Part 2
And so here I was, standing before countless trees covering this snowy woodland, a single clear path ahead of me to take. Without hesitation I took it, fully aware of what I was to witness upon continuing down the trail, knowing full well I had no other option at this point, this was one of those moments set in stone, one unchangeable. Every attempt at this whole thing would lead this way, just as it would likely lead to so many other things unshifting. That tough looking branch on the path was as easy to step over as ever, and that shadow that followed me… Without looking I knew that short little skeleton man was going to try and creep me out before giving me “the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick,” as he so eloquently put it. Sans… what a character, even after this second time around I couldn’t help but find myself amused by this strange little undead fellow. Never understood before what made it so “hilarious” that I was human, but, as he explained his brother… well… I don’t know if he noticed how I hesitated at that name. I had full justification for the unease, but, I couldn’t let Sans know that. He sent me right back to that conveniently shaped lamp to hide, and sure enough he arrived.
Papyrus… as alive as a living skeleton could be… and yet the ever-so-vivid image of his dying body cradling his severed head remained so blatantly… he quipped a Shakespeare reference before fading away into dust, a funny guy to the very end. Hearing him speak again was both haunting and… comforting. He’d live this time, I knew, Toriel would and so would he… that was all I was thinking as the two brothers went through their whole comedic human-seeking routine. Eventually as expected, after a few bone-related puns, even while being motioned directly to the lamp I was hidden behind, Papyrus never got the hint. He ran off and I went my own way as well. Sans stopped me like before, offered me the same advice.
“My brother’s been kind of down lately, he’s never seen a human before. And seeing you might just make his day. Don’t worry. He’s not dangerous. Even if he tries to be.” I figured that one out on my own. How I envied that, how I wished it were true for the likes of myself. It wasn’t worth dwindling on though, I had fates to change after all, and I could feel the determination to continue as I recalled the hilarious convenience that lamp provided, or so I told myself. There was a box nearby, the sign mentioned how it would appear later, and all boxes would hold the same items discarded in this one. I put the knife in there, I didn’t need that horrid temptation following me around, I was happy to be rid of it. There was a glove inside as well, a “tough glove” it was labeled. Another weapon? Or perhaps there was another point to this item… Either way I felt it would be more resourceful to take it with me, and this time around I chose to see what was up north before continuing eastward.
I came upon a riverbank, with a fishing pole resting unattended in the snow, somehow firmly fastened to the ground with the line in the flowing stream. For curiosity’s sake I reeled it in, finding a picture of some… strange sort of monster, with a note: “Call me! Here’s my number!” I didn’t bother memorizing the number; no way was I going to call this thing anytime soon. By all accounts considering where I was, I feel I wouldn’t have been its type anyways. Just as I tried to comprehend just what this whole weird setup was supposed to achieve, I turned around to run straight into a snowdrake fluttering up to attack. It had a vicious sort of expression with its limited number of visible teeth on display, though somehow this creature had something of a curmudgeonly look to it as well. Against my better judgement I tried to brighten the mood by laughing… without actually saying or doing anything funny. The snowdrake wasn’t pleased, and kept attacking. Right… laughing without reason wasn’t the best idea. So I tried telling a joke, inspired by Sans to tell a bad pun concerning the ice, since that seemed to be all the rage in these parts… Apparently the creature found it tasteless though, and I was left dodging more of its lashing out. I was rather frustrated now, and went straight to heckling the grumpy reptile, saying it wouldn’t get any friends with an attitude like that. The snowdrake took my words to heart, and, looking rather dejected, it simply flew away on its own. That didn’t feel so good, but… at least he was still alive, that was the most important thing, that even harsh words could spare a creature a darker fate.
