21 - Napstablook

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There are five tunnels branching out from the next cave, not including the one they entered by. The dummy waits patiently in the center for Finn to catch up with it, hovering in mid-air like always when it's not in Finn's arms. It grins at Finn, and Finn grins back, leaving their mask off for the time being.

They look at each other for a few seconds, and then the dummy clears its nonexistent throat.

"Thank you, for that. Thank you for everything. You could've stayed and hidden with Toriel, but you didn't. Thanks to you, they're all alive. My... my cousin is still alive."

It looks a bit teary-eyed, and Finn finds themself slightly tearing up as well.

"Thank you for coming with me," they say, blinking back the water in their eyes.

The dummy nods, then abruptly spins towards them, settling itself to hover just above Finn's shoulder. Finn takes that as a cue to move, and so they walk farther into the cave, the dummy following them in the air. The tunnel directly to the left of them appears to be a dead end, so Finn takes the first of the three tunnels straight ahead.

"Holy cow," they exclaim, their eyes widening.

In the cave ahead of them is what seems to be some sort of house, but which is like no house Finn has ever seen. The building is in the shape of a gigantic round sea monster, scaly and terrifying, with glowering eyes for windows and sharp white teeth for a door. The tail wraps around and spills out from the back of the house, black and finned and twisting across the cavern floor. Ear-like fins burst out from either side, fanning into curved and pointed structures resembling bat wings. There's a welcome mat in front of the door, a blue rug with the pattern of a dead fish on it.

It's the coolest house they've ever seen.

"Undyne must live here," Finn decides, going up to knock on the door. Just in case.

"She does," the dummy answers unexpectedly.

The door's locked, and nobody answers, so Finn pulls away, looking back at the dummy in confusion.

"I've never met her," the dummy clarifies, noting their confused expression. "I just know from my cousin. She didn't even exist back when... well, back when I left."

"You used to live here?" Finn asks curiously, heading back into the main cave.

"Well. Yes. Kind of." The dummy follows them, hovering at their shoulder.

"Why'd you leave?"

"Well... I'm kind of shy, as you're aware of. I don't feel comfortable being around most people, or talking in front of them, and the Ruins, well - it's quiet there, nobody around except Froggits and Whimsuns, and it was easy to just kind of blend in and be there, without having to do the whole social interaction thing. I know it doesn't look like it right now, but the places outside of the Ruins are extremely populated. The Ruins were just... better. Also..." The dummy trails off, and Finn stops, looking up at it.

"Also what?"

"Never mind."

Finn frowns. "What?"

The dummy seems extremely uncomfortable. "Nothing."

Finn opens their mouth, about to ask more, but the dummy spins away into the next tunnel over, and Finn is forced to hurry to catch up with it. There's two houses in this cave, placed next to each other and nearly identical, yet exact opposites of each other at the same time. They both look pretty weird, drooping to the side like giant mushrooms whose tops are too heavy for their stalks. Finn isn't focused on the details, however, for one enormous thing has caught their eye: in the uppermost window of the house to the right, there's a light on.

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