10-14-2017, 10:08 AM
When Undyne came to, the first thing she felt was that she was floating in darkness. It was warm around her... was she dead? Was this what it felt like to be dead? She tried to reach out for... something, but her arms were too heavy. She tried to call out, but her mouth refused to open. She tried to formulate a thought but her mind felt like it was swimming through goo...
... swimming? Yes, she felt like she was swimming. She could feel the minuscule shifts of a liquid current against her skin, brushing over her scales. She could feel the temperatures... her left side felt a bit colder than her right side, about 1/23rd of a degree. She felt the water rush through her gills as her lungs filled with air and released it again, pumping oxygen into her bloodstream. She felt all that with such immense precision that she began to feel dizzy.
With each breath, with each heartbeat, with each passing second the sensitivity of her body returned to more tolerable levels. Her senses, sharper than the edge of Gokaru's "Ultimate Slayer: Atom-Cutting Blade" katana, dulled down until they were at an everyday level. Her dizziness receded and she grasped clear thoughts again. Then she began to open her eyes.
Blurred lights flooded her vision and she reflexively brought down her eyelids again. She tried a second time, but more careful and slowly. There were lights above, shining down on her... was that the sun or just a lightbulb? No matter, she couldn't bear looking at it directly. With far more effort than she thought it would require she began to move her arms next. The sluggish movements, she soon realized, were not only due to her waking up from... what? A near-death coma? but also from the liquid around her. But moving her arms to cover her face also caused her to shift in the water, turning her whole body sideways and thus away from the source of light. Without that shining directly into her face she could get used to the lighting at her own pace.
Next was regaining control of the rest of her body... it felt like she was putting on a suit that she needed to fill out before she could control it. Her arms, legs, neck and many other muscles, big and small, one by one she got them working. Coordinating the movements was harder yet, but when she did her head broke through the surface of the water and her gills lost contact with the water. She shifted to above-water respiration, and looked around.
What first came to her mind was that this place looked familiar. It was the bathhouse, or rather the Healing Center, of Pokute Palace. The statue of Guu that she had meditated under on her last visit here was a dead giveaway, if nothing else. Next, she realized that she wasn't alone. A certain skeleton was sitting on the side of the pool, his hands in the pockets of his shorts, and his chin resting against his chest, sleeping like a log. And third, she noticed that she was wearing a swimsuit again, like the last time she'd been here, though she couldn't remember having summoned anything. In fact, the last memory she could dig up was... it was the battle against the tree and its minions? Had she been knocked out while defending the Princess? And had Sans brought her here afterwards? The questions rapidly piled up and right now the skeleton was the only one who could give her answers, so she walked through the healing waters to where he was sitting and grabbed him by the shoulders. "Hey, lazybones! Time to wake up!"
Suddenly Sans vanished from between her arms and reappeared a pair of feet off to the side. "did ya really think you’d be abl- oh, undyne. you're up too." the skeleton said, suddenly wide awake, and blinked as he looked at Undyne a few times. She dismissed his sudden teleport as a nightmare of some such and nodded.
"I am." She withdrew and stepped back into the water. "What happened? My memories only go back to me being brought near death by the timber wolf."
"hehe, timber wolf. i'll have to remember that one." He stood up and followed her to sit at the pool's edge. Only then did Undyne noticed that there were two empty ketchup bottles behind where he'd sat. "we kicked the tree's ass. and made it out alive, too."
"What about the Princess?"
"she went to let the elves know and do a few other things, but she's okay. told me to bring you here to heal."
Undyne's eyes narrowed. "You brought me here, then... wait. Sans, was it you who... did you change me?" she asked menacingly. Magic flickered between her fingers, forming into the outline of a spear.
"chill out, i didn't put a fingerbone on you. one of the girls in the palace helped me out. didn't peek either, i promise."
"... okay." She let the magic dissipate again. "Thank you for bringing me here."