I headed eastward from there, sure enough I came upon the two skeleton brothers once more, and just like the last time this exchange went down, Papyrus freaked out as he noticed the human standing before him… after of course mistaking the rock behind me for one… Sans was certainly right about Papyrus’ lack of human knowledge, but that was just a bit more than a little embarrassing when it came to the taller skeleton’s deductive reasoning, or insane lack thereof. The taller brother ran off eagerly after a heroic sort of threat if I followed, and Sans thanked me for the assistance, assuring me he’d keep “an eyesocket out” for me. Damn skele-puns…
Walking further I came upon a small little box-like market stand made of cardboard. It apparently had some narration written on it, and somehow it was blatantly clear to me that this was Papyrus’ handwriting as it said I observed the “well-crafted sentry station” and wondered if that “very famous royal guardsman” who was still “not yet a very famous royal guardsman” put it together. Well he at least seemed to have his feet still planted firmly on the ground while his head flew in the clouds. Taking a few steps led me straight into an ice cap. Another encounter, I could tell I’d have a great many of these. I had to be sure to never throw a punch throughout, and I really hoped this confrontation would have a friendlier conclusion than the last. I attempted to compliment the ice cap’s hat, but it thought me envious… and also seemed to want a hat for its nose somehow. Still feeling like this monster had a thing for vanity, I complimented the hat again. It still attacked in response but seemed to be firmly in agreement with me nonetheless. This was progress… I could feel it… or perhaps not, as a third compliment warranted the same response as before. This creature talked a lot like a teenager though… perhaps I could use that to my advantage. I attempted to ignore the snowcap. It seemed bothered by this. A true breakthrough this time? It seemed defeated when I ignored it twice, but feeling bad about that I decided to compliment it again. Apparently it was angry at me now, ignoring me ever still, so I simply spared it and left on my own. Still another pacifistic victory, but I really wished I didn’t have to make these creatures upset in the process… made things feel all the more lonely that way.
I came upon a sign further on that said “Absolutely NO moving”. Naturally I ignored the demands and continued walking, upon which I encountered a dog-like creature jumping up from a much more efficiently crafted sort of booth with a rather cute puppy insignia at the top. It seemed certain that someone had moved, though as I had stopped moving it apparently couldn’t see me anymore. There was no way I couldn’t move though, so another encounter was set. Now… how in the world was I supposed to talk my way out of a fight with a dog creature duel wielding some real sharp-looking swords? In my previous experience with a more normal sort of dog, I reached to pet at my adversary. It was too suspicious, and went to attack. I forgot about the whole not-moving thing… that was gonna sting for a bit, but I wasn’t too beat up from that first strike. Just needed to actually think before I acted here… The pet attempt failed again but now I would remain idle, and the attack seemed to completely miss me. Well, now I hopefully wasn’t going to die, I just had to find a peaceful way to end this. I did nothing for a bit, but no progress was being made… Eventually I tried petting again and the dog… Doggo I believe it was called, went completely nuts. It had been pet, and that apparently was quite the big deal. All I had to do was spare it, and that whole mess was over. Doggo was having an existential crises over how a non-moving sort could have pet it, and apparently needed to now drown its stress in dog treats. I rang the bell, perhaps somewhat amused that I could do this all day and it’d never see me, but I decided to stop teasing the poor thing after a bit and continue further. Dog treats were scattered on the ground ahead. Smoked dog treats. Someone had somehow managed to smoke a dog treat… I swear this land gets stranger by the minute.
Sans was waiting for me up ahead. He informed me of something that would’ve been good advice before. Not moving at the sight of blue attacks… like a blue stop sign, I believe was his simile. I really should’ve been listening better last time I did this. Still that was another matter worth remembering in the future. For now, I had an icy path to traverse. It was here where I encountered a strange knight-like creature with an adorable dog’s head. A lesser dog it was called. Its attacks were fierce, I had to munch on the spider donut I purchased back in the ruins to make sure I wasn’t completely destroyed, but this one was far more susceptible to pets… and boy was its reaction to them an… interesting one. Its neck would elongate every time I tried petting it, until the dog reached the sky and came right back down. It was mesmerizing and I couldn’t stop petting it to see what would happen. It was quite possible that I may have had a problem there… Eventually the dogs neck had traveled so far up and so very far down that it seemed to go where no dog had gone before, and I figured, well… maybe now I should stop and get on my way. So, much as petting that dog was addictively amusing, I was back to the task at hand.
