#asgore: did she like the flowers? :D?

[zarla-s]

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Probably the most you could ask for or get, considering the circumstances. Doesn’t help with all the conflicted emotions it brings up though.

Toriel's regrets about choices she’s made showed up in that nightmare she had a long time ago and in a few other places, haha. It does weigh on her at times.

[index] [patreon] [comicfury]

#undertale #handplates #gaster #toriel #z art #z comic #my flowers now #toriel: let's talk openly and honestly about our feelings #gaster: *SHUTS DOWN* #ah how nostalgic #asgore: did she like the flowers? :D? #gaster holding back tears: i'm going to go to my room

[undergrowthau]

Welcome to the underground!

An intro post to my AU Undergrowth!

My undertale AU, named Undergrowth, is an AU that's themed around plants, and an idea of the underground being overgrown with different types of plants because of how long they have been stuck underground! Not everything is done yet, but I have basic character descriptions and story lines! Questions about my AU are ENCOURAGED!!! PLEASE!!! SEND ME QUESTIONS!!! I WOULD LOVE TO ANSWER THEM!!! I've been working on this AU for a few months and still trying to tie everything together :D

Undergrowth is written by me. AKA @sillysunflowerdoodles while I had help from a lot of my friends, the idea is my own and I hope you enjoy!:

.・Character Changes & Summaries

CHARA DREEMURR: Chara is an autistic child who fell down when they were 12 whilst running away from bullies. They are genderfluid, going by she/he/they pronouns. They are NOT evil. Chara enjoys things other kids may not “normally enjoy,” but he is very enthusiastic about what he enjoys. After she falls and is found by Asriel, they quickly become best friends. 

ASRIEL DREEMURR: Asriel was 13 when Chara fell. While he was a playful and optimistic kid, he had a hard time making friends who truly liked him. The kids he hung out with only wanted to be his friend because he was the underground prince. When Chara fell, he instantly clicked with it, becoming attached. 

When Asriel brought Chara to the surface, the events that occur are the same as the events in the game. After eating buttercups as part of a plan to escape the underground, Chara unfortunately dies. After this, Asriel absorbed Chara’s soul in order to cross the barrier to bring them to their old village, but he was attacked soon before he could. Asriel made it back to the underground but dusted on the buttercup garden before he could say goodbye to his parents

TORIEL DREEMURR: After the death of BOTH of her children, Toriel left Asgore without a trace. She fled to the ruins, and whilst being almost completely isolated, grief soon took over her. She started planting buttercups, and studying plants. Over the decades before Frisk fell, she was able to get plants from the surface of the hole and plant those. By the time Frisk falls, Toriel is so blinded by her attachment to both her plants and her desire to protect the humans that fell that she refuses to even bring up the idea of them leaving. The stairs leading to the exit ruins door were destroyed, and Frisk has to try to dig through the rubble while Toriel is either baking or sleeping. Toriel’s fight is harder, as she is reliving her grief of losing every child who has fallen down. 

ASGORE DREEMURR: He also fell into a deep depressive state after the children had passed on. Asriel’s dust had scattered on a few buttercup flowers in his throne room, and he became attached to these flowers. He continued to take care of them and re-plant them as time went on. He didn’t deal with Toriel’s disappearance very well either. For a long time, he had assumed an ill-mannered and quick-tempered personality from his grief. He wanted to go back up to the surface and get revenge for his children. By the time the second human fell, he ordered his royal guard to bring them to him so he could take their soul. In a blind rage, he killed four human children before Alphys had to help him snap out of it. After he realized what he did, he slowly became his old, goofy self again. He felt immense guilt for killing the humans, but what he started, he had to finish, for his people.

ALPHYS: After making Mettaton impress Asgore to become a Royal Scientist, Alphys became engrossed in her work, desperate to find a way to escape the underground without killing any humans in the process. Asgore had asked her to make Mettaton able to kill humans, and she simply couldn’t refuse orders from the king, but she felt guilty. After the fourth human fell, she decided to install cameras around the underground, hoping she would be able to help humans before Asgore could reach them. She was also asked by Asgore to help create the core, (along with Gaster) and fuel it with plants instead of what it was fueled within regular Undertale. (To be honest, I don’t fully understand the Core of Undertale so I’m just switching it up.) She made multiple types of plants, some inspired by shows she watched, and others based on human plants she had seen in books that had fallen in the Dump.

SANS: (Who has the nickname IVY for those UTMV fans) Sans made two promises to the old lady hiding in ruins. 1. Protect any humans that fall down and leave the ruins, and 2. Keep an eye on the plants that leave the ruins. He was never a skeleton to break a promise, so every day after he promised her, he would care for the plants. As a royal guard, he was also ordered by to protect the Ruins by Asgore, so win-win. He started studying plants, using similar books Alphys had found from the Dump. He and Alphys are close science friends! Alphy enlists his help when creating a plant-based CORE once she learns he's a huge plant nerd. He's still the pun guy who's mysterious and knows about timelines, but other than that he didn't change much,,,, besides drinking soy sauce...?

PAPYRUS: (Who has the nickname Sun or Sunny for UTMV fans) Due to King Asgore’s need for a bigger, more prominent royal guard, Papyrus was accepted into the guard, even though Undyne (and Sans) were worried at first about this decision. Sans sticks by his side more due to him also being a full guard member. Almost every interaction sans is somewhere on the side besides the date. Papyrus is still his warm-hearted, caring self in this AU, but he is more determined to capture Frisk. He's laid out more puzzles for the humans around Snowdin's forest. Because of his role as a royal guard. Because of the almost overpopulation of plants, and lack of meat, Papyrus's favorite dish to make is vegan ramen!

UNDYNE: Undyne is much more determined to capture a human. She is a lot more harsh, quick-witted, and fierce. She has trained all of the Royal Guard under the watch of Asgore and is fueled by a hatred for humans after she learns the pain Asgore has gone through. She and Papyrus are still close friends, but since the Royal Guard takes up more of both of their time, they don’t do cooking lessons (I know I'm so sad). Undyne and Alphys actually work together, mainly in the field of making Mettaton the best human killing machine around, but due to Alphy’s hatred of her creation, they stopped talking by the time Frisk fell. 

METTATON: While Alphy’s original intent of creating him was just for Mettaton to get a new body, Asgore saw the potential of the robot, and had Alphys design a human-killing machine. Mettaton was thrilled to be able to help King Asgore in his quest to make it to the surface, but could tell Alphys wasn’t pleased. The two are a lot closer, like siblings in this AU, Mettaton always being there for Alphys, but not fully understanding why she cared for humans so much. Mettaton is drawn between helping his friend and stealing Frisk’s soul to save the underground and become a star. He shows up a lot more in Hotlands, with a lot more attempts to take Frisk’s soul. 

DR GASTER (and the science crew) In my au, Gaster and the other lost followers never fell into The Core. Dr. W.D. Gaster (he just wants people to call him Gaster... but nobody does) was the first royal scientist, but soon retired after Asgore & he saw Alphy’s potential. He retired to be with his sons in Snowdin and is like a goofy dad that retired and all he wants to do is do BBQs and wear those oversized shirts that have puns on them. (sans had to get his pun-loving genes from SOMEONE). While Gaster is a fun-loving dude, he’s cautious around the human. Like Sans, he knows about timelines and shenanigans because he and Sans studied them before he retired. (He refused to study it any further when Sans found his studies and questioned his dad.) While he used to be close to Sans due to their love of science, their relationship has slowly been dwindling since the discovery of timelines and Gaster's retirement, Gaster and Papyrus’s relationship has been improving though!

FLOWEY: Flowey The Flower is relatively the same in this AU. He was still created by Alphys while experimenting with determination, and he taunts Alphys for this ‘mistake’ constantly. He sticks around Frisk a lot more, due to the overcrowding of plants in the ruins, but near the flower bed is where he usually stays. 

AND THATS IT FOR NOW!!! I have so much more planned so please stay tuned!

#undertale fandom #undertale #undertaleau #undertale au #undertale multiverse #sans undertale #undertale papyrus #undertale alternate universe #original au

[dododan]

Forgotten Perseverance - Chapter 1

Masterpost

Prologue

"Before Katharina came to the Underground, there was another man before her. He stood out for his impeccable courage. He was not afraid to raise his blade against unknown creatures, just to get home.

And what did it look like from the side of the monsters?"

When she appeared, I had finished sixteen years old and my little brother Papyrus had nines birthday. He was enough too old to understand the world around him, but he still saw the world by the pink glasses. Somebody could say my brother was so naive, but I thought every child in his ages behave like that. Only that world wasn't so easy how children thought or perhaps we – adults – complicate the world too much?  

I often thought how my brother would deal with the world. Papyrus preferred to solve the problems by talking, but not all the monsters were like him – peaceful. Sometimes I and our father wondered why Papyrus wanted to be a Royal Guardian. When we asked him, he responded that he only wanted to help others and to be a popular. I reflected how he wanted to do it with his passion in straw and big shyness. But I always wanted to protect him, and I still. 

This day was like every last days. I didn't expect that something could happen. How usually after the school, I wanted to go to the Ruin, especially to flower chamber, where appeared latest people. There were already three of them, not counting Princess Chara Dremuur. Every monster knew her story. She had appeared in the Underground, igniting the hearts of monsters. She had given us hope. I didn't have a chance to know her personally. I was 5 years old, when Princess Chara and Prince Asriel had gone. I saw them a few times in the capital, but nothing else. It was followed by more people. 

