Lost In The Echo (Arc 1: UNDERTALE)

Chapter 8: "Dog Days"

This… was… hell. Barely a few steps into the next room, the humans quickly learned that Papyrus's next puzzle was actually several corridors away, not in the adjacent chamber, which would've been preferable. Unfortunately for them, the puzzles that Papyrus had told his brother to go recalibrate remained not-so recalibrated. In fact, since they had first encountered the two skeletons, none of the puzzles that Sans was put in charge of by his brother had been touched or tinkered with, left in a rather unfinished state. Consequently, as a result of such, the two humans had to make up for his laziness by trying to clear up the blue 'x's on the ground in order to progress. However, it wasn't a matter of simply standing on the 'x's in question, they had to be careful not to step on the same panel twice, because if they did, the red circles that they were working to activate in unison would turn into green triangles, which were a hindrance to them more than anything.

As if that weren't bad enough, the puzzle they were currently on was made ten times more difficult by the eccentric skeleton who had been watching them toiling over this for a good few minutes now. Before they were set to start solving the puzzle, Papyrus explained to the two humans that he tried to arrange the snow around the puzzle in the shape of his own face, but because he took too long in the assembly process, the snow became frozen to the ground and ended up serving as an obstacle in getting to some of the panels, forcing them to mull over which approach to take in order to switch every mark into a red circle.

Why is the solution to this so goddamn puzzling? Magic thought, mentally facepalming at her inner pun, I'm going to strangle that shorter skeleton... Wait, is it even possible for skeleton monsters to be strangled?

Regardless what the answer to that question was, she didn't want to warrant the risks of finding out. After a bit of thinking, Magic and Frisk worked together and switched all the blue 'x's on the ground into red circles, a heavy sigh leaving both their bodies. Finally, they were getting somewhere!

"GREAT COOPERATION AND TEAMWORK, HUMANS!" cheered Papyrus from the sidelines, until his smile faltered and he suddenly looked concerned, "BUT, ERR, HOW DO YOU INTEND TO PRESS THE SWITCH TO RECALIBRATE THE PUZZLE?"

The older human's eyes went wide as they darted over to Papyrus in sheer horror, eyeballing the switch a few feet in front of him. She knew that if she moved in either direction she chose, she'd have to step on one of the panels, which would turn those circles into a green triangle; something they did not want. She turned to look at her sibling, but Frisk was in an even worse spot than she was. There was no way either of them could press the switch without screwing up the puzzle's calibration, period. Unless… they could try to walk over the snow that had frozen over when Papyrus was trying to shape his face into the puzzle's layout… although, one false step and they'd slip and land back onto the circles, effectively ruining the puzzle they just solved. Yeah, maybe that wasn't such a good idea.

"Hey, uh… Papyrus, was it?" Magic suddenly turned to the skeleton with a nervous smile, "You think you could step on that switch for us..? We're sorta… stuck where we are."

Despite her attempt at asking for help in solving the puzzle so they could proceed (a tip that Papyrus himself had given to them before leaving them to their own advice), Papyrus let out a gasp of horror as he rushed over, yelling, "OH NO!! DON'T WORRY, HUMANS! THE GREAT PAPYRUS SHALL COME AND SAVE YOU!!!"

His course of action startled both humans as Magic started waving her hands in protest, "Wait, no! That's not what I m..-!"

It was too late. The boisterous skeleton lifted each human up and safely back over to the calibration switch, stepping over multiple red circles and ruining the puzzle all over again. The two siblings stared at each other in complete disbelief. This guy…