Triad
Arc 1: Ruins
Part 2

Pacifist

Seeing such a cute, tidy house in the Ruins gives you determination.

The human followed Toriel into the small, purple cottage. They entered, to find her already waiting for them.

They took a few moments to look around the house, waves of deja vu crashing onto them. Except, unlike in the Ruins, which had been a neutral form of familiarity like the route you walk to school or work every morning, this was the familiarity of a place in which you had once lived, and dearly loved.

“Do you smell that?” Toriel asked them, smiling broadly. “Surprise! It is a butterscotch-cinnamon pie! I thought we might celebrate your arrival. I want you to have a nice time living here.” Toriel’s smile shifted to something slightly more teasing. “So I will hold off on snail pie for tonight.” Her expression brightened again. “Here, I have another surprise for you!”

Toriel headed down a hallway to the right, her soft paws padding first on hardwood floor, and then on soft carpeting. The human followed her. Toriel stopped in front of a door and spun around, a huge smile on her face. “This is it!” she exclaimed. She excitedly took the human’s hand, and led them right to the door. “A room of your own! I hope you like it!” Toriel affectionately rubbed the human’s head.

The human did not react.

Toriel suddenly stopped, beginning to glance about, deeply sniffing the air. “Is something burning…?” She glanced down at the human. “Um, make yourself at home!” The goat monster quickly dashed away.

The human opened the door, stepped inside, and promptly stopped in their tracks.

It was their room.

For the first time since they had fallen to the Underground, their first true outward display of emotion, or anything besides neutrality. They sunk to their knees, eyes wide open at the nearly identical room.

...Nearly.

They crawled to the toybox, and peered inside. Dusty toys. The human didn’t recognize any of them. The human shoved the box under the bed, not wanting to look at the unfamiliar toys. They stood up, and walked unsteadily towards another box, peering inside. Their eyes boggled. Child’s shoes. Their vision started getting blurry with tears. They couldn’t focus on that now. They reeled for a moment, falling backwards onto the carpet, roughly.

After rubbing the tears out of their eyes, they walked towards the closet, throwing the doors open.

Striped sweaters.

Their sweaters…

None of his...

They threw themself on the bed, tears welling up again, burying their face in the pillow for a few moments before starting to punch it repeatedly. They kicked their legs wildly.

There had been other children.

WHY.

Had Toriel forgotten about them and him? Surely she hadn’t she wasn’t the type to do that, right? And he hadn’t been erased like that old man.

There was no way.

The human peeked over the edge of the bed.

His plushies. His favorite one wasn’t there, sadly. Nevertheless, the human grabbed one, hugging it tightly.

...Was it that it didn’t smell like him anymore, or that they had forgotten what he had smelled like?

They drifted off to sleep like that. Hugging his plushy.

...

……

………

Who is Chara?

Why do you keep calling me that name?

Who are you?

I can’t find the way out. I thought I had found it, but it’s not there…

Where am I?

Someone please help me…

The human woke up to find that they had been sleeping rather restlessly. Their arms were still locked tightly around the plushie, but most of the blankets were partly wrapped around their legs and partly cascading off the ball in a fabric waterfall. One pillow had fallen off the bed, while the human had curled up almost completely on the other.

The human slowly uncurled, and sat up, casting their gaze across the room. There was a plate sitting in the middle of the floor. On the plate was a pie. It had once been piping hot, but had long since cooled over the night.

The human slid off the bed and landed on the floor, stepping towards the pie and crouching down near it.

They were not hungry.

They went back to the closet, avoiding looking at the green and yellow striped sweaters. There, at the bottom of the closet, was a small bag.

The human picked up the bag, walked back to the pie, and placed the pie slice in the bag.

The human marched directly out of the room, right up to Toriel. Toriel was sitting in an armchair by a blazing fire, donning reading glasses and reading a large book. She looked up as the human approached.

“Up already, I see?” she asked the human, giving them a warm smile. “Um. I want you to know how glad I am to have someone here.”

The human did not respond, their neutral mask absolutely perfect.

