Chapter 22: They were having a bad hare day
Yesterday had been full of telling stories about the surface, and how big and different it was. Flowey pretended to be annoyed, but listened with rapt attention, appreciating this foreign concept of countries and continents.
Today they would go one step closer to make those tales a reality.
With healed legs and arms, or as healed as they would get considering they refused to let Flowey exhaust himself trying to heal it properly, and had only ate one Bisicle today, they marched on.
They ran their fingers through their hair for the tenth time this afternoon, it didn’t matter what they tried, it always looked like a bird’s nest. Maybe laying down for so long on a icy environment had frozen the hair strands.
“Now go that way” Flowey pointed to the wrong direction, just as they left the Gyftrot’s territory, reaching the intersection.
“You know that’s where we came from, right?” their hair felt pointy like dried straw, they wished they could take a bath.
“You missed something” A warm bath on their cozy home, they could eat a pie when they finished, and could help Mom with the dishes “Look alive! I have something to show you! And quit touching your hair, its not gonna get better than this”
“You think that too, huh?” they dropped their arms and slid down the path where he had pointed, at least sliding didn’t put any weight in their foot.
“Hard to miss when you keep shaking me every time you raise your arm”
They struggled not to absentminded touch their hair again, just enjoying the slide and keeping their hands down.
“Here, now slide over there” he pointed to the abyss below the puzzle.
“Hm… Flowey?” when was the last time they saved? “I know the Ruins may have given you the wrong impression, but you know humans do take fall damage, don’t you?” maybe they should try to save now?
“Just trust me on this” and who were they not to? They trusted their brother after all.
If he was wrong and made them die, at least they could rub it in his face the next reload.
With a deep breath they moved forward, to the abyss, fully expecting to fall from the puzzle into certain death.
But instead of a long descend, they quickly were rescued by a soft path of snow.
“Look!” Flowey faked enthusiasm “You have a star right over there!” As if he didn’t know exactly what he was doing “You should go there and…” he didn’t even tried to pretend anymore, his face showing all of his mockery “pet it”
“Pfff” the absurdity of the situation… “You know me so well!” if he wanted them to save he could just had said so. They touched the shining light, feeling refreshed by the unusual amount of positivity it gave out.
Opening their eyes, there were bits of snow still on their clothes, they patted themselves, looking upwards they could see the light going through the ice in the puzzle, the path with the soft snow was impossible to see from above.
Maybe only those who failed it had the chance to find this soft piece of land.
Maybe that was the reason why this snow was so white.
“It’s pretty” said still taking in the view
“I found it a while ago, thought you would like it – And look!” He pointed to the star, no… past the star…
“Is that a snowman?” They came closer to the red caped figure.
“Better” They could hear the smile on his voice “Is a snow Papyrus!”
It was the spitting image of Papyrus! His lean figurine, and the red cape, it even had the scar over the eye!
Which… honestly didn’t felt right… why would Papyrus have a scar over his eye? It didn’t seemed right…like it didn’t belong there.
“Its black marker” they stopped themselves from reaching to touch the black line, turning to their brother instead “Don’t ask me why, but Sans always carries a black marker with him, so when Papyrus made a snowman, he painted the scars”
They stared at the snowman again “How did Papyrus got this scar?” it still felt out of place.
“He always had it” said dismissively “look there” he pointed to a big lump of snow “there is one of Sans too”
“It don’t look like him” they had a smile on their face, somehow seeing how despite everything the brothers took time to play in the snow together was just what they needed.
“Of course it does! It has his scars too!”
Indeed, the lump of snow had three black dots on his… ‘head’ … imitating the scars on sans face. Two near the mouth and one on the side of the cranium.
“And he is just lying on the ground doing nothing, while Papyrus does all the job, it’s like a mirror image”
The rest of the day was spent with Flowey telling stories about the brothers and his findings from the underground, they didn’t know why he was being so nice, but were extremely grateful, he wasn’t even as annoyed for their eventual puns, just ignoring instead of actually complaining.
When the night fell they slept on Lesser dog station with a smile on their face and their brother at their side. Thinking about the day and how much they had progressed made them so happy they unintentionally created a save point then and there.
And thank god for that, because the next day they were awoken by a suspicious Lesser dog, if it wasn’t for their grogginess waking up the encounter would have been quick, but since they had just been awoken it took 3 failed attempts for them to pet him.
And after a useful tip from Flowey they even played together! It was a good morning and put them in a great mood. Talking about greatness… Greater Dog was a bit more difficult to manage, he threw them down 6 times before they manage to win.
