Oondertale - A Snoos Story
Alright, so a particular kind of infestation momentarily distracted me from other writing and inspired this short and silly little fic. Based on @ennji-undertale‘s recent Snoos takeover and conversations from their stream last night. What a beautiful au Snoos is, I love it. Please enjoy this, and no worries, I have more serious, angsty stories coming very soon.
Fandom: Undertale
AU: Snoos
Warnings: Silly, Snoos, Angry Griilbs
The hall was bathed in golden glow. It was other-worldly, and Froosk thought they may have already left the underground without ever facing Asgoore. They almost breathed a sigh of relief. They wanted to remain friends with the monsters, not fight, and had finally come this far. Everyone said they would have to face the king, they believed Froosk could find the right solution.
Froosk stepped through the hall, mesmerized by the tall murals detailing monster history. A noise caught their attention, and as they continued toward the end of the hall, they spotted a small figure on the floor, leaned up against a pillar. They peered down at the snoozing form, smiling with recognition.
They bent down over the figure carefully. “Snoos!” They called.
The small skeleton opened an eye socket. “tis me,” he muttered, before shutting it again. Froosk chuckled, straightening up again.
“you goin’ to asgoore?”
Froosk stared at the floor. “Yes. I need to get back to the surface.”
“kay,” Snoos shrugged. For a moment, they remained there together, silent, then Snoos shuffled around until he was upright. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and finally stepped away from the pillar, standing before Froosk with an air of authority. Froosk watched him patiently, curious.
“you did a good job kid,” he said, his permanent smile looking genuine. “you gained no LOVE. you made friends and did good.”
“Thanks,” Froosk grinned, not quite sure they completely understood. Snoos nodded sagely, and slouched even more, done with his show.
“you might want to hurry to asgoore though,” Snoos cocked his head to the side, a particular bored expression falling over his features that Frisk recognized from the first time he’d taken them to eat. “you might get burned if you stay here.”
The sound of shattering glass echoed through the open hall suddenly. Froosk whirled around at the source, and started at what seemed like a fireball on the ground surrounded by the shards of the great window it smashed through.
Angry crackling sounded, making Froosk tense up. Was it another battle? Was there someone who yet has it out for their soul?
Froosk took a teetering step back, turning only slightly to look at Snoos to find the same bored expression on his face. They opened their mouth to question him, but crunching glass made them focus their attention forward again at the fireball. It rose from the ground, golden flames sparking out in all directions as if barely held together at its core. Tongues of fire lashed around furiously, but still formed a being that Froosk finally recognized.
Pissed though he clearly was with his barely controlled flames, Griilby’s attire was not a thread out of place, and never wrinkled or turned as he straightened to his full height and turned in a single swift move. Though all Froosk could see were balls of fire, they were sure that the man’s fists were tightly coiled together, as he stepped closer, glaring intensely in their direction.
“Uh...Um…” Froosk stuttered, unable to think of any words to calm the elemental monster.
“SNOOS!” Griilby’s low voice filled the air with crackling fury.
“hey griilbs,” returned Snoos almost cheerfully, stepping out from behind Froosk. “what’s up?”
“I WANT MY PAYMENT SNOOS,” the normally soft voice boomed. Each word was punctuated with a fiery hiss. Froosk shuffled carefully to the side, away from Snoos or Griilby. This was not a fight they wanted to be a part of.
Never abandoning his blank demeanor, Snoos shrugged at the angry elemental. “i'm broke man,” he lifted empty skeletal palms to prove it.
Griilby fumed. Stomping to Snoos, he gripped the lapels of his blue jacket and bent down, pulling Snoos close to his burning face.
“Then you will pay it off with your body.” he growled evenly.
For the first time, Snoos’s face seemed to twist out of his neutral grin into an uncomfortable expression. “uhh...what?”
“You will work at my restaurant until you pay off your debt Snoos.”
A moment of tense silence passed, then Snoos closed his eye sockets and again stuffed his hands in his pockets.
“okay,” he said. Froosk saw Griilby’s grip on the skeleton loosen ever so slightly.
“What?” He seethed.
“okay,” Snoos repeated. “i’ll work off my tab.”
Very slowly, Griilby released the other monster. He straightened up again, still watching Snoos. Despite the clear suspicion written on his face, Froosk saw Griilby’s flames slow their waves and lower until he looked almost calm.
