Chapter Text
(A/N): Im aware that Flowey is not a monster, he's just being reffered to one, because the protagonist Can in this fic thinks he's one.
(Comissioned cover art of this fic drawn by the amazing artist clownboo_Art on twittter! GO CHECK EM OUT!)
They fell, and ended up not dying, which was quite the surprise for them as they expected that falling down from Mt. Ebott would end up quite deadly but surprisingly, they were completly fine! Might be related to the bed of golden flowers that they were laying on, as their hands could feel that they were in fact quite soft.
Note to themself: Golden flowers will save them from otherwise deadly falls. But they weren't here to think about how flowers could possibly save them, they came here for the very thing thats been missing for the entierty of their life.
With a deep breath they stood up from the bed of golden flowers and made their way forwards to explore this new strange place. A large door stood before them and they swiftly went through it. Past the door, they are met with the strange site of a single patch of grass surrounded by concrete, they didn't care all that much as they just wanted to coninue on with their search.
That was until something stopped them and grew from the patch of grass, that something being a golden flower similar to the ones that saved the childs life. Difference being that this one had a face. This only brought them two things to their mind.
One: What they found out back at the orphanage was true, Monsters were real and they live down here. And two: They could bring them closer to their goal.
Before they could approach the Monster, it spoke.
"Howdy! I'm Flowey! Flowey the Flower!" It greeted with a smile. It then began to inspect the human closer with its eyes, even growing a bit from its root as it began to come a bit closer to it.
"Hmm...You're new to the underground, aren'tcha?" The flower correctly concluded as the child chose to answer with a nod instead of words.
"Golly! You must be so confused!" He spoke, keeping his smile.
But in reality, this was far from true, as previously mentioned, the human did their homework on this topic back at the orphanage. Though before they could tell this "Flowey" that, he went on.
"Someone ought to teach you how things work around here! I guess little old me will have to do. After all, I am your new best friend!" The flower declared with a grin, while internally all the human child could think was: "says who?".
It was then at this moment that everything felt different, as if it was only the human and Flowey and the rest of the world didn't exist, in fact not only did it feel like it, but it looked like it too, they could barely even see the surroundings anymore, was this how a battle worked?
Before they could further dwell on this, Flowey spoke again.
"See that hea-" He however stopped and dropped his smile for the first time since meeting the human child.
"Hold up, where's your SOUL? Y'know the very culmination of your being." Flowey asked confused at the lack of a SOUL.
"Was born without one and never got one." They spoke for the first time since arriving here.
Hearing that, Flowey's expression changed from confused to angry, that anger being directed at the human.
"Dammit! You're completly useless for my plans then! I gotta wait for the next idiot to fall down this mountain!" Flowey spoke, having broken out of his 'kind flower' persona.
It was then, when what seemed like bullets seemed to appear practically out of nowhere and one of them hit the child right in the chest, causing them to fall down on their knee in pain, holding their hands over where they were hurt.
"DIE!" Flowey yelled out as more bullets appeared and surrounded the child, slowly closing in on them.
"HAHAHAHAHHAHAHA" The Flower laughed out as it was close to finishing them off until...
The childs eyes caught a light heading straight towards Flowey. Flowey looked towards the source of the light and noticed that it wasn't just a source of light, but a ball of fire instead, he however was too late to dodge it. Being hit, he let out a "Gyah!" as he was sent flying, his opportunity of killing the human gone.
It was then at this moment, that everything felt like as if it was normal again, no more feeling of it being just the human and Flowey and they could see the rest of the world again as well. That was good, but they get the strange feeling that dosent mean that they wont be dealing with that again.
Putting that thought aside, the child looked up to see who it was that just saved them. Their sight greeted them with the sight of an older looking Goat woman, she was wearing a robe with a particular symbol on it, the symbol being a orb in the middle while two angelic wings were on its side, with three triangles being below it.
Though in the end those details did not really matter as the human only had one thing on their mind, that sweet, sweet SOUL.
The one thing thats been missing for ever since they were born, and the one thing they hoped that they could gain with the plan that they've build for themselves. Well... less plan and more like a idea that they came up and decide to immediatly act on without proper planning when they did their research back on the surface.
Though their thought process was interruped by the woman in front of them.
"What terrible creature, torturing such a poor, innocent youth..." The goat woman interruped their train of thought. It looked like as if she was about say more but it was then at this moment that she noticed the wound on the childs chest that they were trying to cover over with their hand.
