Chapter Text
If there was one thing Napstablook was used to, more than even the usual monotony of being Underground, it was the feeling of loneliness.
It had started with the gradual exodus of the Blook family. Some of them left to become training dummies- a tradition older than the Barrier, though back then it was just to get used to the feeling of being corporeal and controlling that sort of body, with very few ever choosing it as their permanent shape. Some simply decided to haunt elsewhere. A few found things they thought they’d like to be in the trash dump. And Mettaton… was Mettaton. Enough said.
Napstablook had, of course, attempted to keep going. And with the snail farm being a semi-productive business, there wasn’t any need to worry about the money running out. But being naturally shy and self-deprecating made it difficult to interact with others, and the wide caverns meant plenty of contact. Which left the ghost with insecurities that kept reinforcing themselves, and sometimes the only solution was to hide.
Finding the Ruins had been a happy accident. Well, so much as phasing through a wall in a panic could be considered accidental, anyway. It was a nice place, there were a few family members there, and nobody cared about someone randomly showing up to sleep in the middle of a tight corridor- or, at least, pretend to.
Toriel had caught on a few times when she went to visit Prince Chara’s grave, but she never said anything about it, and Blooky always made sure to gather up a bucket of snails as an apology for the inconvenience, so it all worked out with minimal fuss.
It would be a long time before anyone else saw through their act- or, at least, acknowledged it. A pair of humans wearing roses, the male’s a deep blue like the soul of the last human to fall, and the female’s a stunning crimson to match her eyes, the exact shade of which the ghost had only seen once before, when they were very young and the royal family had come over to Waterfall to watch the first snail races.
A comparison made all the more obvious by the girl’s closed, guarded expression. She was the one to see them first, at least as far as they could tell, tugging on her friend’s hand and directing his attention to them. He was somewhat more apprehensive, following the girl’s lead despite their great difference in age.
The girl’s name was Ib. The young man was called Garry. The two were trying to get to Toriel’s house, which meant that Napstablook was in the way.
“oh... sorry… just not feeling up to it right now…” They muttered, unsure as to what to do.
In this situation, the majority of the Underground would probably attack the duo, if they were recognized as human in the first place- nobody under the age of eleven had ever even met one, and the poor girl had barely made it to Waterfall before slipping on a rock and breaking her neck, with the one who fell before being twenty-five years prior to that. Some would try to get the two to safety. Mettaton would be himself.
Napstablook, though… they’d never put much thought into it. But that was fine, because Ib seemed perfectly nice behind the guarded expression, and Garry was the sort to laugh at the Dapper Blook trick, so it all turned out okay in the end, and they parted on good terms.
Huh. For a few minutes there… they hadn’t felt so lonely anymore.
Ib was pretty sure that a normal girl, upon finding a ribbon laying in the dirt that was so faded she could no longer tell if it was originally blue or purple, wouldn’t immediately pick it up. Of course, normality hadn’t been a thing that applied to her since an accidental activation of her powers allowed her to prevent what she liked to call The Great Cafeteria Food Fight of First Grade from occurring, but when the alternative was having a carton of strawberry milk dumped over her head, she’d take what she could get.
Of course, Mary had appeared five minutes later with- wait, no, that was a dream. At no point had an insane painting girl shown up and thrown a bowl of hot soup in the other local bully’s face, as funny as that would have been. And Ib really needed to sort out her childhood before the age of nine at some point.
Still, figuring out where her powers and various traumas had messed up her memories could come later. Right then, she was twisting an incredibly old piece of fabric between her fingers. “Hey, Chara? How long do you think this has been here?”
“Well, I last saw one just like it worn by this girl who passed through… oh, sixty, seventy years back? Something like that.” The phantom shrugged, glancing upwards. “Why do you ask?”
“I mean, that means nobody wants it anymore, right?” She checked, tugging on the ends. Despite its age, it was surprisingly sturdy. Maybe she’d keep it for a bit, as a good luck charm.
The second time Napstablook met Ib was a little over an hour after the first, when she leapt down from a hole in the ceiling. Her hair was now done in a ponytail, for some reason.
“You know, I may be a little too used to falling like this…” The girl mused, before noticing them. “Oh, it’s you. How are you?” She was less open than she had been before, and Blooky wondered if they had did something wrong, but answered anyway.
“i’ve fallen down here… go on without me…”
“Um… you’re a ghost. And you were floating earlier,” Ib pointed out. Napstablook blinked, wondering how they could possibly have forgotten that.
“oh... that’s right… sorry for wasting your time…” They decided to head back to Waterfall for the time being. Right then, the Ruins were far too exciting for their tastes.
At the heart of the Ruins lived a very old Boss Monster. Well, chronologically old, at least. Not that she ever put much thought to it, anymore. Most of the time.
This was one of those times that she did. Fire magic was easy for her to control, and simply ordering it to stay at a certain temperature while the pie baked was the first thing any aspiring cook in the Underground needed to learn.
Now, leaving the house was still a bad idea, but it did leave her with time to reminisce, with photo albums pulled off the shelves and memories of the ones who had gone before. Chara, Asriel, Ann, Tyler, Austin, Jane, Sam, and Gabby. And, perhaps, Ib and Garry would be added to that list.
No. They wouldn’t be. Not if she had anything to say about it.
This time, she’d make a stand.