Chapter Text
Dipper Pines groaned in pain as consciousness began to return to his slightly concussed mind. Slowly he flipped over from his aching stomach to his less aching back and looked up. Above he could see the ceiling of the cavern and the hole he and Mab…
“Mable!” Dipper shouted as his memory finally kicked in. As quickly as his bruised bones and muscles would let him Dipper got up and frantically began to search the cavern, or rather cave.
He found that he had fallen onto a bed of golden flowers, buttercups? Somehow they must have broken his fall because a fall from that height should have broken half the bones in his body at least. He could only hope Mable was as lucky as him.
Fortunately the cave was small and didn’t take long to find his sister in the thick bed of flowers.
Though still unconscious as Dipper examined her Mable didn’t seem any worse of then him. In fact she seemed to have fared better, though there was a nasty bruise on her head that worried him.
“Mable, Mable come on wake up, if you have a concussed you can’t sleep!” He said to the young girl and after some prodding she stirred and began to wake.
“Dipper?” She mumbled as she sat up and rubbed her head, only to hiss in pain as she pressed on the ugly purple bruise on head. “What happened?” She groaned her question.
“Well, we were walking through the woods looking for clues on the rumors of people disappearing; the earth suddenly opened beneath us, then gravity did the rest.” Dipper explained, trying to make light of their predicament a bit to ease the mood.
“Gravity did a lot, ow.” Mable said lamely as she stood up with Dipper’s help. She her legs nearly gave out but she managed to stay on her feet and was confident enough she didn’t need to lean on her brother for support.
So with both of them now vertical, the twins looked up at the hole the fell through. It was wide with the odd root dangling around it; the foliage must have hid it from their view or held a thin layer of dirt together that couldn’t handle their weight. But that wasn’t important, what was important was that it was four storied above them and there was no way to climb the walls to reach it.
“Do you think your grappling hook could reach the hole?” Dipper asked as he tried to judge the exact distance it was.
“Maybe.” Mable took out her grappling hook and shot it at the hole, but just as it looked like it was going to clear the ceiling it bounded off of nothing and the air where it hit rippled.
“What!?” They both cried out with confusion.
“Yeah, that’s not gonna work!” A cheerful voice said behind them with a good natured laugh.
The Mystery Twins quickly turned around, startled by the voice, but they didn’t see anything. At their furtherly confused expressions the voice piped in again.
“Down here!”
They looked down and they saw another flower…but this one had a face. A face that looked like it belonged an on 50s silent cartoon character. It waved at them with a friendly smile with one of its leaves.
“Howdy! I’m Flowey, Flowey the Flow-”
“AHHH!!! Sin against nature!” Mable screamed hysterically as she hid behind Dipper, peaking over his shoulder to watch the little plant cautiously.
Flowey gave the girl and the wide-eyes boy a worried smile, his pedals wilting a bit sympathetically. “Golly, I didn’t mean to scare you! I just wanted to help, you two look awful lost.”
Dipper could only stare at the thing with skepticism. “There is a cartoon flower talking to me asking if we need help. Yup, I the fall killed us.”
The flower let out a giggle that was almost too sweet to the ears, and that was enough to win over Mable who crept over the Dipper’s side and lowered herself closer to Flowey’s level. “Hehehehe, no you’re not dead. You fell into the Underground!” Seeing that they were still confused he decided to continue. “Gosh, I can tell you’re both very confused, guess I’ll just have to show you how things work down here, huh?”
Mable was about to eagerly agree with the little flower and Dipper grabbed her and huddled with her, their backs to the flower that titled his head with a curious frown on his face.
“I don’t like this Mable, there is something off about this “Flowey” that I can’t quite place.” Dipper whispered his concerns.
“Oh come on, bro-bro. Just looks at him, he’s so cute, and how much harm could a little flower do?” She argued looking back to smile at the flower, who returned the smile and waved at her.
“Mmmm…” Dipper hummed unsurely, also looking back. “Mmmm…” He hummed again, looking at Mable. He then clenched his eyes shut and with a groan he relented. “Urgh, fine. We’ll listen to the freakin’ flower.”
Faster than you can say “glitter” Mable dragged Dipper back to the flower. Flowey actually flinched a bit from the suddenness of their approach but quickly recovered. “Alright then, where we go!”
Both children suddenly felt a strange pulling sensation in their chest where their hearts would be and as they simultaneously made to grab at the feeling they saw an intense glow radiate from there.
On Mable’s chest a golden heart appeared, shining brightly as it pulsed with her heartbeat and on Dippers a deep red heart appeared glowing with an inner strength as it too pulsed his heartbeat.
Seeing Dipper’s made the flower hesitate for a moment. For that moment Dipper was sure he saw recognition, a kind of nostalgia in the plants eyes. But the expression was so brief he could be sure.
“See those hearts?” Flowey asked rhetorically, quickly recovering from the brief pause. “Those are your Souls, the very culmination of your beings.”
‘Our souls?’ Dipper thought, this somehow sounding familiar.
“Your souls start out small, weak and frail. But you can make it stronger if you gain a lot of LV.” Flowey explained.
“What’s LV?” Mable asked curiously.
