“W-what happened?” Lily slowly opened her eyes as she regained consciousness and looked up, wondering where she was. Sunlight streamed down through the giant hole in the ceiling, illuminating the rest of the vast underground expanse that she was now in. Lily looked to the left and right and saw that a mud pit had cushioned her fall, and what surrounded them was a lush jungle, herbs of all kinds, colors and sizes were growing all around them as she just started to smell the extreme dampness that hung heavy in the air. Lily tried to move out of the mud to explore, but it held them back. Looking down revealed to them that she was not only stuck in the mud, but she was sinking deeper into it! Lily flailed frantically as she looked for something that could get them out, and brushed up against a stick that was floating next to them. she quickly grabbed the stick, lunged to the solid ground to the left, then drove the stick deep into it with both hands. After the stick was secure, Lily pulled as hard as she could, forcing themselves closer to the stick and a few inches out of the mud. Lily wasn’t free yet however, and it took them three more pulls until she was finally able to extricate themselves from the muck. “Yes!” Lily said, taking a moment to celebrate her survival as she plopped down onto the dirt to take a small break and catch her breath. After a moment, Lily stood up, shook as much of the mud as she could off of her shoes and shirt, took a deep breath, then made her way into the unknown.
The omnipresent wetness, the towering willow trees in every direction, and feeling of being alone but not alone at the same time, all of those coupled together to create a serene and wondrous atmosphere inside Lily while she was wandering through the jungle that stretched throughout this underground environment. A hand reached from behind Lily and waved in front of her face, which caused them to stop. The hand was peculiar in that it was transparent, skeletal, and had a gaping hole in its palm. Lily wondered what kind of creature this hand could belong to as she turned around to face them. The creature that floated before them was a tall ghostly figure wearing a black cloak, her face looked like a smiling skeleton with no teeth, and the crack that went from the top of her skull to her left eye put a very slight damper on the friendly atmosphere that she was trying to convey. The ghostlike skeleton made several gestures with her hands which Lily recognized as sign language, and luckily for them, Lily was fluent in it for various and wildly different reasons. “Can you understand me?” The ghost signed.
“Yes I can.” Lily signed back.
“Finally, I can converse with someone. My name is Gaster the Ghost, pleased to meet you”
“And my name is Lily, pleased to meet you too.” Lily signed with a small bow.
“Okay, so I haven’t seen you around here at all and I’ve been here for a long time, so that means you must have gotten here very recently. You must feel lost and afraid from the absence of life nearby. However, I can guide you through this. Are you ready?”
Lilly nodded her agreement before Gaster continued signing.
“Down here you need LOVE to get you through all the trials that are thrown at you, and you gain LOVE through EXP, which means expectations. When you gain more expectations, people love you more. Come here and give me a hug so I can share some expectations and love with you right now.”
Lily started to walk towards Gaster, but paused. Was she really about to blindly trust and give a random suspicious looking stranger that appeared out of nowhere in a jungle a hug? When it was phrased like that, Lily started to waver. “Sorry but I’d prefer personal space because this is all super sudden, thanks for the offer though.” she signed sheepishly.
“Hey Lily, it’s just a hug, no bad intentions here.” Gaster signed.
Despite the reassurance from Gaster, Lily still felt uneasy about all of this, so she stayed put.
At this, Gaster snapped. “Are you brainless? Come here and give me a hug!”
This raised a huge red flag for Lily, who started backing up. “I think I can find my way through this jungle on my own. Besides, it’s not like an underground jungle can be that big, it has to retain a lot of moisture and sunlight to be a jungle and stay alive. So goodbye and nice meeting you.”
Lily turned around and started to speedwalk away, but as soon as she looked over her shoulder she saw Gaster was chasing after them.
“You don’t know how long I've waited for a body to inhabit. You will get over here. Now!” Lily didn’t like the sound of that and started to run, but a wall of bones erupted out of the ground in front of her, forcing her to stop. Now Lily was really scared, she turned to face Gaster, who signed “Let me repeat myself: you will get over here, or else things will get very painful for you.”
Lily gulped and gripped the stick they took from the mud pit, wondering what would happen next.
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