly at her, which she returned, eyelids raising.

“Quite a lot of purple down here, isn't there?” Because this room was, indeed, just as purple as the others had been.

“Yes, I am not sure why that is, but it is only like that here in the Ruins, whereas in the rest of-” she cut herself off, eyes wide, smile faltering for only half a second. Well, that was a little odd, although he didn't pay it to much mind. Boy, but she spoke like Logan. “...whereas, I am not complaining, as I quite enjoy the color, myself.” She gestured to her dress-tunic. Roman bowed low, then popped his head up, grinning.

“It suits you, madame.” She brought her hands in front of her mouth, clasped together.

“Hee hee hee! My, how charming you are!”

“But of course!” Roman righted himself, “and that pattern on it is quite lovely as well.”

“Ah, yes.” She gently ran a hand over it. “To be honest, I had forgotten that this was on here. It,” she hesitated, “it is the symbol for our kingdom. As it was beforehand, and as it is now.” and Roman noticed that her smile was a little bit more strained than usual; Patton had been right, of course.

“Well, it adds the loveliest touch to the rest of your outfit,” he threw his arm up into the air, his typical overdramatic gesture. It seemed appropriate. Sure enough, she giggled again.

“You are certainly a people pleaser, are you not?”

“I must always ensure that those around me are happy!” He brought one bent arm in front of him, his right arm bent behind his back. “It is my duty, as a Prince!”

He quite missed her expression as he did a little half-bow. He heard the tell-tale sound of Logan writing in his notebook before he saw the group of them herding in behind him. He came out of the bow, just as Logan and Virgil shot him equally unimpressed stares. Toriel cleared her throat.

“You have done excellently thus far, my children. However,” she glanced at them all, “I have a difficult request to ask of you.” Roman stood up even more, he practically felt Virgil and Patton tensing up. “I would like you to walk to the end of the room by yourselves. Forgive me for this.” And without waiting for a response, she zoomed off.

“Wow. She is much quicker than she looks.” Roman blinked.

"Gotta goat fast!" Patton chirped.

“Well, I'm so glad to have such a stimulating challenge such as this one. I mean, walking down an empty hallway?” Logan stated dryly as he rolled his eyes.

“Well, it is a long hallway. You never know what's down there.” Patton reasoned, "what if there are more Froggits, or other monsters down there?" And that was a good point, but Roman had to agree with Logan. Especially when he considered the previous puzzle’s partial peril.

“Oh, yes, Morality, truly terrifying, it's too bad that Toriel isn't literally holding our hands through it!”

“Well I think that this is a truly worthy quest! Plus, the music is so fitting!” Indeed, as he listened, the music had changed when Toriel left. It wasn't, perhaps, as valorous as he'd expect on a dangerous quest, but it was suitably tense. Frisk seemed to agree, bouncing on their toes once he'd mentioned it, looking back and forth from them to the hall, and back. They only bounced harder when Patton came forward, joining Roman.

“Either way, we've got to go down there anyway, we might as well do it now.” He shrugged, and started walking. Roman would let him take the lead, for now. Logan had a point. It really didn't look all that dangerous.

Fairly long, though.

It took them about a minute and a half, he noted Virgil looking back and forth the entire time, before anyone spoke.

“Oh, for the love of-” Logan cut himself off, rolled his eyes, and grumbled to himself. Roman turned to where he was looking, a nice column, but didn't understand. He opened his mouth, when Toriel stepped out from behind it. He hurriedly tried to suppress the startled laugh that escaped without his permission.

“Greetings, my children. Do not worry, I did not leave you. I was merely behind this pillar the whole time.”

“Of course you were.”

“Thank you for trusting me. However, there was an important reason for this exercise.” And here she hesitated again, “to test your independence. I must attend to some business, and you must stay alone for a while. Please remain here. It's dangerous to explore by yourselves.” Without looking, Roman could practically feel Logan's frustration, and he was sure that he was either gritting his teeth or facepalming.

Roman's lip twitched.

“I have an idea. I will give you a cell phone.” Toriel took an old cell phone (it wasn't even a flip) out of a pocket, held it out, then blinked. “Err, I am afraid that I only have one extra. Perhaps you could all take turns-”

“We've got our own, oh my god!” They turned around, Virgil's eyes wide, mouth tight. He seemed just as shocked at his own outburst as they had been. He turned his head away and lightly held out his own phone from his pocket. Patton slowly held his own out, and Logan and Roman followed suit.

