*(He called it creative. Jam hadn’t been thinking about it that way at all. Hearing it put that way made them feel significantly better. They thought about how they should really try being as confident as Papyrus when it came to positivity. It went a long way.)
*Really? I’m surprised nobody else has tried it!
*(Jam stared at the new puzzle as Papyrus moved his hand onto their shoulder, listening as he gave the little introduction. Ha ha… No need to worry in the jumping department. Jam would never try to pull off a thing like that here. Not to mention, the way the ice just led to solid drop-offs at the edges made them worried again. From here, they couldn’t see where they would fall to.)
*(They took a breath and stepped onto one of the X’s nearest their side of the puzzle, changing it. From there, they slid along the edge to another one, keeping their eyes away from the ledge. The ice was startlingly slippery, but at least they could keep their balance. The X/O’s acted as blissfully non-slippery checkpoints.)
*(They’d been improvising on where to go, but it felt like their first movement had been correct. Getting all the corner squares out of the way seemed like their best bet. They pushed off to get to the third X, but they realized halfway across that the angle was wrong- they were going to miss it! Despite desperate attempts to change course, they were stuck on a straight path right off the edge.)
*(The snow padded their fall just like the flowers once had. Looking up, Jam realized that it hadn’t actually been very far of a fall. Not as long as they’d been worrying about, anyway. They brushed the snow off of themself as they stood up and looked around. There was a very cool-looking snow skeleton, and a very lazy-looking lump of snow with a name written on it. Sans. That was Papyrus’ brother, wasn’t it? They called up to him as they walked up the hill to get back to the puzzle.)
*Is that a Snow Papyrus down there? It looks really cool! And the, um, Sans lump…?
*(A thought occurred to them and they grinned.)
*Wait, it’s the snow, sans the skeleton, isn’t it?
Papyrus watched like a prideful hawk, staying where he was and crossing his arms over his chest. This puzzle had no spikes or anything like that, but the dropoffs... Could be dangerous. The few times he had fallen, he had simply rolled in the snow on the cliff below the one they were on and not been hurt at all. But he also had some pretty tough bones and had practiced landing in all sorts of ways to minimize damage. Jam was a small, fleshy human. He didn't know how well they handled falls.
Even still, they looked to be solving the puzzle well enough on their first try. Hopefully they wouldn't have any spills, and they could both proceed to the The Gauntlet of Deadly Terror without incident! Needless to say, he was very proud of them.
Until Jam did fall, and he could just watch in mild horror as they tumbled to the snow below. Heck. He raced to the slope connecting the two areas, watching them from the upper half, expression as worried as could be. What if they broke their arm! Could humans break their arms? He didn't know a lot about human biology, but if skeletons could, and humans descended from skeletons, then they probably could.
A small sigh of relief left Papyrus when he heard their voice. They were okay. "Yes! I, the Great Papyrus, built it myself! It is the coolest Snow Papyrus I have made yet! And the other one-"
Oh, Jam. You made a horrible mistake. A disappointed groan left the skeleton and he fell to his knees in the snow, as dramatic as could be. This was the worst thing. How could they do that to him? Make a pun, of all the things... "I can not believe you! Have you met my brother already!? He told you how I feel about puns, didn't he?"
