Protoanemonin

You turned almost mechanically to face the intruder. You weren’t willing your body to move but the magic surrounding your soul was. It was guiding you towards the stranger. Your head lowered until you only saw the newcomer’s hand in front of you and Flowey’s petals. The flower’s face was twisted into an annoyed glare that strained his face so much that the corners of his mouth twitched.

Your hand grasped the stranger’s and a searing pain wracked your body. You twitched involuntarily and a series of tremors caused your muscles to tense. You tore your hand away and stared at your palm accusingly.

The foreign monster snorted and released a guffaw of laughter. It sounded more like a bark than a laugh but you disregarded this. Your eyes slowly slid upwards to inspect the new arrival. Your eyes widened incrementally when you saw that this monster was a skeleton. Well, you have already seen Toriel who was a nine-foot-tall hybrid form of a goat, dog, and human so you could find some vague similarities between a regular human and this skeletal being. He was bent forward with the force of his laughter which was now fading to a few snickers and sudden intakes of air.

“heh heh,” the creature chuckled before raising the pinpricks of light present in his sockets back to your eyes. “the old joy buzzer in the hand trick. never gets old. well, i did improve it a little. A few extra volts here and there.”

“Are you okay?” Flowey asked, swiveling his head to look at you before glaring at the newcomer. “Go away, comedian! We don’t need your services here!”

The grinning skeleton brought a hand up to his cervical vertebrae, rubbing the bones there carefully. “i don’t appreciate your tone. i have a lot of jokes that will be sure to flora ya.”

“Don’t you dare!” Flowey screeched, causing you to almost drop the boot completely.

“why couldn’t the gardener plant any flowers?”

“Sans! I swear! If you throw that punch—”

The skeleton’s grin grew wider as he interrupted Flowey. “because he hadn’t botany.”

“—line, I’ll…”

Flowey went really still. Unnaturally still. So still that when you turned the boot in order to get a better look at him, he was staring through you. You put his boot down and spared a glance at the awful skeleton who shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.

“eh, some audiences love ‘em. others go all stiff like your little buddy.”

This position allowed you to describe Sans fully since he wasn’t hunched over. Sans face was round and he had an omnipresent smile that showcased each of his pointed teeth. One tooth was gold. He was a measly five-foot-five and wore clothes that were way too big for him. His jacket was lined with white fur and yellow fabric lined the zipper. His shorts were similar to the jacket, jet black with a single line of yellow running over each leg. His red shirt seemed to bring out his red-rimmed eyes. The red rim led you to wonder if the skeleton got enough sleep.

Sans lifted his hand and put it back in the pocket of his black jacket. You followed the line of movement carefully and shifted your hand towards the knife tucked into the waistband of your shorts. Sans caught sight of the change.

“which do you think will be faster?” He drawled, the little red lights in his eyes disappearing. “your hand reaching for the knife or mine reaching for your wrist?”

You blinked and the skeleton disappeared from your line of sight. You drew the knife out but his bony hand was already constricting your wrist.  He pulled your hand back as far as it could go behind you before he folded it carefully against your body. Your hand was held between your shoulder blades. The situation gave you no space to move against him. You grunted in mild irritation and Sans leaned his head onto your shoulder.

“so, sweetheart,” he murmured. “what’s the plan?”

You scowled at him but let go of the knife, letting it fall to the snow. Sans kicked the knife away and let you go. You rubbed at your shoulder. He could have easily dislocated your arm but he decided not to.

He sighed, picked up the knife, and slid it into his pocket. “not much of a talker, are ya?”

You remained silent and picked up Flowey who seemed to regain his senses. “The kid talks. They just don’t want to talk to you.”

That made Sans’ eyes narrow and his grin falter. You looked between Flowey and Sans. They seemed to share a history. Flowey seemed to know that Sans was going to appear before he did so. You wondered if my memories would depict Sans. You found him an interesting subject. Of course, your interest was purely clinical. You wanted to dissect him; figure out what makes him tick. You wanted to see that monster so broken down that he had no choice but to run to your open arms. You would methodically put him back together, get him to trust you. You would build him up to something much stronger than he was. You understood that Sans was grossly underestimated by most but, for some reason, you wanted to turn him into a god. Your lips quirked upwards and Sans noticed.

