Chapter Text
The first thing Noelle thinks when she wakes up is the knowledge she isn’t supposed to be here. It’s a direct feeling, but it causes her some confusion. There’s no context to this thought, just that it is the underlining truth. She’s not supposed to be here.
Retracing what she did before she got knocked out is that she and Berdly were on their way to the Libarby to work on their project, then they see a weird… something… near the area. Something wrong and spooky that it reminded Noelle of old creepypasta, where the protagonists find a glitch in their game and upon interacting with it the spooky stuff starts happening. On seeing it, Berdly started doing his thing where he acts like her knight in shinning armor and adventures forth, when will he realize she only sees him as a friend, but as he got closer- sharp black tendrils suddenly lunged forward at Berdly. It was going to grab him, except- Noelle got there first.
She isn’t sure why she did it. To protect her best friend, the comforting nostalgia of horror, or something entirely different. What matters is that when it collides with her, she blacks out and wakes up with the knowledge it should’ve been Berdly.
Honestly, there’s a bit of relief in her chest at that knowledge.
Noelle then opens her eyes and sees that she’s in a huge cabin. Reminds her of her aunts’ house they occasionally visit. Except instead of smelling like peppermint it smells of sweat. There are other people besides her here. All equally confused and frighten of their new situation.
Noelle climbs to her feet and watches everyone else try to get their bearings like she does. Firstly, she notices how almost everyone in the room are monsters of some kind, with the only exception being two humans. The monsters were strange, as they’re definitely not hometown monsters and are definitely ones she has never seen before. Except-
“Toriel!” Noelle exclaims and runs over to her. She’s the same as she’s always been, except her snow white fur seems largely paler than it’s supposed to be, along with bags under her eyes. Despite this, she still has her goat traits of small horns and long ears. It also seems she was doing a service before coming here, as she’s wearing her choir clothes.
“Noelle?” Toriel asks, “What are you doing here?”
“I was going to ask you the same thing,” Noelle responds.
“Hm, I’m not quite sure. I was busy packing, when suddenly the room froze and… well I woke up here,” she responds.
Packing? Noelle wonders. Are they planning to move? A chill goes down Noelle’s spine at the thought that she might not see Kris ever again if Toriel is moving away.
Toriel seems to notice Noelle’s worry and says, as she kneels down, “Don’t worry. I’m sure whatever this is, we’ll be able to figure it out and everything will go back on track. I’m assuming you appeared here in the same way, did you not?”
“Yes. I was with Berdly and found something weird. I got to close and well… I’m here now,” Noelle replies.
Toriel gives Noelle a confused look, “Who’s Berdly?”
Before Noelle can answer that confusing question, as Toriel should already know who he is, a seal monster approaches the two. Like Toriel she stands on two legs, however that’s where the similarities end. Instead of looking more like a monster seal, she looks more like the animal seal. Her eyes were pitch black with light reflecting off them, with her skin being a blueish gray with dark spots on the top of her head. She is also wearing a yellow dress with a white zipper that has yellow buttons on it. Her seal tail pokes out from underneath the dress. Curiously, she’s shorter than Noelle with her head barely reaching the bottom of Noelle’s head.
In all honestly, the seal reminds Noelle of the npcs in Animal Crossing.
“Do you know where we are?” the seal asks.
“I’m not entirely sure,” Toriel answers, “We were minding our own business and then suddenly woke up here,”
“Same for me and I wasn’t even drunk this time,” the seal says.
“Drunk?” Toriel says, but then sighs, “Anyways, who are you?”
The seal pauses for a moment, like she’s thinking of an answer but then says, “Eury.”
“Oh, that’s a nice name,” Toriel says, “I’m Toriel. Caretaker of… well I’m not sure that matters anymore. This is Noelle.”
“Hi,” Noelle responds.
“Hi. Do you have any ideas where we are?” Eury asks.
“No clue,” Noelle responds.
“Hm. Thanks,” Eury says and walks away to talk with some others on if they know where they are. Noelle doubts she’ll find anything.
“We should talk to the others as well,” Toriel says, “Since everyone seems to be confused it’d be best if we introduce ourselves so we’re not strangers.”
“Yeah. I rather be stuck with people I know than people I don’t know,” Noelle says, before she recoils at a rotten smell.
The source appears with some sort of human(?) who’s purple and is more a kin to a zombie. He’s very thin and his neck is long and broken. He has hallowed out eyes with two white pupils. He’s wearing a light purple shirt with a golden badge on it.