From Chara's death until Katharina's appearance, various people fell into the Underworld. I didn't know their names, so I'll use their characteristics. The first to appear was a woman - a Patiente. She turned up a few days after Chara and Asriel's funeral. I didn't meet her, but I heard she didn't even pass Ruin. She died solving one of the traps. Her soul was taken to the palace. She was supposed to be the key to destroying the barrier. You probably know about the King of the Underworld, Asgor wanting to get human souls to break the barrier. He started collecting them after the death of his children. The soul of Petience was the first. The next was the soul of Honesty - a teenager. She managed to successfully pass the Ruins. In Snowdin she was caught by the guards. The captain of the Royal Guard - Vinci personally led the girl to the capital. Honesty tried to negotiate with King Asgore. She was unsuccessful. He killed her. Then Queen Toriel left. She could not watch her husband kill a defenceless child. The king gained a second soul and the queen disappeared. There were rumours that she was hiding in the Ruins. Apparently she was waiting for more people - she wanted to warn them about Asgor. 

After Honesty, a third man appeared. A man who was characterised by Bravery. When he appeared in Snowdin, the monsters began to suspect that he had killed the Queen. It later transpired that he had killed old Jim - a senior dog living away from the town. This man was dangerous. He attacked several monsters and one of my buddies - Doggo the dog. Because of Bravery, Doggo became blind. The man attacked his father and Doggo tried to defend him. He was injured. Since then, the boy changed. He wanted to join the Royal Guard and catch people. Many did so at the time. As a blind man, Doggo could not fight, but he managed perfectly well without it. His strength proved to be his hearing. It was because of it that he joined the ranks of the Guards in the future. Returning to Bravery, the man killed or seriously injured several more monsters on his way. He managed to get as far as Hotland. By some miracle, he entered the laboratory of my father - W. D. Gaster.  What he was looking for there none of us know. Maybe he thought he could get out that way? 

I won't forget it for the rest of my life. Bravery was the reason for my 'dislike' of people. 

I was in the lab with Papyrus at the time. He was three at the time, so he doesn't remember it. That's fine, but I often had nightmares.    

Bravery burst into Papa's office. I took Paps and hid under the desk. I pressed my brother against me. Dad faced him, ready to defend us. They started to fight. I don't want to recall that fight. To this day, chills run through me at the memory of that day, but what I remember most was the sight of my father. Bravery hit my father on the head with a wooden stick. I held my breath, pressing Papyrus to my chest. I was afraid. No. I was terrified, seeing my father on the ground. Although I could only see his back, I could still see the crack on his skull. It stretched across his entire head. Blood was slowly oozing from the wound. The red liquid ran down the bone onto the snow-white apron, soaking into it. Papyrus began to cry. He must have heard what was happening and got scared. I tried to calm him down somehow, but it didn't help. I looked at my father. He had already got up from the ground. He looked over at us. What I saw... At first I couldn't believe it. The crack started below his eye socket and went through it. A lot more blood than I thought at first. He seemed extremely tired, but as soon as he met my gaze. His expression changed. The uncertainty and fear disappeared and was replaced by pure hatred. Hatred of people. My father turned to face the man. He stretched out his hand in front of him, which began to be surrounded by purple magic.    

"You're going to start regretting coming here at all" - growled the father in the ancient language of the monsters. I understood it because he had taught it to me. Dad considered it a legacy of the surface monsters, so he decided to teach it to us. When father got angry he would start speaking it. "You will pay for hurting the people of Snowdin! For breaking in here!" shouted father. He raised his hand above his head. The man began to shake. I think he realised who he was dealing with. He tried to escape, but bones grew out of the ground making any movement impossible. "You think you can escape!" Blasters appeared above his father. Each with violet eyes. "You will pay for all your sins. And especially for attacking my sons!" Bone heads shot out with purple flame. Bravery struggled, but it had little effect. He was burnt to ashes. An orange heart appeared above his ashes - his soul. It was already about to disappear, but his father managed to capture it in his magic.    

"Your punishment is yet to begin" his father added, burying his soul in a special container. He left it on the table and walked over to us. He knelt down at the desk, hugging us.    

"It's all right now. You are in no danger” he said in a calm voice, embracing us tighter. "It's over now. Don't cry Sans” 

Through my father's words, I realised that tears had been pouring down my cheekbones for a few moments. I didn't even notice when I started crying.    

A few minutes later, guards rushed into the study. Seeing us and the battlefield, they immediately set about dressing my father. After that I do not remember much. Everything happened as if in a fog. I felt tired, even exhausted. And the last thing I remember of that day was how darkness covered my eye sockets. The only thought swirling around in my head at the time was that I would not let this situation happen again. 

Next

#undertale #guardiantale #sans #papyrus #undyne #alphys #gaster #frisk #undertale fandom #undertale oc #undertale fanfiction #undertale fanfic #undertale sans #sans undertale #sans au #undertale au #undertale alternate universe #undertale alphys

[underfell-brittle-bright]

Introduction And Warnings

Dead Dove Do Not Eat: It has what it says on the tin/ things are occasionally morally dubious without karma, instant karma, or obvious karma.

Specific Warnings:

Vendetta. Yes, he is his own warning, and anything with him in it will be tagged with tw vendetta, since he single-handedly is the reason for a great deal of these warnings. Moving on. War violence, nationalism, swearing, alcoholism, underage drinking, guns and other weapons, instruments of torture, racism, sexism, homophobia, themes of rape.

---

This is a world meant to be explored through dialogue. You will know as much as you explore, and redundant questions will be accepted, especially questions on a character's opinion. Tastes and attitudes shift.

---

In this world, Monsters are cursed with cowardice in the midst of The Human/Monster World War. Many are willing to fight for glory, but abandon those in need of protection if the means to help places them at risk of embarrassment.

Today, Monsterkind is divided between The Mountain and The Surface. Most Monsters live below the ground, relatively safe from artillery shells and bombs. They live each day only for themselves in 1940s American style cities within The Mountain. On the Surface, however, Monsters live in steel-clad military bases and see the expanse of Earth through turret lenses and crosshairs, never caring to enjoy the sights, even when it'll be the last thing they see.

---

You are allowed to ask any character, as long as you know their name. You are allowed to give gifts and physically interact with characters-- but the characters have the right to ignore, reject, and accept interactions at their own in-character discretion.

For asks with a combination of characters from different Worlds (example: Underfell Bright Sans and Underswap Beam Grillby), ask @undertalebrittle. It is the home of the Brittle Void.

---

Revealed Roster:

Frisk (Tack)

A short human boy with a shorter temper-- doesn't accept others talking down to him or his friends and family. Doesn't shy away from fights often. Has troubles with learning in school and wants to take over his family's cobbler business one day, just like his dad did. "MY PAWPAW DIED FOR THIS COUNTRY! I DON'T CARE IF HE'S "INVINCIBLE"! If he wants to hurt me or mine, then I'll break every dumb bone in his B O D Y."

Sans (Roller)

A sensitive mural painter and part-time construction worker. A bit shy, but friendly. Often watches over Vendetta, trying to control whatever damage he does. Collects pressed flowers and is a tortured artist. Unsure of himself. Responsible for keeping Vendetta in line and burying his brother's missteps. "Oh no, that's not good--"

Papyrus (Vendetta)

A violent military man who despises Humanity for being inferior to Monsters. He holds strength above all, and enjoys tearing people apart. Respects rank and follows orders-- in his own way. Collects trophies from those who cross him and enjoys flaunting them. Nigh-invulnerable, he enjoys making others uncomfortable by eating glass and bathing in lava. Living with his brother on the direct order of King Asgore. Blatantly racist and sexist. Collects severed ears. "LEND ME YOUR EARS, HUMAN! I HAVE VERY IMPORTANT THINGS I'M GOING TO DO WITH THEM!"

Muffet (Vintage)

A nomadic merchant who serves as her group's appraiser. She considers herself to be necessary, and occasionally pushes her chores off on those who let her. Her group travels the Surface and makes frequent deals with both Humans and Monsters. Plays the fiddle when she feels like it, and not before. A free spirit who hoards gems and precious metals for "future use". "Oh no, what a tragedy... Anyway."

---

Undertale Brittle by @kyne-grotto

Underfell Brittle/Bright by @kyne-grotto

(or Grotto-kay on DeviantArt, where most of the context already is.)

#introduction #uf bright #ut brittle #undertale #undertale au #grotto's journal

[xadoheandterra]

F A L L E N

Series: Purple Stars

Story: F A L L E N Scenes: I | II | III | IV Characters: Wing Dings Aster [W. D. Gaster], Asgore Dreemur, Toriel Dreemur Tags: Angst, non-consensual soulbinding, implied child abuse, implied child abandonment, zalgo text Summary: A SOUL shattered, and in doing so began to FALL, and FALL, and FALL, and FALL….

--

The first human, Mageling really, to fall had been one who valued patience. A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ realized that rather quickly in the way they kept softly to themselves underneath the stars, despite the very clear gravemarker there. It was the way the Mageling interacted with the world that gave A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ pause, and when A̷s̷r̶i̶e̷l̷ showed their face--well, what little of A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ lost control of his grip upon time and things slipped away. He fell through the v̶o̵i̴d̵ faster and harder and fiercer--until Sans.

Until that glowing cyan-blue-yellow eye, hands raised high, and a dragons head formed above his shoulder.

"I'm sorry," Sans said, and A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ watched the knife twist as the flesh and blood body ceased--and the SOUL fluttered, trapped in a glass cage. He watched as tears pooled down dark sockets, a rictis grin upon a face. He watched how Sans' SOUL burned, the deepest pits of it yawned and widened deeper--the v̶o̵i̴d̵ consumed just a bit more.

A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ did not know if he screamed, or if he laughed, but he knew that the darkness clawed thick and close as he fell and fell and fell.

