A/N: Frisk and Jo have gained +1 party member! - Kit

+3 BRAVERY
-2 Friendship ~Kas

"I'm Jo." After roughly five or ten minutes of an uncomfortable silence in the cold, Jo figured that if the monster wanted to hurt them, he would have already. "Nice to meet you. I think."

"Jo…" She watched him look at her toy knife in her hand, then at her ribbon. "...Huh."

"I'm Frisk," Frisk chimed in, moving to sit on the monster's other side with absolutely no fear. Jo almost envied her.

"Oh, well yeah, I already knew that, but good to see a friendly face. Why'd you join up with sourpants, over here?"

"Sourpants?" Jo huffed, looking to see that Frisk was staring at the skeleton. "You know this monster, kid?"

Frisk gave a small shake of her head. "No."

"She doesn't know you," Jo stated, narrowing her eyes. "So why do you know her?"

"Hey, monsters got magic, right? Who's to say I'm not psychic?" He stood, but something still wasn't right. He was smiling too much and he still seemed like he was nervous. "You two should probably get going. And actually, if you see my brother, why don't you say hi? He'd love to see a human. He's never seen one before."

"Unlike you?" Jo blinked as she saw something in his posture that looked like guilt, maybe? It was hard to tell. "We still don't know your name."

"What, you didn't listen to Papyrus yelling it a zillion times for the entire Underground to hear? It's Sans, kid. Sans the skeleton."

"Sans." Jo thought about it for a second, finally nodding her head. She supposed it was a good enough name for a monster. "Nice to meet you."

"Yeah… Yeah." Sans stared at her strangely. "You should go."

"Trust me, we'll be happy to." Jo grabbed Frisk's hand and pulled her along down the path. "No more befriending monsters either, okay? We're trying to escape."

"But I didn't, you did!"

"What? When did I befriend a monster!"

"Just now with Sans," Frisk was quick to point out, frowning up at Jo.

"I did not befriend him. I just said that it was nice to meet him. Would you want to offend a monster and have them attack us?"

"No. I'd rather be friends with them."

"I don't think all monsters are going to think that way Frisk." Frisk huffed as they kept walking- Oh. This little clearing was nice. Frisk walked to the middle and seemed to stare at it. Jo just looked around and smiled. Right. Right, they would get out of there. She just had to be PATIENT. "At least this place isn't as bad-" Jo cut herself off as she heard what sounded like rustling from the trees. Was another monster watching them?

"I think it's nice. It's pretty," Frisk said, apparently not having heard the rustling sound. Jo wasn't willing to bet she was just being paranoid, though.

"Yeah. Pretty. Frisk, get ready to run again, okay?" She really didn't want to have to Fight anymore monsters, but she would if she had to.

"What? Why do I have to-"

"People!"

Jo was ready for just about anything except to see a girl who looked between their age to crash out of the woods - a human girl. "How many people have fallen down this stupid mountain?"

"Oh my god, you're really real people! I've been down here like a week and those stupid skeletons have been in my way of getting home, but with you two, we can totally take 'em! What d'ya say? Fight 'em with me?"

"What- I don't want to fight monsters! I just want to get out of here- You've been down here a week?"

"Yeah, it's sucked. It's so cold down here, once I left that goat lady."

"You met Toriel?" Frisk was rushing forward at once, beaming. "Were you one of her kids that she lost?"

"What? Let's get this straight, I'm not her kid. The minute she tried to keep me there, I skedaddled real quick."

"Who says the word skedaddled," Jo mumbled, crossing her arms. "How do we know you're actually human and not a disguised monster trying to trick us?"

"How am I supposed to prove I'm human? You prove you're a human!"

"What? How am I supposed to prove I'm human? You said yourself I'm human when you came rushing out here about people!"

"How come you keep asking humans to prove they're humans," Frisk asked her. "Are you a monster?"

"What? No?" Jo stopped herself from saying anything else, sighing as she rubbed at her eyes. "Okay. I'm going to assume we're all human, here. In that case, we're going to be civil. Hi, I'm Jo and this is Frisk. What's your name?"

