The moment the door had swung open and Red's presence was indeed let known, the young heroine was met with the fish monster's broad, signature grin. Speckles of light reflected off of those sharp fangs in an ironically welcoming way before they parted slightly to make way for a soft chuckle at Red's affirmation.

Without hesitation, Undyne leaned forward and brought Red into a robust one-armed hug; while it was a typically firm motion from the aquatic warrior, it shouldn't have caused Red any harm, "Hey, same here." she replied softly - well,  'softly' according to Undyne's standards anyway.

After an appropriate time had passed, Undyne broke away from the embrace and added, "You doing much today? Maybe we could hang out for a bit?"

Obviously it's perfectly fine to like both since they have pros and cons.

e.g.
Smaller threads are easier to keep track of and less to respond to at once.
Larger threads have a lot of exciting things going on with more opportunities for characters to meet and interact with other characters a lot quicker.


If you have anything you'd like to add on your personal preferences on RPs feel free to comment below or DM a Mod/Admin about it! 😄

The fish monster nodded a couple of times at his reaction before pointing out with a shrug and a mild frown, “Keeping an air of ambiguity doesn’t exactly help, but I suppose you have your reasons.”

She then scratched the back of her head with low grunt of frustration, “That is such bullshit for it to keep happening like that! And since this has apparently happened many times over then explaining it to just about anyone would be exhausting and a waste of time to do something about it.” the Captain continued, this time saying her thoughts aloud more so than talking to the mysterious figure for now. The gears started turning as she thought over what had been just said again and tapped a finger to her chin contemplatively. Everything else she felt confused and guilty about seemed trivial now that she was looking and thinking about the bigger future.

Her goal to protect Monsterkind.

What good was she if her own mind and memories were turned against her, “I want to start setting up precautions in case things start over again so at the very least I am aware or reminded of this possibility somehow because I can’t do my job effectively if I don’t even know what’s going on. I have a feeling I might not be able to do whatever it is you and Sans do to keep track of things, but I might just start talking to him or Alphys about those headbands from the mines. Like some sort of emergency-on-the-spot-solution in case it happens again sort of thing.”
It seemed that Undyne begged to differ about having such knowledge, the stubborn fish wasn’t going to just accept things as they are forever just yet!

Undyne was snapped out of her train of thought when asked the questions regarding their king, “If I’m honest it’s likely one of those situations where I’ll cross the bridge when I get there sort of situations. Given what’s happened I think he would be hard-pressed to stick to his original plan now and he seemed willing to listen to more options this time at least. If I feel or someone has expressed their concerns about flaws I will talk to him about it and see what happens. He isn’t ruthless or unkind, I still have faith in him. I’m just –” she then twirled her wrist a few times as she was collecting her thoughts, “- A little confused right now but I think I can work through it.”

Undyne crossed her arm across her front when the armoured one chuckled and her toothy scowl lessened into a stern yet suspicious stare. Was he really as hostile as she initially thought? Thinking back to the events at the Core he did warn them about the dangers and had helped somewhat in other ways --
'They're still a jackass.' Undyne concluded on her opinion of him. Whelp, that was that.

Her signature spears still floating ans gradually rotating on their axis behind her - above the piano - indicated that she wasn't letting her guard down, but they were still pointing to the ceiling rather than at him.

She allowed for him to speak when he chose do so and yet at the moment they asked the same question in unison brought some pause for Undyne. At least, until he stepped forward with confidence, to which she responded by doing the same; albeit rather subconsciously. Was it because of the instinct ingrained so much into her being to not back down from a challenge? Perhaps.

To his following questions Undyne was unusually quiet - or in his case, for this instance, predictably quiet - as she mulled over what he had said. Perhaps it was even obvious that the cogs were turning in her head? While she was surprised by what he had chosen to ask and say, at the same time it was also somehow not that surprising. Was he a Seer? Practised some sort of psychic sorcery of some kind maybe? Had he read her mind? The latter of the list seemed to be the most likely, she thought, since he had already demonstrated such an ability already.

