#i was at the part where chisk spotted the camera before

[anotherath-iii-na]

Discomforttale: Chapter 18

You have fallen through a hole, but you aren’t sure how you got there. Flowers are trying to fight you, goats are trying to mother you, puzzles are trying to confuse you…

you are filled with DISCOMFORT.

AO3

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Once more, you walk through thinning snow towards the damp place. What did the book call it? Swampland? Cavern? You know it’s named after some sort of environment or natural landmark. It’s an even less creative name than Icevi—Snowdin. That’s what it’s called. You wish you were back there, back with Papyrus and the Snowed Inn and the little river with smooth, smooth rocks and the quiet, tree-lined path leading back to the Ruins, back to Mom, back to butterscotch-cinnamon pie and bug catching and reading ‘til you fall asleep in her lap and waking up to the smell of baking, where you only knew about these places from books and you didn’t have to worry about royalty who want you dead or skeletons with glowing bedrooms asking about things you never did or, or, or—

*Chisk, the left voice mutters, and you blink away the dampness in your eyes to find a yellow reptilian monster about your height staring at you.

“Yo? Underground to, uh…you? You doin’ okay?”

You gulp a few times, but nod. Just thinking, you sign, before you notice, oh. They’re the monster from before. They don’t have arms. Why would they know sign language if they couldn’t use it? You open your mouth to try to force the words out, but they speak first.

“Well, looks like you’re thinking too much!” they say with a grin. Oh. They do know it. Come to think of it, so did all the other monsters you talked to. How…convenient. “You gotta watch where you’re going here in Waterfall. It’s not like Snowdin.”

It isn’t? What’s different? Is it…dangerous?

“Yeah, it’s all stony, and there’s ledges and water all over. If you’re not paying attention, you could get hurt!”

You note that they must have learned from experience, judging by the darkened places around their eyes. Or maybe that’s just how their face is. Do monsters even bruise?

“Anyways, I’m M.K. Are you sneaking out to see her too?”

M.K. You wonder what the letters stand for, or if that’s just their full name. Would it be spelled “Emkay” then? Monsters do have funny names, but you supposed yours isn’t very common either. Still, you’re sure it must be initials. Maybe they stand for Monster Kid. It would be fitting. You nearly laugh, but M.K. is staring at you again. You blink. What was the question?

“What, were you thinking again?” You nod, grinning sheepishly. “You gotta stop that, yo!” They tilt their head a bit. “Well, don’t stop thinking. That’d probably be bad.” They grin, steeling their expression into something courageous. “But you have to pay attention to what’s going on! A true warrior is always aware of their surroundings! And I’m going to be a true warrior, just like Undyne!” They’re bouncing on their feet, tail swinging behind them. You blink. “You’re going to be a warrior too, right?”

What? You shake your head. No, no no no. You’d rather not be a warrior. That’s too much fighting for your liking.

M.K. looks a bit disappointed for a moment, but they go right back to bouncing. “Aw, well. What are you going to be, then?”

You shrug. You haven’t thought that far.

“Nothing wrong with that!” they say brightly. “You’re still a kid, I can tell by your shirt. You have a while to figure that out. But I already know exactly what I’m doing!” They tilt their head at you again. “You’re still here to see her though, right? I mean, you don’t have to be a warrior to know how cool she is! And she’s the coolest! Just don’t tell my parents I’m here, haha.”

You don’t bother answering, since they buried the question and you think it would be a little awkward to just nod or shake your head after all that, and you don’t feel like talking. So you just smile, and actually, yeah, nod your head too. It doesn’t have to be an answer. It can just mean you’re listening.

“Awesome!” Oh. They took it as an answer anyway. …you think. “Anyway, I’m gonna go look for her. See you later!” And off they run, teetering a bit, but they manage to right themself without falling on their face.

You think on their words for a minute. Not the ones about not thinking too much. That would be ironic, and also counterproductive. No, you think about other words. You’re still a kid. You have time to figure things out. Maybe you could just…stop, for a bit. Stop and think. Figure out what you’re going to do.

Your eyes are drawn ahead of you, to your left. Sans sits at his sentry station. He catches your gaze and waves lazily.

…not here, then.

You go forward, past Sans—who says something about hanging out again sometime—and follow the path M.K. took. It leads past a box like the ones from Snowdin (which you ignore for now, since you think you have everything you need) and to a waterfall.

A waterfall with rocks flowing down it.

Oh no.

Okay, you reason. You can think about this logically. You don’t see M.K. anywhere around. Could they have really gotten past such a dangerous (senseless, pointlessly time-consuming, possibly deadly) obstacle in such a short amount of time? No, you don’t think so. …unless they’re more used to the danger of the area than you’d think they should be. They’re still a kid, too.

Still, you’re sure there must be some sort of shortcut. You follow the wood boards (they’re blue, they don’t look painted, how can wood be blue—) with your eyes, tracing a path downwards, to another waterfall. A perfect place to hide a secret, less dangerous path for locals. No sense in making human traps if they trap monsters just as often. No point in making human traps at all, really, if humans as rare as they say, but you’re going to try not to judge anyone around here.

It’s surprisingly difficult.

Down the path you walk, careful not to trip on loose boards or slip on what water you’re sure must be there. You try to peek behind the waterfall for a safe, preferably non-slippery path inwards, but there’s not enough space between the water and the wall. You try the other side, but it’s just as bad. Nothing.

Still, there’s a pretty blue flower down here, so it’s not a total waste. It looks like the flower you saw by the orange fish monster, but you hadn’t been able to get a close look at it with all the people around. …monsters, you mean. You lean over to smell it, but as soon as you get near it, you jump. It speaks.