“You’ll start now,” He said.
“sure,” Snoos agreed, opening one eye socket.
“SNOOS!”
Another crash resonated around them, and they looked to the source.
Yet another window lay shattered across the floor of the hall, and laying in a heap in the middle of the pile of broken glass was Papyroos. He sprung up from the mess, brushed himself off and struck a pose.
“hey bro,” Snoos called.
“SNOOS!” Papyroos shouted again. “THERE YOU ARE!”
“here i am.”
“I THOUGHT I WOULD COME WARN YOU THAT GRIILBS IS SEARCHING FOR YOU AND HE SEEMS A BIT....STEAMED.”
“heh.” Snoos chuckled. “yea a little.”
“MORE THAN A LITTLE!” Papyroos scanned the scene. “HE SEEMS CALMER NOW THOUGH. YOU MUST HAVE WORKED SOMETHING OUT ON YOUR OWN!”
The tall skeleton’s eyes landed on Froosk and he waved, beaming. “HELLO HUMAN! I’M PLEASED TO SEE YOU HAVE MADE IT THIS FAR!”
Froosk returned their friend’s wave, but their attention was drawn to the smaller skeleton again. Papyroos engaged Griilby in conversation while the human watched as Snoos seemed to be pulling items from his inventory. He caught them staring, and gave them a wink, motioning for them to stay quiet. Froosk watching, fascinated, as Snoos materialized several colorful balloons.
“AND SO BEFORE I LEFT I HAD TO MAKE SURE OONDYNE DIDN’T USE THE PET ROOCK FOR TARGET PRACTICE AND...SNOOS WHAT ARE THOSE?”
Griilby whirled around fiercely, then, seeing the balloons, eyed Snoos questioningly.
“balloons bro,” Snoos grinned. “got them from from the nice croom guy. he said they ‘help lift your spirits’. heh.”
Snoos continued to pull balloons into existence, grasping them together by their strings. Perhaps it was due to their similar height, but Froosk was the first to notice that Snoos seemed to be rising by just the slightest bit. The stared down at his feet, and indeed, as he pulled more and more balloons out, his slippers were raising of the floor. By the time Griilby and Papyroos noticed, he was pulling out balloons in larger bunches, and he rose quickly. Griilby shook his head, stunned. After a moment he seemed to come to a realization, and with an angry grunt he dove at Snoos.
Snoos was already out of the fire monster’s reach, and still rising. He finally pulled out a final balloon, grinning with satisfaction.
“i do feel pretty uplifted,” he joked.
“BROTHER I UNDERSTAND IT MUST BE EXCITING TO SEE THINGS FROM A NEW PERSPECTIVE,” Papyroos called. “BUT I THINK YOU SHOULD PERHAPS RETURN TO THE GROUND NOW.”
“Nah,” came the reply.
“Snoos get BACK here!” Griilby shouted, his flames growing again. They all stared up at the floating skeleton, who was getting smaller has he went higher. There was, what Froosk thought, a rather convenient opening in the ceiling of the structure they were in that the golden light shone through. Snoos was lazily propelling himself towards it.
Griilby yelled once more, the fury in his voice causing both Papyroos and Froosk to step back from him. “SNOOS!”
“bye.”
Snoos drifted through the opening and out of sight.
Down below, Papyroos was filled with concern. His gaze shifted between the convenient opening in the ceiling and Grillby. The elemental monster gave a final glare up at the ceiling, then hunched his shoulders and began to stomp away out of the hall. As he passed Papyroos his voice crackled once more. “I’m going to KILL Snoos.”
Sweating nervously, Papyroos glanced at Froosk then wandered over to one of the broken windows, looking out.
The legend goes that Snoos was able to float through the magical barrier and out from the underground. As he passed through, the barrier inexplicably fell entirely, and the monsters were freed from their prison.
His tab was never paid, though it’s said that Griilbs is still searching for him. He’s probably stuck in a tree somewhere though.
Oh gosh, this is my first published story for Undertale....No regrets!
Credit to: ennji-undertale, and I also want to credit @13thcat, as I got the idea for the setting and Griilbs jumping through the window from their comic, found here: http://13thcat.tumblr.com/post/143255840522