"I'm Cari! I'm so glad to see people again. A whole week without seeing any real people. Can you imagine?"

"That doesn't sound too bad," Jo shrugged. "It's nice to meet you, I guess… You're trying to get home too, right?"

"Well duh! My Aunt and Uncle were supposed to lemme ride their bike, this weekend!"

"Right." Right. So now the three of them had to get out of here - and three seemed like it would be a lot more noticeable than two. "So, uh, do you know where to go from here?"

"Yeah. You go through Snowdin town, and past their house."

"There's a town named after the place we're in? Doesn't that get confusing?"

Cari shrugged, looking around. "Not really."

"Where do you find stuff to eat?" Frisk asked, tugging on Cari's shirt. Jo supposed she would be hungry since all she had was pie.

"Oh, typically I snag something from the shops nearby. They think I'm just a weird monster kid, so they don't really try to Fight me."

"Think you could manage to snag a few more things before we leave?" Jo asked, deciding that Cari wasn't so bad. At worst she was loud, but she had been here longer than them.

She shrugged it off with a laugh, waving it away. "Piece of cake!"

"Not sure if I like her, yet," Jo finally sighed. "Alright, Cari. Lead the way."

"Oh yeah. That was why I haven't been to town for a while. They were setting up a bunch of puzzles in the path."

"Well, lucky for you, Frisk here is great at puzzles." The Snowdin ones probably weren't much different than the Ruins ones. "Right, Frisk?"

Frisk beamed up at Cari. "I really love puzzles!"

"Good, I hate them."

"Then let's get going so Frisk can get something to eat before we all freeze to death."

The three set off and Jo nervously tightened her ribbon as they went as quickly as they dared while still being careful. The last thing Jo wanted was to run up against anymore monsters before they were prepared. "I missed dinner. Mom and Dad probably are looking for me," Frisk said, seeming anxious, not that Jo could blame her.

"I'm sure they'll understand once you explain everything to them, Frisk."

"I hope they're not upset. They never wanted me and Josh playing on the mountain."

"Well, you were doing it for a good reason, right? They'll understand." Hopefully. Jo near prayed that Frisk's parents were nothing like her own.

Frisk frowned. "I hope so."

The three walked along the path until they saw the two skeletons. "Sans, what if a human comes through here?! I want to be ready to be praised by all the Underground, and immediately inducted into the Royal Guard!"

"Great, so we're his ticket to fame." Jo nudged Frisk behind her, glancing to Cari. "Where's a good place to run and hide?"

"The trees, but then you end up running into monsters half the time."

"-those humans?!"

"Uh… I think those are… Three. Three rocks. There's three."

"Yes, brother, there are rocks everywhere! You must learn to pay better attention to things!"

"Does he really think we're rocks?" Jo looked between the three of them. They looked nothing like rocks.

"Hang on," Sans said, still looking shaken. "What are those in front of the rocks?"

"Oh my god!" Jo knew that skeleton was bad news! Maybe he looked weird because he felt bad for turning them over to his brother? Papyrus was looking to Sans and 'whispering.' "Is that a human?"

"Yeah," Sans said to him.

"Oh my god! Sans! I finally did it!" Huh… Did monsters have a god? Papyrus started going on about how he would be made famous and people would love him. He challenged them to… Wait, did he just challenge them to puzzles, then run away?

"Well," Jo finally said, clearing her throat to try and get rid of the heavy silence on all of them. "That went well?"

"Yeah. Well." He had a hand on his head as he looked at empty space. "There's… There's three. That means that all seven-" He stopped himself, and if it could happen, it looked like he got pale.

"Are you alright?" Frisk looked concerned as could be, Jo keeping a tight grip on Frisk's hand so she didn't try anything.

Sans didn't really seem like he heard her. "Oh jeez. Oh boy, that means- Oh boy. That's gonna change a few- How is that-"

"Frisk is pretty good at terrifying monsters," Cari commented as if she was remarking on the sky being blue. "Think I should punch him to finish him off?"