“well, you’re human. that’s hilarious. for me. not really for you. you’re going to have a miserable time.” He laughed again and Flowey growled. “boss is going to take you for a ride, that’s for sure. you certain that you don’t want to go back into the ruins and get coddled to death by the nanny that lives there?”

You eyebrows flew upwards but Flowey asked the question, “You know Toriel?”

Sans lifted his chin. “we’ve talked. human, follow me. undyne miscalculated the width of the bars so you can get through them without a hitch.”

Sans scuffed his sneakers forward and you spared a look at Flowey, who nodded his approval. You followed Sans across the bridge and over to a new area. You inspected it thoroughly. There was an oddly shaped lamp, what seemed to be a little shack and two large bundles of snow.

“I know you don’t want to Reset here. We haven’t found a Save Point since Toriel. We don’t want to repeat that,” Flowey whispered as you proceeded forward. “Just be careful. He’s…an odd one.”

You took his advice in mind but your curiosity concerning Sans was overwhelming your concern for your own safety. You watched Sans hop over the counter of the shack and walked over.

“boss should be around soon. you should find a place to hide, doll.”

You pointed your finger inside the shack but said nothing more. Flowey looked you over and shook his head, “Nope. Nuh-uh. We are not hiding in there. Too bad, human! Find another spot!”

Sans leaned his elbow on the counter and propped his head on his open palm, he tilted his head. “you can hide in here.”

Now, you found yourself in a conflict of interests. The pull you felt towards Sans was being disrupted by the need to survive with Flowey. You knew the flower’s interests were to keep you alive. He needed you to be able to pass over the Barrier. Why this was, you had yet to ask. You knew that you were necessary to him. Sans was the biggest wild card you had come across so far. You had no idea how much your death would warrant him. Would he try to kill you? You weren’t even sure that the curiosity you held for him was mutual! Besides, a need to watch the other’s demise didn’t seem too healthy.

You turned and nodded to Flowey. Flowey’s petals twitched and he nodded. You tried not to dwell on how my feelings swelled for the engorged area where his fifth petal used to be. “Come on, human. We should go hide behind those piles of snow.”

They were indeed large enough to hide behind. You didn’t dare a glance in Sans direction. Least you may regret your decision to follow Flowey. You quickly settled behind the snow pile and it was at that exact moment that a new presence decided to show itself.

“SANS!” Yelled the newcomer as he marched forward. The stranger was much taller than Sans. He towered at nearly eight feet high. He was dressed clad in black leather. His top cut off at his bottom rib and spiked out at the shoulders. It reminded you a football chest protector with shoulder padding that an angst ridden teenager customized. His leather pants hung low on his pelvic bone with a gold studded belt holding them up. There was also a red scarf wrapped around his cervical vertebrae. You assumed it was hard to find clothes that fit when you were a skeleton but Sans and this newcomer seemed fine.

“heya boss. happy hunting?”

The one Sans called ‘Boss’ scowled and fingered a scar that crossed his left eye. His eyes were similar to Sans’. “THE HUNTING HAS NOT BEEN HAPPY AT ALL. IN FACT, IT’S BEEN HORRIBLE. AND IT’S NO THANKS TO YOU AND YOU’RE LACK OF MOTIVATION.”

Sans scoffed. “motivation isn’t necessary, boss. you just gotta show up.”

“SANS, IN THE PAST WEEK, YOU’VE SHOW UP FOR A TOTAL OF TEN OF YOUR SCHEDULED FORTY HOURS.”

“damn, that’s more than last week.”