“Well then that is settled.” She handed the ancient thing to Frisk, as the rest of them put their own devices back. “If you have a need for anything, just call. Be good, alright?” She smiled once more, then left the room.

There were two beats of silence. Then,

“Is she gone?” Virgil stopped looking around the room, staring directly at the spot that Toriel left. Logan peered around the corner of the next room.

“It appears as though she has actually left. At any rate, I don't see any furry feet sticking out from anywhere.”

“Great, let's get the hell out of here!” Virgil started towards the doorway, much faster than he'd been meandering thus far, almost pushing past them all.

“Wait!” Patton cried out. Logan looked back at his outburst.

“Oh my god, what?” Virgil half-glared at his objection. Patton rubbed at his arm.

“It's just, Toriel told us all to wait here.” Virgil turned to face him eye to eye, glare turned into disbelief.

“Are you actually telling me that you're willing to just listen to her instructions to stay in place instead of trying to get out of here?!”

“No,” Patton replied, voice firm, head down. “I want to get back to Thomas,” he met Virgil's eyes, “believe me. I'm just saying, we should be careful. She might come back to look for us, and we're not exactly inconspicuous.” Virgil looked to the side.

“Yeah. That's- fine.” His eyes flicked back over to Patton too quickly for Roman to understand. “Plus, we don't know if she'll do anything if she catches us. So,” he glared at them one by one, “everyone be on guard.”

“Did you say en guarde?!” Roman's sword was out again, pointing right back at Virgil.

“Princey, what the-”

“Ah!” Patton covered Frisk's ears just as the expletive left Virgil's mouth.

“Put that thing away, you look ridiculous.” Roman scoffed.

“Jealous, nerd?” He put it away again, anyway, although not before giving it a little extra flourish towards Logan.

“I'm not even going to dignify that with a response.”

“We'll be okay,” Frisk spoke up, and Patton lowered his hands at the sound. “Toriel won't be angry.” Roman agreed that that was probably the case, of course, but there was still that little part of him that remembered how easily she defeated that blasted plant.

Ha, blasted, because she blasted him with a fireball. That was a good one.

Still, she had been nothing but pleasant towards all of them, and hadn't given any of them any reason to doubt her intentions or her sincerity. Yet, as he'd thought, Anxiety was curled up more in his hoodie, glaring at Frisk. He really didn't know what he had against them.

Well, he supposed, they'd better get a move on if they were going to get out of here.

“I'll go first, I'll be on the lookout, so if anything happens, I'll be ready.” He nodded seriously, and walked into the next room.

-----

The "En guarde" joke came to me spur of the moment, and I'm so glad it did, I laughed really hard while writing it. And several times after. Also, did I mention I wrote this a long time ago? Like, around Embarrassing Phases, which explains why everyone's getting along.

@go-just-me-fan @nonbinary-octopus @vicdehart @going-dead @extra-ordinary00 @skeletonsloverockcandy @trans-and-not-trending @whatschooldoesntteachyou @invisible-bunny @ignoremeeeeplsssss @callboxkat

If anyone knows any of the non working usernames, let me know.

#sanders sides #my stories #sanderstale chapter #roman sanders #logan sanders #virgil sanders #patton sanders #toriel

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bilgisticallykosher · 4 years

Note

Wait a minute: Your the Author of Thomas Annus? And the Sanders Sides/Undertale crossover? How did I never realize this?? You're an amazing writer!

Okay, I said that I would answer this after I was done with birthday rat time, but. That's probably still going on, so I'll just answer it now anyway.

I actually knew that you'd read Thomas Annus, because your kudos led me to read your fic, but I didn't know you'd read Sanderstale, too! And thank you so much! I blush.

#fic feedback #ta feedback #sanderstale feedback #emy loves you #my asks

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bilgisticallykosher · 2 years

Text

Sanderstale Chapter Two: Sunflowers are yellow. Daffodils are also yellow.

Word count: 3370

Warnings: Argument, near death experience, ominous music described?

Chapter title from Alone On Valentine's Day

Masterpost | Sanderstale Masterpost | AO3

My discord server

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I wrote this so long ago, gosh.

After Patton made sure that Frisk had followed through to the next room, he turned around and immediately gasped.