Jo turned to Cari. "Do you just go around punching everything in sight? Why don't you be PATIENT for a bit and let us figure out what's going on?"

"And why don't you show some BRAVERY instead of trying to run away from everything! These skeletons have been giving me the run around all week!"

"They haven't killed you, have they?" Jo paused and turned to Sans. "Have- Hey." She frowned. "Where'd he go?" Jo turned and twisted to look around the entire area, but she didn't see a scrap of white bone or blue jacket, although she did see a flash of black that had her pausing and blinking to see there was nothing. "Maybe we should keep moving."

"Yeah, fine," Cari huffed, crossing her arms in her stupid leather jacket. Ugh. She probably pretended like she was from the eighties or something.

"For now, let's just-" Jo heard something- No. She heard something. "Cari, what monsters are around here?"

"Snow monsters. A guy made of ice. They're all pretty lame."

"And if you had to guess which monster it was that I just heard?"

"Nothing I can't take."

"Just compliment them," Frisk said, quite seriously. "A lot of them are happy when you do that."

"What?! Have you lost your little mind?! They want a Fight, I'm gonna give it to 'em!"

"Just how have you been fighting them? Running around and throwing punches?" Jo stared at Cari who couldn't be older than ten, maybe.

"Yeah, duh! How else?"

"Running away, maybe? Running away sounds like the smart thing to do in that situation." There was a sudden barking sound and… had a dog fallen down here?

"...Was there something moving out here? If there was, I'll make sure it never moves again!" Nope. Not a dog. Certainly not a dog.

"I say we just run," Jo whispered. "We can hide in the trees."

"But if we move, he'll hurt us!" Frisk hissed to them. A blue sword started to swing at them. "Just… Don't… Move," she said, squeezing her eyes shut.

"What? What do you mean don't move!" Cari had her hands clenched into fists, Jo looking at Frisk.

"Frisk, we need to get out of the way." Then the sword passed right through Frisk.

Frisk opened her eyes and cheered. "I knew it!"

"What just happened…" Jo stared at Frisk, eyes wide. "Are you a ghost?"

"Look! It's blue! All the other monsters' fighting has been white! So if it's blue, just don't move!"

"That doesn't make any sense! Why would being a different color change the rules of how it all works?!"

Jo watched the girl laugh as she crept closer to the large dog-monster. "Cause monsters are magic!"

"That doesn't make it any better!" Jo wondered if she should try and shout to get the attention of the monster, but Frisk was already right there in front of him and he… didn't see her. "Is he blind?"

"What if he's like a T-Rex? They only see stuff that's moving!" Frisk moved slowly, so slowly Jo thought she was incapable of going that slow, and then… She was patting the monster.

"Are you petting the monster that's trying to kill us?" And now… The monster was curled up on the floor behind his shack, shaking.

"I was pet by something that didn't move."

"I think she scared him," Cari mumbled, as if she couldn't quite believe the words leaving her. "Is it possible to scare a monster?"

"Good doggy," Frisk hummed, smiling down at him.

"I… guess we won?" Shaking her head, Jo took Frisk's hand and pulled her along. "C'mon, Frisk."

Frisk looked back at Jo before smiling. "Okay. Bye, doggy," she called.

"So, blue magic means we stop moving. Sounds simple enough, but it's still stupid. Who wants to stand still in a Fight!"

"It's better than fighting," Frisk told her with a frown.

"I'm going to have to listen to you two fight the whole way out of here, aren't I?" Jo didn't even need an answer, she already knew that Cari's brash behavior was going to clash spectacularly with Frisk's approach towards monsters.

"What? No! I'm not gonna fight with a little kid." Said the child who was equally as young or close to it.

"Hey, you guys made it. Thought it might be a good idea to mention. If you see any blue attacks, don't move. Just imagine a blue stop sign-"

"A blue stop sign? Stop signs are red. Why would a stop sign be blue?"

"Blue means stop." He said it just so… Casually.

"Where we're from, it's red that means stop." Right. Focus. "So we're just gonna… pass through and keep on to town, then."