Toriel continued, lost in her fantasy. “There are so many old books I want to share, I want to show you my favorite bug-hunting spot.” Her eyes lit up, she turned her attention back to the human completely. The fire popped and crackled merrily, seeming to brighten to match her mood. “I’ve also prepared a curriculum for your education! This may come as a surprise to you, but I have always wanted to be a teacher! Actually, perhaps that isn’t very surprising?” She paused. “...Still. I am glad to have you living here.”

Toriel smiled fondly at the human for a few moments. The human stared pointedly back.

“Oh, did you need something? What is it?” she asked the human.

The human asked how to leave the Ruins.

There was an awkward pause. The fire died down.

Toriel finally broke the silence, giving the human a strained smile that tried to be reassuring. “Wh-what? This… this is your home now.”

The human stared blankly.

Toriel glanced about the room for a suitable distraction, before her eyes settled on the book she was reading. The strained smile returned to her face. “Um. Would you like to hear about the book I am reading? It is called ‘72 Uses for Snails’! How about it?”

The human stared blankly, and then repeated their question.

Toriel looked flustered. “Ummm…” Her cheeks colored, and she shoved the book in front of her snout to hide that. “How about an ex-exciting snail fact? Did you know, ah, that snails… Snails sometimes flip their digestive systems as they mature? Interesting!” As she spoke the snail fact, she seemed to calm down slightly, easy the book back into her lap and smiling earnestly at the human.

As though by conveying all the emotions clashing within her through her facial muscles, she would be able to convince this human child to stay here, no matter their emotions or reasons for wishing to leave.

The fire churned nervously.

It failed.

The human stared blankly, and then repeated their question.

Toriel’s face fell.

The fire went out.

“...I have to do something. Stay here.”

Toriel got up and ran so fast that she accidentally dropped the book on the floor.

The human followed her, down the stairs to the basement.

The basement was familiar to the human. At first it was just familiar in the way the Ruins had been, but then the human detected in the familiarity a stomach-wrenching sense of guilt and regret.

Guilt and regret that did not belong to them.

The human walked forwards, and stopped when they were several feet behind Toriel’s back.

Toriel’s hands were clenched into fists, and trembling.

“You wish to know how to return ‘home’, do you not? Ahead of us lies the end of the Ruins. A one-way exit to the rest of the Underground. I am going to destroy it. No one will ever be able to leave again. Now be a good child and go upstairs.”

Her words were authoritative, an ultimatum.

But her shaking voice betrayed her emotions.

She walked down the corridor as quickly as she could.

The human followed at their own pace, stopping again several feet away from her back.

Her arms and shoulders were slack now, her fingers loosely curled into fists.

“Every human that falls down here meets the same fate. I have seen it again and again. They come. They leave. They die. You naive little child…”

Her voice now was a unique voice. It was low, a monotone. The voice of someone who had seen history repeat so many times that she was very nearly resigned to it, very nearly ready to give up. And yet there was still so much fight in her. Sparks of a fading fire that simply refused to fade and cool.

“If you leave the Ruins… They… Asgore... will kill you.”

That single name. So drenched in so many powerful negative emotions. Hatred. Anger. Fear. Sorrow. Loathing.

That single name.

So. Damn. Familiar.

And confusing emotions, not the human’s, that came rolling in with the familiarity.

Fear, first.

Then determination.

And finally understanding, and pity.

“I am only protecting you, you understand? ...go to your room.”

Her voice very nearly broke.

She walked down the corridor as quickly as she could.

The human followed at their own pace, stopping again several feet away from her back.

Toriel had corrected her posture. Ramrod straight spine. Her joints were locked. Head held high. Eyes staring straight ahead. If it weren’t for her words, it would be impossible to tell if she realized the human was there or not.

“Do not try to stop me. This is your final warning.”

Her voice was like steel. Cold and unyielding.

She walked down the corridor as quickly as she could.

The human followed at their own pace, stopping again several feet away from her back.

She was relaxed, ready for something. Her fingers flexed, and limbs stretched.

“You want to leave so badly? Hmph. You are just like the others. There is only one solution to this. Prove yourself… Prove to me you are strong enough to survive!”

Toriel had buried any sign of her emotion under an imposing vocal mask of steel and ice.

The human was unfazed.