Snowdin town was east, but there was a path up north. I could remember this path now. A snowman was there. It asked, as it wished to see the world but physically couldn’t, if I would take a piece of it with me in my travels. I feel that I may have refused the snowman that previous time, and in my continual quest for amends I agreed to take a piece of it with me. It seemed thankful, and I felt a little happier for it. Up ahead, Papyrus had clearly set another trap, but what he said here threw me off slightly.
“Really, that human. Do I know that person?” Could he somehow have recalled something? Sans seemed to pass it off as simply some silly remark and Papyrus tried to explain himself, but how, well, in a very Papyrus way, I’m afraid it is near-impossible to generate the exact amount of times he said variations of who knew what. Eventually it came to a stop when they both saw me approach. Thanks to Papyrus being, well, Papyrus, the trap was easily crossed, a path with electric shocks everywhere aside from a single trail… one he made quite plainly visible as he walked over to give me the orb that would make the trap actually affect me in the first place… It was terribly silly, and I was more inclined to find amusement in it now. Sans stuck around to explain to me a little more about his brother, namely the odd superhero costume he was wearing. Apparently they had constructed it some time ago for a costume party and Papyrus had never bothered to wear anything else from that point onward. He had apparently taken to calling it his “battle body.”
“Isn’t my brother cool?” Sans said at that point, and I’ll admit, I wasn’t sure if that was sincerity or some sort of pity in his words… Sans wasn’t easy to figure out, I suspect he never will be.
Further down the trail a store vender seemed down on his luck. I purchased a “nice cream” from him to help brighten his day a little, and I could’ve certainly used the extra assistance if another encounter went south. I was led to a sort of mini-golf course from there, or at least something of that variety. Curious, I pushing a large snowball, or just a ball I suppose, over to the hole at the end and a green flag popped up. According to the flag the green represented how sweet the victory was in helping the ball reach the end of the course. Further curiosity led me to do it again. This time I got a purple flag commenting on my ability to finish the course even after feeling trapped for a moment. Another round, this time, the ball nearly shrunk to nothing before I just barely reached the hole. A light blue flag told me that I “waited, still, for this opportunity… then dethroned the ball with a sharp attack.” These all seemed like symbolic sorts of colors… but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out if they meant anything important or not…
I took the path up north, after Sans attempted to sell me some non-existent snow for a ridiculous price. Two market booths seemed to be standing here with a sign between them. The sign was describing all sorts of smells, leading up to the smell of humans. “Destroy at all costs” it warned… Well, now I understood at least a part of the hostility. The two booths had apparently no one attending them, just a marking of “his” on the left one, and “hers” on the right. Whoever they were, they weren’t open for business, so, I took the other path. The latest in trap shenanigans awaited. Apparently what constituted as a puzzle in Sans’ case was just a word search. Papyrus was unsurprisingly not so pleased. Unexpectedly, as I’d completely forgotten this scenario last time, the ensuing argument shifted to the most difficult kind of word puzzle, Jumbles and Crosswords. Papyrus seemed to forget he was out to capture me for a moment to ask what I figured was more difficult. I decided to take his case and side with jumbles… they were usually pretty pesky in my past experience after all. Papyrus was quite happy about that as he ran off. Sans thanked me once more for that, said his poor brother once stumped himself solving a horoscope… Oh, Papyrus…
One more trap was devised up ahead, a desk with a plate of frozen spaghetti and an unplugged microwave… with all the buttons saying spaghetti on them. Papyrus left a note explaining the dish was a trap to keep me from progressing further, yet he still seemed to wish for me to enjoy the pasta dinner all the same. Considering I wasn’t so fond of frozen noodles, I figured I’d let the mouse holed up nearby come out to heat the spaghetti on its own, when it felt like it of course. It was strangely all it took to make me feel a new burst of determination. Sans seemed to make a good point about his brother. He really wasn’t that dangerous at all. I’d thought once that it was because he was weaker than he let on, but, now, it seemed far more like the taller skeleton man just desired acceptance from others, and perhaps I could offer that to him this time.