--

H̴e̷ ̷t̴a̶s̷t̸e̵d̸ ̵i̴n̶k̵ ̶o̶n̴ ̷h̴i̶s̶ ̶t̷o̸n̶g̴u̸e̶.̶

--

Star Clan were the first skeletons A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ had met. He knew of skeletons before that in the way that any monster knew of another kinsoul, from whispers and word-of-mouth and the rumor mill. A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ had figured they would treat him like all others had ever treated him--distance, distaste, disgust. Bar Asgore--and R̷i̵v̵e̶r̷s̷ but that didn't count because he and R̷i̵v̵e̶r̷s̷ were the same in this--A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ had not met a monster that felt the v̵o̸i̴d̸-̶s̵t̵a̵i̷n̵ upon his SOUL and been immediately repulsed.

A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ could not even count his Queen like he could Asgore because the first time they met she had Judged for him an End, and everything after that to A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ was blackness. He'd not actually spoken to her until recently, when she'd softly offered him the name of the flowers he'd been so enamored with as a name. The name settled around his SOUL like a warm blanket, a comfort that A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ did not know he had been missing. It soothed--something. A jagged edge, maybe, that he had not previously observed.

The meeting happened in the garden, like most things did these days for A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴. Perhaps because the Queen had recognized how much time A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ spent there when out of his room, or the fact that he quite clearly felt fond of the aster flowers that bloomed there, bright purple little stars in a sea of green and white. It felt a bit of a waste of his talents, his prowess and knowledge of magic, his mind that always thought of new things and new ways to make those things, but A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ could not deny that the garden flourished under his metacarpals.

It still felt strange to cultivate and grow things instead of killing, but his Queen held the reigns there, now, and A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ would always Obey.

Asgore had been with him; the giant of a goat loved gardening and had always been happy to assist A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ in the garden. He was the only real constant to A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴'s life beyond the feel of his Queen in his SOUL. He let A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ ramble in the garden about aqueducts and fluid dynamics, and soil composition as A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ walked among the flowers. He followed A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ as he dug small waterways and built a water system to grow plants in the air without soil. It was so very bland and boring and normal. It was so content.

A part of A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ always bristled at the feeling, even as he relaxed more and more in Asgore's presence. Occasionally he would see the Queen on the edge of the garden, watching, observing--but mostly he felt her in his SOUL with curious prodding and questions A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ could not avoid. These two constants almost eased the absence of R̷i̵v̵e̶r̷s̷. A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ had never been parted with the other monster for so long as he had been now.

He felt them before he saw them, when Star Clan arrived. Skeleton magic had a very particular feel of it and A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ had spent long enough studying himself to know the flavor as it burst across his senses. He could not help the way his bones stiffened as he tended to the aster flowers, Asgore right next to him with paws in the dirt as he transplanted a few tomato plants at A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴'s direction. He could not look to the entrance of the garden, either, as his eyelights blinked out to leave behind empty sockets.

A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ felt like he could not breathe, and it was only Asgore at his side and the feel of the Queen there with Star Clan that stopped him from bolting entirely from the garden in that moment. He felt more than actually heard the skeletons speak, a lilting sort of magical sound that came from one of them--there were two, next to the Queen.

"Oh~" It wasn't disgust, but shock, surprise, a gentleness that had A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ frozen stiff. "Achemar~"

"I see, Alioth," the second skeleton intoned, words deeper, sharper, but no less gentle than the first. 

Asgore had to place a hand on A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴'s shoulder, nudge the skeleton to his feet to turn and face his guests even as he spoke up cheerfully. "Howdy! I'm Asgore, and this is A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴." He slapped slightly along A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴'s shoulderbones, enough to knock A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ forward although A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ didn't really notice. His eyelights remained off, even as he stared at the two skeletons before him. They were tall, and thinboned, and something in the shape was--not quite familiar, but enough that A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ wasn't sure what he felt.

"I am Alioth," the taller of the two greeted, voice lilting and light. "This is Achemar. We are the representatives of Star Clan."

It was Achemar who turned toward the Queen, mandible pressed tight. It was Achemar who said with an aching baritone, a hint of sharpness, "You did not say he was a child."

A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ bristled, and without thought his magic reacted. Bones sharp and clear, stained purple-black, sprouted between the Queen and the skeletons and A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ took a step forward with a fixed grin to his face. The bones faded within the next second when the feel of the Queen twisted around his SOUL--a reprimand, a reminder to know his place, and with that A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ stepped back and wiped the grin from his face and returned himself to stillness.

threatdangertooclose

SAFEPEACECALM

"I did not know, although I had my suspicions," the Queen said, tone just as soft. A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ could not help but turn his head away.

"Those were some quick reflexes," Achemar spoke up softly. His partner, Alioth, approached Asgore and A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ while Achemar continued to speak quietly with the Queen. A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ tried to stop the way he wanted to bristle, reminded himself that the Queen bade him to stop, so he kept himself still and silent as a sentinel.

Asgore still pressed a hand against his shoulder blade, a firm pressure on his thinbones, a steady presence of comfort that A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ did not know what to deal with. It helped, when Alioth approached and towered over him. It helped when she reached out to tilt up his chin, to look at his skull and peer at him.

"Where is your Parent, littlebones?" Alioth asked, lilting and softness.

A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ regarded her in kind, the way she shone a bright and soft teal in the air. Her magic thrummed within her bones, a way that A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ had never really felt before because while he knew the feel of his own magic he could never replicate seeing this. He stepped back out of Asgore's grip, out of Alioth's touch. He said, "I have no Parent," because he didn't.

A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ woke to darkness and dust and loneliness. A day later the shadows became form, became ink and ichor and then R̷i̵v̵e̶r̷s̷ was there, just as young, just as new to the world. Until R̷i̵v̵e̶r̷s̷, all A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ knew was darkness that surrounded him, the dirt beneath him, the dust on his bones, and the little twinkling stars high, high in the sky above him.

"Everyone has a Parent, littlebones," Alioth countered softly, and A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ could not help but scoff.

"I am not little," he snapped back, because he wasn't. He was six feet, near tall as the Boss Monster that was his Queen. So what if he was shorter than these skeletons who stood taller than eight feet, who stood taller than tall. He was not a child. He was several hundred years old, at this rate. He was not a child. "And I have no Parent. I woke to dust. And darkness."

There is a long moment of silence as A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ regarded the skeletons in front of him with blank sockets, hands clenched tight to his sides. Then Alioth turned toward Achemar and their magic did something that A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ did not understand. He tilted his head, eyelights dim in his sockets as he considered--some form of communication? A flicker and flare of emotion and magic passed between the two and A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ watch with rapt attention and curiosity that burned SOUL deep.

Finally Achemar turned toward the Queen. "We will accept him. His magic is definitely Star Clan, although I will need to speak with Garamond of Font Clan as well."

"Oh?" the Queen looked him over, and A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ turned away after a moment. Something in that gaze burned, and A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ did not know why. It felt--cold. He did not understand what was happening. What did Achemar mean by they would take him? Was the Queen getting rid of him? How utterly foolish. She could never be rid of him. He was bound to her very SOUL. He could feel the burning tie to his own even now, a sharp reminder that he belonged to her, and in turn in some way she belonged to him.

That did not stop the sting.

A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ grimaced at the thought, at how it hurt.

"You must have noticed the way he speaks," Achemar waved away, even as Alioth joined his side. "That is a Font Clan trait. Perhaps they will know more."

A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ doubted, and really he felt done with this. This interaction and this talk of taking and this talk of Clans. A̷s̷t̵e̵r̴ had no Clan. This was nonsense.

"I am going. Back to my room," he said, under his breath to Asgore, and stiffly left the garden.

--

F̴a̷m̷i̶l̶y̴.̶ ̵W̷h̷a̷t̷ ̵a̸ ̶s̷t̶r̵a̴n̵g̸e̶ ̴c̸o̷n̶c̸e̸p̸t̷.̶

--

Y̸e̵t̶.̷

--

W̸a̵s̸n̴'̷t̷ ̵t̷h̵a̵t̴ ̷w̴h̵a̸t̵ ̸h̶e̵ ̷a̸l̷w̵a̷y̵s̷ ̷w̷a̷n̸t̸e̵d̵?̶

--

H̴e̷ ̷t̴a̶s̷t̸e̵d̸ ̵i̴n̶k̵ ̶o̶n̴ ̷h̴i̶s̶ ̶t̷o̸n̶g̴u̸e̶.̶

--

The first human, Mageling really, to fall had been one who valued patience. The died in the flowerbed, beneath the stars, a vine through their chest. Their SOUL shattered.