"don't mention it." He dug around in his pocket and produced his smartphone. "do you really not remember a thing since the wolf nearly got you dead?"
"I told you I don't, why would I lie?" asked Undyne with a frown.
"'cause you were very lively after that."
"What do you mean?"
Sans turned his phone around. The picture on the display made Undyne's eyes widen.
"Sans... what IS that?"
"that's you, undyne." His tone was dead serious now.
"But... no, this can't be me! The armor looks completely different, and I'm not even... I mean, the eyes of the person in this picture aren't like mine! And she's not wearing an eyepatch either!" She refused to believe it even though something stirred inside her. She somehow knew that this was her.
"you transformed." He took the phone back and slid it in his pocket. "and that form, i've seen it before. you called yourself undyne the undying.”
“... when? When did you see me transform?”
Sans dismissively waved a hand. “back in the underground. a human ‘killed’ you. what’s more important is that you reformed because you had something called determination… it’s something that kept you from death and transformed you.”
Undyne scoffed. “Are you saying that I came back from the dead because of that Determination thing?”
“well, you never actually died. you just were about to.”
“And a ‘human’ nearly killed me? … was it that kid with the big hat and the gun? The one that…” She reached up to where her eyepatch normally was - apparently Sans hadn’t put that back. When Sans didn’t reply she took that as a yes, but dropped the matter. “Does that mean that I don’t have any recollection of any of the times I transformed?”
“i guess so. but maybe there’s ways to keep your consciousness on future transformations, through training.”
That Undyne hadn’t considered. But Sans was making sense. “I suppose so”, she replied eventually.
“i thought i’d get you something for when you wake back up from your beauty sleep by the way. you’re bound to be hungry after all that”, Sans then said, now back in his not-so-serious tone. He pulled up a plastic bag that Undyne hadn’t paid attention to before and produced a pair of fried fish sandwiches from it. He patted the ground next to himself to invite her to have a seat.
“Oh! Thank you, that’s very thoughtful of y-”
PFFFFRRRRRrrrrrt…
“whoops, watch out. sometimes weirdos like to put out whoopee cushions for people to sit on.”
... swimming? Yes, she felt like she was swimming. She could feel the minuscule shifts of a liquid current against her skin, brushing over her scales. She could feel the temperatures... her left side felt a bit colder than her right side, about 1/23rd of a degree. She felt the water rush through her gills as her lungs filled with air and released it again, pumping oxygen into her bloodstream. She felt all that with such immense precision that she began to feel dizzy.
With each breath, with each heartbeat, with each passing second the sensitivity of her body returned to more tolerable levels. Her senses, sharper than the edge of Gokaru's "Ultimate Slayer: Atom-Cutting Blade" katana, dulled down until they were at an everyday level. Her dizziness receded and she grasped clear thoughts again. Then she began to open her eyes.
Blurred lights flooded her vision and she reflexively brought down her eyelids again. She tried a second time, but more careful and slowly. There were lights above, shining down on her... was that the sun or just a lightbulb? No matter, she couldn't bear looking at it directly. With far more effort than she thought it would require she began to move her arms next. The sluggish movements, she soon realized, were not only due to her waking up from... what? A near-death coma? but also from the liquid around her. But moving her arms to cover her face also caused her to shift in the water, turning her whole body sideways and thus away from the source of light. Without that shining directly into her face she could get used to the lighting at her own pace.
Next was regaining control of the rest of her body... it felt like she was putting on a suit that she needed to fill out before she could control it. Her arms, legs, neck and many other muscles, big and small, one by one she got them working. Coordinating the movements was harder yet, but when she did her head broke through the surface of the water and her gills lost contact with the water. She shifted to above-water respiration, and looked around.