“What a cute flower!” He pointed at it excitedly. The other three were staring, slightly stunned, at a single golden flower in the middle of the otherwise dark room. It was a very pretty flower, of course, with its golden yellow petals and its long curved stem, but its most distinguishing feature was…

“Morality, it has a face,” Virgil deadpanned.

“Perhaps someone merely drew a facial expression on it?” Logan countered.

“It's blinking, you moron.”

“Well, maybe your insistent squint is distorting your vision, and it's a trick of the light.” Virgil just glared harder at him.

“Well maybe your coke bottle lenses are distorting your vision to block out seeing what's actually happening in front of your own face!”

Patton took a moment to not be offended at the comment about the glasses as Virgil and Logan were faced each other, glaring in each other's faces. He was nervously looking back and forth between the two, and when he chanced a glance over, Roman seemed amused.

“Well maybe your equilibrium is thrown off due to your playing music through your abnormally large headphones."

"Well, maybe, you spend so much time fact-checking that you can't form a logical opinion on your own without looking through twenty different sources! "

“WELL MAYBE-”

“Howdy!”

“AHHHHHHHHHH!” Logan screamed, loud, long, and the same angry tone that he'd just been arguing with. The others’ screams mixed in with his; Virgil's short yet horrified, Patton's confused, and Roman's a high-pitched shriek of delight. Frisk notably didn't scream, but they were quiet anyway, and they'd looked very uncomfortable during Logan and Virgil's argument.

“Oh. Em. Goodness! It'satalkingflower!” Roman started bouncing on the balls of his feet, hands clutched in excited little fists. “It's like we're in a Disney movie! Are we in a Disney movie? Do all of the plants talk? Are there little woodland creatures around to help us with our tasks?”

“Hey, I can even hear music like it's a movie!” Patton exclaimed. The others quieted down, and indeed, the faint, tinkly tune was more audible.

Roman gasped suddenly, hands on his cheeks, speaking more quickly the more he spoke.

“Oh gosh, how will I know the words? Of course, I assume that I could improv the song anyway, but oh, how will I be able to coordinate my lyrics with the choreography?” He stood up straight, voice loud and demanding. “I require a script! These are entirely unreasonable expectations!” Patton looked around at everyone else. He noticed that there were a lot of blank stares, minus himself and Frisk, who were hiding near-identical smiles beneath a hand over their mouths. Frisk leaned over to Roman and mumbled,

“More like a video game. That's his theme music.”

Patton got the feeling that talking flower would have crossed its (his, apparently?) arms and been tapping his feet impatiently, if he'd had either of those things. He cleared his throat.

“Howdy,” it repeated, more firmly this time, I'm Flowey, Flowey the flower!” Logan raised an unamused eyebrow. He clearly wasn't fully sold on this whole talking flower thing. He was happy to note that he at least looked more composed now.

“Maybe it’s an animatronic?” He put a finger on his chin, tapping it idly. Virgil glanced at him, and Patton stiffened, but Virgil just snorted and rolled his eyes.

“Hmmm… You're new to the Underground, aren'tcha? Golly, you must be so confused!”

“Quite. You say this place is called the Underground?” Logan took out the notebook he used to write things in, and jotted something down.

“Someone ought to teach you how things work around here!”

“Yes, that would be preferred, if you could tell us how to get out of here, for one," Logan started, and Patton could recognize that he was getting raring to go into information mode. "But also, what sort of beings live here? Is this an entire society or just yourself? Who else refers to this place as the Underground? What is it under, exactly? Where we were?" That boy seemed to be mostly to himself, "That was a mountain, which means that we may still well be at sea level. Is it really fair to call it the 'under'ground?” Logan reasoned, and held his pen poised to the page. Roman looked unimpressed, Patton and Virgil shared an amused look. Logan definitely was over the talking flower. And good thing, too. Patton wouldn't have thought of some of those questions! Even though he wasn't really sure how all of those would help them.

“I guess little old me will have to do!” Flowey pressed on, thoroughly ignoring Logan to the point of not looking at him. His smile was strained, and he seemed to be sweating a little bit, somehow.

“Rude,” Logan mumbled under his breath.

“Ready?” Patton noticed Frisk tense, looking around at all of them at the flower's question.