“Heyyyy, Goatsy! Want to see what these grippers can do to go past fur?” the purple zombie says showing his hands.
Toriel slaps him in face for that.
“You could have said no!” the zombie says.
“Who are you?” Toriel snaps with a growl.
“Dave Miller,” the zombie says, “Now if you excuse me, I’m going to see if there are other ladies-” before the zombie can finish, a person who is completely covered up in clothes and wearing a red pirate fox mask tackles the zombie.
“YOU!” the masked man shouts and Noelle notice he has the same eyes as Dave. Hallowed out with a small white light shining out of it, “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?”
“YOU CAN’T PROVE ANYTHING!” Dave shouts, as the masked man grabs his throat. It doesn’t seem to do anything to Dave.
“FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!” shouts one of the humans in the background, while everyone watches in horror. The other human and a stick figure type monster, I didn’t know that species exist…, both hide at the sight of it. The shouting human has very messy brown hair that goes down into a mullet, wearing a dirty red jacket. Despite looking malnourished, he has a strong build.
“I ALREADY KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE DONE! NOW TELL ME HOW DO I AND THE REST OF US LEAVE THIS PLACE?!” the masked man hisses.
“Knowing and proving are two different things, Faux. Anyways, I haven’t tried getting out of this place yet. Also, how the Hell am I supposed to trap a bunch of strangers in a place I haven’t even been in. Plus, only one of them is a child. Not my style. NOW GET OFF ME!”
“Do you really think I’d believe that, father?”
“FATHER?!” Dave shouts in a panic, “Oh ####! #### I thought I was infertile! Please don’t tell me if I owe someone child support! I can’t pay, I’m a ####ing zambie!”
This causes the masked man to back off, “What? What do you mean by that? You had three children.”
“####!” Dave says, “This is worse than I thought!”
The masked man just stares at him in confusion, before saying, “Who are you?”
“Dave Miller,” Dave says, “God, just wait a second. I’ll call up Sportsy to pay it.”
The masked man gives him a confused look, “Sportsy?”
“Yeah, my partner in crime! Old Sport!” Dave says, “He can pay it!”
“No, I’m not asking for money. You don’t have to pay child support cause you were with me for most of my childhood,”
“I was???” Dave says now confused, “Are you sure it wasn’t another purple zambie who was your father? Cause I’m not ####ing British. So, I don’t know how the #### you got that accent.”
“No. I know you. Something is wrong,” the masked man starts mumbling, “(Dave Miller? I know he used it as a fake name once… and he looks very much like him, so it has to be him… unless)” he then looks at Dave and asks, “Is your real name William?”
Dave then straightens up, before saying angrily, “Who told you?!”
“Because William Afton is my father’s name!”
“I’m not your father! I don’t even know who you are!”
“I am Micheal Afton and this becoming confusing, because you have to be him.”
“I’m AMERICAN! Actually, now that I think about it, you’re probably a robot the company made to distract me.”
“Nope, I’m not a robot,” Micheal says, “I’m a zombie like you or zambie as you call it.”
“Don’t make fun of my accent, Faux,” Dave says.
“Children please,” Toriel suddenly says and separates the two, “We have more important matters to discuss. Like how we got here and who each are. I’ll go first. I’m Toriel, and you are?”
“…Micheal Afton,” Micheal says.
Dave responds, “Can’t believe I’m being parented by a ####ing furry!”
“What is a furry?” Toriel asks.
If Noelle was drinking something she would spit it out. Same goes for mostly everyone else.
“Dave,” Micheal responds. The stick figure looks up from his hiding spot.
“Hey! I wore that suit as a job! Not because I like it!” Dave says.
“You made it,”
“Henry did that!” Dave says.
“Children,” Toriel snaps.
“sorry ma’am,” both say at the exact same time.
“Ehem, anyways. How about you introduce yourself,” Toriel asks looking at Noelle.
“Hi, I’m Noelle Holiday.”
“You’re name is Christmas Holiday?!” both Dave and the human, who was shouting fight from earlier, both say at the exact same time.
Noelle feels her face getting warm, “Um… yes.”
“That wasn’t very nice you two. Apologize,”
“I am not/ain’t apologizing for-” the two say before Toriel glares at them and they both quickly apologize.
“*sigh* Anyways, what is your name?” Toriel asks the shouty human.
“Um…” the shouty human says, and like Eury he seems genuinely nervous to give out his name, eventually he settles with, “Drew. Drew Evergreen.”
“HA!” Dave laughs, before once again wilting at Toriel’s glare.