"Have fun. And don't beat his puzzles too badly. He worked hard on those."

"We'll do our best." Jo looked to Frisk, giving her a smile. "Solve those puzzles as quickly as you can, okay?"

"Um…" Frisk glanced back to Sans. "Okay." Now he was frowning at them.

"Hey. You don't have to crush him, he's just trying to follow orders."

"Whose orders?" Jo narrowed her eyes, staring at Sans and taking a step back towards him. "Just how many monsters are going to try and capture us down here? Does this have something to do with that Asgore that Toriel mentioned?"

"Every monster in the Underground." Every monster wanted them dead? But why? What would every monster gain from killing a few kids?

"Then why aren't you trying to capture us?" Granted Toriel had tried to keep them safe, but she apparently just loved taking care of kids.

Sans looked over them before slumping and grinning. "I promised a goat lady that if any kids ever came through here, I'd protect them."

"Toriel?" Frisk perked up near at once, almost bouncing. "You know her? She's really, really nice, isn't she?"

"Yeah, kid. She really, really is." Sans tousled her hair, smiling down at her. "Her jokes ain't half bad, either."

"She tells jokes?" Frisk looked like Sans had just told her that Santa Claus was real. Jo did her best to not laugh or ruin in. "That's great!"

"Yeah, she helped me practice mine a skele-ton." A wild laugh broke the soft silence of the snow-filled clearing, Jo slapping her hands over her mouth when she realized it was her laugh. Sans' grin only widened. "I knew you were a lover of sophisticated humor. I felt it in my bones."

Jo tried to hide her laugher, shoulders shaking with the effort as she waved her hand about and make a dismissive noise. "Please. I'm probably just a little… rattled."

"Is this normal for her," Cari asked with a frown.

Frisk just stared up at her. "You can laugh?"

"Of course I can laugh," Jo frowned, crossing her arms. "I just don't find a lot of things funny, but I mean, come on. Puns are the highest form of humor!"

"Don't say that around Papyrus. Puns wear him down… to the bone." In her defense, Jo did her best not to laugh. She did, but she tried not to. "Yeah, he likes knock-knock jokes better."

"Really?" Jo perked up. "So I could distract him with knock-knock jokes in case we need to make an escape?"

Sans shrugged. "If you think you can. He's kind of a master."

"My knock-knock jokes are great. Look." Jo looked between Frisk and Cari before settling for Cari. Jo could maybe startle a laugh out of her. "Knock knock."

Cari rolled her eyes. "Jokes are lame."

"Humor me."

"Fine. Who's there?"

"A cow says."

Cari narrowed her eyes at Jo. "A cow says what?"

"No, silly, a cow says moo. Also, you suck at playing along with knock-knock jokes. I'm using Frisk, next time."

"You're stupid," Cari shot back at her, turning again- "Where'd he go?!"

"What?" Jo looked back herself. "How does he keep disappearing like that?"

Frisk beamed, bouncing on her toes. "What if he teleports?!"

"No one can just teleport without some kind of sound or something." At least, Jo was pretty sure they couldn't.

"But he did!"

"Maybe he just became invisible and snuck away or something," Jo shrugged, grabbing Frisk's hand to pull her along. "All I know is that he's not causing us problems and we need food. Come on. We need to get food and find a place to rest. Where are these puzzles you were talking about?"

"Just up ahead. I saw the tall one getting shocked a lot," Cari told them, pointing to the path ahead of them.

"Past the giant frozen lake of ice, I take it?" Jo stared down at the ice, scrunching up her nose slowly. "I… don't like the looks of that."

"Okay, I'll go first," Frisk volunteered. She looked at the frozen lake, her bottom lip stuck out in DETERMINATION before she set a single foot on the ice. It immediately slid out from under her and she started to slide across the lake.

"Frisk!" Jo rushed after her, stepping onto the ice herself before she was suddenly slipping and jerking forward. "Whoa-!" Frisk was just giggling as she slid to the other side of the lake, finally getting dumped off into a mound of snow.

"That was fun! Come on, Cari!"

Cari frowned. "You know, my boots really aren't that great on ice."

