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If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. That had been one of the many creeds Papyrus adhered to throughout life.
It was also why the prospect of skydiving seemed all the more daunting to him.
“U-Undyne, are you sure this is a good idea?”
“Course I’m sure!”
“Positive?”
“Yep!”
“No second thoughts whatsoever?”
“Papyrus, we’re already on the plane…”
So they were. 12,000 feet in the air, to be exact. Papyrus had been enamored with the sky since he first laid eyes on it upon the breaking of the barrier. The gleam of the stars, the warmth of the bright sunlight, the shade offered by passing banks of billowing clouds, all of it fascinated him to no end. Not a day went by (until now) that didn’t urge him to get closer and just touch it all, scientific facts notwithstanding. No, those clouds weren’t cotton, nor were they soft to the touch, but it never kept him from wanting to reach up and stroke them through with an un-gloved hand. The sun was apparently a 5700-kelvin ball of burning hydrogen several million miles away, (as were all the other stars, apparently) but that knowledge never stemmed his desire to feel its warmth up close.
Now there was more than warmth and fluffiness and twinkling. There was rattling coming from the plane’s small frame as they entered some mild turbulence, and even when the terrible shaking ended in the plane’s frame, it certainly didn’t in Papyrus’ knees. The sound of the small engines laboring on either wing as it brought them higher was no real reassurance either. It didn’t sound robust or sturdy like his car. It just sounded rickety and frail, and ready to explode any minute.
Suddenly, regret began to encircle his memories of loose-lipping about his desire to “touch the sky” and “surf the clouds,” especially what portion of it he let fall on Undyne’s finned ears. If only he knew where her crazy determination would eventually lead them.
“Come on, dork! This was your idea! Aren’t you excited?!”
“Excited is one w-way to put it, Undyne…”
“Oh man, Pap, check it out! Look out your window, see how high we are?!”
Against all his better judgment, he looked out – and nearly fainted. The clouds were well below them now (or at least the puffy ones), and the mountains below were mere molehills. It would take several Mount Ebbots to clear their height
“Cool, huh?!”
“Y-yeah, very c-cool…”
The instructor, a tall, burly, mustached human in his mid-thirties, stepped back from the co-pilot’s seat and joined the two monsters. “Looks like you two are our only students this afternoon!”
“You betcha!”
“Y-yeah…”
“Looks like you’re flying with only one experienced jumper today!”
If he spat out another sentence like that, Papyrus might have vomited then and there.
“Yep, just us three, so you’re gonna want to follow my lead real close.”
“Got it!”
“Yes, sir…”
They had already gone over the instructions on the ground. Several times over, as a matter of fact. What the instructor said now was more or less a rehash of what had already been said before. Papyrus didn’t want to miss a single instruction, no matter how rote, but as each number repeated itself, he found himself drifting in and out of sane thought.
“So, we’ll hit our ceiling at around 12,000 or 13,000 feet…”
He looked out the window again. That was 12,000 feet. Nearly two miles into the sky. Twelve. Thousand. Feet. That number kept repeating itself until it made him dizzy.
“We open our chute at around five thousand to six thousand feet…”
Papyrus, you’re going to be falling for nearly a mile straight before that chute opens.
“And from there, you’ll be flying for about six or seven minutes.”
Falling for six minutes. Papyrus, you have taken a few tumbles before, like from the awning of the Librar[b]y, or the balcony on the house, but those lasted for just a fraction of a second. You will be falling for six minutes straight. This does not include the time you will be falling without a chute. You will be falling from this plane for almost eight minutes straight. FALLING FOR EIGHT. MINUTES. STRAIGHT.
Papyrus, you are going to die.
‘Okay, we’re almost at our drop point! You two ready?”
“Sure are!” Undyne was simply giddy, jumping up and down in her seat. She was no heavyweight, but her fidgeting was enough to shake the little plane a smidgen, and that was enough to drown whatever words were waiting in Papyrus’ mouth in fear.
“What about you, bone man?”
“I-I uh…”
“Now or never, bud, we’re coming up to our drop zone and then we gotta go right away. Remember, it’s a tandem jump, and my harness won’t fit hers. You don’t go, neither of you go.”
Everything in Papyrus was screaming ‘NO!’ From the huge numbers, to the clouds, to the appearance of the distant skyline, now dwarfed by their elevation. Eight minutes of falling, even if while hooked in with Undyne, was perhaps the single scariest thing he had ever attempted.
Scariness was one thing. Feeling disappointed in himself was another. When he looked at Undyne and saw her enthused smile slowly fade into a sad, disheartened frown, that disappointment quickly reached its soul-crushing crescendo. Resolve began to burn within him.
Could the Great Papyrus let his friend down? Never!
Was the Great Papyrus a coward in the face of danger? Not in a million years!
Is the Great papyrus going to face his fears and follow through? Yes, he will!
_________
IS THE GREAT PAPYRUS EVER GOING TO DO SOMETHING THIS FREAKING STUPID EVER AGAIN?!