“YOU AREN’T MAKING THIS EASY FOR ME, YOU IDIOT! HOW AM I, THE ESTEEMED CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD, SUPPOSED TO LOOK IF I CAN’T EVEN CONTROL MY MISERABLE OLDER BROTHER?” He shouted. You pretended not to notice the way Sans flinched. “THE HUMAN, SANS. HAS THE HUMAN PASSED THROUGH? TODAY IS THE DAY. I FEEL IT IN MY BONES.”

“what makes you think that they’ll pass through here? i think they’d try to avoid Snowdin as much as possible.”

Sans’ younger brother leaned into the smaller’s personal space. Red beads of sweat accumulated on the older brother’s forehead. Some of the beads were sliding over his cheek bones and others were falling into his darkened eye sockets. The younger brother grinned. “NO ONE CARES ABOUT WHAT YOU THINK, SANS! IF YOU SEE THE HUMAN, TEAR OUT ITS SOUL! DON’T GIVE ME ANY GODDAMN EXCUSES! TRY HARDER!”

The younger brother paused and clenched his fist. Suddenly, a bone appeared in the closed hand. “NO…BRING THEM IN ALIVE. I MUST BE THE ONE TO KILL THE HUMAN. I WILL GET ALL THE FAME AND GLORY THAT I DESERVE IF I END THEIR MEASLY LIFE! I’LL KILL ANYONE THAT STANDS IN MY WAY!”

With that, he crushed the bone in his hand. The sound of it alone caused you to swallow audibly. Flowey looked up at you with a furrowed brow. Ever since the heated incident with your mother years ago, you had a visceral reaction to anything concerning a broken bone. I guess he hadn’t seen you so human before. “IF YOU EVEN THINK OF KILLING THE HUMAN BEFORE I CAN, I WILL MURDER YOU, SANS. BROTHER OR NOT.”

With that, Sans’ younger brother left the vicinity. You could tell because the younger unleashed a wave of bones to completely destroy the oddly shaped lamp. You heard his booming voice over the distance, “I HATE THAT LAMP!”

You and Flowey emerged from hiding. Sans was gone. The only indications of his presence were the indentations of his fingers in the wooden countertop. You glanced inside the little shack and saw various empty mustard containers as well as a well-used sleeping bag and pillow. There was an old calendar hung on the wall and on the rest of the wood was carvings. The carvings seemed to mark the number of days spent inside. According to the fact that the walls were covered in these little etchings, it wasn’t Sans’ first rodeo.

“There are a lot of traps up ahead.” Flowey said prudently. “It would be best if we continued carefully.”

“We just need to find a Save Point. Then, we’ll work on getting to Snowdin in one piece.”

You walked forward and glimpsed one of the floating Save Points with a grin. You latched your hand onto it and overwrote your previous file. (Having an advantage over Sans…seems to fill you with Determination?)

After you Saved, Flowey glanced towards the east. “Let’s head that way. Snowdin is towards the east.”

“I really don’t appreciate you ordering me around,” You muttered as Flowey rolled his eyes.

“Would you like me to be a little more polite, then?” He tutted. “Fine! Can you please head towards the east, Your Grace.”

Your fingers traced his leaves as you readjusted your grip on the boot that held him. You heaved him up a little higher and he exclaimed, “I’m not that heavy, human!”

“No, your head is just a little too inflated with all that arrogance.”

He sputtered as you walked beside a large, sturdy pine tree. Suddenly, a trap sprung. You had just activated a snare that was hidden in the snow. A simply knotted rope snagged your ankle and pulled you into the air. It swung you from side to side. In your struggle, you had dropped Flowey who now looked up at you, a triumphant and good for nothing smile glazing his face.

“Well, well, well.” He cooed as you slowed down. “What do we have here?”

Your hair hung over your face and your shirt rode up your chest, exposing your navel. Even your pack was sliding off your shoulders. “Get me down from here.”

Flowey considered the idea. His smile mutated into the one you saw before he killed you with his ‘friendliness’ pellets. “And what if I decided not to?”