"Trust me, it wouldn't matter if they were," Jo half-screeched as she was dumped into her own snow pile. "Try to see what's on that sign in the middle of the lake, if you can."

"Okay- Ah! I hate this, I hate this, I hate this!" Cari slid across the lake and grabbed onto the sign just before she passed it.

"Nice reflexes," Jo called, shuddering as she brushed snow off of her and oh, boy, that was cold. She was very cold. "What's it say?"

"It says that north, south, and west are all ice. East is Snowdin Town, and ice."

"You're joking." Jo stared at the sign, shaking her head. "That is utterly useless."

"East it is."

"You can slide the rest of the way over, Cari. You'll land in snow and be fine." Jo rushed through her words as she jumped forward to grab Frisk, keeping her from getting back on the ice. "Maybe later."

Jo watched Cari take a deep breath before she was sliding along the ice and towards them. "I really don't like this!" After a dramatic poof of snow flying into the air, Jo nodded and began pulling Frisk along to the next 'puzzle.'

The kids walked and saw the two brothers on the opposite end of a clearing, looking to be arguing. "You're so lazy! You were napping all night!"

"Uh… I'm pretty sure that's called… Sleeping."

"Excuses, excuses!" These skeletons were certainly something. Ah, Papyrus was looking at the three of them. "Oh ho! The humans arrive!"

Frisk beamed at him. "Here we are!"

"That's adorable," Jo snickered, even as Papyrus kept talking about puzzles and how they prepared them and how this one was 'quite shocking-' Wait. "Did you just pun?" Because Cari mentioned the tall skeleton getting shocked and if he said that, then, well. "You just punned!"

"What? The Great Papyrus would never engage in such absurd silliness! That's just absurd!" Looking between the puzzle and Papyrus, Jo looked to Sans and gestured to Papyrus because really?

"Hey, Papyrus," Sans said. "Why don't you tell them about the puzzle?"

"Of course! This is the Electric Maze! This orb here will administer a hearty zap! Sound like fun? Because the amount of fun you will probably have is actually rather small I think."

"That orb you're holding right now, huh?"

Papyrus grinned brightly. "Yes, this orb right here! This one in my hand that I am indeed holding! It's actually a very interesting bit of magic…"

"Frisk. Run across the maze straight ahead to Sans," Jo whispered.

"But aren't we gonna get shocked?"

"You don't have to worry about anything, okay? You'll be perfectly safe," Jo smiled. "I won't let anything bad happen to you if I can stop it."

Frisk smiled up at Jo. "Okay." She looked at the 'maze' and took a deep breath before running across. As expected, Papyrus was suddenly getting shocked in a rather theatrical looking manner, Cari cracking up into laughter beside her while Jo only grinned. Just as planned! Even Frisk was giggling, falling to the ground on the other side of the maze and clutching her stomach.

"Sans! The puzzle didn't work! And the little human just ran right through it!"

"Weird how that works, isn't it?" Jo began walking, gesturing for Cari to follow. "Come on, Cari, let's get going." Sans didn't look very amused, though. He almost looked… Scared. And maybe upset? Once they were over to the other side, Jo looked to him. "Sorry about ruining your brother's puzzle, but I didn't feel like letting any of us get shocked."

"Right. Sure." Oh. Wow, he did not sound happy. Jo was used to people not being happy with her decisions, though, and she had a little kid to get home.

Frisk gasped, "Ice cream!" With that, Frisk was running off in the direction that Papyrus had dramatically disappeared to, Cari right behind her. Jo gave one last look to Sans, frowning at the weird flash of black she swore she saw behind him, before following after the other two.

"Nice cream, it's the ice cream that makes you smile! For you, fifteen gold!" Fifteen… gold. Jo looked to Cari.

"Do you have any gold or whatever on you?"

"Yeah, I do-"

"I have some!" What. Why did Frisk have gold?

"When did you get gold- How did you get gold?"

Frisk shrugged. "When I'm nice to the monsters, they give me gold after a Fight."