And so here I was, standing before countless trees covering this snowy woodland, a single clear path ahead of me to take. Without hesitation I took it, fully aware of what I was to witness upon continuing down the trail, knowing full well I had no other option at this point, this was one of those moments set in stone, one unchangeable. Every attempt at this whole thing would lead this way, just as it would likely lead to so many other things unshifting. That tough looking branch on the path was as easy to step over as ever, and that shadow that followed me… Without looking I knew that short little skeleton man was going to try and creep me out before giving me “the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick,” as he so eloquently put it. Sans… what a character, even after this second time around I couldn’t help but find myself amused by this strange little undead fellow. Never understood before what made it so “hilarious” that I was human, but, as he explained his brother… well… I don’t know if he noticed how I hesitated at that name. I had full justification for the unease, but, I couldn’t let Sans know that. He sent me right back to that conveniently shaped lamp to hide, and sure enough he arrived.
Papyrus… as alive as a living skeleton could be… and yet the ever-so-vivid image of his dying body cradling his severed head remained so blatantly… he quipped a Shakespeare reference before fading away into dust, a funny guy to the very end. Hearing him speak again was both haunting and… comforting. He’d live this time, I knew, Toriel would and so would he… that was all I was thinking as the two brothers went through their whole comedic human-seeking routine. Eventually as expected, after a few bone-related puns, even while being motioned directly to the lamp I was hidden behind, Papyrus never got the hint. He ran off and I went my own way as well. Sans stopped me like before, offered me the same advice.
“My brother’s been kind of down lately, he’s never seen a human before. And seeing you might just make his day. Don’t worry. He’s not dangerous. Even if he tries to be.” I figured that one out on my own. How I envied that, how I wished it were true for the likes of myself. It wasn’t worth dwindling on though, I had fates to change after all, and I could feel the determination to continue as I recalled the hilarious convenience that lamp provided, or so I told myself. There was a box nearby, the sign mentioned how it would appear later, and all boxes would hold the same items discarded in this one. I put the knife in there, I didn’t need that horrid temptation following me around, I was happy to be rid of it. There was a glove inside as well, a “tough glove” it was labeled. Another weapon? Or perhaps there was another point to this item… Either way I felt it would be more resourceful to take it with me, and this time around I chose to see what was up north before continuing eastward.
I came upon a riverbank, with a fishing pole resting unattended in the snow, somehow firmly fastened to the ground with the line in the flowing stream. For curiosity’s sake I reeled it in, finding a picture of some… strange sort of monster, with a note: “Call me! Here’s my number!” I didn’t bother memorizing the number; no way was I going to call this thing anytime soon. By all accounts considering where I was, I feel I wouldn’t have been its type anyways. Just as I tried to comprehend just what this whole weird setup was supposed to achieve, I turned around to run straight into a snowdrake fluttering up to attack. It had a vicious sort of expression with its limited number of visible teeth on display, though somehow this creature had something of a curmudgeonly look to it as well. Against my better judgement I tried to brighten the mood by laughing… without actually saying or doing anything funny. The snowdrake wasn’t pleased, and kept attacking. Right… laughing without reason wasn’t the best idea. So I tried telling a joke, inspired by Sans to tell a bad pun concerning the ice, since that seemed to be all the rage in these parts… Apparently the creature found it tasteless though, and I was left dodging more of its lashing out. I was rather frustrated now, and went straight to heckling the grumpy reptile, saying it wouldn’t get any friends with an attitude like that. The snowdrake took my words to heart, and, looking rather dejected, it simply flew away on its own. That didn’t feel so good, but… at least he was still alive, that was the most important thing, that even harsh words could spare a creature a darker fate.