“Wait, who are-”

“Here we go!” There was a strange beeping noise, but Patton didn't notice that. What he did notice was there was a tugging sensation at his chest, and then all of a sudden a floating, green heart appeared in front of him.

He vaguely registered Logan's sharp intake of breath, Roman's boisterous gasp, Virgil's small yelp, and another's whispered “woah…” he only realized a moment later that it had come from himself. When he looked beside him, remembering how worried Frisk seemed, they looked to be holding up alright. That was good.

But oh! They had a red heart! It looked so cartoony! Roman had a purple one in front of him, and Logan's was yellow. And Virgil and Frisk matched! He smiled, they were all so cool, he looked back at his own green. None of them matched their colors, but they were still nice. They were so pretty, aw, it was too bad they didn't match. He wondered why...

He focused on Flowey when he heard him ask a question.

“... those hearts? Those are your souls, the very culminations of your beings!”

“Woah…” he whispered again. Logan clearly wasn't as impressed, Patton turned towards him when he heard him exhale from his nose (he called it a snort, but he'd never say that to Logan's face.)

“I'm sorry, but are you suggesting that our souls, an abstract concept, wherein there is no concrete physical ideation, is being represented by multicolored biologically inaccurate hearts?” Flowey, as well as everyone else, finally turned towards him, smile frozen on his face.

“Yep!”

“And what of this odd box surrounding them?” It was just then that Patton noticed the box that surrounded all of their hearts- souls? He hummed a few bars of Heart and Soul to himself as he contemplated the square. It was a thick-lined white box, and how had he not even noticed that everything had sort of gone black in the background? True, the souls were really pretty and distracting, but he should probably pay more attention to his surroundings.

“Are you going to claim that this is some sort of representation of the body? That we are all boxed in by the physical, and that we should let the soul take precedent?” Logan was actually glaring at the flower, which Patton was trying very hard not to laugh at. Flowey looked away from Logan again.

“ANYway, your souls start off weak,” Logan was muttering under his breath at being shaken off like that, again and was scribbling furiously in his notebook. Now Patton couldn't help the laugh that slipped out, even when he put a hand over his mouth. He shrugged halfway apologetically at Logan who'd turned to aim his glare at him. Roman was also hiding an amused look. Of course, as the actor, he was better at hiding it than Patton was.

“But can grow strong if you gain a lot of LV!” Frisk was idly moving their soul around while Flowey continued to speak. Patton tilted his head.

“How are you doing that?!” He whispered excitedly, but not necessarily quietly, to them. The other three looked over.

“I just sort of concentrate, and it moves?” Frisk matched Patton’s tilted head with their own. They continued, even quieter than normal, “I’m not sure if green can…” Patton was looking at Logan, Roman, and Virgil, who were also now starting to move their souls about. Virgil was frowning, and Patton wasn’t quite sure if anyone else had heard what Frisk said, and he didn’t really understand it, himself. Still, he had no reason to believe it wouldn’t work!

He turned towards his soul, scrunched up his face in concentration and- oh, woah, that definitely shot off to one corner of the box.

“Whoops! Looks like I put too much into that one. But don’t worry, that’s my soul mistake!” Frisk grinned again, giggling, and Patton amused himself by, more carefully, moving his soul around some more as Flowey resumed his explanation.

“What’s LV stand for?”

“Likely some manner of acronym, perhap-”

“Why, LOVE, of course!”

“Awww!” Patton put his hands on one side of his face, clasped together. “How sweet!”

“You have got to be kidding me,” Logan was monotone as he stared at Flowey.

“I would have guessed level!" Roman blinked, shifting in his spot. "I would’ve been way off.”

“Tch.” Virgil rolled his eyes.

“You want some LOVE, don’t you?” Then, seemingly realizing that one of them might actually answer, like Patton and Roman were certainly seconds away from doing, he nearly rushed the next sentence. “Don’t worry, I’ll share some with you! Down here, LOVE is shared through…” Flowey shifted its eyes off to one side for a moment. “Little white…‘friendliness pellets.’” A few small, oval-shaped white objects materialized around Flowey. They looked really cool, spinning around like that. Virgil and Logan gave twin groans at the term.

“The underground is so adorable!” Patton grinned, pulling his hands into fists in front of his chest, bouncing a little. Frisk looked up at him, smile still there, but it seemed a little stiffer?