--

T̷h̷e̵i̶r̴ ̵S̴O̸U̵L̸ ̸w̵a̵s̴ ̶i̴n̸ ̸g̷l̶a̶s̸s̷ ̴i̵n̶ ̷A̵s̶g̸o̴r̸e̸'̷s̷ ̴g̴a̷r̷d̵e̴n̶.̸

--

T̸h̸e̶ ̵v̷o̵i̸d̸ ̸s̶h̴u̴d̶d̵e̴r̷e̷d̸.̷

--

S̶o̶m̷e̷t̶h̴i̷n̴g̶ ̸w̵a̸s̷ ̴w̶r̵o̷n̵g̸.̴

#undertale #wd gaster #asgore #toriel #fanfic #fic: purple stars #fic: f a l l e n #angst

[viky2318]

Hi again, please give me suggestion because I'm slowly getting out of ideas and I want to understand what people likes to read. With that said, have an Alphys

Underground, True Lab

What a mess. She failed. Again. The monsters Alphys was supposed to help were now huge walking amalgamations, eternally condemned to suffer. The flower that was supposed to be the vessel disappeared. She didn't had the souls Asgore asked for, nor the people she promised to send home to their families. If someone discovered her horrible faliures, they would surely hate her forever. What was she supposed to do? If just she didn't injected all that DT, she would probably have the souls. But she got scared of failing in the wrong moment and exaggerated with the doses. There was no way back. A ring of her phone interrupted her thoughts. She carefully checked who it was, fearing for one of the families. Thankfully it was just Mettaton. She took a deep breath to calm herself and answered the call. "H-hello Mettaton! How are you d-doing?" She asked. Mettaton's voice on the other end of the phone sounded a little tired. "Really good, darling. Today I got even 763 spectators! It was kind of hard, but I did it". Alphys smiled. "O-oh! That's awesome! Sadly, today I c-couldn't see you: I was busy at the lab. But I am s-sure you did a wonderful performance!". Mettaton laughed quietly, muttering a 'obviously', then asked: "so, how are you doing? Did you finished my new body?". Here. That was the question Alphys was waiting for. Every time he called, they ended up discussing about his new body. Alphys was sure, the moment she would have finished that body Mettaton would have left her alone, probably forever. "Alphys? Are you still there?" The robot asked, not hearing anything. "Oh-uhm, yes! Yes, I'm still here. Your body you said? I-I'm so sorry, Mettaton. I'm having difficulties with the batteries. Y-you know, such a complicated machine needs way more e-energy than your actual form, s-so...". Mettaton sighed. Oh gosh. She disappointed him again. "Nevermind" he said. "Do your best, Doc. I can't wait to see your work finished! I'm sure it will be incredible". With that said, he ended the call. Alphys looked at the screen of her phone. On the background there was a photo of her with Undyne, eating noodles together. "She would hate me if she discovered what I am" Alphys thought. "I would probably hate myself too".

Yes sir, tragedy

#alphys undertale #Alphys #Amalgamates #Mettaton #Undyne #Undertale #True Lab

[starry-voidss]

he's evil but he's also cute so that makes up for it i think-

anyway i'm really curious about his backstory, according to a lore thingy i saw once he was a player or something? like with the ability to save/reset/respawn etc? so how does that play in?

this is just me inviting you to tell me whatever the heck you want to say about flowey so uh. go for it :D

Huh! I don't think Flowey is a player. Actually, kind of the opposite. He used to be a monster. This isn't a theory, it's canon, and I also have an explanation for how he can save and reset.

So his backstory is that he was a monster named Asriel, prince of the underground, son of Queen Toriel and King Asgore (his name is a combination of both of their names. I like to think Asgore named him because Asgore is already notorious for being bad at naming things.)

He was best friends with his adopted sibling, Chara. Chara became terminally ill from eating buttercups, and they asked to see the Golden Flowers of their village before they died. Asriel took them up to the surface, but when they died, Asriel accidentally took their soul. They shared the body. Chara took their own body to the village, and intended to collect the human souls to free the underground, but Asriel resisted, and they both were killed. When he returned, he dusted (died) over Golden Flowers in the Underground.

Here's Asriel ^^

After this, Asgore declared that he would kill every human that fell down to the Underground, and Toriel left to the Ruins because she disagreed with him.

Anyway, Asriel is dead, right?

Sort of.

Alphys, the Royal Scientist, did some experiments with DETERMINATION, the thing that human SOULs had that allowed them to persist after death. If the main quality of your SOUL is determination, that allows you to save and reset.

Alphys injected determination into a Golden Flower, which awakened what little it had of Asriel. However, he doesn't have a SOUL anymore, so he doesn't have emotions. (I.. have more to say about this, because he does show some emotions. It's mostly Flowey who states he has no emotions.)

"Asriel" first met Asgore when he woke up. (I think Asgore named Flowey as well, haha.) Flowey couldn't feel love, so he ran away to Toriel in the Ruins. He discovered his ability to SAVE and RESET there.

He abused this ability, RESETing and doing different things to see what would happen. He became friends with Papyrus, which is an interesting relationship in of itself. I think he discovered that Sans and Papyrus knew of the RESETs (even if they couldn't exactly remember what happened), and decided he wanted to figure out how much they knew. Papyrus was easier to befriend, and Sans was infuriating with his puns. Eventually Flowey genuinely liked Papyrus, after all, why would he befriend him in multiple runs? (highlighted in blue to indicate that is mostly a headcannon.)

So yeah, that's pretty much his backstory! Once the Player comes around, though, he can't reset anymore, just remember what the Player did.

#undertale #flowey #flowey the flower #flowey undertale

[dodo-begone]

ALRIGHTY! LOYAL HERE COMING IN WITH THE CIRCUS HAHAHA

Btw, I’m like 90% sure that I fell asleep while writing so it just stops. Like, there’s no ending/summary/whatever word I’m looking for but can’t think of at the moment and my bird is currently chewing on my phone case oh my god can she please stop—

__________________

I believe the concept of yanderes ft. a isekai-d reader has been mentioned by Shepard and her anons, tho it’s been mainly for Origins SMP. So, I come to you with ideas for the Dream SMP because that’s all I’m familiar with HAHAH—

Also, I apologize in advance because this thing is borderline an essay with how long it is. I’m so sorry—

For example *cue dramatic lighting and a cheesy flashback monologue thingie* oh my god I think I’m losing it, I’m so tired

Y/n and their younger sibling, Frisk, had just finished up another press conference regarding Monsters being back on the surface. All seems to be going well until the ground beneath their feet vanishes and they fall unconscious a few moments later. When they awaken, they notice they’re surrounded by humans—wait they aren’t all humans, what the fuck, since when are there hybrids? They knew everyone from the underground—by name, no less—and had never heard of any currently living hybrids. Only of ones from before the war. Besides, Monsters have been on the surface for a month at most, so there is no way for... oh boy, their head is spinning.

After some very...tense...introductions (“Hi, I never saw you guys Underground, nor have I heard of you, no offense. So, uh, which monsters are you guys related to?” “OI, I’LL HAVE YOU KNOW THAT TUBBO IS NOT A MONSTER!”) they come to the realization that y/n is most definitely not from this world, or even this universe. Y/n’s adamant refusal to fight the “real monsters” that roam this land (“I did not spend countless timelines weeks putting my life on the line to befriend every monster, break the barrier that trapped them Underground, and defend them against my own god forsaken race just to turn my back on them.”) was a pretty big sign, after all. That, along with species of monsters that the SMP members have never heard of and how y/n talked about Souls as if they were a tangible thing.

It’s a rocky start before any sort of friendship is formed: y/n, wanting to be cautious, (and also not having Sans there to CHECK for them) decides to ask everyone what their LV is. It’s risky, and they had no way to prove if anyone is (or isn’t) telling the truth, but it was worth a shot. “Our levels?” A small goat hybrid asked, his head slightly tilting to the side. Everyone assumes that y/n is talking about enchantment levels. “I’m at 26! Ranboo, you’re at 30, right?” “I’m at 37 now, actually.” “Well, I’M at 58. Clearly I’m the superior one here. A real big man, a very manly man, aren’t I?” And a few others pipe in. Color drains from y/n’s face and they take a few steps back, hands shaking as their eyes dart between each person in the room and the exit. ‘How many lives have they each taken to make their LOVE so high? Why do they seem so proud of it?’ Yeah... that was an interesting experience.

- even though they have been reassured multiple times that the monsters of this world are nothing like the ones from their home, y/n still refuses to kill a single one, as I had mentioned earlier. They also refuse to kill animals. It takes a couple tries at explaining LV or LOVE—Level Of ViolencE—along with EXP—EXecution Points—but eventually everyone is on the same page

- Y/n is hesitant to bring out their SOUL when asked. First off, though they’re now friends with those from the Underground, they can’t help but be reminded of every spear, knife, bone, petal, gaster blaster, and fireball that has been aimed at them with the intent to kill whenever their SOUL was drawn into an encounter back then. Second of all, showing your SOUL is something you do with those you trust with your life—after all, you’re literally putting your lifeline out on display when you do so. There are so many different ways that the SMP members can see it

- Perhaps a monster appears

- Eggpire or Dream attack

- Someone forces y/n into an encounter because everyone is too curious to just let this opportunity slip by

- When y/n discovers that the people of this land have more than one life, they’re confused. There is no way that all of these people have SOULS of Determination, and there’d definitely be some issues if people kept rewinding time to their last save point. Besides, only one Determination SOUL—the strongest one—should be able to respawn. Then again, they only know what Frisk had explained to them. They were never able to see the save stars that Frisk would interact with in the different sections of the Underground. So they only have so much to go off of.

- Battle for them is completely different. Despite being in a different world, the mechanics from their world still apply. They can FIGHT, ACT, use an ITEM or show MERCY.

- They use Frisk’s tactic and flirt their way out of a fight or two. They never understood why Frisk did it until now... ‘I mean, I...wow. That was actually effective.’ They’re impressed.

- Oh no, maybe that wasn’t the best idea...they might have some yanderes after them bc of it...

- They probably have accidentally called Philza ‘Asgore’ and Tubbo ‘Asriel’ because both hybrids remind her of the two males from her world. Similar personalities AND Tubbo is a goat hybrid. The poor child is going to be so confused

- If Tubbo’s a yandere oh boy it’s going to be so easy for him. Y/n will probably be constantly at his side and telling him stories about the first fallen child and how they were adopted by the royal family, who are goat monsters! And just explaining the history of the underground and how important the goat family is. Talks about Asriel a lot as well. Probably makes him butterscotch cinnamon pie and tries to recreate golden flower tea to share with him as well. Or, they do that and he’s not yandere and it’s just wholesome.