I headed eastward from there, sure enough I came upon the two skeleton brothers once more, and just like the last time this exchange went down, Papyrus freaked out as he noticed the human standing before him… after of course mistaking the rock behind me for one… Sans was certainly right about Papyrus’ lack of human knowledge, but that was just a bit more than a little embarrassing when it came to the taller skeleton’s deductive reasoning, or insane lack thereof. The taller brother ran off eagerly after a heroic sort of threat if I followed, and Sans thanked me for the assistance, assuring me he’d keep “an eyesocket out” for me. Damn skele-puns…
Walking further I came upon a small little box-like market stand made of cardboard. It apparently had some narration written on it, and somehow it was blatantly clear to me that this was Papyrus’ handwriting as it said I observed the “well-crafted sentry station” and wondered if that “very famous royal guardsman” who was still “not yet a very famous royal guardsman” put it together. Well he at least seemed to have his feet still planted firmly on the ground while his head flew in the clouds. Taking a few steps led me straight into an ice cap. Another encounter, I could tell I’d have a great many of these. I had to be sure to never throw a punch throughout, and I really hoped this confrontation would have a friendlier conclusion than the last. I attempted to compliment the ice cap’s hat, but it thought me envious… and also seemed to want a hat for its nose somehow. Still feeling like this monster had a thing for vanity, I complimented the hat again. It still attacked in response but seemed to be firmly in agreement with me nonetheless. This was progress… I could feel it… or perhaps not, as a third compliment warranted the same response as before. This creature talked a lot like a teenager though… perhaps I could use that to my advantage. I attempted to ignore the snowcap. It seemed bothered by this. A true breakthrough this time? It seemed defeated when I ignored it twice, but feeling bad about that I decided to compliment it again. Apparently it was angry at me now, ignoring me ever still, so I simply spared it and left on my own. Still another pacifistic victory, but I really wished I didn’t have to make these creatures upset in the process… made things feel all the more lonely that way.
I came upon a sign further on that said “Absolutely NO moving”. Naturally I ignored the demands and continued walking, upon which I encountered a dog-like creature jumping up from a much more efficiently crafted sort of booth with a rather cute puppy insignia at the top. It seemed certain that someone had moved, though as I had stopped moving it apparently couldn’t see me anymore. There was no way I couldn’t move though, so another encounter was set. Now… how in the world was I supposed to talk my way out of a fight with a dog creature duel wielding some real sharp-looking swords? In my previous experience with a more normal sort of dog, I reached to pet at my adversary. It was too suspicious, and went to attack. I forgot about the whole not-moving thing… that was gonna sting for a bit, but I wasn’t too beat up from that first strike. Just needed to actually think before I acted here… The pet attempt failed again but now I would remain idle, and the attack seemed to completely miss me. Well, now I hopefully wasn’t going to die, I just had to find a peaceful way to end this. I did nothing for a bit, but no progress was being made… Eventually I tried petting again and the dog… Doggo I believe it was called, went completely nuts. It had been pet, and that apparently was quite the big deal. All I had to do was spare it, and that whole mess was over. Doggo was having an existential crises over how a non-moving sort could have pet it, and apparently needed to now drown its stress in dog treats. I rang the bell, perhaps somewhat amused that I could do this all day and it’d never see me, but I decided to stop teasing the poor thing after a bit and continue further. Dog treats were scattered on the ground ahead. Smoked dog treats. Someone had somehow managed to smoke a dog treat… I swear this land gets stranger by the minute.
Sans was waiting for me up ahead. He informed me of something that would’ve been good advice before. Not moving at the sight of blue attacks… like a blue stop sign, I believe was his simile. I really should’ve been listening better last time I did this. Still that was another matter worth remembering in the future. For now, I had an icy path to traverse. It was here where I encountered a strange knight-like creature with an adorable dog’s head. A lesser dog it was called. Its attacks were fierce, I had to munch on the spider donut I purchased back in the ruins to make sure I wasn’t completely destroyed, but this one was far more susceptible to pets… and boy was its reaction to them an… interesting one. Its neck would elongate every time I tried petting it, until the dog reached the sky and came right back down. It was mesmerizing and I couldn’t stop petting it to see what would happen. It was quite possible that I may have had a problem there… Eventually the dogs neck had traveled so far up and so very far down that it seemed to go where no dog had gone before, and I figured, well… maybe now I should stop and get on my way. So, much as petting that dog was addictively amusing, I was back to the task at hand.