NO, HE WILL NOT.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!”
“THIS IS AWESOOOOOOME!”
Twelve thousand feet.
Ten thousand Feet.
Nine Thousand feet.
“Drop zone’s coming up In three thousand feet, you two!”
“HEY PAPYRUS!”
“WHAT?!”
“WATCH THIS!”
He would have objected, but he could already feel her arms wrapping around his torso, and the force of her head and upper back lurching backward.
“UNDYNE, NO-AAAAAUUGHH!!”
“WEEEE-!”
On and on they spun, over and under and all around as Undyne pulled the both of them back. The world washed around them in mad circles, with the clouds, the instructor, the mountains, and the plentiful fields below them dashing in and out of view in fractals of a second each. Everything became a kaleidoscope of sunny white, sky blue, and tree green. Undyne closed her eyes and let the forces take her, soaking in the feeling of the sky rushing around her, whipping her hair about, caressing her face and her whole body. She sighed, she laughed, and she whooped as she felt more raw exhilaration now than she had ever felt in her life.
Poor Papyrus just couldn’t stop screaming.
“AAAAUUGH! AAUUGH AAUGGH! AAUUUGH! AAAUUGH!”
“HEY PAPYRUS, IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU WANNA GET THIS OVER WITH!”
“YES! AAAUGH! AAAUGH! YES PLESAE!”
“OKAY, HERE WE GO! HOLD ON TIGHT!”
“Ma’am, you might wanna make sure you-“
Neither the instructor’s call nor Papyrus’ whimpering could dissuade her. He could feel it. Her mass was about to tip forward. Her arms were starting to tuck in, and her feet were on their way up.
“Undyne, no…”
“GERONIMOOOOOO!”
If he had any guts, the skeleton would have felt them creep into his boots by now. The sheer force of the nosedive felt like it would tear the compact bone making up his body apart. His eyes nearly rolled to either side of their sockets, and his scream had become a nearly inaudible, continuous croak.
And Undyne? She just couldn’t stop squealing with delight.
“ISN’T THIS GREAT?!”
“*eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…*”
The instructor soon caught up. “WE’RE IN THE RED ZONE! TIME TO DEPLOY!”
“HEY PAPYRUS, YOU WANNA PULL THE CORD?”
“*eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…*”
“Uh, Papyrus?”
“*eeeeeeeeeeeeee…… eeeeeeeeeeeee….*”
“YOU GUYS NEED TO PULL THE CORD NOW!”
“Okay, I got it….”
FWOOSH
“Woohoo!”
“*GACK*”
The world that once sped towards them now cruised easily towards their feet. The freefall became a sail, and mind-shattering excitement now lulled into swoon-inducing relaxation (at least as relaxing as things could get for a thrill-seeking fish monster and her bony companion). Both his croaking and her whooping stopped as both fear and excitement began to subside and give way to wonder. The clouds passed them by on their way down, close enough that both could feel the vapor splashing in droplets onto their faces. It took a second for papyrus to regain his breath, but when he did, all his regrets about this adventure melted away.
“Keep an eye on me!” The instructor called out. “I’ll guide us to the drop zone!” Repeated instructions once more, and so he knew he didn’t need an audible response form them. He saw their chute follow his and it was good enough.
The ground got closer and closer, but no one spoke or screamed or yawped or let a single utterance leave them. All their lives, Undyne and Papyrus had dreamed of life on the surface, of seeing the sky and all the celestial wonders it held in its then-unseen vaults. The things they heard in old Gerson’s stories, the little details Frisk would divulge before that hour of emergence, all paled in comparison to what they saw and felt now. Troth is often stranger than fiction, but in this case, it was also so much sweeter.
To both monster’s disappointment, the ground was beginning to get larger. It wouldn’t be long before touchdown. Grass was rapidly transforming from a green sea to a massive phalanx of individual blades again. Those soft leaves quickly found themselves under their feet, as all three skydivers ran into touchdown, their parachutes falling limply in front of them.
Undyne was still reeling. “Man, that was… I don’t even know how to describe it!”
Papyrus was, at least in the letter, in tune with his former commander. “Yeah, that’s one way to describe it…”
“I just wish Alphys would have come! Too bad she chickened out, even if it would have meant one of us get strapped to Tom Selleck over here…”
“Hey!” The instructor chuckled. “Don’t be hatin’ on the ‘stach!”
“Fuhuhuhu… hey Papyrus, think you can help detach our harnesses?”
“O-okay.”
Metal clips clinked and clanked as blue hands and bony fingers unclasped them. As the two came apart, both were a little wobbly on their feet.
“Man, I’m kinda dizzy from all that! Papyrus, how bout yo-”
There was a sound like a hundred wooden spoons falling from a kitchen cabinet. Undyne looked down and saw her old friend in a sorry little pile on the grass.
His voice was shaky, but some friendly sarcasm was rare enough of an occasion that it was unmistakable. “Let’s *huff* Let’s do that again, shall we?”
Neither could stop laughing on the way home.