- If we follow the headcanons that some fans have made, perhaps Frisk (and/or y/n) gave up half of their SOUL to give to either (or both) Chara or Asriel so they’d have another chance at life

- Not only does y/n refuse to kill, which leaves them vulnerable, they also only have half a SOUL, which means they’re incredibly weak. Someone needs to protect them, someone needs to keep them safe, someone needs to—

- Y/n is incredibly agile thanks to all the battles they’ve faced Underground. With their SOUL always out in the open during an encounter and the fact that they refuse to harm anyone, it’s required. I’m imagining them moving like a dancer, using jumps and spins to help them avoid any weapons swung at them.

- This is gonna be annoying for any yandere that wishes to lock y/n up. Even if they won’t physically hurt someone, they WILL put up a fight and make it as hard as they possibly can to be dragged into isolation or imprisonment

- When it comes to who goes yandere, I believe what color of SOUL y/n has (their personality, in summary) would play a big role. Here’s a few of my ideas, feel free to move people around or add to it, I’m really tired and can’t think of many characters LOL

- Red (determination): Wilbur, Technoblade

- Orange (bravery): Technoblade, Dream, Tommy

- Yellow (justice): Sam, Technoblade

- Green (kindness): the kids of the server, Fundy, and Ghostbur

- Cyan (patience): Ranboo, Ghostbur, Karl

- Dark blue (integrity): Tubbo, Philza, Sam

- Purple (perseverance): Dream—this man would love to see how long it would take for your perseverance to run out. I wouldn’t be surprised if your perseverance is the only reason he’s interested.

__________________

From what I saw of the end of what I wrote, it is DEFINITELY cut short. At least I mentioned every SOUL type lolol.

Also, I found a whole other note that’s a continuation of this concept but for y/n being from another game what the hell was I doing—

Expect that to come in another ask once I eat dinner

Sorry i took so long to answer!! I kept getting distracted!

That stuff is so pog man!!!! Puffy might be called “Toriel” once in a while because mom energy and she sheep,,, close to goat!

Gosh all the flirting will bring in so many yanderes or make ppl like “yo wtf??” And there’s a very small amount that are inbetween.

OKAY BUT WITH THE MONSTER STUFF ON THE DSMP- they’d keep the monsters in their house. They’d give them food and everything. Some def become very friendly and will defend. Haha giant spider go prrrrrr

I’d write more but there is so much amazing stuff I don’t think I could add to some of them anyways!!! Plus my mind is just racing other places rn haha

#ask #loyal anon #tw: yandere #rambling with dodo #c: tubbo #c: wilbur #c: techno #c: dream #c: tommy #c: ranboo #c: ghostbur #c: karl #c: philza #c: sam

[pinkmistle06]

Fuckkkin-

Infodump about undertale. Give me all your knowledge.

*GASP*

*Pink has stars in her eyes.*

Y E S

T H A N K

THIS GONNA BE L O N G

YOU START THE FUCKING GAME AND SEE THE OPENING CUTSCENE, AND YOU SEE FUCKING TORIEL ON THERE ALONG WITH A HUMAN

THAT BEGS THE QUESTION, HOW FUCKING OLD IS GOAT MOM

I KNOW SHE’S SUPPOSED TO BE FUCKING MIDDLE AGED OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT, BUT HOLY FUCK

YOU GET THROUGH THE CUTSCENE AND FIND THAT YOU FELL UNDERGROUND

OH LUCKY YOU, YOU HAPPENED TO SURVIVE A THOUSAND FOOT FALL BECAUSE YOU LANDED ON SOME FUCKING F L O W E R S

HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU ABLE TO WALK

WHO KNOWS, YOU CONTINUE ON YOUR WAY

YOU ENCOUNTER A FUCKING TALKING FLOWER

YEP, THAT’S RIGHT, HE’S A FLOWER THAT CAN TALK

FLOWEY THE FLOWER

HE FUCKING TRIES TO STAB YOU IN THE FUCKING BACK BECAUSE WHO CARES, HE’S AN EVIL FLOWER BITCH

TORIEL GOAT MOM FINDS YOU AND SAVES YOU FROM HIM, AND THEN BECOMES YOUR ADOPTIVE MOM UNTIL YOU GOTTA GO, AIGHT IMMA HEAD OUT

AND SHE SAYS NO, BECAUSE IT’S TOO DANGEROUS FOR A LITTLE HUMAN TO GO OUT THERE, DESPITE THE FACT THAT YOU SURVIVED A THOUSAND FOOT FALL AND ARE SOMEHOW NOT DEAD OR DISFIGURED IN ANY WAY

SO LIKE ANY REASONABLE ADULT WOULD, SHE FIGHTS YOU TO MAKE SURE YOU’RE STRONG ENOUGH TO SURVIVE

GET PAST GOAT MOM, FLOWEY APPEARS AND BASICALLY PULLS A BILL CYPHER WITH HIS MIND FUCKERY

GET PAST HIM

YOU FIND YOURSELF IN A SNOWY FOREST, AND THEN A SHADOW STALKS YOU UNTIL IT TELLS YOU TO SHAKE IT’S HAND

AND GUESS WHAT

IT’S FUCKING SANS THE SKELETON

DODO DO DO DODODO DODODO

YES, I AM HUMMING FUCKING MEGALOVANIA

DEAL WITH IT

HAHA FUNNY JOKE WITH HIS FUCKING WHOOPIE CUSHION IN THE HAND TRICK, IT’S ALWAYS FUCKING FUNNY

OH LOOK, HIS BROTHER IS GONNA HUNT YOU AND CAPTURE YOU AS WELL AS POSSIBLY KILL YOU

HIDE BEHIND A LAMP THAT IS CONVENIENTLY SHAPED JUST LIKE YOU

PAPYRUS STORMS IN

GOOFY SKELETON WITH A SUPERIORITY COMPLEX AND EGO

OH WAIT, NEVERMIND, HE’S A HIMBO

HE STALKS YOU THROUGHOUT SNOWDIN AND YEETS PUZZLES AT YOU UNTIL YOU GET TO SNOWDIN TOWN, ALONG WITH HIS BROTHER SANS, WHO HAPPENS TO BE THE MOST POPULAR CHARACTER IN ALL OF UNDERTALE BECAUSE HAHA FUNNY SKELETON MEGALOVANIA FUNNY BONE MAN

YOU FACE PAPYRUS

AFTER WORDS, WE GET TO DATE A SKELETON

YOU HEARD ME RIGHT, YOU GET TO HAVE A DATE WITH PAPYRUS

AFTER THE DATE

YOU GO INTO WATERFALL TO BE CONSTANTLY CHASED AND ALMOST KILLED SEVERAL TIMES BY THIS FUCKING ROYAL GUARD PERSON NAMED UNDYNE

YOU GET TO THE FINAL ENCOUNTER

STRONK LESBIAN F I S H

POUR WATER ON HER BECAUSE SHE JUST RAN THROUGH A BIT OF HOTLAND AND WAS HAVING A HEAT STROKE

GO BACK TO WATERFALL AND TO HER HOUSE

PAPYRUS BASICALLY SLAPS UNDYNE IN THE FACE WITH WORDS BECAUSE SHE DIDN’T WANNA BE FRIENDS WITH YOU

SHE TAKES THAT AS A CHALLENGE

YOU GET TO BURN HER HOUSE DOWN AND BE FRIENDS WITH HER AFTERWARDS

FUCK PACING, WE GET BACK TO HOTLAND AND INTO A LAB

WE FIND WEEB NERDY LIZARD LADY

SHE HELPS YOU THROUGH THE TRAPS MADE BY METTATON, JUST KIDDING, SHE ACTUALLY DID ALL THAT TO MAKE YOU LIKE HER BECAUSE IT LOOKED LIKE SHE WAS GUIDING YOU

YOU FACE METTATON AND FLIP A SWITCH ON HIM

AND GUESS WHAT

HE BECOMES A FUCKING SEX ROBOT

NOT REALLY, HE’S FAMILY FRIENDLY DESPITE HIS OBSESSION WITH HIS OWN LEGS

GET PAST HIM

YOU TAKE AN ELEVATOR AND TO THE CASTLE

FACE GIANT GOAT MAN WHO’S KING OF THE UNDERGROUND

WE CAN BECOME A FAMILY

SIKE, FLOWEY PULLED A BETRAYAL KILL AND FINISHED OFF ASGORE

HE ABSORBS THE SOULS AND GAME CRASHES

DUN NUN NUUUUUUUUUUUUN

NOW YOU’RE SCREAMING AS YOU ATTEMPT TO BEAT THIS MONSTROSITY, AND EVENTUALLY, THE HUMAN SOULS HELP YOU BEAT THIS ASSHOLE

RELOAD YOUR SAVE

GO BACK AND GIVE ALPHYS A LETTER FROM UNDYNE

GUESS WHAT, WE GOT LESBIANS OVER HERE

ALPHYNE FOREVER

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

TRUE LAB TIME

ALMOST DIE IN AN ELEVATOR

GET THROUGH THESE AMALGAMATES

FIND OUT FLOWEY’S ORIGINS

GO BACK UP

FACE ASGORE, AND GUESS WHAT

TORIEL HAS RETURNED

EVERYONE TELLS ASGORE NOT TO MURDER A CHILD

FLOWEY COMES AND RUINS EVERYTHING, STEALING PEOPLE’S SOULS

GUESS WHAT SHITHEADS, HE’S THE KING AND QUEEN’S DEAD SON ASRIEL

TASTE THE RAINBOW MOTHERFUCKER

SAVE THE WORLD

SAVE YOUR FRIENDS

SAVE GOAT BRO

HE FREES THE MONSTERS

G O O D E N D I N G

DO YOU WANT ME TO BADLY EXPLAIN THE GENOCIDE ROUTE TOO

[the-river-person]

