[Intro] Smells like angry fish.

[facedanger]

Undyne arrives in the blink of an eye.

Literally. One moment she's standing her apartment, getting ready to head out; the next, she's standing in a wide hallway she's never seen before. No lights, no sounds, no awesome magical portals opening up in the floor... Nothing.

It takes her a moment to register the location change, sudden as it is. Once she does, all that comes out of her mouth for a moment is a flat, "What." She's not expecting an answer; she'd been alone at home, and even as bewildering as the situation is, she's still got enough awareness of her surroundings to notice that she's alone here, too.

For now. That thought sobers her up quickly enough.

A look out the window tells her that she's still on the surface. But the surface is big, and she doesn't recognize anything here.

Undyne is in unfamiliar place, with no idea how she got here or why. If this were an anime, the protagonist would be running into some sort of dangerous creature or a love interest (or both, in the form of a dramatic rescue sequence) any minute now.

But anime isn't real. Undyne already has a love interest. And... a grin splits her face. She has never needed to be rescued.

That being said... She steps away from the window and peers down the hallway, thoughtful. There's no telling what she'll find here. And as much as she prefers to face danger head-on, the fact that whoever brought her here (because there has to be a person causing this; folks don't just randomly teleport into strange castles for no reason!) is capable of--and willing to--snatch her out of her own home is as concerning as it is infuriating.

She'll investigate. Track down whoever's behind this and get some answers. But she's alone, and doesn't know the lay of the land. It might be best to exercise caution for now.

With that in mind, Undyne picks a direction and heads off.

-

Twenty minutes later, after finding nothing useful (likely because she's somehow gone through the same freaking hallway at least four times, despite deliberately taking steps NOT to backtrack), Undyne decides that caution can get bent. She'll do this in her usual style.

"NGAAAHH!!" Slamming one fist into a wall and summoning a glowing-blue magic spear in the other, Undyne bellows, "Whoever's in charge of this place needs to come out and face me RIGHT NOW, or else!"

Comments

[dustless]

Frisk hears her from a floor away and immediately takes off running. It's been ages sine they got here, but how could they ever forget that bellow?

Up the nearest set of stairs, almost to the top, they realize they have no idea when Undyne's from just by her voice. She might be from a bad timeline, or from before ever meeting Frisk or making friends--

--but somehow, that doesn't discourage them enough to slow down much.

"Undyne!" Their voice is way too small to match hers these days, but hopefully she can still hear them as they hurtle around the nearest corner.

[mercybutton]

Yeah, that's most definitely her--they recognize her voice well, and she's just as loud and intense as they remember. Frisk goes running down the hallway despite Flowey's multiple warnings to not do just that. He's in a pot at their side in a messenger bag-type thing, come on, he's the one who gets bounced around and has to deal with this if you crash. But they know the castle better than he does. They know how to get around real fast without crashing into anything, even if going in the wrong direction. Hold a hand out, springboard off that wall and take off down the next corridor, lift your feet and don't trip--

Which is when they realize they've completely lost track of Undyne's approximate location, so they cup their hands to shout: "Undyne! Are you there?"

[trombones]

"You ever find 'em, lemme know."

Somehow, Sans is already standing behind Undyne. Don't ask how he got there. He was actually meandering for a while until he heard that familiar yell.

The skeleton grins his usual lazy, perma-smile, but there's a small storm of mixed emotions behind it. As much as he missed his friends and family, he didn't want them here. Not ripped off the surface like he was. Maybe this place sensed how he felt. Between Undyne, Toriel...

Welp.

Not much he can do about it now.

"Sup, Cap'n?"

He'd be lying if he said Undyne wasn't a sight for sore eyes.

[fiery_goatmother]

Toriel is out exploring the castle when she hears the very familiar voice bellowing down the hall. She jumps at first, but then can't quite help a wry smile. Some things never do change all that much, and evidently, Undyne is one of those things. It makes sense. She is something of a force of nature.

The boss monster follows the shouting and finds her friend, just as she expected: with a weapon in one hand and the other slammed into a wall. In spite of herself, Toriel is smiling. Maybe it's selfish, but having friends here does make the entire scenario much easier to cope with.

"Undyne, it is good to see you!"

[systematicsupport]

If there's one thing that never fails to make S-4 nervous, it's sudden yelling. He hears a dull thud against the wall while he's reading through some book about a pig having a big adventure, and the angry shouting makes him let out a small yelp of surprise, dropping the book and peering out of the door of the library.

He certainly doesn't recognize this monster. Is it another newcomer? After a moment of gathering his courage, S-4 clears his throat to get her attention.

"Excuse me..."

[facedanger]

Undyne hears the approaching footfalls first, and turns to face the direction they seem to be coming from. Her training tells her that she should be on guard, but her instincts tell her that she's heard those footsteps before--

And then a very familiar human flies out from around a corner, calling her name.