But it was midday and they had already petted two dogs! At this pace they would reach Snowdin today, they knew it!
Their leg was finally as good as normal so they didn’t need to sit down to down the mustard, it was a bit too spicy for them, but was what they had and nothing would sour their mood.
“What’s wrong?” he asked just as they finished the condiment.
“I don’t know…” said sheepishly “Getting so close to the city” seeing and taking the opportunity “Just getting a little… never mind”
“Tell me” he was too attentive and nice since they hurt their foot, weirdly nice “A little what?”
“I don’t know… a bit” they raised their already healed foot, making him look at it concerned for a second before delivering the punch line “cold feet” ended up smiling at him, he was not amused.
“… I can’t believe an idiot like you managed to get this far…”
And there it was their brother back to normal.
“At least get different jokes”
“I hate your puns” he didn’t “and I hate you” Nope, he didn’t
“I wonder if they are ok” But it was nice seeing his annoyed self again, it was better than overly nice and secretly concerned.
“Papyrus is a royal guard, don’t worry about him, worry about him finding you”
“But how will I know if they are ok if they don’t find me?”
“Because they are strong enough to protect themselves, unlike certain people”
“I still worry. What if something happened while I was resting?”
“…” he was looking like he knew something, they stared at him until he rolled his eyes and spoke “I saw Papyrus looking for you the other day, he was fine”
This made them smile in relieve “I hope I can see them soon, I want to tell him how I completed the puzzles” despite the deadliness of some, completing the puzzles were the most fun they had since they left the Ruins “I hope he has more”
A vine hit them in the head.
“Hey!” they shot him an angry look “Why did you do that?”
“To knock some sense into your head”
Part of them wanted to say how rude that was, the other wanted to laugh at the pun, they decided to do neither and deny him of any reaction.
The closer they got to Snowdin more common were the saving stars, they wondered if this was for a reason or just a coincidence, meanwhile they took advantage of the great amount of condensed magic, each time feeling the energy wash over them and refreshing their determination.
For their relief, it wasn’t long until they found the brothers again.
They were on the other side of a stone bridge and loudly announced the final trap, Papyrus detailed it in a very proud manner, and in fact it looked like this would be a real challenge.
The bridge was filled with traps, all more than ready to snap their head off, metal spikes, barbed wire, even a flamethrower sat there, ready to fire.
“Regret asking for more puzzles yet?”
“I thought you already knew that at this point” they smiled defiantly as he rolled his eyes.
Banter aside, they had a challenge to win.
At the first step on the bridge Flowey was already shattering a rock with his vines, they didn’t even saw it coming, but it was a good start, on the third step he healed their skin torn by the barbed wire and pulled them to the side avoiding being hit by a second rock.
Despite his apparent knowledge of how the bridge worked, they ended up dying on the fifth step. There were thirteen, Flowey told them at some point, along with the order of the traps.
Every time they tried they died, until a sort of rhythm fell over them.
Walking a few steps, finding the brothers, hearing Papyrus, rushing to the bridge, Flowey always ended up falling off the bridge at the seventh step, thankfully it spared him from the more gruesome deaths, and by the little time the bridge took to get the job done he wouldn't have hit the ground, but that wouldn't do, if they ever got past the bridge, he had to be securely attached to them.
But no matter how hard they tied the bandanas, the boot always ended up falling. At least he didn’t seemed to mind too much.
On their ninth attempt they had figured out a better option.
“Wait! Before you turn it on...” they waved to get the skeleton’s attention.
“RECONSIDERING YOUR OPTIONS HUMAN? TOO AFRAID TO FACE ME?”
“I actually have to admit the deadliness of you trap”
His chest puffed in pride, and they couldn’t contain a smile at the sight.
“WELL OF COURSE YOU DO, TREMBLE IN FEAR OF THE TERRIBLE PAPYRUS AND BE PREPARED TO SUFFER THE MOST PAINFUL OF DEATHS” his cape flew heroically with the strong wind.
“ya can always surrender” Sans offered dismissively “no need to get mauled” and if they weren’t a red soul they would have accepted.
Yeah, they would avoid getting mauled if they could, unlike the traps on the path, the ones on the bridge were less deadly and more leg snare bone breaking, all while the flamethrower and stone shooter did the dirty job.
Being stoned to death still beat burning…
But that wasn’t the point.