Echoes of the Past

Echo flowers. The pale blue blossoms that glowed softly in the dark of the caverns. They whispered to you, whispered soft meaningless noises. Whispered white noise. But what if you could listen close? Listen close enough to the sounds to untangle them, to separate them and play back each voice? It was the River Person who suggested it, in the end. As Alphys had taken a ride back to Hotland in his ferry. “The flowers echo more than one set of voices.” She’d questioned him, of course. But he’d refused to elaborate further. So instead it was a simple matter to uproot one of the blossoms from the shoreline near the border between Waterfall and Hotland and bring it back to the lab with her. The first week had been fruitless. But somewhere on a Thursday of the second week she managed to separate a single voice from the mess. S-somehow, with just one hit...I'm already...Already...D... damn it....Papyrus... Alphys... ASGORE...Just like that, I...I've failed you. The flower whispered in Undyne’s voice. Alphys froze and turned to look down on it. Only snatches of what was being said made sense. As if parts of the conversation were too far away for the flower to hear. Human. No, WHATEVER you are.For the sake of the whole world...I, UNDYNE, will strike you down! No, no. She knew what this was. She hurried to turn the machine off, to stop herself from hearing anything else. But before she could turn the dial the next words were already coming from the speaker. Damn it... So even THAT power... It wasn't enough...? Heh... Heheheh... If you... If you think I'm gonna give up hope, you're wrong. Cause I've... Got my friends behind me. Alphys told me that she would watch me fight you... And if anything went wrong, she would... evacuate everyone. By now she's called ASGORE and told him to absorb the six human SOULs. And with that power... This world will live on...! Oh. Alphys shuddered. Oh Undyne, she thought to herself. Why did you have so much faith in me? Even when you were dying? She’d known that everyone had been killed. At the trial nearly a year ago everyone had heard. But it had been brief, clinical, emotionless. Not like this, not like hearing Undyne gasp her final words. There had been no details. Had she evacuated everyone? Managed to save even one person? Clearly she hadn’t managed to contact Asgore in time, or all of this would have been stopped long ago. But no, it didn’t matter anymore. She repeated the promise she’d made twice to herself so long ago. “You can be someone that you like too, a better person. I will be a better person.” Her rapidly beating heart calmed and she turned back to the dials. One voice was the echo of a genocide route, were there others further back? They’d have to be quite far, the furthest echoes of all. If she could solve this puzzle, duplicate the way the echo flowers could hold on to what they heard even through Resets, then maybe she could find a way to use that on the Undernet. Thus far the only means of saving data files they had was through Gaster’s machines. The computers in his cave could keep their files from Reset to Reset without fear of a wipe. But though the tech was the exact same as in the lower levels of the Hotland Labs, the process of saving it through Resets only worked in his cave. Even his own devices, once removed from the cave, were wiped with a Reset. It was bizarre, but it was something. Medical files, research data, everything approved by the King and Queen, mostly the Queen, as essential was sent to his computers as a file and saved. But his storage space, even when Alphys had gone through and expanded it as much as possible, simply wasn’t big enough to hold the data of the entire Underground, not with the immense growth it had been seeing. But the Echo Flowers might offer another solution. And with everything freed up it would be easier to work on her real goal, returning the Amalgamates to their true selves. She and Undyne had spoken at length after that day. Spoken of feelings, of love. As tempting as it was to just let things click into place, to follow how things were apparently meant to be, she didn’t feel right. There were just too many timelines. Too many opportunities she’d had to set things right, and she hadn’t. Maybe she hadn’t tried to kill the human directly... But she’d lied, she’d hidden her mistakes, she’d put people in danger by not doing her job, she’d let her own fears control her when she should have been thinking clearly. Maybe things had turned out better than expected, but that didn’t excuse it, not really. The damage had been done. And until she could fix some of it, she didn’t feel right pursuing a relationship, even when she wanted this one with everything in her. Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, Undyne had happily supported this. In her usual way, which involved much enthusiastic shouting and hurling of spears at a target, Undyne had announced that she too wanted to work hard to be a better person, to be someone worthy to court Alphys like in the anime and manga about princesses and giant magical swords. Alphys had blushed furiously while Undyne waxed poetic about the great deeds she planned to accomplish in Alphys’ name and the evening had ended on a light-hearted note despite her initial fears. She spent hours carefully adjusting the sensitive microphones in her attempts to capture some of the oldest of the conversations held by the flower. When at last she paused to wipe her forehead and glance at the clock it was nearly dusk. “Oh no!” she exclaimed. It was the Reset day! Berating herself for having forgotten she rushed  to copy her data and the recordings into a file and send them off to Gaster’s computers. In her haste she didn’t hear the quiet voice of the flower speaking through the equipment she’d so carefully fine tuned. I will come for you... That’s what the Angel said to us. But now we’re trapped down here... in the dark. It’s too quiet down here. Where is our Angel? Where did you go? We called for you... but nobody came.

#echo flower #undertale #undertale au #aeontale #alphys #undyne #genocide route #amalgamates #gaster #wd gaster #doctor gaster #undyne the undying #the river person

[freshieautoybox]

A Basic AU Synopsis: Undertale

my take on Undertale :D

-Muffyrus is canon, but they both split ways romantically through mutual agreement. They still fuck around.

-Sansby is also canon, but they’re QPP cause it was never romantic.

-Papyrus is an insecure bean but he’s also capable of snapping you in half like a twig

-Undyne is kinda nuts but in a good way, she’s just got a ton of passion and love for a certain lizard

-Alphys is also kinda nuts but in the depressed way, she’s got a lot of guilt on her shoulders and really the only thing keeping her out of danger is the massive crush she has on Undyne

-Alphyne is canon, but they don’t get married until 3 years after they surface. Undyne is a coward in love and Alphys was actually the one to finally ask because she was pretty desperate to call Undyne her forever and only

-Asgore and Toriel never get back together, but they make up and stay distant friends

-Toriel becomes the ultimate wine aunt

-Asgore becomes the owner of a pizza restaurant and finds it very relaxing. Frisk always comes in asking for a large with extra pepperonis and a single mushroom and he gives it to them every time

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Basically in the base Undertale AU, things go about the same as they do in the base game, with a little added flare. Mettaton and Papyrus are good friends by the end, Alphys and Undyne get together, Sans and Grillby are excellent partners in crime, and Toriel and Asgore make up under the diligent tutelage of the one and only Frisk.

Sans doesn't trust Frisk as far as he could throw them, and without using magic it's not very far. Papyrus is aware of the resets and is aware of what Frisk did in the name of curiosity, but is a little less forgiving when he finds out about the Judgement Hall. Still, he’s the best uncle, Sans being the kid’s Duncle on good runs, until the Final Run, in which Frisk gives them all the best ending and then gives up their determination.

Flowey stays a flower, Chara passes on, and things end up pretty damn ok.

#fresh headcanons #muffyrus #alphyne #sansby #general shenanigans #my take on Undertale #genocide route #papyrus remembers resets #capable papyrus

[franstastic-ideas]

Reali-tea Is the Most Difficult Blend to Swallow

Yandere Altertale AU -  Frisk was so lucky to have been found by Sans during her time of need, at least, that’s what she had thought at first. The skeleton has been so kind, opening up his home to her, cooking meals for just the two of them, brewing her tea… and all that he asks for in return is the joy of her company. She was happy to oblige him that much, as Sans seemed to give off the impression to her of being lonely for some reason. But little did Frisk know and was soon to discover, he’s far more emotionally needy than she ever could have imagined…

Word Count: 22,220

Warnings: Several instances of yandere behavior. Pretty self-explanatory.

Also, my interpretation of the Altertale universe is probably extremely different than what’s been established in the original creator’s canon. For instance, even though they don’t appear in this story, Asgore and Toriel are apparently supposed to be siblings, but should they ever appear in Yandere Altertale, they’ll be an unrelated happily married couple.

Some of the other changes I’ve made are spoilers until the reader has finished this fic, and thus can’t be mentioned.

The creator of Yandere Altertale is @semisolidmind, so if you like this story, then make sure to send semi some appreciation and love!

And finally, Happy Early Birthday @lostmypotatoes! I was gonna wait until the 10th, but since you insisted that I post it now, you and everybody else are getting this fic six days early! Enjoy!

Frisk didn’t know how long it had been since she fell, nor how deep underground she had fallen, but what she was aware of was – she couldn’t move.

Her unintentional descent into the cavern beneath the mountain had been a long one, and it was honestly a strange sort of miracle in itself that she managed to somehow survive the impact. The bed of buttercups beneath her had cushioned her fall, but she couldn’t move. Frisk attempted to push herself up into a sitting position before a sharp pain coursed through her right leg as well as her left arm, returning the girl to her previous arrangement of lying with her back pressed against the flowers.

Both limbs were broken, she acknowledged, and that was when the panic truly began to set in.

Frisk was down here, alone in an empty cavern, injured and immobile, and this place was going to be her grave.

Nobody knew where she was, currently.

Not that anyone would come for her if her location was made known, she thought to herself with a grief-laden sigh.

“Howdy!” A cheery voice suddenly called out to her from somewhere beyond her vision, catching Frisk’s attention immediately.

“H-Hello…?” She replied weakly, trying to turn her body in the direction she had heard the greeting come from.

Just as she succeeded in turning her head, out of the corner of her eye, Frisk saw a flower similar in appearance to yet significantly larger than the others that she was absolutely certain wasn’t there before looming over her.

