Triad
Arc 1: Ruins
Part 1

Pacifist

When the human fell into the Underground, they awoke on a bed of flowers. Golden flowers. They had a rather pleasant scent.

It was surprising that flowers capable of growing, down here.

The human stood up, leaning on the stick that had fallen down with them, and toddled forwards uncertainly. The human child was uneasy on their feet, and the stick aided them greatly.

Things were so familiar, it made the human smile.

The human entered a new section to the cave, only to discover that they were not alone.

“Don’t you have anything better to do?”

The stranger was familiar to them. A six-petaled yellow flower with simple dot eyes and line mouth, perched on about a foot of bright green stem. The flower smiled at them.

The flower smelled of the golden flowers that had broken the human’s fall. He seemed nice.

He smiled.

Everything flashed. The surrounding area faded into void. The color drained from Flowey. The human felt a strange, unnatural tugging from deep in their chest as a small red heart appeared in front of them, the only spot of visible color. The heart was colored dull red.

“See that heart?” Flowey asked, cheerful grin still plastered to his face. “That is your SOUL, the very culmination of your being! Your SOUL starts off weak, but can grow strong if you gain a lot of LV! What’s LV stand for? Why, LOVE, of course! You want some LOVE, don’t you? Don’t worry, I’ll share some with you!”

Flowey winked, sticking his tongue out.

Several small white spheres materialized around Flowey, spinning in space. “Down here, LOVE is shared through little white…” He paused.

Flowey’s expression shifted. The human thought he was still smiling at first, but no…

Is that a smile?

“‘Friendliness Pellets,’” Flowey finally finished his sentence. “Are you ready?”

The quote and quote ‘friendliness pellets’ began slowly converging on the human’s red Soul. “Move around! Get as many as you can!” Flowey advised.

The human dodged out of the way, their Soul trailing after them.

Flowey twitched. “Hey buddy, you missed them. Let’s try again, okay?”

More friendliness pellets appeared, moved at a faster pace towards the human’s SOUL. Nevertheless, the human dodged.

Flowey’s smile shifted into a scowl. “Is this a joke? Are you braindead? RUN. INTO. THE. BU--” Flowey’s expression and tone shifted back into his overly sappy facade in a heartbeat. “friendliness pellets.”

The human dodged once more.

Flowey finally dropped the charade, his face becoming demonic and his voice shaking. “You know what’s going on here, don’t you? You just wanted to see me suffer.” A ring of the so-called friendliness pellets encircled the human. “DIE.”

The ring enclosed on the human. They glanced about, searching for a way of escape while Flowey cackled loudly. Maybe they could jump up at the last second? Or--

A fireball smacked into Flowey and he quickly retreated.

A familiar creature entered the scene.

She was tall. Very tall. She was wearing a long robe that reached down to her paws, with a familiar sigil sewn on to it. A winged circle above three pointed triangles. She looked like an anthropomorphic goat, with long floppy ears and petite, curved horns.

The goat rushed over to the human child, comforting them and patting their head. “What a terrible creature, torturing such a poor, innocent youth…” When she had assured herself that the human was okay, she stepped away and smiled comfortingly down at the human. “Do not be afraid, my child. I am Toriel, caretaker of the Ruins. I pass through this place every day to see if anyone has fallen down. You are the first human to come here in a long time. Come! I shall guide you through the catacombs.”

It occurred to the human that catacombs were tunnels meant for the dead.

The human followed Toriel as she walked ahead.

They came across the facade of a large purple building. Was it that the building’s walls were high enough to meet the distant ceiling, or that the ceiling was low enough to touch the sturdy walls?

Nevertheless, the shadow of the Ruins loomed above, filling the human with Determination.

They walked up the steps, through the door, and came to a smaller chamber. There were raised stones in one side of the room, and the door seemed to be closed, blocking them off from the rest of the Ruins.

Toriel explained to the human how the puzzles in the Ruins looked, and the human listened to her attentively. Or, at the very least, they did not interrupt her while she was speaking. Upon being given instructions by Toriel, the human obeyed them, pulling levers as directed.

“As a human in the Underground, monsters may attack you,” Toriel was saying. “You will need to be prepared for this situation. However, worry not! The process is simple. When you encounter a monster, you will enter a FIGHT. While you are in a FIGHT, strike up a friendly conversation. Stall for time. I will come to resolve the conflict.” She nodded at the other creature in the room, a stuffed, worn looking dummy. “Practice talking to the Dummy.

The human looked at the the Dummy. It stared blankly back at them. The human stepped towards the Dummy.

ACT. The human greeted the Dummy. The Dummy did not respond.

Toriel beamed at the human. “Very good! You are very good!”