Your eyes widened, cracking your normally impassable emotionless façade. Then, they immediately narrowed. Their maroon color turning blacker than the darkest state of the Underground. “You wouldn’t.”

That was a challenge if Flowey had ever heard one and he had heard a lot of challenges over the years. Most of them had come from Sans or Papyrus since both the Bone Brothers had a bit of a mean streak in them. A few had been received from Alphys before Flowey escaped the lab. Now, he could add another. Flowey stuck out his tongue at you and winked before dropping out of the boot and underneath the fresh snow.

“Shit!” You swore and tried to pull your leg out of the snag.

A realization overcame you. All you needed to do was Reset and you would be brought back to the Save Point you saved at earlier. Then, you would show that flower just who was in charge around here. You cackled and tried to muster up the Determination necessary to conjure up a Reset but the feeling of the blood rushing to your head caused your focus to fade.

After a few minutes of no Flowey, you sound yourself getting more and more desperate for release. You struggled against your bounds. You sighed and allowed your eyes to droop closed. You were growing dizzier as time progressed. You knew your face must have been as red as a tomato. Your pack had also fallen to the snow at this point. This didn’t stop Sans from approaching the rather odd scene a few moments later.

“it’s a good thing that a gyftrot didn’t find you.” You heard his tongue click against his teeth. “seeing as though you’re decorating that tree, you might upset the poor monster.”

“Oh woe is the Gyftrot,” you replied unsympathetically.

He stood exactly one foot away from your hanging body, his face was almost right underneath yours. “so, dollface. want me to get you down?”

Your legs wouldn’t be able to help you much in your next attempt. They were slowly going numb.

“you might asphyxiate if you don’t. where did that little plant of yours go?”

“Ditched when he had the chance. I suppose I shouldn’t have threatened him so much but if you were caught with such an untrained companion, you would have probably acted similarly.” You thought you saw Sans tremble but his eyes fell to the ground. You readdressed him, “Sans?”

“Y-yes, human?”

“I would very much appreciate it if you got me down.”

Swiftly, Sans summoned your soul and lifted your knife from his pocket. He teleported from where he was in front and appeared on the branch that you were attached to. He swung at the rope with the knife and it snapped at the intensity of the blow. Sans grasped your soul with his magic as you fell and you floated to the ground gracefully. Once you were on the ground, you found yourself drawn to the vibrant red flames that erupted from his eye sockets. The fizzed out as he returned to your side.

“don’t think that this changes anything,” he mumbled, a dark red flush streaking his cheekbones.

“I would be foolish to assume anything less.” You replied as you pulled your bag over your shoulder again.

“y’know. you talk pretty weird,” he grumbled before he realized something with a groan. “i don’t even know your name.”

“Nobody tends to ask. You’re the first to even mention it, actually. It’s Frisk.”

“heh, frisk. i’ll keep it in mind, sweetheart. you better skedaddle, boss’ll be back soon to re-check his rounds.”

“Why do you call him that? He’s your brother.”

 Sans stiffened and seemed to retreat further into himself. “don’t ask.”

“It’s impolite to refuse to maintain a conversation, Sans.”

“don’t. push. me.” He ground his teeth together. You knew that his hand was tightening around the knife but you never thought him so bold as to stab it into your stomach.

You stepped forward and licked you lips. “You want to know what I think? I think that you are weak. A man who easily falls victim to his primal urges. You cannot control yourself.”

“i can control myself!” He gasped as sweat fell from his skull. You reached a finger and caught a drop in your hand before letting it slip through your fingers.

“Can you really? Do you suffer from moodiness, Sans? Do you jump from emotion to emotion constantly? You may think your just following the motion of the conversation but I think that you are tired and irritable. You’re deprived.”

“deprived of what?” He snapped, glaring at you.

“Deprived of training; like Flowey, of emotional release, of sleep, of sex. Tell me, Sans, are you a virgin?” You were being coy but I watched your movements as if you were insane. You had a guaranteed death wish. You were a mongoose, curiously sniffing around an alarmed cobra.  “Did you save me because you decided that I would owe you? That I would appease you and bend to your every whim? Did you want me to lick your boots and kneel at your feet, Sans?”