“Hmm. Yes. Oddly adorable, even if it were a Disney movie.” Roman had crossed his arms, and sounded much less enthusiastic than he did a few minutes ago, and Patton didn’t understand why! This was the best! He loved making new friends! Or, should he say that he LOVEd making new friends? Hmm...He’d save that one for later.

“Are you ready? Move around! Get as many as you can!” The little white pellets started slowly turning towards them. Patton made an excited, eager noise, and he was so ready! He started to move his soul towards a nearby one,

“NO!” Virgil’s voice rang out, distorted, but Frisk was already nudging Patton’s soul away with their own red one. The others also seemed to have avoided the friendliness pellets, although he wasn’t sure if they’d done it on their own or not. Virgil’s warning probably stopped them, but he still couldn’t understand why.

“Hey now, there’s no need to raise your voice! If you want to say something, we can discuss it amongst ourselves in a reasonable manner.” Patton waggled his finger in Virgil’s direction, and looked down at Frisk during the last part of his sentence to see how they were doing. They just were staring in Flowey's direction, fists clenched. Logan adjusted his glasses and opened his mouth, but Flowey spoke first.

“Hey buddy, you missed them. Let’s try again, okay?” and sent another round at them all.

“No time, avoid them!” Roman shouted.

Patton still wasn't sure, but everyone else seemed to agree, so, he guessed maybe they could do this another way? When they all bypassed the pellets again, he looked up, and Flowey seemed way less smiley than he had before. Patton, himself, frowned slightly as he concentrated.

"The music," Roman panted, despite the fact that he probably hadn't had to exert himself physically. "It's modulating down the scale," it was what? "Every time that we avoid the pellets, us it's changing!"Logan tilted his head to the side.

"That can't be a good sign." Patton concentrated on the music now, and he was right. It definitely seemed more, uh, less good. Roman turned and glared at Flowey again. Logan and Virgil joined him.

“This not so dandy dandelion is suspicious,” Roman accused, pointing at him.

“Is this a joke? Are you braindead? RUN. INTO. THE. BULLETS!!!” Flowey was frowning, a lot, and Patton was definitely starting to agree with everyone else now. Even when, having realized the choice of words, he quickly tacked on “Friendliness pellets,” under his breath and went back to his original peppy smile. It suddenly didn't seem as warm and welcoming as before.

This time, Patton didn’t need any encouragement to avoid them on his own.

Flowey’s face turned twisted, way beyond the simple eyes and mouth he’d had at the start. His face was hollow and dark, his voice matching when he spoke again. “You know what's going on here, don't you? You just wanted to see me suffer.”

Patton was definitely aware of his own scream this time, when Flowey surrounded the entire box with his certainly-not-friendliness-pellets.

“DIE.” He heard him laughing cruelly at them all, Patton didn't know what to do. This couldn't happen. Flowey actually wanted to really hurt them. Permanently. The bullets at least weren't immediately hitting them, but they were still coming quickly, too quickly, and when he looked over at Logan, who always made sure to have a plan, he looked just as shocked, no, frozen, and while he wasn't looking as panicked as Virgil or Roman or himself, he was still looking lost, and he didn't have a plan, and-

“It's okay,” Frisk said loud enough for them all to hear over their collective panic, deceptively calm. “Don't be scared.” Patton couldn't see how they could be so confident now, all of their souls clustered together in the middle of the box, all staring at Frisk in disbelief, Flowey's attack almost touching them. Patton just wanted to hold the others, but there was no time, so he did the only thing he could do; he reacted on pure instinct, jumping in front of Frisk, bracing himself, ignoring the shouts from rest of the sides. He wasn't sure if they were screaming because of Flowey or because he was blocking Frisk, but, well, he guessed it wouldn't matter soon.

Flowey's laughter stopped. He looked up. The bullets were gone, Patton could barely believe it, but before he could get too excited, he noticed a...floating fireball? It moved suddenly, hitting Flowey, knocking him away with a shout of surprise. Another figure entered his line of sight. This one was a lot bigger. And furry. Were those little horns on top of their head?

“What a terrible creature, torturing such poor, innocent youths...” Despite how big this new creature, (was that offensive?), seemed, they spoke softly, and didn't loom despite their good posture and large size. And clearly they were their savior from Flowey. Patton was overwhelmed, and he couldn't stop the tears from welling up in his eyes, nor the strangled sob that bubbled up. He felt Roman and Logan reaching out to touch him, Roman gently ruffling his hair for a moment, before retreating, looking warily at the newcomer. Logan had put his hand on his shoulder, only releasing it after Frisk started to pet his knee. The large, furry person turned towards him, hand lifted, but stayed where they were, cautious.