“So, seeing that I will die at any wrong step” they paused pointing at the bridge like they were counting each one “and that would give me about thirteen chances of screwing this up in…” eyeing the flamethrower regretfully “several very painful ways… Papyrus, could you hold Flowey for me?”
There was tree degrees of confusion there. Honestly four, part of them didn’t know what they were doing either.
“What are you doing, you idiot?” Of course he would oppose to the idea, always looking after them, he was even insisting he was fine with all the falling.
“I don’t want to make an error and cause him to die” they said loudly, Papyrus’ expression was unreadable, Sans seemed amused.
“Don’t ignore me! You think you have any chance of doing it on your own!?” They had less chances, but not null.
“And what? I take you with me, and make you burn and bleed and suffer?” he recoiled at the mention “Risking losing you forever to a deadly fall?” he remembered, but somehow it wasn’t enough to discourage him.
“If we are doing this, we are doing this together! You can’t dodge all that, you'll need healing! I'm staying right where I am!” they could see the determination in him, and he got a point, it would be harder to do it without healing, but…
“Flowey, I know you want to stay” they looked to the other side of the bridge “But is not up to you”
Papyrus stared at them unimpressed, they felt Flowey start a retort when he interrupted “I’LL ALLOW IT” thank god “SANS”
The boot flew over the bridge surrounded by blue magic, the bandages fell undone easily with the strong tug.
They didn’t expect it to be that sudden, neither Flowey, given his long screech.
“YOU SEEM SURPRISED” if they had one chance to guess what was his expression, they would say he was looking smug “DON’T YOU SAY THAT YOU WERE EXPECTING ME TO FALL UNDER THIS HORRIBLE PRETENSE AND LET YOU CROSS THE BRIDGE UNHARMED TO ‘HAND ME’ FLOWEY?”
“No, that just scared me a bit” they admitted, for a short moment they thought the sudden tug would push them down the bridge “Didn’t know you could reach me from all that distance” and move objects above all things… “It’s really impressive, Sans” souls should be easy, but objects? Someone had been practicing magic control.
“that ain’t…” he muttered something under his breath, they couldn’t hear what, but were sure they heard at least two swears, but that was muffled by whatever complaints Flowey was shouting at the skeleton, their voices were not so understandable over all the wind.
“And Papyrus, the bridge” as far as they knew “seems to be fool proof, you must have worked really hard on it, the flamethrowers specially look really cool and terrifying at the same time” said loudly, in hope they could be heard.
“FLATTERY WON’T HELP YOU, HUMAN” his strong voice traveled above the wind with no trouble.
“Oh, no, don’t worry. I know someone as great as you wouldn’t let yourself be fooled by words of a mere human, as true as those words might be” Flattery wouldn’t help, but it wouldn’t make it harder either, so they would use it in moderation.
They took a deep breath, concentrating on the challenge ahead. They had a clear idea of the traps until the middle of the bridge, and there were a few instances where being wounded was inevitable. The secret would be making sure the wounds didn’t slow their pace in any way.
Flowey struggled in the distance, loudly proclaiming his dissatisfaction with the idea. But he was safe, and that was all that mattered.
Another deep breath, they aligned their shoulders and flexed their legs, they could take the barbed wire if that meant dodging the first and second stones.
“Take me back!” Flowey shouted, struggling on the boot held by Sans’ magic.
And the flamethrowers could be –/
Nope, impossible, no way.
They had to deal with him first.
“I know you are worried” they shouted closing their hands way too tight “But could you please shut up?” they wouldn’t be able to concentrate with his constant noise.
“Don’t tell me to shut up, you idiot! You can’t do this alone!” He kept screaming… and screaming…
This was absurd, he knew they could go back, why he insisted in making things difficult? Why couldn’t he just shut up for a second? They gritted their teeth, they would not be able to memorize the rest of the path with him screaming like that.
“Look” they said loudly, trying to convey the seriousness of the situation “Flowey” they breathed deeply so the words didn’t sound too rash “You are my best friend, and I love you, but we both know I’m gonna die here, and that’s why I’m not taking you with me!” Too much… they were being too aggressive “So…” Deep breaths “Just…” Calm down “Just let me focus, ok?! So I have the minimal chance of learning something” they took a few seconds to breathe, they had to memorize the patterns, he was in the way, but he was not an enemy. He was their brother and he would be safe over there while they were torn apart a few times over here. That was more than what they could ask for.
There was no response from the other side.
That way they could concentrate on the challenge ahead.
