A Different Game Now

Alone Together

 As much as she was ready to plop behind the pillar and play on her cell phone (not the one she'd just been given), something at the back of her head nagged her to continue moving. Not to mention something seemed to actually be shoving her from behind, like a fussy child demanding she continue.

With a sigh and a muttered curse, Haley stretched her arms behind her head and kept walking.

The hall let out into a small room with piles of leaves scattered in rather suspiciously made piles. On the biggest pile in the room, another flowing star point. She approached the star and touched it, smiling as the black box popped back up.

"HALEY LV:1

RUINS: LEAF PILE

SAVE? RETURN?

She palmed the "SAVE" button and turned around. A doorway to her left was all but daring her to enter and she felt childishly excited to explore it. Sure, she'd panicked earlier about being left alone, but this time, Toriel was simply leaving her to her own devices to stay preoccupied and that was much less scary. Plus, Toriel hadn't said anything about leaving the room.

"Alright little buddy," she spoke aloud to whatever force was egging her on. "Let's do some exploring."

The next room was small and mostly empty, save a bowl atop some sort of tiny table and canals on either side of the room. She walked up to the table and peeked into the bowl. Some kind of candy, it looked like.

She couldn't quite remember the last time she had eaten and who knew how long she'd been down here by now anyways, so she swiped a few candies before spotting a sign that read "TAKE ONE".

.... Well shit. She sighed, shoved one piece in her pocket, and dropped the rest back in the bowl. For later then.

She turned and wandered back out into the other room, wondering which way Toriel had gone when she noticed a froggit next to her. In a panic at remembering how she'd run into one of them earlier, she jumped away, throwing her arms up in defense.

The small creature merely looked up at her with a curious tilt of its head. It smiled up at her and spoke up.

"Hello human!"

"Uh... h-hi?" She lowered her arms cautiously, still a bit nervous.

"I have some advice for you about battling monsters!" It ribbited happily and she blinked in surprise. That would be rather helpful...

Lowering herself to sit cross legged beside the dog sized frog creature, she nodded for it to continue. It beamed with both faces and continued.

"If you ACT a certain way or FIGHT until you almost defeat them, they might not want to battle you anymore." She smiled and nodded, letting Froggit know she was listening still. "If a monster does not want to fight you, please..." It's eyes seemed to sparkle up at her as it pleaded. "Use some MERCY, human."

She smiled softly and nodded. "Absolutely. I promise." The Froggit hopped in place happily and even let her pet it's head.

With that, she got up and decided to continue on, absent-mindedly hitting the save as she passed it.

To her surprise though, another Froggit appeared, cueing the world to turn black and white as a battle began.

She yelped, throwing her hands up in defense as the buttons appeared before her and the Froggit looked up at her expectantly.

"U-uh..." She gulped and looked down at the buttons, fingers hovering over FIGHT, ACT, and then MERCY. What was she gonna do now?