They moved through the corridor beyond the Dummy’s chamber. While they walked, Toriel mused aloud. “There is another puzzle in this room… I wonder if you can solve it?”

While the human was walking, something familiar happened.

Everything flashed. The surrounding area faded into void. The color drained from Flowey. The human felt a strange, unnatural tugging from deep in their chest as a small red heart appeared in front of them, the only spot of visible color. The heart was colored dull red.

Froggit attacks you!

ACT. Compliment the Froggit. It doesn’t actually want to hurt me if I ACT the right way.

It blushes deeply. That makes me laugh.

Before the human and the Froggit could interact more, Toriel scared the Froggit off with a rather menacing glare.

Toriel continued down the corridor, until she stopped in front of what looked like a bridge of spikes over of pool of indiscernible depth, and turned to face the human. “This is the puzzle, but…” She paused, thinking, then took the human’s hand. “Here, take my hand for a moment.”

Toriel led the human across the bridge of spikes, walking in a very specific way. The spikes retracted before him, leaving a perfectly safe and flat path.

“Puzzles seem a little too dangerous for now,” Toriel remarked once they crossed the bridge safely. Upon entering the next corridor, Toriel stopped, and faced the human. “You have done excellently thus far, my child. However… I have a different request to ask of you.” She paused for a few moment, worry darting across her face before she managed to replace it with a smile. “...I would like you to walk to the end of the room by yourself. Forgive me for this.” Without another word, Toriel ran out of the human’s sight.

The human walked forwards, unfazed. Being alone was familiar to them. They walked in silence, the stick they had brought with them held loosely in their right hand as they trailed it across the purple brick floor.

After several minutes of walking, with only the sound of the human’s breathing for accompaniment, Toriel stepped out from behind a pillar at the end of the corridor. The human’s expression was unsurprised.

“Greetings, my child,” Toriel told the human. “Do not worry, I did not leave you. I was merely behind this pillar the whole time. Thank you for trusting me.”

The human gave no response.

“However, there was another important reason for this excercise,” Toriel continued. “...to test your independence. I must attend to some business, and you must stay alone for a while.” The motherly smile evaporated from Toriel’s face, leaving a look of concern. “Please remain here. It’s dangerous to explore by yourself.” Toriel’s face lit up. “I have an idea! I will give you a cell phone! If you have a need for anything, just call.” Toriel handed the human an old flip phone. They made no comment. “Be good, alright?”

Toriel turned around and left, more hesitantly this time.

She did not look back.

The human wandered forth, ignoring Toriel’s warning to stay put.

As they walked, they could not shake the sense that all this was familiar. Something they had experienced before. Not something that they knew before, but more like a place they had seen once in a distant dream.

Not enough memory to be useful, but just enough to let them know they knew the place.

They encountered many denizens of the Ruins, and though the monsters began the encounter by attacking the human, it rarely took more than a few quick actions to diffuse the situation.

Froggit hopped close.

ACT: Compliment. MERCY: Spare.

Whimsun approached meekly.

MERCY: Spare.

Moldsmal blocked the way!

MERCY: Spare.

The human’s wanderings were interspersed with constant calls from Toriel’s cell phone.

Ring.

“Hello? This is Toriel. For no reason in particular… which do you prefer? Cinnamon or butterscotch? ...Wait. Do not tell me. Is it butterscotch?”

The human informed her that their favorite was not butterscotch.

“Oh… I see. Well, thank you. Goodbye for now.”

Ring.

“Hello? This is Toriel. You do not dislike butterscotch, do you? I know what your preference is, but… would you turn up your nose if you found it on your plate? Right, right, I understand. Thank you for being patient, by the way.”

Ring.

“Hello? You do not have any allergies, do you? Huh? Why am I asking? No reason… No reason at all.”

The human managed to successfully navigate their way through the Ruins, relatively uninjured. Even when they encountered a depressed ghost lying in the crimson fallen leaves, they managed to cheer him up and avoid his magical tears for the most part.

They made their way through the Ruins, until they finally found something.

A black tree. The ground littered with blood red leaves.

The tree filled the human with Determination.

The Ruins had been like walking through the landscape of a distant dream made real. The tree felt familiar, but more like some horrifying fact you had heard long ago and have only now been confronted with.

The human was focused on the black-barked tree, and did not notice that Toriel was nearby for a few moments. “How did you get here, my child?”

The human stared blankly at Toriel.

“Are you hurt?” she asked, checking the human over, before standing up and looking somewhat awed. . “...Not a scratch… Impressive! But still...” Something flickered across her face. “I should not have left you alone for so long. It was irresponsible to try to surprise you like this.” She blinked, realizing what she had just said. ‘Err… I suppose I cannot hit it any longer. Come, small one!”