Electroshock Therapy

The two children arrived at a sentry station. There was a bell on it, but no one seemed to be inside.

Frisk let out a breath and continued forward...

"Did something move? Was it my imagination? I can only see things that are moving..." Doggo poked his head out of the station. "If something really is moving, like... a human... I'll make sure they never move again!"

With that, Doggo thrust the blue sword in his hand at Frisk.

[Doggo]

[Attack 13][Defense 7]

[Easily excited by movement. Hobbies include: squirrels.]

Frisk turned sideways to dodge, but Doggo swung back and slashed her across the back.

HP -4

"Don't move! As long as you stay still, you won't get hurt!" Linde shouted.

Hearing that, Frisk immediately stood still. As another thrust came toward her, a bead of sweat trickled down her forehead...

The sword passed straight through her body without doing any damage.

Now!

Linde rushed forward and expertly stroked Doggo's back, running his hands back and forth.

"Huh?" Frisk stared, dumbfounded.

Doggo started barking as though something had set him off.

Doggo slipped back into his sentry station. "Just now... something was petting me... something that wasn't... moving. No, I need a dog biscuit to calm my nerves."

Despite his words, the excited flush on his face hadn't faded. Sure enough, dogs still loved being petted.

Once Doggo had retreated into the station, Linde cast Heal on Frisk. "All right, let's go."

The two continued on. Sans was waiting for them not far away. "hey, there's something important you two need to remember. my brother has a [special attack]. when you see a [blue attack], just stay still and you won't get hurt. need me to teach you a way to remember that?"

"No, we're fine remembering it like this." Linde shook his head.

Sans's stop-sign mnemonic had really done a number on him in his previous life. He'd nearly run red lights several times because he'd come to associate blue with stop signs...

"Oh, right, Frisk. We still haven't called Mom to let her know we're safe." Linde suddenly remembered.

Frisk took out her phone and called Toriel.

[Hello? Children, are you all right?]

"We're fine. We're with Sans right now," Frisk answered.

Always happy to stir things up for his own amusement, Linde said from beside her, "Sans, our mom wants to have a word with you!"

With that, Linde had Frisk hand the phone to Sans.

[Hello, Sans. I wanted to thank you for looking after my two children.]

Sans froze at the voice on the phone, then smiled. "of course, old lady."

[Oh! It's you! How wonderful! So your name is Sans! If they're with you, I can rest easy.]

"honestly, i've got a bone to pick with you staying in the Ruins. you should come out and protect your two kids yourself."

[Hahaha, Sans, you're right. I will come out of the Ruins, but not just yet!]

"Honestly, I bet Dad would feel pretty awful about this," Frisk said to Linde as she watched the pair, who had been chatting for an hour.

"Huh? How do you know we have a dad?" Linde looked at Frisk in surprise.

"There are three rooms in [Home]. The room we shared was a small children's room, and the toys in it clearly weren't prepared for us. That means Mom probably had children," Frisk reasoned. "Which means we have a dad."

"But what if they're divorced?" Linde asked with interest. He wanted to see just how good Frisk's logical reasoning was.

"No, they aren't divorced. Quite a few monsters in the City of the Ruins called her 'Mrs. Dream' behind her back. Sometimes she heard them, but she never corrected them. That means she still accepts that identity deep down.

"You know the king's name is Asgore Dream, right?

"My guess is that some kind of conflict broke out between them, and Mom left Dad in the end.

"Also, the third room in [Home] had a lot of junk piled up in it. I found an elegant, luxurious robe in there. It was obviously Mom's, but she'd discarded it like that... which means the conflict ran deep.

"From how angry Mom was at the king when she told us about their history, we can probably infer that the conflict was about humans."

Listening to Frisk lay out such a long chain of deductions, all of them correct, Linde was left staring in shock. "You... you're impressive..."

He had to admit defeat. Why didn't I figure all that out when I played the game... Wait! I couldn't get into the City of the Ruins when I played! That's not my fault!

Looking at Sans, who showed absolutely no intention of ending the call, Linde pointed at a patch of frozen ground nearby and held out a hand to Frisk. "Oh, my lovely lady! Might I invite you to dance with me on the ice?"

"Um... could you talk normally...?" Frisk took his outstretched hand. "Fine."

Wait, sis! Why did you actually agree? I thought you were going to hit me! Linde suddenly felt strangely disappointed...

Wait! Why am I feeling this way? Have I awakened some weird fetish?

Linde hurriedly shook the jumble of thoughts out of his head, took both of Frisk's hands, and stepped onto the frozen ground.

Frisk lowered her head. "Linde... actually... I don't know how to ballroom dance."

"That's okay. Neither do I." Linde nodded.

"What?!--"

To absolutely no one's surprise, they collided, fell over, and ended up covered in snow again.

"I honestly can't with you. Why invite me to dance if you don't know how...?" Frisk complained helplessly.

She still didn't hit me. Sigh... Linde felt a little disappointed.

Another half hour passed. When Linde returned with a piece of the snowman, he discovered that Sans was still on the phone!

"uh-oh, the phone's out of battery. let's leave it there for now. see you." Sans ended the call and returned the phone to Frisk. "don't worry, kid. there's still plenty of battery left. i just thought talking to someone for so long was getting a little tiring... besides, you two should get moving. if you don't, my brother's going to get impatient."

So you still remember you have a little brother, Linde silently snarked.

They walked a little farther and found an open stretch of ground without any snow on it. The skeleton brothers were waiting on the other side.

Frisk was amazed that Sans had somehow slipped ahead of them again without her noticing.

"You're so lazy!! You were napping all night!!" Papyrus accused.

Sans's eyes crinkled with amusement. "i think that's called... sleeping."

"Excuses, more excuses!" Just then, Papyrus spotted the two children. "Oh-ho, the humans are here! To stop you from proceeding, my brother and I have created some puzzles! I think this puzzle will leave you... trembling!!! Before you stands an invisible... electric maze!!! When you touch the walls of the maze, this orb will deliver a powerful electric shock!"

Papyrus raised the little blue orb in his hand. "Sounds fun, right? Because! I don't think you'll be having much fun after this. All right, you may begin!"

Just then, Sans suddenly stepped on a "wall" of the electric maze.

Bzzzz- Electricity discharged from the orb in Papyrus's hand, making him shudder.

"Hmm, looks like the current isn't that strong." Linde rubbed his chin as a wicked idea began taking shape in his mind.

"Sans!!! What are you up to!!?!" Papyrus demanded angrily.

"i think the human needs to hold the orb," Sans answered with a smile.

"Oh, all right." Papyrus walked through the maze, leaving footprints that revealed the correct route. Frisk's mouth twitched at the sight.

"I'll go first." Frisk took the orb and followed Papyrus's footprints.

She made it through the maze without trouble, but just as she was about to hand the orb back to Papyrus, Linde mischievously stuck out a foot.

Bzzzz.

"Eeeee-oooo-ee!" Frisk wailed and hurriedly threw the orb away.

She gritted her teeth. "You're beyond saving! Prepare to die!"

Linde followed the route over with a wicked grin. "Didn't see that coming, did you? I'm not holding the orb! You can't shock me..."

But before Linde could react, Frisk shoved the orb into his arms, then began furiously stomping around inside the maze.

Bzzzz.

"Ueeeeeeee!--"

Bzzzz.

"Aaaaah, I-I-I was w-w-wrong..."

Bzzzz.

"Eee-oooo-ee-aaaaaaaah-"

Linde's happy cries rose from the snowy ground every so often, echoing through the forest...