And even more concerning was; this particular flower had a face.

The talking flower stared down at her with beady black eyes and a cartoonishly wide dimpled smile. Frisk immediately came to the conclusion that she must have also hit her head when she had fallen, and this happy little plant was an adorable hallucination that manifested from her damaged mind, aiming to bring her comfort and security in what was to be her final moments. However, the flower then leaned even closer towards her, and that was when she felt the texture of his leaves brush over her skin when the motile plant apparently decided to poke her nose, proving that he was made of solid matter.

“Stop staring at me like that – didn’t your mother ever tell you it’s rude to stare?”

“I-I’m sorry! I wasn’t trying to be rude! I thought you were a hallucination…”

“Nope. I’m definitely real.” He winked and stuck out his tongue, an organ that he did in fact prove to possess through this little gesture. “I’m Flowey. Flowey the Flower! And it seems to me that you took quite the fall there! You look like you could use some help.”

“Yes, I would really appreciate it!” She pushed aside the shock of discovering a talking flower living in a remote cavern underground for the moment; she tried to move once more, even just a short distance, but her efforts once again proved to be unsuccessful. “I’m sure I’ve broken a few bones; in one leg and one arm. I’m completely immobile…”

“Oh, that’s too bad…” Flowey began to look around the surrounding area, holding both of his leafy appendages up to his squinting eyes as if they were binoculars. “And it looks like the smiley trashbag is nowhere to be found too.”

“Smiley… trashbag…?” Her eyebrows furrowed with confusion. Was there someone else that lived in this cavern as well? What did they look like? Were they a talking flower too, or something else entirely? Either way, it seemed her photosynthesizing pal wasn’t too fond of this other person, if the designated nickname was all she had to go by. Even so, Flowey still spoke of them in a continued cheery tone and the smile on his face hadn’t slipped by even the smallest of degrees.

“He could help you if he were here, but the worthless pile of bones is probably somewhere sleeping; dead to the world. Your bad luck just keeps multiplying like garden weeds, doesn’t it?” He continued with a sigh, shaking his head. “Oh well… I guess little ‘ol me will have to do…”

Before Frisk could go about questioning him of how he might possibly do that, she felt the ground around her begin to suddenly shift and tear. It seemed her petaled friend could also control the vines that bound him to the earth, because soon they were wrapping around her body, far bigger than she would have imagined them to be and lifting her into the air with ease.

She was about to ask Flowey what his plan was from here – did he intend to deliver her to this other person he previously mentioned? Or was he going to extend his vines that seemed to have no visible end upwards and return her to the surface? But Frisk didn’t get to ponder Flowey’s available options for too long before she was abruptly released from his hold and sent hurtling towards the ground again. She fell with a loud thud, but this time there wasn’t anything below her to soften the impact.

At her collision she heard the sound of something snapping coming from her own body, and an entirely new wave of pain flooded her senses.

“Oopsie! How clumsy of me!” Flowey announced, his numerous vines immediately swarming her once again before she could say anything, their grip on her being far less gentle than they had been previously. “I won’t drop you again – I promise.”

She wiggled in the vines’ hold futilely, her fight or flight instincts beginning to kick in as they grew tighter and tighter around her limbs and the rest of her body in an almost crushing hold. Frisk found herself being jerked towards Flowey until she was dangling upside down in front of his smiling face, which now looked nothing but ominous when it had just moments ago seemed friendly and helpful.

“What’s the matter, human? Don’t you trust me?” He didn’t allow her the opportunity to answer before his expression turned nightmarish, his mouth morphing into a malevolent grin that sported far too many teeth than the normal maw. “You shouldn’t… not me, or anyone else down here for that matter. Especially not me. And do you know why…?”

His whispery voice deepened to a demonic growl.

“Because in this world, i t ‘ s  k i l l  o r  b e  k i l l e d...”

He then flung Frisk against the wall of the cavern by her ankle. She barely had time to let out a wild scream of fright and agony before he slammed her face first into the ground once again, but he still wouldn’t release her, his vines still tightly wrapped around her body and placing a needless amount of pressure on her broken limbs.

“See, I kept my promise!” He cackled, his voice having returned to that higher pitched disarmingly cutesy one he had used to lure her in previously, nearly singing as he proclaimed, “I said I wouldn’t drop you, and I didn’t~!”

Frisk twitched and trembled on the cave floor, suffering and writhing. She was about to die, that much she was certain of. If not from the injuries she had already sustained, then from whatever it was Flowey intended to do with her next. She had already resigned herself to her fate before she had encountered this vile sentient plant, but this wasn’t at all how she had expected her life to end. The terror of it all coming to an abrupt yet drawn-out end at the hands of an unforeseen aggressor had paralyzed her further than before, despair welling up within her SOUL.

But before she could let this despair swallow her up completely, before Flowey could snatch her up once more and continue his abuse, she heard a loud, grotesque shriek. It echoed and bounced along the walls of the cave long after the actual scream had ended, sounding more horrendous than anything Frisk could recall ever having heard before in her life. Frisk couldn’t turn around to see just who had screamed, but she didn’t need to – it wasn’t necessary.

It was Flowey, and it sounded as though he were being put through as much pain and agony as she had been forced to endure.

She then heard another voice.

“i told you before - if i ever caught you here again, weed, you’d be in for a bad time.”

It was deep, dark, and dangerous; unlike anything she had ever heard before. Not even the raging waters of the ocean during a storm or the tempestuous winds of a cyclone could hold a candle to the pure unbridled fury she could sense lying beneath his tone, which was struggling to seem casual and relaxed but instead sounded perfervidly strained.

“the fact that you’re here must mean you were ready for what was going to happen. you only have yourself to blame for this.”

Frisk braced herself for another hideous scream from Flowey; she would have covered her ears in preparation, if only she could move her arms – she was certain that they were now both rendered immovable.

“Ah, ah, ah, trash bag.” Flowey tutted, but his labored breathing indicated that speaking was an incredibly strenuous task for him at the moment. “Aren’t you worried about the safety of the human…? Start a fight with me and there’s no telling what’ll happen! And you… you can’t kill me. You don’t have the guts for it, haha! It’s against your nature…”

Flowey was right – fighting and killing was against his nature, and he wasn’t certain if he could ever bring himself to terminate someone even as vile to the core as Flowey, even if it was for the sake of another.

And he was also correct in stating his prioritized interest in the wellbeing of the human; he cared far more about seeing that she was taken care of and her injuries tended to than settling a score with this loathsome creature without a soul that preyed on the naïveté of the fallen.

“……leave. now.”

“I was about to anyway, even if you hadn’t come along.” He sneered. “Toys aren’t any fun to play with when they’re broken, and this one’s juuuust about fallen apart. If you’d come just one minute later…”

This other person seemed to be ignoring Flowey’s commentary, or at the very least was trying to. Frisk felt herself being turned over so she was no longer lying face down, and the first thing that came into her immediate vision was Flowey lingering a short distance away; a pointed bone was stabbed through the middle of his stem like a skewer, and a thin translucent green liquid, chlorophyll she surmised, oozed out of the gaping wound it had created.

But the second thing she became conscious of was, the person now holding her was a skeleton. He was staring down at her with pitch black eye sockets and a wide unsettling grin, and the little amount of light that fluttered down from the surface above the two only enhanced the ominousness of his features in her eyes.

She let out an alarmed cry and instantly began twisting and turning as much as her weakened body would allow to escape his hold, which he struggled to maintain.

“Hahahaha! Look at her! She’s horrified by you!” Flowey cawed as he began his retreat, his vines and stem slowly sinking into the earth. “You fool… Humans will always despise monsters. You remember that when you’re at the mercy of this one and it has none to spare…”

The robed skeleton payed him no mind, his focus centering on convincing the human girl in front of him that he meant her no harm. But Flowey had already left a ghastly first impression on Frisk that wouldn’t be easily reversed; she had seen his hostile behavior as a preview for what the rest of the inhabitants of the Underground must be like, and the nasty little buttercup had only damaged this view further with the use of the word ‘monster’, the robed skeleton deduced.

Still, he refused to give up and abandon her, even if she insisted upon it.

“No… No! Get away from me!” She shrunk away from him, beginning to sob hysterically. “Just leave me alone! Please!”

“human, i need you to listen – i know you’re scared and in a lot of pain, but i’m just trying to help yo-”

“I’ve had enough ‘help’! Just go back to wherever it was you came from! Please… Please don’t hurt me…”

He inhaled sharply through his nasal cavity. He ceased any and all efforts in explaining himself or his actions. Any attempts at clarification would only be wasting precious time at this rate – if he didn’t act soon, then her condition would only worsen.

He retrieved a vial from a well concealed pocket in his robe, the liquid inside being a reddish-brown color in the light. Removing the cork, he then tilted it towards her mouth, tapping the lid against her lips and silently urging her to drink from it.

She resisted him, fighting through the pain of using both broken arms to push and smack against his chest in protest. The repeated pounding of her fists at his ribcage did little but illicit a short, stilted grunt from him, unperturbed entirely by the onslaught. When she continued to struggle despite his attempts at remaining pleasant and civil, his patience with her began to thin.

“h u m a n.” His voice abruptly deepened further to a stern growl, causing her to immediately still.

Frisk let out a surprised, uncontrollable whimper, her mouth opening just slightly as she did so. He took this opportunity to slip the vialed liquid past her lips, then swiftly tipped her head backwards so she swallowed it.

The effect was almost immediate. Her eyelids began to droop and every sensation in her body began to fade. The only thing that was left remaining was the fear she felt towards the robed skeleton. He lifted her up into his arms, gently and without a word, then began walking to somewhere further in the cavern.

