A Different Game Now

Puzzles and Fights

 Hesitantly, Haley reached out to grab the goat woman's hand. Toriel's face softened into a comforting smile and understanding eyes.

"Welcome to the Underground, my child. Please, come with me." Toriel smiled and then led the human gently by the hand through the door behind where Flowey had been.

"Where... am I?" Haley asked tentatively, easily keeping stride with the woman as they walked towards the stairway. She spotted something glowing between the two staircases but chose to ignore it for the time being.

"This is the Ruins, my child. A place filled with puzzles and monsters."

"M-monsters?!" Her mind was filled with images of every scary movie she'd ever seen (few as they were) as well as Flowey, who she couldn't think of a better term for.

"Yes, but they are quite peaceful here. The puzzles are the most dangerous things in the Ruins. Like this one." Toriel stopped inside the doors, pointing to a bunch of large gray buttons on the ground to their right.

"Puzzles are ancient fusions between diversions and doorkeys. One must solve them to move from room. Please, adjust yourself to the sight of them." Letting go of Haley's hand, Toriel walked over the second and last rows of buttons and flipped a switch the human hadn't noticed before on the wall.

Toriel smiled as she stood in front of the door that was now open. "So long as you stay close, it will all be fine. Come, I think you will like the next one."

"A-actually, I think I forgot something, I'll catch up in a minute." Haley pointed over her shoulder and quickly returned to the other room before Toriel could say anything.

Haley hopped down the stairs and turned towards where she'd seen the sparkling object before. It sat there still, twinkling ambiguously in the air. She thought it odd Toriel hadn't mentioned it but perhaps she hadn't noticed it? Whatever the reason, she walked up to it, curiously leaning down to see if there was something holding it up.

Seeing nothing, she stood back up and stared curiously at the shining object again. It was bright, sure, but not blindingly so. She wondered if it was warm so she put her hand out to grab it.

A black box with a white trim appeared, white letter in an oddly pixelated font appeared so suddenly she jumped and squeaked.

"HALEY LV: 1

RUINS: ENTRANCE

SAVE? RETURN?"

Looking the text box over in confusion, she decided to hit the save button. A sound played and the box text changed.

"STATE SAVED"

She didn't like that very much but decided to leave it be. Toriel was calling to her now and was likely about to come to check on her. The box vanished as suddenly as it appeared and Haley dashed up the stairs.

"Oh, I was starting to worry." Toriel said as Haley came to a stop in the room with the buttons. "Did you find what you forgot?"

"Yup!" Haley smiled brightly, unable to ignore the warmth in her chest at the woman's concern. It was nice. "So, what is this next puzzle?"

Toriel smiled and clasped her hands together. "Oh, it is here in the next room. Come!"

With that, Toriel led the way through the doors. A larger room awaited them, with a sign at the edge of the small pathway and a plaque of some kind on the far wall. Toriel stopped beside the sign, and smiled.

"To make progress here, you will need to trigger several switches. Do not worry, I have labelled the ones you need to flip." Then walked across the small bridge that gave a way across what Haley assumed was a canal of some kind.