Sans was bright red as he tripped over himself to get away from you. “y-you’re fucked up, kid.”

“And what does that make you?” You sang to him, tipping your head to the side as you leaned forward. You were close enough that your nose was touching his nasal bone. “A dirty old man with a fucked up child fetish.”

Sans was up on his feet and summoning up his magic but his emotions were easily swayed and seemed to be demanding most of his focus. Thus, his magic was also being afflicted by your brashness. “You’re going to run away from me, Sans? Just like you run away from your brother? Was he ever proud of you? I can always teach him a thing or two. If it makes you feel any better. I could spread his dust over the Underground and have him remembered as a martyr! That’ll give the attention he so desperately desires!”

Apparently, that was Sans’ breaking point. He truly loved his brother and that fact made him even more pathetic in your eyes. He rammed you into the pine tree behind you, grabbed your throat, and began to constrict your airways with one skeletal hand. His eyes were wild and even the little pinpricks in his sockets had grown wide. His eyes were narrowed and his grin resembled one of a madman.

“You won’t do it.” You laughed hoarsely. You almost spat in his face just so you could provoke him. “You don’t have the guts.”

Sans’ smile took on a hint of amusement as he ran the tip of your knife over your forehead, watching the skin split and you gasp. “only half right there, doll. i don’t have any guts.”

He bared your neck slightly and expertly sliced through your carotid artery. Interiorly, you were glad that you had chosen this knife. It was so sharp that you barely felt anything. If the knife was too blunt it would mean more tearing of the skin and less cutting. You had underestimated its worth. Blood sprayed against his skull and your hands as you desperately tried to pry his phalanges away from the wound. You smiled softly when he didn’t and he watched as blood bubbled over your lips. You gurgled a laugh and he hushed you.

“don’t worry, this’ll be my quickest kill yet.”

You awoke in the Void.

That went well.

 “Very well.” You agreed, rubbing a hand across your neck. You were assuring yourself that the wound had faded. “This is all getting very interesting.”

And you haven’t even met the whole cast. You are missing a whole portion of the Underground. You never even made it to Snowdin. Why don’t we try not getting too close this time? Keep Flowey around. He’ll help you through this.

“That flower escaped the second the chance came,” you reasoned as I hesitated. “He should be taught a lesson.”

Please don’t hurt him. He’s stupid, that’s all! He could easily become a good ally!

“He could, I don’t deny that. What he needs is to be trained. To be told right from wrong. If he can’t follow simple rules, he’s overstayed his welcome!” You said.

Frisk, be reasonable.

“I’m being very reasonable. You are too quickly guided by your emotions. In fact, you’re similar to Sans in that way. You would protect anybody who meant something to you, Chara. Did that cause your death? Did you protect Asriel far too much?”

You’re unbelievable.

You clenched your hands into fists. “Unbelievable. We use that word so sparingly, don’t you think? We use it to describe people, landscapes, things that are just surprising. But at some points in your life, things happen that your mind cannot process. That every cell in your body rejects. Losing someone, so precious to you, so integral to your way of life. I guess that must be truly unbelievable. I’ve never had such a person before but I’ve longed to feel something as deep as that. Did you feel disbelief in your heart when he died?”

I remained quiet and you abandoned all hope for an answer. “I’ve always wondered if I can live a life like that. In which I have an emotional dependency on someone. I can’t help but think it would be hard.”

You Reset quickly and regained consciousness. Staring at you was the flower that so nimbly escaped your grasp.

“Oh, Flowey. What am I to do with you?”

“I-I didn’t mean to do it,” He stammered, looking away from your vicious glare. “It was a momentary loss of my sanity, I-I mean, it was a stupid thing to do!”

“I know,” in fact you were saying the same thing to me. “That’s why you need to be conditioned not to do these things.”

Flowey gulped and stared up at you from his boot. “And how are you going to do that?”

