A Different Game Now

The Fall and The Flower

The girl sat up, groaning as she rubbed the back of her head. She squeezed her eyes shut, whining softly as she gently tapped the back of her head. It felt like she'd been thwaped over the back of the head with a bat!

"Owww." She whimpered, cracking one eye open to peer at her surroundings.

A large bed of golden flowers spanned the ground directly beneath her, then gave way to smooth stone floor and craggy stone walls. Looking up, she realized just how far down she'd fallen into this cave. Her nerves twitched with fear as she stared up at the sky so high above.

Getting up, she looked to see if there was any way to climb back out only to find just sheer walls all around with no way to climb up to any ledges. Dejected, she looked around again, this time paying attention to see if there was any other way out.

Down a short hallway to her left, she spotted a rather ornamental doorway carved of apparently purple rock. With no other options at this point, she stood, wincing hard at how sore her back end was, and set forward to find a way back up.

Stepping through the doorway, she was greeted with the peculiar sight of a flower with what looked like a drawn-on smiley face in the middle of the small room in a single patch of light she couldn't determine a source for.

Worriedly approaching the flower, the girl tilted her head and leaned down to get a closer look at the oddly vibrantly yellow plant.

"Well howdy!" It beamed and the girl screeched in panic, scrambling backwards and falling over in surprise. "Well gosh! That isn't a very nice way to greet somone~!"

"Wh-hu-ah-uh-mmmm!" She slapped a hand over her mouth, using the other to point at the flower as it leaned over, nearly upside down, still grinning in a way that hadn't changed but was now somehow creepier than before.

"Awwww, you're new to the Underground, aren't'cha? What was I saying before? Og yeah! I'm Flowey! Flowey the Flower! Guess lil' ole me will have'ta show you how things work around here then!" It winked, sticking its tongue out cheekily as some odd little sparkle appeared, the girl quickly questioning her life choices and whether she'd actually died from that fall and this was some weird as heck purgatory.

Suddenly, the world was black and white and a box appeared before her with a red heart in the middle. The flower beamed at her from the other side of the box.

"This is your SOUL!" It told her excitedly. "SOULs start off weak but you can make it stronger by gaining LV!"

"L-LV?" She attempted to mimic the way Flowey had said it, squinting in confusion. "Wait like... "

"LOVE!" Flowey spoke up before she could finish her thought. "Down here, LOVE is shared through little white.... "Friendliness pellets"." Small white pellets, the very same the flower had just described, she was sure, appeared from seemingly nowhere, spinning in place as a shifty expression ghosted across Flowey's face. Brightening it's expression before she could say anything to point it out, Flowey spoke again. "Move around! Get as many as you can!"

It didn't feel right to listen for some reason, but she didn't know enough about this whole... anything to refute it. Against her better judgement, the girl willed the heart to move up the box and collected the little sunflower seed shaped pellets.

A yelp of pain and she was on her knees, clutching her chest as a red bar on the bottom dropped, the numbers beside it, "20/20", dropping down to "1/20" as the pellets blinked from existence. Flowey threw its head back, cackling with sick enjoyment.

"You IDIOT!!" Its grin twisted into something horrifying and downright villainous. "Like anyone would let a chance at free EXP slip by! Haven't you figured it out yet? In this world-" The girl gasped, eyes widening as the flower's face became more twisted. "It's KILL or BE KILLED!!!" It cackled as a ring of pellets surrounded both the heart and the girl. She whimpered fearfully as the pellets started to close in on her, a cry of panic bubbling at the back of her throat even though she was sure no one would come to her aid.

Just as suddenly as they had appeared, the pellets vanished and Flowey's laughter cut short with a confused frown changing his expression. "Wha- huh?"

Another pellet, this one shaped more like a flame, blinked to life next to Flowey, catching both parties' attention quickly. Flowey screeched as the pellet hit him, sending the flower flying off to the side, though the girl's attention turned to the new figure that took Flowey' place before her/

"Oh, what a miserable creature!" The goat woman said, looking at the human girl with such a soft expression, she felt her heart tighten in her chest. "Tormenting a poor, innocent youth!"

Getting back to her feet, the girl looked the woman who had rescued her over with cautious curiosity. She was easily taller than herself, with purple robes with an interesting insignia she'd never seen before displayed on the woman's chest.

"My name is Toriel, child. I am the caretaker of the Ruins" The woman smiled and held a hand out to the human. "What is your name, dear one?"

"H-... Haley... My name's Haley."