What first came to her mind was that this place looked familiar. It was the bathhouse, or rather the Healing Center, of Pokute Palace. The statue of Guu that she had meditated under on her last visit here was a dead giveaway, if nothing else. Next, she realized that she wasn't alone. A certain skeleton was sitting on the side of the pool, his hands in the pockets of his shorts, and his chin resting against his chest, sleeping like a log. And third, she noticed that she was wearing a swimsuit again, like the last time she'd been here, though she couldn't remember having summoned anything. In fact, the last memory she could dig up was... it was the battle against the tree and its minions? Had she been knocked out while defending the Princess? And had Sans brought her here afterwards? The questions rapidly piled up and right now the skeleton was the only one who could give her answers, so she walked through the healing waters to where he was sitting and grabbed him by the shoulders. "Hey, lazybones! Time to wake up!"
Suddenly Sans vanished from between her arms and reappeared a pair of feet off to the side. "did ya really think you’d be abl- oh, undyne. you're up too." the skeleton said, suddenly wide awake, and blinked as he looked at Undyne a few times. She dismissed his sudden teleport as a nightmare of some such and nodded.
"I am." She withdrew and stepped back into the water. "What happened? My memories only go back to me being brought near death by the timber wolf."
"hehe, timber wolf. i'll have to remember that one." He stood up and followed her to sit at the pool's edge. Only then did Undyne noticed that there were two empty ketchup bottles behind where he'd sat. "we kicked the tree's ass. and made it out alive, too."
"What about the Princess?"
"she went to let the elves know and do a few other things, but she's okay. told me to bring you here to heal."
Undyne's eyes narrowed. "You brought me here, then... wait. Sans, was it you who... did you change me?" she asked menacingly. Magic flickered between her fingers, forming into the outline of a spear.
"chill out, i didn't put a fingerbone on you. one of the girls in the palace helped me out. didn't peek either, i promise."
"... okay." She let the magic dissipate again. "Thank you for bringing me here."
"don't mention it." He dug around in his pocket and produced his smartphone. "do you really not remember a thing since the wolf nearly got you dead?"
"I told you I don't, why would I lie?" asked Undyne with a frown.
"'cause you were very lively after that."
"What do you mean?"
Sans turned his phone around. The picture on the display made Undyne's eyes widen.
"Sans... what IS that?"
"that's you, undyne." His tone was dead serious now.
"But... no, this can't be me! The armor looks completely different, and I'm not even... I mean, the eyes of the person in this picture aren't like mine! And she's not wearing an eyepatch either!" She refused to believe it even though something stirred inside her. She somehow knew that this was her.
"you transformed." He took the phone back and slid it in his pocket. "and that form, i've seen it before. you called yourself undyne the undying.”
“... when? When did you see me transform?”
Sans dismissively waved a hand. “back in the underground. a human ‘killed’ you. what’s more important is that you reformed because you had something called determination… it’s something that kept you from death and transformed you.”
Undyne scoffed. “Are you saying that I came back from the dead because of that Determination thing?”
“well, you never actually died. you just were about to.”
“And a ‘human’ nearly killed me? … was it that kid with the big hat and the gun? The one that…” She reached up to where her eyepatch normally was - apparently Sans hadn’t put that back. When Sans didn’t reply she took that as a yes, but dropped the matter. “Does that mean that I don’t have any recollection of any of the times I transformed?”
“i guess so. but maybe there’s ways to keep your consciousness on future transformations, through training.”
That Undyne hadn’t considered. But Sans was making sense. “I suppose so”, she replied eventually.
“i thought i’d get you something for when you wake back up from your beauty sleep by the way. you’re bound to be hungry after all that”, Sans then said, now back in his not-so-serious tone. He pulled up a plastic bag that Undyne hadn’t paid attention to before and produced a pair of fried fish sandwiches from it. He patted the ground next to himself to invite her to have a seat.
“Oh! Thank you, that’s very thoughtful of y-”
PFFFFRRRRRrrrrrt…
“whoops, watch out. sometimes weirdos like to put out whoopee cushions for people to sit on.”
"(Note to self: insert quote & picture once I find stuff)"
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