“Sounds like we’re in an RPG.” Dipper commented, trying to be aloof.
“Why LOVE of course!” Flowey said cheerily, giving a wink…was that an anime eye-twinkle? “You want lots of LOVE don’t ya?”
Urgh, this think was just oozing sugary cheer like a busted candy dispenser. And Mable was eating it up like Smile Dip.
Then a number of white floating pellets appeared from him, forming a half-circle over the flower’s head. “Down here we share love through…” He paused looking at the projectiles his smile changed in a subtle way. Mable didn’t notice but Dipper knew something was up. “Little white “Friendliness Pellets”.” They suddenly shot towards the twins at the slow pace. “Catchall you can!”
Mable was about to do just that, but then Dipper tackled her and they missed, flying over the twins heads.
“What the heck!” Mable complained.
“There is something seriously wrong here Mable! You don’t shoot friendship at people!” Dipper exclaimed.
“Heh heh, HEHEHEHEHA!” They heard Flowey laughing turn from endearing to sinister almost instantly. “You know what going on, don’t you?” He ask, his voice reverberating on itself in strange tone shifts and his face stretched into a maniacal toothy grin. “HAHAHAHAHA, Idiots, who can pass up an opportunity like this? In this world it’s Kill or BE Killed!”
Before they could react a ring of bullets surrounded the twins, leaving no room for escape. Flowey’s face shifted into a more sinister smile, one that wouldn’t be out of place on a gargoyle. “DIE.” He seemed to order before cackling like a maniac and the bullets slowly closed in.
“Dipper?” Mable murmured worriedly, feeling terrible for letting herself ne tricked so easily.
“It’ll be okay, we’ll get out of this.” Dipper tried to reassure his sister, holding her close in an attempt to protect her from the projectiles.
But somebody came.
Suddenly a blast of blue fire struck the murder flower, sending it careening away and dispersing.
Both of the Pines Twins looked around in bewilderment as the blue flames slowly turn orange and died away. Not only that but their souls were still visible on their chests, though not glowing anymore, they almost looked like part of their clothes.
“What a horrible creature, tormenting these poor children.” The most comforting voice either of them ever heard admonished behind them.
They did not expect what they saw when turned around.
Before them was a woman but she wasn’t human. She looked like a humanoid goat. She was covered in snow white fur; she had paws instead of feet instead of hooves, two short horns on her head, long floppy ears, and two short, thick fangs that almost blended into her fur, or maybe that was just how their lips were shaped. She also wore regal looking purple and white robes with a symbol or heraldry on the chest in white.
Slowly the…satyr didn’t sound right…caprataur? She kneeled down to their level and gave them a comforting smile, and despite himself Dipper couldn’t help but let the strange creatures smile affect him. “Greetings little ones, I am Toriel the Caretaker for the Ruins.” She spoke again, in that eerily familiar and all too comforting maternal voice.
“You’re beautiful…” Mable said without thinking.
Toriel face turned to one of surprise and went a little pink before she laughed good-naturedly at the complement. “Oh, I’m flattered but a silly old woman like me is far past her prime.” She waved it off modestly. “I was on my way to tend the gra-flowers…” She corrected herself. “It was a good thing too, I almost too late.”
Dipper was about to say something but was cut off when he sneezed and a chill ran up his spine. He didn’t notice before due to the adrenaline that was rushing through his system but it was incredibly cold down here. Mable too was shivering and he could see her breath as well as her own.
“Oh dear, you two must be freezing!” Toriel gasped in what seemed to be genuine concern, she offered her paw-like hand to them. “Come, my home is not far from here you can warm yourselves by my fireplace.” She said in a strong, motherly tone that seemed to be her default way of speaking.
But after their run in with their last “friend” Dipper was not eager to trust anyone down here again. “How do we know you won’t backstab us? That flower was all friendly too until he tried to kill us.” Dipper questioned suspiciously.
Toriel’s smile dimmed slightly but she never dropped it, and it still held the same maternal concern. “I promise you that I will protect and care for you for as long as you stay within the ruins.” She reassured almost pleadingly, her eyes locking with his and Mable’s.
“Dipper, I think we can trust her.” Mable spoke up, her hand resting on her brother’s shoulder as a sign of reassurance. “Flowey was just a fluke, not everyone down here can be bad.” She concluded, her optimism ever shining through.
He wanted to disagree, he wanted take Mable by the hand and simply run pass the strange goat woman who, despite him knowing with complete certainty he never met before, felt so damned familiar! But that same feeling also told him that he can trust Toriel and that everything she’d do for them would be in their best interest.
“Dipper, please trust me.” Mable pleaded moving her hand from his shoulde to squeeze her brother’s hand. “I’m sure Toriel will help us.”
“I promise to do my best for you.” Toriel added.
Finally Dipper cracked, and he accepted Toriel’s offer allowing her to take his hand while he held Mable’s. Together they all stood up and began the journey to Toriel’s home and as they walked she looked down the twins and gave them that motherly smile again, and even though he still wasn’t completely sure he should trust her Dipper couldn’t help but return it with his own small smile, Mable too returning it with a big toothy grin.