“I have a plan but it will wait until we reach Snowdin. Now, bring me there. We have until midday.”

You carefully avoided the tree you had been killed against and the snare hidden under the snow. You walked through the forests while avoiding the occasional bear trap, mouse trap, 1-live door traps meant for dogs, and so on.

“You really meant traps didn’t you? I kind of thought I’d be doing puzzles that would cause dire consequences! Just imagine it: a jigsaw puzzle with a hundred pieces meant to be solved in two minutes, otherwise you will trigger a rockslide that will trap you in this part of the forest forever! After announcing this, Sans’ brother will laugh evilly and rub his fingers together like any other cartoon villain! He’d be all like, NYEH-HEH-HEH-HEH-HEH-HEH-HEH-HEH-HEH! HEH!”

“You’re crazy, that sounds like some sort of Indiana Jones shenanigans. Papyrus has no sense of humor and Sans’ puns are horrible.” However, Fowey smiled. “They do collect animal traps though. It must be odd to visit their house.”

There were other monsters that seemed to stay away from you and Flowey. Flowey watched them evenly and made sure that he had a few roots ready to leap out at his unsuspecting victims if they were to step out of line. You appreciated this but you also knew that he was trying to win back your good graces. He had a bud of a petal growing out of his head in the space where you had pulled one out.

Flowey seemed to be the only one who was excluded from the Resets. He remembered every occurrence. Your sins would follow you through him. Not that you necessarily minded. He also seemed to keep the changes to his person through every Reset. You hadn’t seen the little petal growing out of his head until now and it wasn’t there when he left you in the last Reset. That meant that it grew in between both Save files.

You had first noticed the new petal as you were engaged in combat with Doggo. A dog that talked, smoked dog biscuits, and was blind as a bat. It was easy to get past the dog with the green shirt and purple leopard print pants. Upon Flowey’s request, you even pet the dog, only for him to freak out and hide behind the counter for the rest of his turns.

“Careful,” Flowey presently warned as he pushed you to the side a little. You noticed that his actions helped you narrowly avoid another snare. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. “You shouldn’t delve too far into your thoughts. You get all distracted.”

You rolled your eyes at him and looked ahead. Up ahead, the area was frozen over like an ice rink, you had never skated before. Perhaps you could have some fun before getting killed again. You also noticed a familiar figure leaning against the bark of another pine tree. The older Bone Brother was smoking. You watched as he took a long drag before exhaling. The smoke came pouring out of every empty space between his bones. You watched the pinpricks that were his pupils lock onto your figure. He stilled, the cigarette becoming more ash than anything else. He remembered. The thought made you extremely excited. You flipped a lock of hair behind your ear, careful to draw a faint line across your neck as you drew your arm back to your side. Your smirk turned absolutely deadly.

“H-hey, uh, you alright?” Flowey mumbled, thinking that this sudden change in composure was because of him. You blinked at him before tightening your arms around his boot.

“Don’t worry, you haven’t done anything wrong yet.”

Flowey mutterings didn’t escape you, “You don’t know how much happiness those words give me right now.”

An uncharacteristic smile flashed on your face and Flowey’s eyes widened. You managed to control yourself and the smile disappeared. You smiled for your father but those were fake smiles. You smiled for your mother but those were spiteful smiles. You smiled for your sister but those were filled with lingering hints of blackmail. You smiled for Sans but that one was a bloody, prideful mess meant for his eyes only. This one was a genuinely amused smile, one that softened your features considerably. You decided that it came from my emotions.

“Don’t think this changes anything.” You said. Reminding yourself of Sans and his mood swings. You ignored the fact that your thoughts seemed to shift to him constantly. When you turned around, the skeleton was gone anyways.

You turned your full attention on Flowey, “You know, I still have to punish you later.”

“You know, as kinky as that sounds, I don’t know if I can.”