At least, that would have been her conclusion if it weren't for the fact that he had seemed to know her - know her very well actually. Of all times and monsters, he was here in this exact moment, asking rather thought-provoking questions that hit close to home. The kind of questions that a mere fan of the heroine wouldn't ask.

Finally she spoke up again, "How do you know so much about me?" she questioned, although with a tone that wasn't as harsh as earlier before averting her eye towards the serenity of Waterfall. Her thoughts then went back to the question he asked and then the events at the mines some months prior, "... Has this happened before?"

<sub>In Character Date & Time: 13th November UUY 1, approximately 10-11 PM

Set after Part II - Fighting For Freedom & A Path Come Full Circle</sub>

---

After making sure that everyone was able to head home safely, the matter with June, Austin and J.O.H.N. taken care of and one last check with the guards spread across the Underground for the umpteenth time that there weren’t any serious causalities with the citizens of the Underground; Undyne had made a beeline straight to Waterfall.

She had removed her tattered, once-brand-new shoes and tossed them aside. She then awaited for the mud to sink and slurp about her toes; the fish monster closed her eye to take in her very much welcomed peaceful surroundings in isolation. She breathed in the cool, oddly-pleasant humid air slowly and listened to water flowing and insects buzzing in an oddly quiet, sombre harmony. It was almost as though, they knew what the warrior was feeling.

The next thing Undyne did was take a few steps forward before plunging into a nearby pool of water, smoothly floating and drifting through the water like a plastic bag flying through the wind until her back gently tapped the bottom of the pool. Looking up, she stared through the crystal clear water, fluid flowing calmly through her lips and gills at the sides of her neck as she lay there with her arm stretched out and feet half buried into the gravel.

Undyne lay there in comforting, eerie silence for several minutes, allowing for the events of what had just happened to sink in. Until suddenly, she let out a mighty scream. A scream of anger, frustration, humiliation, confusion and regret which was muffled by the vast volume of water and which could not be heard above the water’s surface, but quite certainly be heard by her fellow aquatic brethren were there any hidden away in this pond. She shot off to the side, slamming a fist against the rocky wall, pulverizing a deep hole into it as she bellowed; completely venting her pent up emotions into this once-wall. She didn’t stop punching and screaming until she was completely drained, panting heavily as she floated to the top of the pond. Still staring at the ceiling, she eventually drifted off to the side of the pond and pulled herself out of it. Undyne frowned as a few thoughts ran through her mind, until she eventually made the decision to head back to where she was when all this trouble started.

To the hall where the party was hosted.

---

Sometime later Undyne had reached the hall, left half destroyed from the quakes. Her eye wandered along the ground which was littered with debris and broken furniture. She then carefully waded through the wreckage until she came to a stop where the food table was once set up. It had been flattened by a reasonably large chunk of wall, splattering all kinds of food and drinks under and around it. The warrior then summoned a spear-in-hand, wedged it underneath the chunk of wall and awkwardly twisted her body on top of it as her one arm latched onto the weapon until her weight had created enough leverage to lift the wall and kicked it off the crushed table.

‘Where did I go wrong?’ she thought to herself with a sigh when the Captain finally came to a stop in front of her new piano; now covered with rubble, scratches, dents and dust from the building. It appeared to be still intact and surprisingly playable. So the blue monster then placed the dishes down and used both her arm and body to heave the rubble off of the piano; allowing for it to topple into a messy heap on the other side.
 
The lid over the keys was raised in a slow, creaking motion as Undyne took a seat in front of it. The placing of just one hand only served as a vivid reminder of what had happened, but still, the pianist needed to express the complex thoughts and feelings which haunted her for her violent outburst earlier was simply just not enough.
 