"Frisk?" She blinks in surprise and lowers her weapon. ...It really shouldn't be a surprise to see them here. The kid's got a real talent for landing in strange places.

Despite everything, she's already grinning as she goes over to meet them.

"Hey, punk! What are you doing here?!"

[facedanger]

Undyne recognizes that voice. "Frisk?" It doesn't sound like it's coming from too far away, and she's had plenty of practice in finding the sources of sounds echoing off stone. Just a few halls and turned corners, and...

There they are.

"Hey! Frisk!" There's laughter in her voice as she approaches them, waving in an attempt at catching their attention. "Where do you think you're going, you little nerd?!"

She hasn't noticed their little yellow passenger yet.

[facedanger]

At this point in their friendship, Undyne should probably be pretty used to Sans showing up when she leasts expects it. But she's so wound up by now that she's whipping around and gripping her spear in preparation for an attack before it registers that, hey, she recognizes that voice. And, lo and behold...

"Sans, what the hell! I almost skewered you!" She kind of looks like she might still be considering it. You know, just on principle. (Not that she would, but... She REALLY hates it when he gets the drop on her.)

But even as she complains, a bit of tension is leaving her. After all the freaky crap she's had to put up with this morning, friendly faces are more than welcome.

[facedanger]

"It's--" What.

For a moment, Undyne looks surprised. She hadn't been sure what to expect in this place, had assumed that it would be too much to count on meeting friends here.

And then Toriel shows up with an easy greeting; as if they're meeting by chance at the grocery store, instead of a mysterious old castle with architecture that makes no sense.

Despite the terrible morning she's been having, Undyne laughs, her stance relaxing as she swings her spear so that it's resting on her shoulder. Boss monsters are such dorks.

"Hell yeah, it is!" Which means, ditto. "When did you get here?"

Because she just saw Toriel yesterday. And Undyne would have been informed if she'd turned up missing between then and--

...best not to follow that train of thought just yet.

[facedanger]

That voice catches Undyne's attention easily. When she turns toward it's source, her stormy expression lightens. She doesn't think she'll ever be unhappy to see that face.

"Papyrus!"

Pushing away from the wall (and shaking some of the dust and rubble off her fist--these bricks really flimsy), she approaches the skeleton.

"How long have you been in there?! I must have passed this place a hundred... times..."

That's when she notices something just a little... Off. Different.

She blinks. "What are you wearing?" That's gotta be it. Because he's obviously not wearing his 'battle body', and it's not exactly what she's come to expect from his 'improved' clothing items, either.

[mercybutton]

And Frisk has had plenty of practice locating people by voice alone. They turn in her general direction, though the trajectory is off. They don't see her waving, but they know where she is nonetheless. "Undyne, hi!"

"Twenty feet ahead and coming," Flowey says. "Kinda quickly."

[facedanger]

The fact that they don't seem to be looking directly at Undyne is noted, but she doesn't think enough of it to comment. She's just happy to see them.

"I should've known you'd wind up here, too--"

And that's when she notices Flowey. All at once she screeches to a halt, summons up the spear she'd dismissed on the way to find Frisk (who can probably recognize the sound that always accompanies her spears), and points it directly at the messenger bag at Frisk's side.

"Don't move!" It's a command directed at both Frisk and Flowey, though for different reasons; to discourage Flowey from trying to start something, and to prevent Frisk from getting caught in the middle if he does.

(It doesn't yet occur to her to wonder why the two of them seem so at ease with each other.)

[mercybutton]

Oh yes, they certainly do recognize the sound, and by instinct they cover their face because to hell if they get skewered for the umphundredth time, they don't want another disability on their plate. Another second and they remember that Undyne isn't chasing them and they're probably not going to die, but still they are on guard, arms raised defensively. "Undyne!"

Flowey, meanwhile, isn't in the mood to take any crap. "Oh, come on, already? What're you gonna do, slice me to bits with Frisk so close?"

[trombones]

Despite that Undyne whirled around like she was about to attack, Sans was as calm as ever. It helped that he's seen her fight before, but honestly? If she really did attack, he could probably dodge it anyway. tl;dr woman please.

"Good thing I'm full of holes then, eh?" Sans says with a shrug, lifting his shirt slightly. Though clothes mysteriously made it look like he had mass somehow, there's still nothing but spine underneath. Yep, still all bones. For the record, skeleton monsters have no concept of nudity or shame. "So you technically have nobody to skewer."

Please skewer him anyway.

"You okay?"

[dustless]

"Undyne!" they say again, rocketing to her side before she can make it to them first. She's not immediately trying to kill them, that's a great sign!

"You're in a weird castle in the sky and there's weird time and world stuff an' I haven't seen you in a long time I'm sorry you're stuck here but 'm glad to see you anyway!" What a ramble, coming from Frisk.