“I’m Eury,” Eury says once again, “But you already know that. Your turn.” She looks over at a white unicorn. She has gorgeous swirly purple hair that looks like it takes hours to step up. She also wears light blue eyeliner which matches her purple eyes. There are three blue diamonds on her flank. Unlike almost everyone else, she stands on four legs. She looks absolutely beautiful.
“Rarity Bell,” the unicorn says, “Fashionista extraordinaire!”
“Heyyyy-” Dave begins.
“Hmpf, I would not like a ruffian like you to flirt with me,” Rarity says.
“Darn,” Dave sighs.
“Um, I’m Andrew,” the other human suddenly says. He has a clef lip and wears a pink shirt that says “PWN” on it. He also has green pants. Looks incredibly scrawny.
Drew sighs in relief, which gives Andrew looks at him confused.
“Ugh, this is super weird,” Andrew says, “Like… actual monsters, zombies, dragons, unicorns, and whatever that guy is,” he points over to the stick figure, “Is this Hell?”
“I hope not,” Dave says, “I couldn’t live without my kebabs.”
“I don’t want it to be either,” the stickfigure says, who’s only defining features are his messy and long white hair and a beaten up black cap that says ‘Security’, “To know after all that, I’m dead… I don’t want to die! Especially back there…”
“Eh, can’t be that bad. I died in a bunny rabbit suit going off!” Dave says.
“Got my insides scooped out, which caused my death,” Micheal then replies. Everyone stares at him. Noelle feels the warmth escape her face at the imagery.
“Jesus, Faux,” Dave responds.
“I guess, it’s my turn. I’m Dave Panpa-” the stickfigure says.
“Hold on! That can’t be your name! I’m the only Dave here!” Dave says, “And I’ll fight you for that right!” Dave holds up his fists, and the stickfigure backs up intimidated.
“Um… actually, if it isn’t too difficult. You can just call me Panpa.”
“What kind of name is that? I’m calling you, Panda,” Dave says.
“Panda? Well, um… sure. I guess it can work,” Panda says.
“To get us back on track, I’m Cricket of the Hivewings,” a yellow dragon with black spots says. She has large bug-like wings, with two black horns on the back of her head, plus two tiny ones on her snout. She wears glasses and has large black spikes that run down her back. Just like Rarity, she stands on four legs.
“Hivewings?” Micheal asks.
“It’s the tribe I’m in. It’s customary for us when introducing to new dragons of different tribe to add that. Though, none of you are dragons,” she then looks over at Drew and Andrew, “I’m not even sure you guys are scaven- humans, since you’re as big as me and speak dragon well.”
“I am a human,” Andrew says, “Until right now, I didn’t know that there was anything else you could be.”
“Was since I last checked,” Drew adds on. Andrew once again looks at him confused.
“And you speak English well too,” Andrew says.
“English?” Cricket asks.
“Hm. Perhaps whatever brought us here made sure we can all understand each other,” Micheal says.
“That would make sense. They probably shrunk me down too, as it be easier than growing two humans.” Cricket says.
“Should’ve shrunk you more down. You still tower over all of us,” Eury says, which is true as Cricket is taller than Toriel.
“You’re just upset your tiny,” Dave says.
“Yeah, so?” Eury snaps back.
“Well, we can figure out this later, this is everyone?” Toriel asks.
Silence.
“Good, our best course of action is to explore. We’ll go into groups of two. I will be with Noelle,” Toriel says.
Everyone follows her lead. Micheal sticks to Dave ‘to make sure he doesn’t cause trouble’, as he words it, Drew and Andrew pair up together as the only humans, as it seems like it is more familiar to them, Eury and Rarity go together, as they begin talking about dresses, and last but not least, Cricket and Panda go together.
Everyone then splits up to explore the cabin and the outside of it. The main cabin is two floors, with the first floor having two large rooms. One with a couch, a grandfather clock that ticks ominously, and a chimney. There’s an empty wooden head mount on the side of the chimney with a golden plaque that reads, “Terrible killer”. Noelle doesn’t know what that means, and she rather not find out.
The other room has a chalk board and a bunch of different tables with seats. There’s also a small kitchen, that is filled with different foods. All labeled for each of them. Noelle then spots one of the foods being labeled “Stanley Pines.” Curious, she looks around and sees that one, Dave’s food is labeled “William Afton” two, Eury’s food is labeled Eurydice, which sounds familiar but can’t place where she’s heard that name before, and lastly there’s no food label for Drew.