"Oh, uh… that's good." Weird, but good. Frisk counted out all her money carefully.

"Three ice creams, please!" Aw. The monster seemed delighted to sell them the ice cream, not seeming to either notice or care they were humans.

"Here you go! And remember that each wrapper has a compliment on the inside of it!"

"Really?" Frisk opened hers and beamed. Guess she must have liked what it said.

"Why are we eating ice cream in a town filled with snow," Jo muttered, undoing her own wrapper and reading it. Love yourself! I love you! Staring at the wrapper, Jo crumbled it up and shoved it away in her pocket.

"Cause it's yummy! Come on, let's go!" Frisk led them to keep going, though Jo did wonder about the giant snowball they passed. Jo had to stop and stare when she saw Sans.

"Weren't you just behind us- How did you get ahead of us?"

"Oh, hey there. I was just doing a bit of marketing. I'm selling fried snow. Want some?"

"Wouldn't fried snow just be water?"

Sans shot her a grin, but… But there wasn't something right about it. "You'd think so, huh? Want some? It's just five gold."

"I don't have any gold. I haven't really fought any monsters." She mostly ran away, but Sans and Cari didn't need to really know that part.

Now Sans was frowning. "What?"

"I'll take some fried snow," Frisk shouted, counting out her gold.

Sans was quickly distracted by her, "Hey, did I say five? I meant fifty." Frisk frowned, but still kept counting her gold. "Fifty ten. Five hundred."

"I don't have that much." Frisk looked near devastated by that fact, too.

"Hey, it's alright, kid. I don't really have any fried snow, either."

"Then why are you trying to sell something you don't have?" Cari crossed her arms. "That's illegal." Not… really? Maybe if Frisk had paid for it, first.

"Eh, Underground has different terms of what's 'legal,' kid."

"Alright, let's just please find that town and get out of the cold, please?" Jo was still soaked through from that snow pile and Frisk and Cari, at least, were wearing warmer clothes than she was.

Cari nodded, looking her over. "It's up further ahead."

Jo felt Sans' eyes on her before he finally sighed. "I'm gonna regret this- Hang on, kid, wait a minute."

"If it's about the whole fried snow thing then Cari's just wanting to pick a fight because that seems to be all she knows how to do." Instead, Jo was watching with wide eyes growing larger as Sans… Took off his jacket and held it out. "I, uh… Don't you need it? 'S cold."

"I've got plenty," he waved off. "You look soaked down to the bone." Jo gave a startled giggle as she carefully accepted the jacket.

"It's cheating to use the same pun so many times, you know." Slipping the jacket on, Jo beamed at how it felt warm. She thought it would have been cold considering Sans was a skeleton in the cold.

"I work with what I've got," he told her with a small shrug. "Thinking up new puns gets me bone tired."

"Come on, let's go already, these jokes aren't even funny." Cari pulled Frisk along as Frisk contently enjoyed her ice cream.

The girls all went ahead, and came across two stalls that looked like the one that first dog had come out of. "Hello," Frisk called. "Anyone home?"

There was a bout of silence, Jo frowning as she peeked around. "Doesn't seem like there's anyone here… We probably need to backtrack and go down the other way."

Cari walked over and read the signs. "Huh. His and hers."

"A couple, then?" Could monsters be couples? It made sense if Toriel had her own kid that wasn't a human, and Sans and Papyrus were brothers.

"Dog couple?" Cari shrugged at Jo. "Haven't seen anyone like that around here, but I don't think I've gone this far, y'know. On the path."

"It didn't look like too confusing of a path, so we can just double back. That sign on the lake said we were going the right way." Jo fumbled with the jacket zipper for a few moments before getting it zipped up, tucking the sleeves around her fingers. "At least we ate something."

She grinned brightly. "Totally, I'm feeling way more jazzed up!" This kid had to have been raised by some very odd people.

"Right. Jazzed." Jo looked to Frisk. "Doing alright, Frisk?"

"Yeah, uh… Can we stop for a minute? My feet are tired."

