Were We Doomed From The Start?

13.- Waterfall & A Tutu

They went past the last house, which had a shed next to it, as well as a small igloo. Gaster seemed to reminisce and stare at it as he went by, as if remembering it from a dream or a time long since passed that he could no longer remember. Going into the cave ahead, they had finally entered Waterfall.

A huge piece of ice floated by on the left, on a little river that led further into Waterfall. Water poured down next to them in multiple different places, almost drenching them if they got too close. There was a shop stand there, unused but the sound of running water all around filled them with determination.

Gaster looked over at Shadow, who was now very 3d. At the start when they met, Shadow was mostly 2d, other than a few spots on his body that seemed to have depth. However, now, he was around half 3d, his legs and hands having more depth than ever before.

Shadow noticed how Gaster was looking him up and down, noticing every new detail that had slipped his mind beforehand. It was like Shadow was starting to look human, with some similar features, but it wasn't as unexpected since he was Ninja's shadow, a similar version of him, like a copy with different ideas and ways of thinking.
Shadow signed asking if he was okay, and why Gaster was looking at him like that.

"What? Oh! It's nothing. I was just wondering about how I didn't realize how 3d you look now; that's all."

Ninja stopped abruptly, turning around to look at Shadow, noticing the difference immediately and whipping out his journal, documenting it more in depth and writing his theories as Shadow looked at his own hands, only now noticing the full scale of it, having not paid enough attention to it when it first began.
It wasn't long before Shadow started to panic, shaking as he continued to stare at his hands. Gaster immediately grabbed Shadow's hands and held them in his, trying to calm him down by speaking.

"Don't worry, you're fine, alright? You're just changing a little bit, but I'm sure that it's not a bad thing. We can take a look at everything later, so no need to worry. Okay?"
Gaster smiled as he looked into Shadow's eyes, showing that he meant it, despite the fact that Gaster knew deep down he was lying to Shadow.

He doubted his own words, but didn't let Shadow know as he was still trying to calm Shadow down.

Gaster wanted Ninja to say something comforting to Shadow, to reassure him but as he started to turn around, Ninja exclaimed that he had a breakthrough in his documentation, then started to explain how each time Ninja felt more determined than usual, Shadow would be closer to an entire 3d form, gaining the depth little by little.

"It's because of DETERMINATION."
Ninja said as he showed his journal, tapping on the spot where his theory was written.
Ninja had been documenting it the entire time, but left it as like an open tab in the back of his mind, writing about it but not questioning it too much, having been busy with leaving the Underground, much like now. His description went into immense detail, noting how Shadow's colour got darker and his blush, lighter.

Yet, as Shadow read the journal and Gaster looked over at it, he seemed to space out, the word "DETERMINATION" echoing in his head repeatedly, feeling like it had something to do with him, but unable to pinpoint when, where, or why.
It was as if he was seeing brief flashbacks of a lab, some models for an unrecognizable machine and even a few papers going into detail about the "patients", but all the words got blurry when he tried to focus to read it, his mind getting cloudy the more he tried.

By the time he stopped zoning out, Ninja had finished explaining and Shadow had finished reading, assuming that Gaster heard and read everything, but Ninja could tell something was off.

Shadow handed the journal back and Ninja put it back in his backpack under the quiche, then grabbing a slice of it and handing it to Shadow so he could have a snack.

Shadow held the slice and grabbed it by the side before devouring the black thing he grabbed, the very shadow of the slice before handing it back to Ninja so he could also have a snack. Gaster watched on, amused and trying to ignore the memories that had hit him so suddenly.

In the next room, there was a box and a bridge to the right, which Shadow went down to see what was there. Ninja continued going forward, and Shadow once again materialized in front of him, pointing to the small waterfall nearby. They both dodged the falling rocks as Shadow held out his hand, moving the water a bit to reveal a secret room.

Inside, there were two mushrooms that resonated with him, resembling the mushrooms that he tried to collect that day that Shadow came into existence. He pulled out a small container from his backpack and put the mushrooms in them along with a little handful of dirt to sustain them in the jar as Shadow went to the middle of the room, grabbing the Old Tutu on the ground. He lifted it up and looked at Ninja, smiling.

"No."

Shadow pouted and held the Old Tutu up closer to Ninja as if asking him to wear it.

"Not at all."

Shadow sighed and walked out of the waterfall, holding up the water as Ninja left the room. They went over to Gaster, who was smiling, waiting patiently. Shadow ran up to him, shoved the Old Tutu into his arms and tried to sign his idea to him. Gaster took a liking to the idea and turned to look at Ninja. He shook his head.

"Why not?"
Shadow signed.

Ninja held on to Gaster's coat, trying to indicate that it was too cold. Shadow turned to look at Gaster, sighed, ran at the wall and jumped off it, gaining enough speed to bring Gaster down and began to attack him, trying to get him to put on the Old Tutu. Ninja joined in, helping Shadow pin Gaster to the ground.

He stared blankly at them as they held up the Old Tutu, trying to come up with a plan as they started to force him to put it on.

After a few minutes, they finally got him to wear the Old Tutu, even if it was over his comfy sweater and pants. It was ludicrously short on him, and some of his goo was dripping on the tutu, but he had finally given up on fighting it, accepting his fate.

He looked down at the tutu, then up at Ninja and Shadow, who seemed very proud of their accomplishment, doing a high-five and smiling as they looked back at him. He stomped over to the next room, going into the tall grass and sitting down, clearly wanting to give up.

Ninja and Shadow followed, laughing and signing to each other about how much fun it was to do that.
They went over to Gaster and sat down next to him in the grass, comforting him as they tried to not laugh. Annoyed and so done with it, Gaster disassembled and reassembled, slightly adjusting his clothes while leaving the Tutu behind.

As they sat there, they heard a clank and quickly stopped making any noise, listening to the clanging of armour, seeing someone look over at their general direction and stare, their eyes glowing through the helmet while holding a spear before walking backwards into the shadows, disappearing into thin air.
Whatever it was, hadn't seen them, and it was a relief too, seeing as they were hunting for something, or someone.