12 Papyrus (Part 1)

Frisk nimbly wove around flying sheets of ice. Almost immediately after he had continued down the path, Frisk was met with a monster. It was a Snowdrake, which looked like some cross between a chicken and a snowflake.

Frisk cursed as the Snowdrake let out an ice stream that curved and clipped his arm. He really didn't have anything against the monsters here. Still, without the game system helping him, it was challenging to pacify them. Frisk knew he should probably just run; if he kept taking damage to his Aura, he wouldn't have enough to protect him from the weather…

"Ice to meet you," Snowdrake called out just before beginning another round of blasting Frisk with sheets of ice.

And the Snowdrake just kept on saying awful ice-related puns.

With his next move decided, Frisk finished dodging the attack and stood still. He could feel two separate pits of power deep in his SOUL. One felt like a blazing inferno, and while it was strong, it was tough to control. It also had the problem that to harness the power, he would either have to get a lot better at handling it or be fighting for a while to build enough up that it wouldn't matter.

On the other hand, the second power source felt like a storm of energy. And while he did not have perfect control of it right now, it was powerful enough that he could do some small things.

Frisk's left eye lit up a dull yellow, and small strings of energy arced across his Aura. His speed now boosted, Frisk dashed straight for the Snowdrake right when he was switching attacks. Stopping right in front of the surprised monster, Frisk kicked the snow as hard as he could. This created a small smokescreen that blocked the monster's vision and allowed Frisk a safe getaway.

He continued running for a few seconds after the Snowdrake was out of view, looking behind himself to make sure.

*Thump*

Only to trip on a rather large rock that he hadn't seen. Frisk groaned slightly and pulled his face out of the snow.

Only to immediately see that Sans and Papyrus were standing around 20 feet away watching him.

"WOWWEEEE!" Papyrus exclaimed. "Sans, is that a human?" he asked, looking at somewhere behind Frisk.

"Uhhh, actually, I think that is a rock." Papyrus seemed to be disappointed by that. "But look in front of that rock." Sans pointed out.

Papyrus finally seemed to realize that Frisk was lying there, "Oh. My. God." he yelled out before turning to Sans. "Is that a human?" he asked in a whisper, and Sans answered affirmatively.

"Umm, hello?" Frisk asked questioningly. He wasn't exactly sure what to do right now.

"Yes! I finally did it. Once I capture this human, I will become so POPULAR!" He called out into the air before pointing at Frisk. "Be ready, HUMAN, because the GREAT Papyrus will stop you! I will then capture you and bring you to the Capital. Where…" He hesitated "something will happen to you!" Papyrus finished.

He then proceeded to grab his cape and give it a flourish before calling out, "Continue only if you dare!" before laughing and walking away.

Frisk was still in the snow trying to process everything that was Papyrus but was interrupted by slippered feet appearing in front of his eyes.

"Need a hand?" Sans asked.

"Thanks," Frisk said as he grabbed onto the skeleton's hand, only for it to fall off, sending Frisk right back into the snow.

"Heh," Sans chuckled, "Don't worry, kid, I'll keep an eye socket out for ya." and walked off in the wrong direction again.

Frisk looked down at the plastic skeleton hand he was holding and gave a huff.

"Does he really carry one of these around?"

Frisk continued his journey after getting up and dusting the snow off his clothes.

Already having passed both Sans and Papyrus's empty lookout station, Frisk didn't think much when he came across another on the side of the path. So he had already gotten very close by the time he read the words' absolutely no moving!'

He could barely stop himself before a dog head popped slowly out from below the post counter.

"Did I just see movement?" The dog monster asked out loud. "Because if something was moving, for example, a human, I would ensure it never moves again." He said while scanning the area, utterly missing Frisk, who was right in front of him.

Frisk had almost forgotten about the dogs that guarded the way to Snowden. Months after playing the game, only really Sans and Paps stood out during this section. But with this jogging his memory, Frisk could remember a bit about the dogs.

They used blue attacks, so not moving should make them do no damage. This also translated to them not having excellent eyesight and relying more on other senses. Finally, they all really liked one thing.

"WHAT! I've been PET!" The dog monster looked around wildly for the source.

When the dog had been looking away, Frisk had slowly reached down and pet him. It looked like his memory was correct, or at least this dog really liked being pet.

After a few more rounds of standing still and then petting, the dog retreated beneath his station, allowing Frisk to continue forward to Papyrus's first puzzle.

→ [First Puzzle: Invisible Electricity Maze]

The two skeleton brothers stood on the other side of a large open square of snow.

"Now, HUMAN!" Papyrus spun around and struck a pose. "You will have to make it through the DEADLY invisible electricity maze! Touch the walls of this maze at your own peril, for it will be quite the SHOCK!"

Frisk stared at the orb in Papyrus's hand and then back to the electricity maze before finally looking at Sans, who gave him a wink.

With a shrug, Frisk took his first step into the maze.

*ZAPP*

Only for Papyrus to be shocked.

"Errrr, bro, I think the human must be holding the orb," Sans explained.

"Oh, ok," Papyrus said and then proceeded to walk through the maze.

"Here you go, HUMAN." Papyrus placed the orb on Frisk's head.