"Oh- Yeah. Yeah, that's fine. Here, um, do you want me to carry you for a bit? I can be pretty strong when I need to be." Pretty strong for a 'girl.'

"No, I'm not a baby."

"I never said you were," Jo laughed, ruffling Frisk's hair. "But I told you that I would get you home safe, and it actually sounds like it could be fun to carry you."

"I'm okay. I just wanna stop for a minute." As they stopped, Frisk wandered a few feet away and… Took out the cell phone that Toriel gave her? Why was she trying to use that? It wasn't like there was any real service down here - or at least, if there had been any in the Ruins, it would be gone by now. Frisk hit a button then held it up to her ear, waiting a long time.

"What… is she doing?" Cari slowly asked, staring at Frisk as if she was crazy. Jo couldn't blame her for the reaction, really.

Jo shrugged in response. "I dunno. Trying to call Toriel?" Why was Frisk trying to call her, though? When apparently she got no answer, she took the phone away from her ear and stared down at it. "Guess nobody picked up."

"Right. Weird." Cari shook her head before staring back down the path. "Come on, we might have to fight off a few more monsters, but I know the town is close by!"

Frisk walked back over to them and gave a weak smile. "More puzzles?"

"Are you kidding? That Papyrus guy probably has a bunch of puzzles for us to get through." Jo took Frisk's hand and pulled her along.

"Okay. Let's go." Frisk trudged along in the snow after her.

It didn't take long before they were running up against the brothers again, Papyrus 'greeting' them. "Humans! I hope you're ready for… Sans! Where's the puzzle?"

"It's there on the ground." The kids looked down to see… A piece of paper on the ground. "Pretty great, right?"

"Should I…?" Frisk looked up at Jo.

"Yeah, you can go ahead and go for it. Maybe it's a riddle." Jo nudged Frisk on towards the paper, bundling herself up more in the jacket Sans had let her use. Hopefully whatever 'puzzle' this was it was short.

"This is not a puzzle, brother! It- Sans. Why is that human wearing your jacket?"

"What do you mean? I'm wearing my jacket, Papyrus." And he was indeed wearing a jacket that was identical to the jacket Jo had on. Frisk sat down on the ground and looked over the puzzle, her tongue sticking out.

"Then why is that human wearing a jacket that looks identical to your jacket when the human did not previously have any jacket?"

"Kid must have found one. It's a pretty cool jacket, right? You should get one, too." There was a very frustrated noise that Papyrus gave, Jo more amused than worried as she walked over to Frisk.

"How's the puzzle coming along?"

"It's almost done, but… But one word isn't here."

"What's the word?" Jo peeked over Frisk's shoulder and oh, dear, that… Jo wasn't sure it was a word, but it was certainly something. Frisk huffed, frowning at the word search before crossing her arms and dropping it on the ground. "Want me to try?"

"Fine, but you're not gonna find it." Nodding along, Jo picked up the paper and the pen that was conveniently left for them too, scanning the paper. She saw the jumble of letters in the top line with a single U replaced instead of an E to complete the puzzle. Staring at the U for a few moments, Jo drew a short line right in the middle before circling the entire row. "There we go. The E was upside down, is all."

"What?!" Frisk snatched the word search back. "You're right! That's cheating!" Jo looked to the skeleton brothers, shaking her head.

"I can't believe you would cheat against children."

Papyrus immediately turned to Sans. "Sans! It is dishonorable to cheat!"

"This is so retarded."

"Okay, first off, don't use that word, Cari." Honestly, who raised this kid? "Second, guess he wasn't wrong in saying we'd never solve it," Jo shook her head, crossing her arms. "But, we kind of did, I guess. I mean, it's like looking at the problem in a new way, right? Like science."

"Yeah, kid. Like science." Seeing that the other two kids gave her weird looks, Jo frowned and shrugged.

"I like science. I mean, I'm not any good at it and I'm kind of stupid, but I still like the basic stuff."

Frisk immediately frowned, holding her hand. "You're not stupid."

"Thanks, kiddo," Jo laughed, squeezing her hand back before turning to Papyrus. "Well? Show us your next best puzzle!"