"Oh my, did that Flower hurt you?" She asked in worry as she noticed the state the child was in. She began to approach them.
"Here let me he-" The child crawled backwards away from her, for all they knew, this was someone like Flowey, just waiting to reveal her true sinister self.
"Its okay, i understand that what the flower did might have scared you, but i promise im nothing like that creature, i want to heal you." She spoke, and her voice, oh her voice... It sounded like the kind of comforting Voice the child always longed for but were never given. And so, they crawled back, closer to her.
"There there, thats better." She said as she held out her paw to where they were hurt, it was glowing green for a second, and before they knew it, the child suddenly felt better.
"See, dont you feel better? That was my healing magic, its one of my best talents." The goat woman spoke.
The child used this moment to stand back up, and it was as if they never were hurt in the first place. Wow, healing magic was great!
The goat woman smiled, happy to see the young one feeling better.
"Now that this has been dealt with, i believe that introductions are in order." The woman spoke. "My name is Toriel, iam the caretaker of the ruins." Toriel introduced herself.
"Me and my son often pass through this place to see if anyone has fallen down here, though today im here alone as he's currently running some errands, but im sure that he'll be back soon, meaning you should be able to meet him soon." Toriel explained with a smile, as the idea of her son meeting another child, seemed to make her happy.
"Come! follow me, i'll guide you through the catacombs. There we can wait for him, or maybe he's already there." The woman spoke as she began to lead the way and passed a purple doorway.
They decided to follow her... for now. The child has gotten the feeling that with the method of how they want to get their SOUL that they won't be getting along with her for long.
The child follows Toriel through the doorway and found themselves in a purple colured room with red colored leaves and and green vines hanging from the ceiling. There also were two set of stairs that led to the same place that lead to another doorway, it was likely that there would be many more of those. On the right side of the stairs, Toriel was waiting for them with a ever patient smile.
The human could follow her but their eyes were focused on something else entirely. In the middle of the room, a golden star was present. The human approached it. Once they approached it, they touched it.
DETERMINATION
Just like how it was up above, Can could SAVE. Though this time it didnt't feel like going through a chore, it was in fact quite easy. Huh, something about this place made their ability to save a lot easier.
With that done, Can proceeded with following Toriel, now that they had a place they could return to if things ever went wrong. Up the stairs and through the door, Can was greeted with a room that had multiple pressure plates laying on the floor.
Before Can however could investigate what the deal with them was, Toriel spoke up. "Welcome to your new home, innocent one. Allow me to educate you in the operation of the RUINS." As she finished speaking, she walked over four of the pressure plates, activating them, following up with walking next to the rooms door and pulling the lever that was next to it. Opening the door.
Though Can had heavy doubts that they were going to call this place their new home like Toriel just said. They had something very important to do after all.
Without another word, she walked through the door with Can following right behind her. Toriel came to a halt as she had more things to say.
"To make progress here, you will need to trigger several switches. But no need to worry, as my son and i have labled them so you know which one you'll need to flip." With a silent nod, Can ackowlegned the goat mom's words and continuned following her as she lead the way.
Quickly, Can spotted one of the earlier mentioned switches on the wall as Toriel waited on a small bridge, undoubtedly waiting for Can to activate it. And they did just exactly that, causing Toriel to smile.
In Silence Toriel moved forward to the hallway, where a couple of spikes where blocking the way. Can turned to the wall again and saw two switches with one of them being labled like the other one, though they again couldn't be bothered to read it, so they just quickly activated, causing the spikes to dissapear.
"Splendid! Im proud of you, little one. Especially considering you did not need the help of the labels here." Toriel congratulated Can as she gave them a small pat on their head.
"Let us move on to the next room." She finished as she entered the next room with Can close behind her.
The next room was relatievly empty aside from one notable thing, there was a dummy standing at about the center of the room. Can was staring intensly at the dummy. As it reminded them of their task.
Can was barely paying attention as Toriel spoke about how Fights were working and how the best methods were to resolve things peacfully. Can approached the dummy and it was just like with Flowey. It felt like as if only them and the dummy existed and they again couldnt properly see the surroundings again. Which for Can confirmed that this is what a battle looked like and that they'll have to deal with this quite a lot in their journey.
It was silent as Can and the dummy stared at each other.
Seems that the dummy wasn't the most conversative.
