Finn finishes assuring the strange furry dog-treat-smoking sentry that they do, in fact, exist, then carefully moves away to continue down the path. Of all the piles of dust they've turned back into monsters, this one is the strangest. A talking dog who can only see motion? They're relieved they managed to get away without being stabbed by his daggers. The monster can't see and was convinced that Finn was his murderer for the first five minutes after being reawakened.
It was all worth it, though. For every monster Finn heals, the music plays a little faster.
Ah, this should be fun, the dummy notes as they approach a large wooden sign stuck into the snow in the middle of the path, surrounded on all sides by a thick layer of smooth ice.
Finn carefully puts a foot onto the ice and skates slowly over to the sign, taking care not to slip and fall.
"North: Ice, South: Ice, West: Ice," they read. "East: Snowdin Town (and ice)."
How descriptive, the dummy says drily. I think there's more to the north than just ice, however.
Finn looks down the north path as well. The dummy is right. There's a pile of snow up ahead, and something orange appears to be sticking out of it.
They skate carefully out of the ice and make their way down the north path. It ends abruptly at a clearing on a cliff hovering over a very dark abyss, and right in the center of this clearing is what Finn now recognizes as the obvious remains of a snowman. There's a small collection of snow, a perfect nose-shaped carrot, and a couple of black rocks. Finn regards it sadly, wondering if it's possible to fix it.
"AH, YES," says a voice suddenly from behind. "SO YOU TOO RECOGNIZE THE PURE AND ABSOLUTE BEAUTY OF THIS SIZABLE DEMONSTRATION OF MODERN ART."
Finn jumps and whirls around, then freezes, staring.
There, in the shadows of the trees, hidden from the view of the path, is a skeleton.
Not the dead kind of skeleton, the ones that slump in corners with their bony hands chained to walls and scream "I met my end here, leave me alone before the same thing happens to you". No. This is a walking, talking, seven-foot-tall-and-beyond humanoid skeleton, bones shining white in the underground light, fully clothed in what appears to be some kind of superhero Halloween costume.
Finn stares for a moment, then shrugs it off. Weirder things have happened.
"BEAUTIFUL, IS IT NOT?" the skeleton continues, stomping over in his gigantic red boots. "ONE CAN ONLY WONDER AT THE IDENTITY OF THE MARVELOUS CREATOR WHOSE MAGNIFICENT MIND BROUGHT THIS INEVITABLY TO LIFE."
"Was it... you?" Finn asks hesitantly, remembering the scrawled note they read in the previous chapter. The skeleton towers over them; they have to crane their head straight back to look him in the face.
Strange. This is the first monster we've met that you didn't have to put back together first.
"UNFORTUNATELY NOT," the skeleton replies. "I HAVEN'T THE FAINTEST IDEA WHO. BUT YOU ARE RIGHT TO ASSUME THAT I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WOULD BE CAPABLE OF CREATING SUCH A GLORIOUS MONUMENT."
"Did you create that awesome sentry station?" Finn asks, gesturing back along the path. They're having a hard time keeping from laughing. There's something about this guy that they just immediately love.
The Great Papyrus looks pleased. "I DID INDEED! YOU LIKE IT?"
"I love it," Finn responds sincerely. "It looks just like the ones I used to make with my dad."
"AH! YOUR DAD IS A SENTRY, TOO? THEN HE MUST HAVE HEARD OF ME, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, FUTURE FAMOUS ROYAL GUARDSMAN?"
"He's... he's dead," Finn says softly.
Papyrus, through some strange contradiction of nature, blinks.
"But I'm sure he'd know about you if he was alive," Finn adds hastily, sticking out their hand. "I'm Finn! It's great to meet you!"
Papyrus eyes the hand warily. "THERE'S NO... WHOOPIE CUSHIONS IN YOUR HAND, ARE THERE?"
"No," Finn replies, surprised.
"NO BUZZERS? SHOCKERS?"
"No!"
"NO HALF-PEELED BANANAS?"
Finn lowers their hand, staring. "Why on earth would there be a half-peeled banana in my hand?"
"I HAVEN'T THE FAINTEST IDEA, BUT MY BROTHER IS ALWAYS DOING THAT AND HE ALWAYS HAS SOMETHING OF THE SORT." Finn notices that Papyrus's cheerful face has suddenly donned a perplexed, distracted expression.
"Are... you okay?"
"I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AM ALWAYS 100% ABSOLUTELY OK," Papyrus replies, his face returning to its skeletal grin. "WHAT IS YOUR NAME, AGAIN?"
"Finn," Finn laughs.
"AH, FINN! IT IS A PLEASURE TO MEET YOU. I AM PAPYRUS, GREAT THINKER OF PUZZLES AND CAPTURER OF HUMANS."
Finn's heart suddenly drops.
"I AM, IN FACT, WORKING ON CAPTURING A HUMAN RIGHT NOW," Papyrus continues. "BUT THEY, I AM AFRAID..." He looks nervously around, then bends down and whispers into Finn's ear. "THEY ARE NOT VERY POLITE."
He bends back up, looking for all the world like he just committed an atrocity.
Finn can't decide whether to laugh or to cry.
"I'M AFRAID I MUST BE GOING," Papyrus says regretfully, the perplexed, distracted expression returning to his face. "I HAVE A NEW PUZZLE TO SPRING ON THE HUMAN!! OR AT LEAST, MY BROTHER DOES. I SHALL SEE YOU AROUND, ER..."
"Finn," Finn repeats dutifully.
"AH, YES! FINN! NEVER FEAR, YOU SHALL SEE MORE OF THE GREAT PAPYRUS." The skeleton performs an elegant bow, then turns and rushes away down the path, red cloak swishing out behind him.
Well. The dummy can't seem to find anything else to say.
Finn sighs, then gently places the dummy down on the path so that they can sweep what's left of the snowman into a little ball. A miniature snowman. They stick the carrot into the center of the ball, and put two large rocks in as the eyes. They then try to make a smile out of the littler rocks, but no matter what they do, the smile just melts into a frown. They eventually decide to leave it as it is.
Why'd you do that? the dummy wonders as Finn picks it up and wanders back down the path.
"I don't know," Finn admits. "It just looked so sad. And now it looks even sadder."
The dummy says nothing as they reach the sign and head down the east path, where the trees start to thin and the walkway becomes narrower, hedged in by cliffs and bottomless drops into dark abysses. It continues to stay silent as Finn crosses a bridge and wanders around for a while in a giant open plateau of snow, studying some sort of golf-like puzzle that appears to have already been solved. It stays silent as Finn finds the two identical, human-sized doghouses built close to each other's sides, and it stays silent as they read the notes attached and think and realize that if something happened to them, happened to Finn, none of these houses would ever be occupied again.
YOU ARE READING
UnderHappened
FanfictionThe Undertale Genocide Route is happening, but a new card has joined the deck: Finn, a quiet kid with a love for stuffed animals who falls into the Underground soon after Frisk. At first, it doesn't seem like there's much Finn can do, until they dis...