Their breathing was uneven, so they took a few seconds to correct that.
Their legs and arms were cold, so they warmed them up with a couple of movements, jumping from one feet to the other.
They noticed how one of their legs was still faintly weaker than the other and adjusted it by fastening the shoelaces around their ankle, so they would not feel it for a brief time.
They puffed their chest, filling their lungs with the cold air, put their shoulders back and opened their eyes, vision focusing only in the bridge.
“I’m ready” said bending their knees, preparing to sprint.
* Knowing your brother won’t suffer for your mistakes fills you with Determination
The loud sound of the wind was replaced by mechanical noises when Papyrus pressed the button. And the roaring of the engine fully started… only to die down moments later.
“What happened?” it didn’t sound like the other times, abandoning their posture, they looked at the other side for answers.
“IT APPEARS THE MACHINE IS BROKEN” why? It hadn’t broken on the other timelines, it shouldn’t break in this one. What could possibly have changed?
“it sounds like the source of energy died down” Sans said, scratching his neck “I don’t smell any burning so –/”
“IT’S NO USE, SANS, IT’S BROKEN. IT SEEMS THE HUMAN HAVE TO WALK OVER A DEACTIVATED TRAP, HOW PATHETIC” maybe… wait, they remembered something similar.
“What are you waiting for, you idiot?! Get in here before the trap turn back on!” Oh Flowey was livid. But it was really like that that this was supposed to go? They didn’t remember the puzzle being a failure...
“But… isn’t that like cheating a puzzle?” Flowey kept screaming and for some reason Sans facepalmed, Papyrus didn’t answer though, so they didn’t move.
“Get in here!!!” But maybe this was how they crossed it last time? They didn’t remember so clearly.
In the middle of all the curses, they crossed the bridge, being careful with the barbed wire and the ankle snares, the flamethrower and rock thrower threatened to turn on a few times, but died down soon after.
They ended up crossing with just some minor scratches.
“Hm, sorry for that, I’m sure it would be deadly” Now this close they could see that Papyrus seemed utterly dissatisfied, they felt bad for him “We can try again when it’s fixed … but maybe instead of the rock thrower, could it maybe be water?” the comment earned them a glare “To be soaked with cold water can be very deadly on this freezing temperature, and kinda would be like an opposition of the flamethrower?” he wasn’t speaking to them “you know, water opposites with fire, and air opposites with earth?” and very irritated “sorry, I’m just rambling, feel free to ignore it” and angry “are you ok?”
He turned around and walked away silently. They knew they had done something wrong, but couldn’t guess what.
“are ya that stupid or just have a death wish?” They turned to Sans.
“Hm?” he had a funny face now, it had anger on there, but it was mixed with something else.
“They are that stupid” Flowey deadpanned with his ‘I’m done face’ while floating in the air.
“What did I do?” Everyone was unhappy, maybe they should reload and try again?
“ ‘Try again when its fixed?’ ” it was weird to hear their exact voice coming from his mouth “Are you insane?!”
“Papyrus was disappointed, he probably worked very hard on that trap” and didn’t had the chance to see it in action, like they did, it should be frustrating.
“yep, death wish fer sure” he moved his hand and the boot was shoved on their chest “here’s yer Weed” and followed his brother’s steps shaking his head.
“Flowey?” Ok, reloading may be a bit extreme.
“What?” But they still felt like they had to do something, like they were missing something.
“I’m not happy with this ending” And they had no idea of what it was or where to start.
“Welcome to the underground” he said simply, looking them in the eyes “no one is happy here”
“This is Snowdin” Said to the stupid human carrying him.
“Finally” they had a smile on their face, like the ones they had at the end of a day of exploring when got to mother’s house.
“We have to find somewhere to sleep, staying out after curfew will draw too much attention” It was night, people were not supposed to be out at this time, unless they were walking home, and anyone disobeying it could be arrested by the guard or fined.
“There is an inn somewhere around here, isn’t it” they asked without a care in the world.
He pointed them to the right direction.
They didn’t waste time in getting inside the warm house.
“And remember to eat. You’ve been running on just mustard all day, it won’t help your foot, do you want to be–/”
“They’re so cute!” they interrupted him and before he could complain, he was dragged to the little bunny on the inn
“Don’t talk to them, they are a kid!”
“So am I” they put him on the counter, so they could get to the bunny’s eye level.
“You are a middle stripe, people will think you are bullying them” and would make getting a room here either harder or more expensive.