Noelle decides to keep this information to herself. If Stanley wants to refer to himself as Drew, then it’s not in her place to judge. She is happy that whoever labeled her food didn’t dead name her, so at least whoever caused this isn’t transphobic.
“Noelle, I’m going upstairs now. Could you please stop looking in the fridge?” Toriel asks.
“Ah, coming!” Noelle says and follows Toriel, while making sure to shut the fridge on the way out.
Upstairs is really barren compared to the downstairs as the room up stairwell barely has anything in it, besides some books. All are written in different languages.
“Hm, interesting,” Toriel picks up a book that is written in old English.
“You can read that?” Noelle asks.
“Yes? Can you not?” Toriel asks confused.
“Um. No. Nobody writes like that anymore?” Noelle responds.
“Hm, curious. I guess it makes sense since the ruins are so isolated from the rest,” Toriel says and puts the book back.
They then walk into the other room, which has two beanbags and a tv. It also has two dance-dance revolution machines right next to it. A large fence blocks off anyone from jumping down into the bottom floor.
Outside they’re greeted by a campground, with a few cabins nearby and a thick forest surrounding the area. The cabins are large, but not as large as the ones everyone woke up in. Inside there are smaller rooms that contain either a chimney or some beds. There’s enough for everyone, even though there’s going to be roommates. At this moment, Noelle notices Toriel didn’t follow her. She looks back and sees the teacher staring up into the night sky like she hasn’t seen it decades. There’s nothing different about the stars here than when they were back home.
“Um… I didn’t know you are a star lover,” Noelle says walking up to her.
“Oh, how foolish of me. I’m sorry, it’s just… it’s been so long,” Toriel says.
“Honestly, I’m glad they’re not black,” Eury interrupts as she continues searching the grounds for something.
“Black?” Toriel and Rarity both say.
“Like the ones in Carcosa?” Noelle asks. Eury blinks at her.
“You know about that place?” Eury asks.
“Yeah. I read The King in Yellow a while ago. It was pretty nice, though not as scary as I was hoping for it to be,” Noelle says.
Eury jumps up like she’s alarmed, “YOU READ THE PLAY?!”
Noelle jumps back, “Um, no. I couldn’t, because it doesn’t exist? I just read the book where it uses it as a center piece for most the stuff that happens in it.”
“‘Doesn’t exist?’” Eury repeats dumbfounded, “No, that can’t be right. It’s an infamous play that drives people mad. What do you mean it doesn’t exist?”
“It’s like The Ring. The tape the characters watch doesn’t exist in the real world, but the movie that centers around it, does,” Noelle says.
“But, it’s real. I’ve even been-” Eury says grabbing her head in confusion.
“Darling, what are you talking about? I’ve not heard of either the play nor the book,” Rarity says.
“Me neither,” Toriel says, “But I blame the underground and my own isolation for that.”
“Underground?” Noelle asks.
Toriel blinks like Noelle said something strange. “Yes, the underground. Monster kind has been trapped there for hundreds of years. It even is designed to slow aging so to prolong our suffering. Actually, you shouldn’t be this tall. You are much younger than Asriel and he… he would’ve been around 9 years old at this point, but you’re around 15, are you not?”
“Would’ve been nine??” Noelle asks, “But he’s in college.”
Toriel’s eyes widen, “College?”
“I think I know what’s going on,” Eury suddenly says, getting everyone to look at her, “We’re all from different worlds.”
“Different worlds?” Noelle asks.
Eury nods, “I’ve never seen a reindeer or a goat as tall as you two before, or a unicorn for that matter. I also know The King in Yellow is a play and not a book about the play. Plus, we all saw Dave and Micheal arguing about being related, Cricket saying she should’ve been speaking in a different language, Panda is Panda, and you two seem to have different histories. The only explanation I can come up with is that we all come from different worlds. Vastly different the others at that.”
“I can agree with that,” Rarity says, “A friend of mine, Twilight, she has a portal that goes into another world where we’re all humans in high school. Us being transported into another world is likely.”
“It does line up with everything,” Toriel says, “We should bring it up to the others. It would clear up miscommunications. So, Noelle, I’m assuming monsters weren’t banished underground in your world?”
“What? No! Of course not!” Noelle says, “We might not fully get along with humans, but it never led to them locking us up… Is that what happened to you?”
“I’m afraid so, but I’m glad that you didn’t have to grow up without the sun and stars,” Toriel says.
