Goretober 2024

24. Teeth

Nom nom, how we show love! Mr. Bear! That's not how we show love! That's assault silly!!

Walking around Underfell with Fell was nice. While the world was vulgar and surrounded in red hues and mean faces of monsters he's seen as friends, it was a close enough reminder to home. Swap universe was going under renovations after a bug was found in its source code, refuting the story out of its loop. This was caused by travelers appearing in his universe all at once and different codes led to different buds and viruses being spread through the base coding. Sort of like a disease.

So not only did he and Papyrus have to explain how the multiverse works, they now had to move their entire universe to the Omega Timeline until the bug or virus could be caught and taken care of.

While Swap wanted to stay with his universe, making sure everyone was okay with the realization that they weren't original concepts, Fell claimed he was being "stretched too thin even for a swap sans"

So here he was, going to Underfell's Grillby's, their version of Muffet's, to loosen up.

Swap wasn't a "loosen up by drinking your problems away" kinda guy, so he was just there to be away from everything and have his mind on something else other than the multiverse.

Grillby's was less formal than Muffet's, being more like a bar than a cafe. Swap could still see the homely vibe it gave off, with the soft but upbeat music in the background adding to the warm embrace of the establishment compared to the fridges outdoors.

"Hey, wanna hear a joke?"

"Snrk, sure"

"I didn't even say 'nything yet!"

"It's going to be horrible, I know it!"

"So, Comic Sans, Helvetica, and Times New Roman walk into a bar"

"Okay..."

"Th' bartender shouts 'Get out! We don't serve your type here!'"

"MWAHA! THAT! Is horrible!" Swap stops to laugh, hitting Fell to get him and his horrid joke away.

Swap followed Fell to the bar where Grillby stood cleaning a glass with a dishcloth. His flame was a hue of purples and he was dressed in a tux and fancy straight pants, his usual crazy glasses replaced with small sight seeing glasses. It was like a night and day difference to Swap but he just went with it.

Fell ordered a bottle of mustard, he wasn't even sure that was even the menu above the bar, adding that bottle to his tab that probably extended to infinity. Swap ordered a butler juice, something simple and somewhat similar to what Muffet's had.

Both got their orders in quick succession and simply chatted over their drinks. Talking about their brothers and jumping to and from random topics.

"If I was you, I'd sleep fer years!"

"Well you might as well be in a coma!"

"Hehe, wouldn't mind 't all. Any chance 'ta not deal with my universe, I'll take it!"

Swap couldn't believe how Fell had hard feelings with his universe but it was understandable with how rough it is here. Still, it was all in a light manner. The skeleton brothers were probably the least affected by the toughness of this universe. Keeping with morals that blurred in between the "kill or be killed" mindset and morals more common outside the Fellverses.

Fell did try to convince him to drink mustard straight out of the bottle, or maybe ketchup seeing as that was also popular with other verses. He refused, not being a fan of eating or drinking condiments. He's tried ketchup and it was just, not for him.

"Your loss" Fell commented and downed another heaping of mustard. Much to Swap's slight disgust.

"I think it's more of a win considering I don't have stains on his clothes" he looked at the new bright yellow stain on Fell's black hoodie. Taking its rightful place amongst other faded stains.

Fell huffed and slammed down the condiment pouch as if it was a drink. The wooden bar sounded a "THUNK!" and a glass could be heard falling.

Neither skeleton noticed the angered monster and his posse as they were laughing at another poorly made joke between the two.

They were ignorant to how they creeped over with little stealth and patience in mind. A shadow reached above their bones, only Swap noticing a few seconds before Fell.

A bear monster with a ferocious looking scar along his left eye and ruffled up and matted fur stood growling behind the two. Teeth baring and arms crossed.
Next to him were two smaller bears who looked just as gnarly and pissed off as the big bear.

"Well, Whataya want from us?"

"You tipped my drink" the bear monster glared down at both skeletons. Swap was sweating bullets, unnerved at the situation they found themselves in. Both of them had only 1 HP to share, and this could go south fast.

"And? It's yer drink" Fell just continued to fuel the fire and while Swap trusted him in his own universe, this wasn't looking good in his eyes.

"Ya gotta pay"

"Fer what? Yur lack of style?" The bear, in fact, was not wearing pants. Just a black jacket.

He was also not gonna tolerate this backtalk anymore.

All they got was a growl before the bear lunged for the two, both dodging in time. The bear's buddies began attacking Swap and Fell while the main monster got up from the splintered bar, Grillby firing up a storm of complaints to take the fighting outside.

Fell took this entire fight as a joke, commenting on the bear's form and making snide remarks through backhanded compliments.

"Mah father could hit better than you, and he's 6 feet under!"

"Maybe lighten up on the honey, you'd be a lot faster"

"Hey, whatdya call a pessimistic bear? You"

"I betcha yur a teddy bear under all that fur"

"Dust yerself"

Okay maybe more insults than "obscure compliments"

Swap was faring well, dodging and trying to mediate his situation. Unfortunately his oponer seemed to enjoy the fight, getting more and more aggressive. Her claws sharp and flying wildly.

"Sorry, could we talk this out!?"

"I could pay the difference! Sorry for your broken glass!"

"How about we cool it for a bit?

"Maybe a chat outside?"

"Y'know I thought bears were supposed to be nice?" That seemed to tick the bear off even more.

She ran forward, looking to tackle Swap and tear off his bones to hang on her wall and give to her cub as a chew toy, but she was just a bit too slow as Swap dodged.

Right into the leader's chest.

The bear was around 6 feet, near 7 by the looks of it. Swap was only given a small window of time before rows of sharp, dirt stained teeth engulfed his vision.

He could only partially dodge as the bear's maw closed on his shoulder. He screamed in pain as his HP left his soul. The bear could barely life his body up before he dust into the wooden floors of Grillby's.

The shrill scream was a man's last breath. And the dust in the bear's mouth tasted worse than any garbage he's eaten from the bins in the back.

All the patrons were silent as dust settled on the floor, small specks fleeting through the cracks between planks.