“Why would people think that?” aaand they were already petting the little bunny.
“Why else would an older child be interested in a Full stripes?” and stretching their little bunny cheeks.
“Because they’re cute?” by the way the little one smiled, they liked the attention.
“Whatever” he would have more luck convincing someone to hug Jerry than convincing them not to pet a ‘fluffy’ monster, why were all humans so obsessed with soft fur? “Just finish petting before anyone sees us”
“Little late for that, traveler”
He spun to face the Innkeeper, the tall bunny was smiling at the interaction of the two idiots, but quickly turned to him.
“Welcome to the Snowed Inn, are you staying the night?”
“Yes, bed for one” he quickly answered.
“Didn’t plan for the curfew?”
“I did, but this idiot wanted to see the trees from the bridge”
“I heard the guards weren’t letting anyone past that bridge, how did that go?”
“We aren’t home after the curfew, and now have to pay for a room, that’s how it went”
“Lucky me then, it will be 80g”
“Here” they interrupted, but instead of putting the money in the balcony, like any normal monster after interrupting people, they took their time to go through their inventory, and they took way too long.
“Are they always this aloof?” She eyed him suspiciously, could they be more suspicious than that?
“Don’t look at me, I’m just trying to keep the idiot alive”
“Just a moment” they said apologetically, using the two hands to mess with what he assumed was their inventory... is not like any other monster could see each other’s items.
“Here” she handed him the key “Just pay me tomorrow” while they kept fussing over the invisible window.
He nodded before turning to them “Are you listening?” they weren’t.
He jingled the keys in front of their eyes, that seemed to grab their attention.
“She said we can pay tomorrow”
“Oh, Thank you!” they smiled at her, without insisting to pay right away, so they probably didn’t understand what ‘pay tomorrow’ meant.
Maybe tomorrow they would try to pay her when they found the ‘The Inn is no charity, next time get home before curfew’ note. That would guilt trip them to be faster.
“You’re welcome” she said smiling at them “Honey, show them their room, would you? I have something to talk with this one” the little bunny got upstairs and they followed, leaving him alone with the Innkeeper.
She looked at him curiously. There it was…
“So what are two stripes doing in Snowdin?”
It always came to a point where she would ask him the same questions. She was the only one in Snowdin that ever implied he was a child. Every other monster saw no stripes and took him for a full grown monster.
Maybe it was because she was the only one in Snowdin that had had a child. But he couldn’t know for sure.
“First of all, I’m not a stripe” He gestured to his stem “And no, I didn’t just took of my shirt” the next question should be about how long “I got out of them a while ago” if she asked it meant she was still suspicious.
“A few weeks” he lied, if he tried to say it was any longer she wouldn’t believe him, and if it was less than a week, she would make more questions to try to find his parents
She nodded “Not my business then”
“How about the other one?”
He never had this bit of conversation before, but he knew her tics enough to survive it without raising suspicion.
“Mother asked to take care of them”
“No!” her brows were a bit furrowed, it meant she didn’t believe him “Kinda” she kept the same questioning face “They call me that… but I’m not convinced, being a brother is too much of a responsibility, I don’t like them that much” she was almost believing him, just one more thing. Flowey stood on the boot with a menacing face “But don’t go on telling anyone that, or you will have problems, got it?”
“None of my business” She raised her hands in a peace offering, and by her smile she got what she wanted from the conversation.
So this timeline he would be a monster fresh out of stripes, taking care of his sibling, but not so attached to them… he had to remember that… and also, he had to convince them to use the same story so no one blew up the cover.
She disappeared on the Inn and he waited for them to come back and pick him up, if they took more than ten minutes he would go upstairs by himself and scream at their face.
It would be a hassle to climb the stairs carrying the boot, but it would be worth it to get to the room and see their apologetic face the moment they realized their mistake, then he would chastised them for forgetting about him.
He could already see the scene and hear their apologies and declamations that he ‘was important to them’ and they ‘would never leave him behind’ in a panicky voice.
He smiled at the thought, they could be so emotive at times, and so easy to manipulate, he hadn’t had this much fun in forever!
He wouldn’t wait, he would go upstairs right away, so he could have the upper hand and yell that they ‘made him’ climb the stairs all by himself.
He would start yelling the exact moment he opened the door.
Unless they were sleeping… then he would leave them be, sleeping in the snow for so long must be tiring for their body. And since they would be unconscious he could heal their foot a little bit more, just for safety.
The fun and yelling could wait until the next morning.