Snowdin town was east, but there was a path up north. I could remember this path now. A snowman was there. It asked, as it wished to see the world but physically couldn’t, if I would take a piece of it with me in my travels. I feel that I may have refused the snowman that previous time, and in my continual quest for amends I agreed to take a piece of it with me. It seemed thankful, and I felt a little happier for it. Up ahead, Papyrus had clearly set another trap, but what he said here threw me off slightly.
“Really, that human. Do I know that person?” Could he somehow have recalled something? Sans seemed to pass it off as simply some silly remark and Papyrus tried to explain himself, but how, well, in a very Papyrus way, I’m afraid it is near-impossible to generate the exact amount of times he said variations of who knew what. Eventually it came to a stop when they both saw me approach. Thanks to Papyrus being, well, Papyrus, the trap was easily crossed, a path with electric shocks everywhere aside from a single trail… one he made quite plainly visible as he walked over to give me the orb that would make the trap actually affect me in the first place… It was terribly silly, and I was more inclined to find amusement in it now. Sans stuck around to explain to me a little more about his brother, namely the odd superhero costume he was wearing. Apparently they had constructed it some time ago for a costume party and Papyrus had never bothered to wear anything else from that point onward. He had apparently taken to calling it his “battle body.”
“Isn’t my brother cool?” Sans said at that point, and I’ll admit, I wasn’t sure if that was sincerity or some sort of pity in his words… Sans wasn’t easy to figure out, I suspect he never will be.
Further down the trail a store vender seemed down on his luck. I purchased a “nice cream” from him to help brighten his day a little, and I could’ve certainly used the extra assistance if another encounter went south. I was led to a sort of mini-golf course from there, or at least something of that variety. Curious, I pushing a large snowball, or just a ball I suppose, over to the hole at the end and a green flag popped up. According to the flag the green represented how sweet the victory was in helping the ball reach the end of the course. Further curiosity led me to do it again. This time I got a purple flag commenting on my ability to finish the course even after feeling trapped for a moment. Another round, this time, the ball nearly shrunk to nothing before I just barely reached the hole. A light blue flag told me that I “waited, still, for this opportunity… then dethroned the ball with a sharp attack.” These all seemed like symbolic sorts of colors… but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out if they meant anything important or not…
I took the path up north, after Sans attempted to sell me some non-existent snow for a ridiculous price. Two market booths seemed to be standing here with a sign between them. The sign was describing all sorts of smells, leading up to the smell of humans. “Destroy at all costs” it warned… Well, now I understood at least a part of the hostility. The two booths had apparently no one attending them, just a marking of “his” on the left one, and “hers” on the right. Whoever they were, they weren’t open for business, so, I took the other path. The latest in trap shenanigans awaited. Apparently what constituted as a puzzle in Sans’ case was just a word search. Papyrus was unsurprisingly not so pleased. Unexpectedly, as I’d completely forgotten this scenario last time, the ensuing argument shifted to the most difficult kind of word puzzle, Jumbles and Crosswords. Papyrus seemed to forget he was out to capture me for a moment to ask what I figured was more difficult. I decided to take his case and side with jumbles… they were usually pretty pesky in my past experience after all. Papyrus was quite happy about that as he ran off. Sans thanked me once more for that, said his poor brother once stumped himself solving a horoscope… Oh, Papyrus…
One more trap was devised up ahead, a desk with a plate of frozen spaghetti and an unplugged microwave… with all the buttons saying spaghetti on them. Papyrus left a note explaining the dish was a trap to keep me from progressing further, yet he still seemed to wish for me to enjoy the pasta dinner all the same. Considering I wasn’t so fond of frozen noodles, I figured I’d let the mouse holed up nearby come out to heat the spaghetti on its own, when it felt like it of course. It was strangely all it took to make me feel a new burst of determination. Sans seemed to make a good point about his brother. He really wasn’t that dangerous at all. I’d thought once that it was because he was weaker than he let on, but, now, it seemed far more like the taller skeleton man just desired acceptance from others, and perhaps I could offer that to him this time.