#also toriel

Well, nobody except one person.

"Ah! Noelle! Where have you- wait, what are you doing with Susie? And... well, I guess Kris is understandable..."

Everyone froze. It was Berdly.

Berdly hadn't known Noelle was pretty much friends with Kris and Susie. And of course, he was walking towards them. Towards Noelle.

And towards the Player- the second human.

Which he didn't take long to see- being a bit more perceptive than most. "Wait. Who is that secon- WHOA!"

The next few seconds were, from the Player's point of view, a massive whirl of confusion. First, Toriel had grabbed Kris' hand from the left, and the Player from the right- although in the chaos she had grabbed their head, causing them to freeze in confusion and essentially ragdoll the rest of the way.

As for Susie and Noelle, Susie just picked up Berdly like a football and ran (which was honestly shocking to both Noelle and Berdly), and Noelle was just making sure there was a clear path to the old classroom.

Once they were there, and things were calmed down, Berdly just let out a shocked response. "...what just happened..."

Toriel sighed. "...I was hoping that things wouldn't get any further complicated. But I suppose that it was asking for things to do just that. I guess some explaining needs done."

With that, the group started explaining the situation to Berdly- who was surprisingly able to comprehend the whole of it. And when the Player described the whole layered-world portion, Berdly actually seemed intrigued by it- and not even doubtful.

"...So you're saying that this... Player... basically came from a reality a step up from ours, and had been controlling Kris thinking that our reality was akin to a video game, when in truth it was just a window into our layer of reality."

Everyone went silent. Except Susie. "Okay, I have no idea what the hell you just said, but it sounds kinda accurate." Toriel just chuckled. "I suppose Berdly understood it much faster than the rest of us. Regardless, Kris, Susie, Noelle, and the Player supposedly had something to show me involving... recent events... and, I guess we're showing you as well?"

Kris nodded. "Might as well. He knows about Player and the Player's world... might as well inform him of the rest."

Berdly nodded a bit. "...Okay. I guess this might explain Kris and Susie's continued absences." Susie just rolled her eyes. "Oh for the-"

Before she could say anything, Kris just stopped her. "Hold on, Susie. We'll get to that afterwards. For now though, we need to get to class- we've spent long enough as is."

Now it was Berdly's turn to be confused. "What? Go to class? But people are gonna notice the Player! How are we supposed to..." Until, being Berdly, he figured things out. "Oh. That's why you all were so tightly packed- you were hiding them. And you were gonna have them stay in here until class was over. That's... actually really smart. Whose idea was that anyways?"

Noelle chuckled some. "It was a bit from... all of us, actually." she said, smiling a bit. Berdly nodded in response- not even a jab at Susie. After a few moments of silence- mostly Susie expecting the aforementioned jab, Berdly spoke once more. "...So are we gonna get going or stand here awkwardly for another hour?"

Susie just chuckled at this. "Okay, okay, birdbrain. Let's get moving." As they walked out, the Player could hear Berdly and Noelle talk a bit more, starting with Berdly asking if Noelle finished the project, and finishing with an awkward "Uhh, about that..." as the door closed behind them.

After that, the Player was left alone in the old classroom.

At least, they had thought they were alone.

"...You're already forgetting, aren't you?"

They turned around to see the Knight from the other side of a small, dark hole in the wall, one which hadn't been there before.

The Player took a step back. "What are you doing here?!" they exclaimed- albeit somewhat quietly. The Knight just chuckled a bit. "I'm not quite 'here'. Nor quite 'there' either. But that isn't my intent right now."

"You at least remember how you tried to keep the timeline from shifting, don't you? How you tried to prevent it from changing?"

The Player looked towards the white being, unsure what to think of this. "...Yeah, I messed up... I'm trying to keep too much from shifting..."

But the Knight laughed lightly. "...It's a bit late for that. I'm sure you felt as though something was off. And... that's because something was. The past has been altered. And, at this point, there's nothing that can be done. If the past changes in some way, then it's always been like that. But the fact you're still here- with your SOUL- means that you're still going to pull your little stunt anyways. Thus I must position my pieces accordingly."

The Player groaned. "Always with your little board game analogies. You do know that you're playing a completely different game, right? If that term makes sense." they said, a sort of jab at them. And oddly enough, the Knight laughed to this. A more genuine laugh. It almost scared the Player.

"I suppose I have grown to use a lot of these analogies, even in name. That's what you used against me after all. And you are correct- as of right now, we are playing different games. But sooner or later, seeing as our pieces are the same, we'll wind up in the same game anyways. You do understand that much, right?"

The Player sighs. "...I guess so. Maybe it's more of the same game with different goals. Or something." To this, the Knight nodded. "...Very much so. My goal isn't quite to defeat you, nor the other friends of yours. It's something else entirely, but that's a story for another time. You keep playing your game, and we'll cross the bridge of our games some other time. I'll leave you and your group to your own devices."

The hole begins to fade away once more, and the Knight with it. The Player grumbled slightly- but the Knight was right. There was no way to deal with the Knight yet. They had more important issues at hand.

And somehow, the Knight seemed like they were talking more than normal. Not because of monologuing, but because of legitimate conversation. And the laughter- the actual, genuine laughter... it felt unusual. Almost like they hadn't laughed for years.

They seemed like someone entirely different for those few minutes.

But before they could think much on this, the rest of the group returned. Kris chuckled.

"All right, let's get things set up, and then we can show you what's going on."