[facedanger]

Undyne's attention is focused almost completely on Flowey. Frisk's response is distantly noted, and dismissed as a reaction to the sudden appearance of the awful flower in their bag. How did they not notice him in there sooner?!

"What, you think I can't?" Her teeth are bared in a threatening grin. "I've got good aim! Which means that hiding behind Frisk's not gonna save you--it's just gonna make me ANGRIER!

"But," she continues, her grin broadening, "if you get out from there and face me like a real monster, I might consider showing mercy... and only cut you into a DOZEN pieces instead of a HUNDRED!"

[facedanger]

That's unsurprising. Sans is, for whatever reason, a pretty hard guy to rattle (ha ha--she hates herself a little for even thinking that). Which isn't a bad thing in this case, because Undyne would actually feel a little guilty if she'd scared one of her friends like that.

A groan, loud and over-dramatic. "Sans, oh my god. Now? Seriously?" She generally doesn't mind Sans's puns as much as, say, Papyrus--mostly because watching him get annoyed over them is hilarious--but she's had A Morning and is feeling a bit snippy.

"Ugh." She crosses her arms, the shaft of spear tucked into the crook of her elbow. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just pissed off. What the hell IS this place?!"

She frowns down at Sans. "And what about you? When did you get here?"

[facedanger]

Her grin widens at Frisk's obvious enthusiasm. As soon as they reach her side, she laughs and ruffles their hair. (It probably feels more like some sort of open-handed noogie than anything else, but. She's trying.)

But then they start talking, and...

"...What??"

[dustless]

Honestly, the fact that she got their hair in their eyes is the worst thing about it. They really need to give it a trim.

...They really could've...worded that better. They suck in a deep breath, hands fiddling with the green scarf she's surely never seen them wear before.

"...Okay. We're not...at home. At all. We're in a castle in the sky. And there's lots of people here, from different worlds, and times. I'm from when we were walking down the mountain." There's obviously more for them to explain, but they stop 'cause they're sure she'll have something to say anyway.

[facedanger]

She notices the scarf, finally. Is Frisk taking fashion tips from Papyrus? She'll have to be sure to tease them about it later.

For now... there's a lot to discuss. There's no doubt in her mind that Frisk is being truthful, because she's always known them to be honest with her. (Even when the truth kind of sucks. Anime not being real is a blow she's still reeling from, though it's gotten easier to deal with over time.) But their explanation is raising more questions than it's answering, and she doesn't even know where to start.

For now, she picks the one that sticks with her most immediately.

"'Walking down the mountain'? You mean, after the barrier was broken?" She frowns. "Frisk, that was weeks ago! You can't have been here since then. I just saw you yesterday."

She's never been good with time-travel plots.

[dustless]

"...said time was weird." They shrug apologetically. "'Ve been here, at the castle, for...a lot of months now. So's been other people. There's another Frisk here. And there's a Sans from the Surface. And one from a bad timeline. An' a couple--and a Papyrus--who's babybones from labs," and they spit that word like a swear, looking outright angry for a moment. They're...not so fond of those types of things anymore.

"...anyway. There's lots of stuff like that. You're the first Undyne that's got here, ever."

[mercybutton]

Flowey practically bristles, ready to summon bullets into the air. "Bring it, fish f-"

Who is then promptly cut off as Frisk shouts over his voice. Try as they might, though, they'd never be able to reach Undyne's level of loud. "Don't fight! Please!"

[trombones]

The skeleton grins just a little wider as Undyne groans, and throws his hands up in the air. Then she starts asking questions again, and he realizes he'll have to get a little more serious. You know, just a little. His hands go back in his pockets.

"Almost... a month and a half ago now," he says, shrugging. "We're in a castle in the sky. It's weird."

[fiery_goatmother]

Ahh, this is the part Toriel wasn't looking forward to getting into with any friends, but someone has to break it to her gently. With a sheepish grin, she tries to make her tone as calm as she can.

"I arrived here... oh, nearly two weeks ago. But time seems to work very strangely here. Nearly everyone we know back home has very different memories. We seem to be from different timelines."

The terminology is getting more familiar. Sans and Frisk being very matter-of-fact about it have made her a bit more comfortable. Still, it's very odd to talk about all the same.

"What is the last thing you remember back home? Were you on the surface?"

That seems to be the best baseline to go off of, with her fellow monsters.

[systematicsupport]

As much as the face is familiar, there is much about the skeleton that is not. For one, he seems to hesitate when she calls him Papyrus, and as she approaches, she’ll find this skeleton is actually a great deal shorter and smaller than her. More than that, he looks almost nervous as she looks him over, and he takes a step back before he speaks, in a voice just a bit softer and more hesitant that Papyrus’.

“Um, I’m sorry. I’m… not wearing the same clothes that Papyrus wears because I’m, um, not really him.”

This is going to be confusing.

“My name is S-4. I think I come from your past.”