“Sitting behind rushing water... It makes me feel relaxed. I swore I saw something... Behind that rushing water...”

Is that a clue? Why would there be a clue? (And why does everything talk down here?) You glare at the waterfall. You’re going to be very upset with it if it’s hiding something from you. You look at it again, from the front this time, and you think you see something? There’s something shining there, like the flower said, just beyond the rushing water.

*A camera, Left supplies, thinking a pointed eyeroll in your direction.

A camera? Like back before Snowdin, right outside the door to the Ruins? Why is there a camera? Who’s watching you?

[Don’t think too hard,] Right says. [Remember M.K.!]

Right, right. You have to pay attention. With one last glance at the camera, you head back up the path to the terrifying murder-fall (it’s like a waterfall, except murder objects fall down too, and apparently they’re popular with monsters—but you’re not judging them, not at all). You’re going to have to get wet, aren’t you? You hate getting wet. You’re not sure how you know that, since that never happened as far as you remember, but you do. You really, really hope the water is shallow enough that it doesn’t get in your boots, but you really, really doubt it.

You could…jump the rocks, maybe? Is that the puzzle? Or maybe you’re supposed to climb the rocks around the falls and there’s a bridge up top. Or maybe—

*Or maybe you should not kid yourself. Even if that was the puzzle’s intention, you are not nearly athletic enough to accomplish such a task.

Slightly hurt, you have to agree. No matter what you were meant to do, wading seems to be your only option. Still, you wiggle your toes at the water’s edge for several moments before finally stepping in.

It’s cold. It’s really, really cold and it’s in your boots and it’s hard to lift your feet up to move and—oh god, that’s a rock—you move upstream to avoid being hit. Actually, you move directly into the waterfall when you’re paying too close attention to the murderrocks and now you’re soaked.

Shaking, you take a moment to calm down. You look around to assess your situation. You’re in a cave (*What else is new, Left says, but you ignore them) behind the waterfall and there’s a tutu on the ground.

Why is there a tutu on the ground.

[Pick up the tutu and it won’t be on the ground anymore.]

A reasonable suggestion. You pick up the tutu, coughing at the cloud of dust, and consider putting it on. It’s certainly cute, and it almost matches one stripe on your shirt, and it’s not like you’re stealing it if someone left it here…

*Yes, will you finally trade that bandaid for something more helpful?

Bandaid? Oh, they mean the necklace. But why would the tutu be any more helpful? And why would you need to take off your necklace to wear it?

[…that’s a good point, actually.]

They start talking amongst themselves, but you ignore them and slip the tutu on. You do a little twirl, then another and another until you’re dizzy. You lean against the wall until everything stops spinning.

You’ve dried off a bit (and emptied the water out of your oversized boots), but you’re just going to get wet again. You sigh, steel yourself, and head back out through the waterfall.

It’s not quite as bad now that you’re used to it. You’d really rather not have to get used to it, but anything to make it a little less unpleasant. You make it to the other side having only bumped into a single rock, nearly skipping with pride. That is, until you feel your socks pull from your boots and make that awful squelch and you have to sit down and get the water out again. And take off your socks. Those go in your inventory.

As bad as it feels to wear shoes without socks, wearing them with wet socks would be worse and you don’t have the time to wait for them to dry. You have to get…somewhere, and somewhere is where you’re going.

Until you get to the tall grass, that is.

You’re halfway through the grass when you hear Papyrus. Grinning, you almost wave at him, but you see her. Undyne. You know, the monster who’s planning on killing you and stealing your soul. And Papyrus is talking to her. Papyrus, your new friend. Or…you thought he was a friend. You knew he wanted to be in the royal guard, that he wanted to capture a human, but…but…

“...I UNDERSTAND. I'LL HELP YOU IN ANY WAY I CAN.”

But you didn’t think he’d betray you.

Hurt, holding back tears, you suddenly don’t want to go anymore. You want to stay right where you are, hidden in the grass and hugging yourself. More than that, you want to go back to Snowdin, but Papyrus is there. He’s working for Undyne now. You won’t be safe. You want to go back to Mom, but the door is locked and you’d have to go through Snowdin. Sans might help you, though. He had that shortcut to Grillby’s, maybe he has one to the Ruins?

No. He’d pick his brother over you any day. You have nowhere to go but forward, so forward you’ll go. The grass rustles as you walk and—what’s that? You look up at the sound and oh god, oh god, it’s Undyne, she never left, you thought she left!

She moves towards the ledge and pulls out a spear from…somewhere…and oh god, you’re going to die here—

But she puts the spear away.

And she leaves.

And you’re stuck there in the tall, tall grass and you’re cold and wet and terrified and you sob.

You sob so loud you don’t even hear the grass rustling when someone approaches you. You only hear them talk.

“Yo...did you see the way she was staring at you...? That was AWESOME! I'm SOOOO jealous! What did—” M.K. bends their head around to look at your face. “Yo, are you crying? What’s wrong?”

You wipe at your face with your sleeves. You don’t even have the energy to sign a response. You just turn your head upwards to look at the ledge Undyne had been standing on.

“Are you…scared? Did you think she was really going to hurt you?” Miserably, you nod. “Yo, you must not be from around here! Undyne wouldn’t hurt you! She just hurts bad guys, like humans!”

That certainly didn’t make you feel any better, but you force out a little smile for their sake.

“Yeah, that’s it! C'mon! Let's go watch her beat up some bad guys!”

Off they run (and fall on their face, but they get back up alright) and finally you move. Out of the grass, you turn around to look up at the shadowed ledge. A feeling of dread hangs over you.

You are filled with discomfort.

Continue?

Yes        No