“You need to follow exact rules, so I’m going to give you them. If you follow them, we’ll avoid me killing you out of frustration.” You kept my words in your head. You needed to find a common ground between my emotions and your own. Being exclusively sadistic would cause my emotions to snap but being too nice would cause you to snap. The smile you had sent Flowey was only one of the many things that told you that you were losing yourself to my emotions.

“Are you…being your own special brand of merciful?”

“Perhaps.”

He laughed, “Maybe I can get through to you.”

You ran forward and slid across the ice, causing the flower to screech and topple unceremoniously out of his boot. When you got to the other side of the icy terrain, you saw Flowey trying to get himself over to you and failing terribly. His roots were slipping all over the place and offering no solid support for his stem.

“Try rooting!” You suggested.

“In the ice?”

“Can’t hurt.”

Flowey didn’t dignify the suggestion with a response so you watched him move around hopelessly for a good half hour. “We’re never going to get to Snowdin at this rate!”

So you went over and picked him up off the ice. Then, you deposited him into the boot once again.

His eyes narrowed, “You sadistic little shit. I take back what I said.”

You winked and stuck out your tongue as he had in the previous file. He told you to keep going towards the east. As you traveled, you saw a creature leaning on an ice cream cart. He sighed deeply as you approached.

“Can I buy two?” You asked carefully. Flowey tilted his head. You had no money.

“Two Not-So-Nice Creams?” The green man asked, a happy gleam in his eyes. He scooped out two heapings of the Not-So-Nice Cream, dropped it onto two sugar cones, and handed them to you. As he tallied up the price, you scurried off over the unsteady wooden bridge. “Hey! Wait!”

You ran away and enjoyed your two Not-So-Nice Cream cones. Flowey photosynthesized so he didn’t need the access sugar. Maybe one day you would pour a coke into a pot he was rooted in so you could see the side effects. It was surprising but you were imagining keeping the flower with you on the Surface.

It was getting colder throughout your travels but Flowey told you that this was because the day was fading. Time was running out. He told you that you needed to get to Snowdin by nightfall so that you didn’t freeze. You decided to jog through some areas so that the blood in your body was pumping and the warmth was flowing. You stopped when you saw a punny trap, obviously of Sans’ creation, that had a giant guillotine near a mouse’s home. There was also a beautiful Save Point. (This ill-timed guillotine pun fills you with Determination.) There was a melon in the basket that accompanied the decapitation device and a note beside the entire set up. The note simply read:

‘just place your melon right on in there.’

 “I don’t get it,” Flowey said.

“The melon in this case, refers to my head. It’s an odd human saying. My father used to always tell me to use my melon instead of use my head all the time.”

Flowey’s eyes snapped up to your head and you wondered if he was trying to assess your head’s likeliness to a melon. You shook your head and tutted before clearing the area and moving on. You avoided a growling white dog with armor on that Flowey called Lesser Dog and you caused a couple of dogs to have the need to go to couples’ counseling. Papyrus, was a presence that was hard to avoid. He stalked around every area and if he heard any sounds that sounded out of the ordinary, he unleashed a series of bone-related attacks. You wanted to strike down the skeleton, but your knife wasn’t on your person.

“Where’s the knife?” Flowey pleaded after a close encounter with Papyrus but you hadn’t felt the comfort of the cold steel since the last Reset.

“Do you know what happens to your items when we Reset?” You asked him, trying to dodge the question to better understand the situation yourself.

“Well, they respawn with you.”

“Flowey, if you stole something off me, would it come back to me if I went back on a previous Save file where I still had the thing you stole?”

“Those are the rules; however, there are no duplicates of the items. So if someone managed to save the item from being affected by the Reset before the previous file is loaded, the item would remain wherever it was saved and not return to you. It happened to me once.”

“Really?” You asked as Flowey nodded.

“Yup, the comedian. He tore out one of my roots once and it wasn’t there when I loaded. Because the person who Reset should return back to their previous state of being, understand? But that root never grew back.”

“He stole my knife. He killed me in the last file so he must have pocketed it.”