“That sounds dreadful!” Rarity says. Noelle agrees. A world where you only see the dark of a cavern celling instead of clouds and stars sounds awful. No wonder this Toriel’s fur is pale, she’s been without sunlight for a long time.
“It was, but fortunately, the barrier that trapped us down there has been broken. Admittedly, not in an ethical way,” there seems to be a story and half with how Toriel grows with that sentence, before continuing back to her usual tone, “but it has been broken. We’re free now and the sky has never been more wonderful.”
“As much as I’m enjoying the conversation, we still need to search around. If we want to get out of here, we’re going to need to get a feel of the area as soon as possible,” Eury says.
“I suppose you’re right. See you later,” Toriel says. We then split off.
Continuing our look around, we find a path that leads to a boarded up fence. Getting close to it, they both here a low growl. They decide to stay away from the area for now. The trees are thick enough so that at a certain point, one can’t go past it. It’s like a wall. There’s bulletin board with a Halloween shop poster on the back of it. The front is empty except for a text above that says, “Patch notes”. There’s also a huge lake with a dock on it. In the distance there’s an island.
“I can swim to it,” Noelle suddenly says.
“You can?” Toriel responds.
“Yeah, mom keeps signing me up for sports. I’m sure I can get there in no time,” Noelle says but before she dives, Toriel grabs her by the collar.
“I’m afraid this something we should wait to do. It seems rather far and we don’t even know what’s in the water or how deep. We’re here to explore not to plan, let’s save it for later,” Toriel says.
“…Alright,” Noelle says.
The final thing they find is a door to a bunker. Micheal and Dave are standing near it.
“I think I’ve finally realized what you are,” Micheal says.
“And? What’s that?” Dave says.
“A stupid parody of my real father,” Micheal says.
“Ouch, Faux. You really know how to hit them. If that’s the case, you’re a boring and serious version of old sport! Dead inside, and yet no humor. Sportsy once did coke in the bathroom of a Freddy Fazbender and got taken to the vet to be euthanized.”
Micheal looks at Dave straight in the face, which can only be described as utter dumbfoundment.
“I don’t even think you’ve even HAD alcohol in your system,” Dave continues like he didn’t just say one of the most deranged things ever spoken by anyone.
“Well, you are sort of right,” Toriel interrupts, “About being different.”
“Oh, hey Goatsy. We just found a locked bunker. Think there’s an entire storage unit for animatronics under there?” Dave says.
“That would be creepy,” Noelle says, “But interesting. Maybe it’s a dungeon with chains that drip from the ceiling. With a horrifying creature that attacks you if you enter it.”
“Yeah, that’s the spirit, Gingerbread!”
“Gingerbread????”
“Ehem,” Toriel says, “This very interesting information. Though I would like us all to report back to the cabin. Could you go get the others?”
“Thank God. Faux was boring me to death over here,” Dave says and runs off.
“Hey! He shouldn’t be left alone!” Micheal says.
“He shouldn’t, but it shouldn’t be your sole responsibility,” Toriel says.
“…Yes, it should be,” Micheal says and chases after Dave.
Soon enough, everyone returns back to the cabin. There is small discussion about the area. Eury notes there are no cameras and sets, which no one gets why she would look for that. There’s mention of the blocked off area, where it turns out Drew climbed over the fence and immediately ran back because there was a horrific monst- creature as he corrects, on the other side. Cricket says she tried to fly out, but when she got to a certain point in the air, huge winds came out of nowhere, which slammed her back down to the ground. Narrowly avoiding crushing Panda. The locked bunker is mentioned. No one has attempted to swim across the lake. Finally, Toriel tells everyone Eury’s theory about being from another universe and-
“This can’t be real,” Andrew suddenly says, “Monsters. Dragons. Zombies. Panda.”
“Why do I keep getting singled out?” Panda says.
“And being trapped in a creepy campsite area with a bunch of strangers from a different world! This the plot for a horror game, it can’t be real! This has to be some sort of… awful nightmare. What’s next? Ivan is going to come in and is going to come to kill-”
The clock chimes, which interrupts Andrew.
In flash, Noelle’s vision gets blacked out.
Like a cutscene a new vision arrives, it’s of a man getting to the top of some stairs holding an axe. He wears a red visor and a blue shirt with an Ouija board on it. His face is full of shadow except for one singular white eye, giving him the look of a predator. His skin looks pale.
“This rounds killer is, Ivan!” an unknown voice says, who Noelle has sneaking suspicion thinks it’s funny.
Then Noelle comes to her senses and is somewhere else.