"Common you can do it my child!" Toriel cheered next to them. Can looked at where they heard Toriel was standing and just barely could see a blurred looking Toriel. Can just nodded silently as they approached the dummy.
Toriel smiled at the sight as she belived that her words have already taught the young human what she wanted to teach them.
Though that quickly turned out to be wrong, because before she knew it, Can instead swung their fist at the dummy with full force. The dummy however, being a dummy, was still standing. So Can quickly threw another punch, causing the dummy to fall over.
It was then at this moment that the dummy's body slowly has started to vanish as it was destroyed. Turning into the remains of monsters when they die.
Dust.
Toriel's expression changed from her usual patient smile to that of shock. She did not expect for the small human to not listen to her like that, especially not in such a violent manner.
"Ahh, the dummies are not for fighting! They are for Talking!" Toriel called out in worry at the sight. "We do not want to hurt anybody, do we. . . . ?" Toriel quickly followed up.
As a answer Toriel only recived a silent stare from Can as they stared directly in Toriel's eyes. Toriel grew slightly unnerved by the childs stare. She hoped the human child would lighten up if they met her son. Which is why she decided to quickly move on.
"Come now, follow me!" She said as she headed to the next room with Can again silently following her.
Toriel again waited for Can in the next room as she had even more to say.
"There is another puzzle in this room. I wonder if you can solve it?" She asked the child who responded with a casual shrug.
Toriel responded with another smile, finding the gesture funny. Having already lightened up from earlier. As she again was leading the way to a bridge filled with spikes that laid over a small pond.
Can again has followed right behind Toriel and even spotted a sign that they wanted to pause and read, though before they could...
A battle has again started.
Can was surprised at the sudden battle as they didnt't see anyone approaching them. Though that didnt't matter as they saw a small monster standing right in front of them.
It was a small white colored frog monster that was seemingly frowning. Further down the body was a second smaller face that seemed to be mimicking what the face at the top was doing.
*Check
Froggit
Life is difficult for this enemy.
Its certainly not going to get easier. Can thought as they were approaching the Froggit. The Froggit seeing Can approach it like that, grew a determined expression as it stretched out its tongue at them, catching the child off guard.
Can fell on their rear as the Froggit prepared its next attack, which this time seemed to be a swarm of small flies. Can this time was prepared though, as they rolled to the side before quickly standing back up on their feet. Can wasted no time at running toward the Froggit to launch their first attack against it.
The Froggit again attempts to use its Tongue to get Can to back off but Can being aware of the frog monsters attack now, has stepped to the Froggits left before delivering a swift punch to the monsters head.
"RIBBIT!(OUCH!)" The Froggit called out in pain but it wasnt done yet, as it counterd by delivering a headbutt right at Can's torso. "AH!" Can also cried out in pain at the monsters counter as they dropped to their knee's.
Seeing Can in pain, the Froggit seized its opportunity as it again stretched out its tongue to hopefully finish Can off for good.
"I will not let my plan be ruined by a FROG OF ALL THINGS!" They angrily thought as they saw the monster's tongue launching right at them.
Right before the tongue hit Can, Can thought fast as they grabbed the small monsters tongue with both of their arms. Catching the Froggit by complete surprise.
Wasting no time, Can used the Froggits tongue to pull the Froggit closer to themselves. The Froggit was now deathly afraid.
"Ribbit! RIBBIT!(Wait please! DONT KILL ME!)" It yelled out, its fear showing, struggling to free itself from the Human's grip.
Can however did not care as they pulled the monster closer and closer until it was finally within punching distance.
And punch it they did. They returned the favour from earlier as they also punched the Froggit in its torso. Which was to much for the small monster's body to handle as its body was now shaking.
The Froggit desperatly tried to hang on to its life, it however was no use as soon as its body began to dissolve. The only remains it left behind being...
DUST
Can WON!
Can earned 10 EXP and 20 gold
Can's LOVE increased.
And everything returned back to normal as their surroundings were fully clear again.
They did it. A small part of their plan was executed. They gained LOVE and when they gain enough of it, they would finally gain the SOUL that was missing from the entierty of their life. They were sure of it.
"My child is everything okay? I thought i heard you and a Froggit yelling." Welp, looks like the celebration has to be cut short as Toriel has noticed the ruckus from earlier.
It was also at this moment that Can noticed that some of the Froggits dust was on them. This was going to be a pain to explain to Toriel.