“Th-Thank you!” He composed himself a little, wearing down to a sniffle. “You saved us,” he spoke for all of them, sure that everyone else had to agree with him. He glanced around, Logan nodded curtly after catching his eye, Virgil was glaring at his shoes. Roman bowed, his hand to his chest.

“You defeated the villain that wished to do us harm, how can we ever repay you for saving us?”

“Ah,” the soft-spoken person relaxed a little, although they looked curious. “Do not be afraid, my children. I am Toriel, caretaker of the Ruins. I pass through this place every day to see if anyone has fallen down. You are the first humans to come here in a long time.” Here, Toriel paused, looking them over a few times. “And,” they continued, sounding a little sad? “I have never seen so many humans come into the Underground at once.” It must have been his imagination, because Toriel sounded normal again the next sentence. “I will do my best to ensure your protection during your time here. Come! I will guide you through the catacombs.” Suddenly, his soul flickered, and he felt its presence back inside of his body. Patton sighed in relief, noticing as the black background faded away simultaneously. “This way.”

Toriel left through a purple doorway, Frisk going halfway, before turning around and looking at them. They took a moment to check on each other, each meeting the others’ eyes before nodding at each other. Patton, comforted, started to walk forward, until- woosh.

“Woah, there!”

“Geez, Princey, watch that thing!”

“If you would, perhaps a warning before you summon your sword would be more beneficial in the future, Creativity.” There was a pause, before Logan pulled up his notebook and pen, and started writing something. “Although, I must admit, I am quite shocked that you were able to summon it in the first place, considering we couldn’t return to Thomas. I wonder if our typical abilities would stretch to work down here as well.” He tapped his chin with his pen.

Frisk’s eyes were comically wide, to be honest, Patton wasn’t completely sure they could have even gotten to that size, but he resisted laughing. He was still a little worn out, anyway, feeling a little less than his laugh-y demeanor.

“She’s not going to hurt you,” Frisk rushed out. Patton and Logan tilted their heads.

“Toriel?” Frisk nodded their head. Roman swung his sword around, careful of Patton, and into the sheath that had also materialized, stepping forward to join Frisk. Patton, Logan, and Virgil followed, walking through the doorway.

“Don’t worry, Frisk, this is not intended for her. It is merely a," he hesitated, "cautionary measure. I'm just concerned that we’ll encounter something else like that vile spore.” Roman preened, running a hand through his hair, "and, if I do say so myself, I am able to provide excellent protection with it." Patton noticed that they still looked tense after Roman’s reassurances, but he was quickly distracted by the purple room that they had just entered, with two staircases, and a lot of leaves, neatly organized. Patton smiled, this looked like a nice place now.

“Technically, he was a flower. Spores are an entirely different organism, altogether, and would commonly be most closely associated with the reproduction cycle of mushrooms, and other variety of fungi, such as mold.” Logan adjusted his glasses as Toriel came into view on top of the platform which both sets of stairs led to. She was smiling down at them, even as Roman looked at Logan, unimpressed.

“Well, I don’t know about you, but he didn’t seem like such a fun guy to me!” As scary as the experience was, Patton couldn’t help himself. Roman and Frisk let out a laugh, as did, to his great surprise, and with greater volume, Toriel.

“Hee hee hee! Although your friend is correct, that was a very clever joke!” Patton beamed, starting to feel better already. He turned to his side, smiling at Logan, who rolled his eyes, Virgil was staring at something in the leaf pile in the middle. Frisk went up to it, tapping...something, and Virgil’s eyes narrowed, still staring at the leaves as Frisk went to climb the stairs. They all followed, Virgil trailing behind, last, and Toriel led them into the next room.

-----

Happy Chanukah!

@go-just-me-fan @nonbinary-octopus @vicdehart @going-dead @extra-ordinary00 @skeletonsloverockcandy @trans-and-not-trending @whatschooldoesntteachyou @invisible-bunny @ignoremeeeeplsssss

#sanders sides #logan sanders #roman sanders #virgil sanders #patton sanders #my stories #sanderstale chapter

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