“He did?” Flowey swivelled in his boot and hissed. “I told you not to get close! No one can read that clown!”

“I meant for it to happen and, since I was hanging around anyway, I couldn’t really stay away,” you admitted, a small smile on your face. Flowey fell silent again.

“So Sans must be finding some way to manipulate the Save files. Do you think he remembers?”

You knew that he remembered. How he remembered and why he remembered were two things you tried to figure out. You were left to your thoughts on how this might be occurring.

Flowey, on the other hand, was busily bribing Greater Dog and Lesser Dog, who had appeared in a field filled with broken statues, with the location to Doggo’s treat stash. You finally got to see a Gyftrot and laughed at its ridiculousness for a while before Flowey managed to convince the oddly canvased monster that you were his oddly human looking monster friend and that you had a mental disability that caused you to laugh way too much at physical appearances. The Gyftrot gave you a pitiful stare before it bounded off into the forest. The battle with Jerry still wasn’t worth too much of a mention.

You finally reached a large, rickety-looking bridge. Flowey sighed in relief. “We haven’t died too many times!!”

You tried to ignore that you died once with Greater Dog, thrice with Lesser Dog, seven times with Dogamy and Dogaressa, once with Sans, eight times from lucky shots made by Papyrus, and you accidentally made yourself Reset after hitting your head against a pine tree one too many times. There was also that one time that you got yourself killed when facing off against Jerry and an Ice Cap but you both vowed never to speak of that again. Unfortunately for you both, I am not a very good liar. This list also doesn’t include the five times you got a bear trap to the leg.

“I guess that it’s a good thing we have Save Points everywhere,” you muttered. Flowey didn’t hear this comment over the sound of the relief flooding over him.

“Snowdin is just past this bridge! Papyrus wouldn’t have been able to put traps on this thing either! Look how old it looks.”

“I wouldn’t underestimate Papyrus.” His lucky shots had gotten you pretty riled up. “Maybe we should test it just in case. Maybe there ae some pressure sensitive traps.”

You picked up a rock and tossed it onto the bridge. As the little rock skipped along the bridge, it sprung four crossbows and seven spears. You looked at Flowey with a smirk. For the next fifteen minutes, you both took immense pleasure it throwing rocks onto the bridge to spring all the pressure traps. Once they were all activated, there was eight crossbows, ten spears, one canon that was aimed too high (the cannonball just sailed over the bridge), three maces, and one tiny growling dog.

“Well that was overkill,” Flowey laughed. “You probably would’ve died with just the spears!”

He joyously asked you to cross the bridge and started along. You paused and put down his boot, causing Flowey to look at you weirdly. You pulled one of the crossbows off of where it was taped to the bridge. They were all miniature crossbows. You also picked up some of the cast away arrows before settling them all into your pack.

You picked up Flowey, who seemed uncomfortable at the thought of you having another weapon. Weird fact: the bridge wasn’t made of wood at all. It was made of ice. Someone painted over the ice to make it look like wood. You were a scrawny little thing and even with Flowey’s added weight and the weight of your pack, the ice didn’t break. It was far too solid. The paint also gave you a great advantage. It seemed to be a matte paint that made the ice less slippery.

You didn’t like people watching you. You were still wary of all the cameras plastered around the forest. However, this wasn’t what was making your skin crawl. Whoever it was had been following you for a good few hours but you hadn’t told Flowey. You thought it would upset the paranoid flower and you didn’t need his protective screeching to start. Out of your peripheral vision you saw the figure but it was too close to the trees. The darkness the giant pine trees provided did enough to conceal any features from being shown.

You wondered if it was Sans. You wondered if it was Papyrus. The figure seemed too tall to be either of them. Too wide. You caught yourself almost tripping over a leftover spear on the bridge. Flowey glanced at you curiously but didn’t ask any of the questions blooming in his eyes. You turned your attention from the figure to the town ahead and you didn’t look back. You tried your best not to. You didn’t feel like having any nightmarish visions tonight.