"Thanks, Papyrus," Frisk responded while containing his laughter.

"You're very welcome, HUMAN." The skeleton responded before walking back to the other side of the maze. "Ok, now you must test your Mettle!"

Frisk followed the path Papyrus had taken through the maze by looking at where his footsteps were on the snow. He made it through the maze in about 10 seconds.

"Incredible Human, you truly are a worthy opponent for the GREAT Papyrus!" Papyrus started walking away and pulled Sans with him. "Come, Sans, your next trap will surely confuse this Human."

→ [Second Puzzle: Sans's Totally Amazing Trap]

It was just a piece of paper with a crossword puzzle sitting on the ground.

"Sans! Where is the puzzle?" Papyrus cried out in confusion.

"It's right there on the ground, bro. Trust me, they will never be able to get through that." Sans explained as he lazily put his arms behind his head.

Frisk walked up and took a look at the crossword puzzle. Taking around 30 seconds, he found all of the words but didn't have a pencil, so he just put it back down.

Frisk looked at Sans with a raised eyebrow. "That wasn't too hard."

"Dang," Sans said with false annoyance, "I knew I should have used today's crossword instead."

"Sans! I can't believe you said that. Junior Jumble is easily the hardest." Papyrus argued.

"What? No, it isn't. That is just for baby bones." Sans argued back.

"Unbelievable, HUMAN solve this dispute!" Papyrus called out and pointed at Frisk.

Frisk honestly had no idea what the jumble even was, but considering the crossword was easy…

"I guess the jumble would be harder," Frisk answered.

"Haha!" Papyrus laughed in triumph. "It seems HUMANS are also very intelligent. Now I must prepare for my next trap!" He finished and walked away.

They both watched Papyrus leave before Sans turned to Frisk. "By the way, Junior Jumble is just a straightforward word scramble. But thanks for saying it anyway. Yesterday my brother got stumped trying to solve the horoscope."

→ [Third Puzzle: Spaghetti]

This trap was just a plate of frozen spaghetti stuck to the table, with a note left by Papyrus explaining that this was to distract him so that Frisk wouldn't even realize he wasn't progressing.

Shaking his head, Frisk continued.

→ [Intermission]

After a reasonably easy spike trap where Frisk had to find a hidden switch, he felt very confident.

Only for him to come face to face with two large dog monsters carrying giant axes.

The two dog monsters were sniffing at the air.

"We have found the source of the weird smell." The dog on Frisk's left said.

"It makes me want to eliminate it." The dog on Frisk's right said.

Frisk dove to the side, right in time to dodge the two massive axes as they slammed into his previous position.

"Don't touch my hotdog!" The more masculine-looking dog yelled out.

"What?" Frisk replied in confusion.

His response had allowed the dogs to get a lock on his position. The more feminine dog lunged straight at Frisk, hefting her axe into the air.

"He means me!" She called out and brought the axe crashing down.

Frisk managed to get out of the way in time, but he was showered with the snow and dirt that the axe kicked up. Frisk infused his Aura with his Justice magic and dodged out of the way as the masculine dog barked out a burst of magical stars that almost connected.

The feminine dog seemed ready to go in for another attack before sniffing the air.

"Husband, wait! Re-sniff the smell." She requested.

"Ah, you're right. The smell is just a puppy that has rolled in the dirt too much. Very sorry for the inconvenience, pup." He finished, and they both walked away.

*Sigh*

Frisk sat down to catch his breath. This place was just weird.

→ [Fourth Puzzle: X's and O's]

"HUMAN!" This time it was just Papyrus standing there oddly waiting before the puzzle. "You took so long to arrive that I rearranged the puzzle to improve it. By making it look more like my face, of course! But in the process, I seem to have changed the solution as well." Papyrus looked a little worried at that.

"But do not worry, HUMAN! The GREAT Papyrus will solve this puzzle in no time!" He reassured as his cape flapped in the wind. "Meanwhile, feel free to try the puzzle for yourself."

It was a relatively simple puzzle, and it only took Frisk three tries because he was impatient and messed up the first two tries. All he had to do was step on some pressure plates in a specific order to make sure to hit them all only once.

"Incredible!" Papyrus applauded, "You must love puzzles almost as much as I do. Maybe this next puzzle will be more of a challenge. NYEHEHEHE!" Papyrus laughed and made his way to the next puzzle.

→ [Fifth Puzzle: Tile Game]

Frisk zoned out as Papyrus explained the incredibly complex rules of the next puzzle. He remembered this one pretty well and knew that none of it would matter in a second.

"Well, HUMAN, do you understand all of the rules?" Papyrus asked.

It was a very complex game. For example, pink tiles are safe to cross, yellow is electricity, orange makes you smell like orange, blue is water, and piranhas will eat you if you smell like oranges. Or at least that was the gist of it.

"Yep." Frisk popped the 'p' "Ready when you are."

Very well, behold!" Papyrus pulled the lever, and the tiles started to randomize.

*Snort*

Frisk knew it would happen and still laughed as a straight line of pink tiles led straight to the end of the puzzle.

Papyrus stared in disbelief at the tiles before he quietly walked away.