She started off with playing the bass keys – two, sometimes three at a time - on the left side on its own. The lonely tones were reflective of but a lone wolf baying to a moon, in search of other voices to join her. About half a minute later she summoned five small, chopstick-sized spears – all of which hovered above the right keys vertically. Like she was baring her soul into the music, Undyne lowered her head as she listened, concentrated and finally the spears aided in completing the sombre, reflective piece.
 
For one so brash, brave and loud, this was a rare moment to be able to find Undyne expressing herself in a much more emotional and finessed manner. One with her magic and discipline, turned into another extension of herself as she allowed for the tune to carry her weight and echo throughout this portion of Waterfall.

Such temporary moment of eerie serenity didn't last however, for moments after she had finished playing the song a few times a frustrated growl hissed from the fish monster. It seemed that her muddled thoughts from earlier were still lingering. She hated this feeling, the feeling of uncertainty of what to do. She raised her fist and slammed it onto the keys, the force behind it was enough to splinter a chunk of the piano and sent some ivory keys flying in all directions.

"DAMN IT ALL!"

The Captain didn’t look the least bit bothered by Niskel’s initial reaction to her – or reacted to it at all for that matter. Instead she listened to his reply and looked on over to the savory scone he was pointing to in the display cabinet, “Great! That looks awesome, I’ll have that.” she replied enthusiastically; sharp teeth gleaming behind that signature grin as she took her number and leisurely ‘marched’ to her chosen table. When she turned around, she noticed the ghost child and she couldn’t help but smile at them, “Here for the Poetry Slam huh? I love these nights, if you’re gonna participate, I can’t wait to hear yours!” Undyne proclaimed before continuing to venture towards her table.

Along the way she quickly took note of whom was entering, leaving and how many were present. Even though she was off duty, she still made the habit of being aware of her surroundings and where and how many exits there were in case of an emergency. Even the table she had chosen was on the far side of the area where the performances were going to be – a table with four chairs – and she sat down on the one with her back against the wall. This way she could have a clear view of what was going on around her as well as who would be performing.

From what she could see all seemed to be normal and a healthy amount of patrons for such an event, however, there were some individuals either with somewhat of a reputation or earned a quiet wariness from the fish monster. The most obvious one to her was small gaggle of faces – some of whom she had recognised to have been discharged from the Royal Guard some years ago. She didn’t make an effort to say hello to them, but if any of them cared to look her way the look in her yellowed gaze was clear that she was watching; her expression was also somewhat neutral – neither particularly friendly or not. Next was when the second cloaked monster walked in and headed for the counter, she couldn’t see nor hear whom it was but something about them caused for Undyne to raise a brow. Something about them seemed rather familiar somehow…

Hello and welcome!

I have sent you a message ^_^ so we can talk further~

One by one Undyne watched the monsters leave, the events of that night slowly catching up on her as she started reflecting. Asides from the obvious risk and consequences which went down tonight there were still a number of things which bother her. It felt slimy, as though it too were crawling up her back the more she thought about it and herself.

When Papyrus reappeared from around the corner she stepped forward towards him, ready to say something, but he kept walking without so much as casting a glance her way. She took in a breath to call after him but withdrew from it, he still had that objective to do but deep in her gut, something about the air between them felt... different.

Undyne wasn't sure what to feel about that.

Her troubled thoughts were then interrupted when the king had paused to hug her and she returned it wholeheartedly, "Yeah, I'll try, you too Asgore. I'll be seeing you." she replied with her signature, toothy grin; which was also rather forced too.

She then started to make her way to the exit, waving to any remaining monsters in thanks before stepping through the nearest exit tunnel. Not long after her phone buzzed, to which she promptly pulled it out to read it.

Undyne felt her heart skip a beat when she realised it was from Papyrus and she couldn't open the full message any faster. She felt her stomach churn as she read it. It felt formal, distant... cold. Not like she was used to seeing from Papyrus.

She was supposed to be his friend.

The fish monster felt her hand clench around her phone as she broke out suddenly into a full sprint, not even noticing the tear that escaped her along the way.