“That vial… was that poison…?” Frisk was struggling to remain conscious. “…Am I dying?”

“no, pumpkin. you’re not dying.” He cooed softly, leaning down to nuzzle the top of her head. “if anything, i’m trying to keep that from happening.”

She grew quiet and still, and for a moment he thought that she must have succumbed to what was in the vial he had given her. But a minute later, he heard her weakly question,

“Where… where are you taking me?”

Her voice sounded so small, so scared…

“somewhere safe, where i can take care of you. get you the help you need.” He felt her flinch at the word ‘help’.

 That awful, wretched flower…

 “Please don’t hurt me…” She shuddered in his arms.

 “i won’t.” He asserted, his voice low.

 “Promise me you won’t.” She said with such desperation that it made his SOUL ache with fierce pangs of pity for her current condition.

 He hesitated.

 But only for a second before he solemnly replied, “i promise.”

 His oath sounded so sincere.

 “now get some sleep, human. i know you’ve gotta be tired.” The skeleton cradled her closer to his sturdy build with large, strong arms in a manner that Frisk would almost consider to be protective.

 Frisk wanted to take his words at face value, to earnestly believe that he held no ill will towards her - but if he did indeed intend to harm her, then there was little she could do about it now.

 Her heavy eyelids shut, and she fell into a deep dreamless sleep.

 ~~~~~~~~~~

 When Frisk finally awoke, she once again was unaware of how much time had passed since blacking out, but she did know that her body felt immeasurably heavy – almost certainly an aftereffect of whatever was in that liquid the skeleton had fed her. She could barely even lift her head, the properties of that concoction were so strong. She was every bit as immobile as when she first fell into the cavern, the only difference being that thankfully, Frisk wasn’t in any pain.

 Her limbs were wrapped up in bandages, she discovered, when she finally accomplished the simple task of turning her head to the side. They seemed professional, as expertly done as the work from any doctor found in a hospital. Oddly, her dressings were tied together with little white bows in several places – there was no practical or particular cause for her caretaker to have arrayed them this way, if only to amuse her when she awoke.

 Frisk spent the next few minutes taking in her new surroundings; she was laying on a soft, cushy single bed that was coincidentally just her size, not too big or too small for her height. The sheets were crisp and clean, and atop them was a quilt that appeared to be hand-knitted, with white and light blue hearts and bones scattered across the fabric’s design displayed in an elaborate pattern. She didn’t know much about knitting, but it must have taken a great amount of patience and skill from its weaver to have created such an ornate duvet. Every stitch that went into the needlework was without flaw; precise in its arrangement and absolutely beautiful.

 Laying next to her was… a stuffed animal, of some sort. Frisk wouldn’t be sure how to recount the thing’s appearance if someone asked her to. Its body was vaguely humanoid and without color, a pale white, but that was as far as she could get in her mental description of the toy. Those big black button eyes bore into her relentlessly, and even though it appeared to be just a child’s plaything in every single way, she couldn’t deny that its constant gaze unnerved her just slightly. Once again, there was no other conceivable reason why it would be present at her bedside other than to bring her some comfort or cheer.

 To the left and on the floor was a toy chest a short distance away, as well as a cabinet for clothes. That was as much as Frisk could make out of the rest of the room – there was a lamp in the corner of the room, but it had been turned off out of concern of it disturbing her sleep had it been left on. The remainder of the room was plunged into darkness, but Frisk did catch a small sliver of light slipping through the door, which was opened just a crack.

 Just as she turned her attention towards it, the door began to slowly creak open and the golden light outside from the hallway flooded into the small room. A skull then popped into her view, belonging to the skeleton that had carried her off earlier. His white eyelights were focused on her bedridden form, seeming concerned, or perhaps that was a trick from the combination of light and shadow playing with her eyes?

 But as he stepped towards her, there was something about him that did make the skeleton seem far less sinister to her compared to before. Maybe it was the small surprised gasp that fell from his mouth, or the way his eye sockets widened and the white spheres within them shrunk, or even how the grin on his face slipped as a faint blue blush spread over his cheekbones when he saw Frisk’s head suddenly turn to face his direction.

 The two stared at each other in silence for several moments before he managed to find his voice.

 “i… thought you were still asleep.” He tugged nervously at the ends of his sleeves. “…how long have you been awake for?”

 “Not long. Just a few minutes, I think.” Frisk answered cautiously, still wary of him and his intentions. “…How long have I been asleep?”

 “about twenty-four hours? i think?” His phalanges scratched at the back of his skull. “i didn’t really pay any attention to the clock when i got back. i was too preoccupied with getting you to bed and seeing that your broken limbs were wrapped up to think about the passage of time.”

 “If I slept for that long, then why do I still feel tired?” She questioned irritably. He laughed at her sour expression.

 “that’s all thanks to the medicine i gave you earlier. it does what its supposed to well, but the stuff will really leave you out of commission if you aren’t already. that’s why i save it for emergencies like yours.”

 “That stuff in the vial was medicine?” The girl pondered aloud – it hadn’t tasted like medicine. Thinking back on it, the liquid had tasted rather pleasant…

 “yeah, but it was also tea. chamomile and honey, actually. i blended the two together and made the medicine practically flavorless on the tongue so it’d be easier on the person that had to drink it. why would anybody want to swallow something that tastes bad? even adults don’t wanna do that, am i right?”

 Yet again, another allegedly kindhearted gesture that served no other viable purpose unless the purpose was kindheartedness in itself.

 Frisk frowned, studying the lumbering skeleton closely. “…Why?”

 “why what…?” He rubbed the back of his neck, his expression showing blatant confusion.

 “Why did you bring me here?”

 “because you needed to get those broken limbs of yours wrapped up, and this was the only place i could take you to do that safely-”

 “No, I mean… why help me at all? Aren’t you a monster?”

 He recoiled at her harshened tone and averted his gaze, smiling sheepishly at nothing in particular. “yeah… i can understand why you’d have some doubts about me. in your human fairytales and legends, monsters are the bad guys. they do horrible, unspeakable things to men, women, and children alike without remorse. …but i’m not that kind of monster. i… i want to help and protect any humans that fall into the underground that i come across. that’s why i’m here.”

 Frisk bit her bottom lip. Guilt began to bubble away in her stomach and gradually rose up to her chest, her heart giving a dull aching thump at his appearance – yes, he was still smiling, but it was incredibly strained, undeniably forced. His shoulders were slumped heavily as well. Her insensitive remark had definitely hurt him.

 “I… I’m sorry. A lot has happened, and I’m still very, very confused. About a lot of things.” She made an effort to explain, his large droopy eye sockets and enlarged white pupils appearing less and less menacing to her and increasingly more melancholy as the seconds ticked by. “But that still isn’t an excuse for treating someone badly for something that’s beyond their control; their race, what they are. Especially when they’re just trying their best to help someone that’s hurt. It’s just… I thought for sure that you were going to…”

 “no, no, i… i understand completely. i get it; why you’d react this way.” Even now, he, the offended, was speaking out in defense of her actions. “if you weren’t at least a little bit suspicious of me after what happened back there, then i’d be more concerned than i am already. but… maybe i could clear up some of that confusion, if you’d let me? i’m sure you’ve got a lot of questions right now that need some answering.”

 “I would like that very much.” She replied, having come to the quiet conclusion that if he held any interest in bringing harm to her, then he likely would have done so while she was unconscious.

 …Unless he wanted her awake whenever the robed skeleton chose to unveil and carry out his diabolical plot - for the sole purpose of the cruel thrill that came from it. After all, following her falling into the underground, she didn’t know how long that deceivingly friendly talking flower had been there either. Right next to her unconscious body. Staring at her in silence. Just waiting for her to wake up…

 Frisk decided she would at least allow the skeleton the opportunity to explain himself and answer her questions, but he still hasn’t earned her trust.

 Not yet.

 The stranger walked over towards and reached into the darkness of the lower left corner of the area and pulled out a chair, a chair that curiously seemed to have been built just right for her size, then dragged it to the center of the room and a few feet away from the bed. He eased into it carefully, perhaps out of concern for its thin legs possibly breaking underneath the weight of his heavyset build; the skeleton looked like a giant while seated in the much too tiny and undoubtedly uncomfortable wooden chair. He then folded his hands across his lap and flashed her a sheepish grin.

 He was making an honest attempt to seem relaxed, but his blatant nervous ticks; the occasional twitch perceptible at the corner of his mouth, slightly shrunken and quivering eye lights in his sockets, and him idly drumming his phalanges against his patella with a sort of skittishness that was difficult to describe wordlessly broke any charade of calmness that he may have been trying to convey.

 Just what reason would he have to be nervous in this situation? She was the one currently incapacitated, bed-ridden, and completely at the mercy of another. There was nothing she could do to him under these circumstances, even if her life depended on it.

 Frisk chose to ignore his tense state for the time being.

 “well, uh…” He twiddled the tips of his phalanges against each other, and for some reason, he was refusing to look at her in the face. “this is… kinda the part where you start asking questions…”

 “Alright… Telling me where I am right now might be a good place to start.”

 “you’re at my house. and this is the… guest bedroom.” His voice sounded oddly pained when he uttered those last few words, but he quickly continued onward before his discomfort became too apparent. “if you want me to be more specific, you’re in the ruins. not all that far from where you fell down. this part of the underground isn’t that spacious, at least, not compared to the rest.”

 From that snippet of conversation alone, Frisk was already made aware that the cavern stretched on much further than she initially thought, and that there was something more to this room than he was telling her. Those were details she could ponder later. Back to pressing the skeleton for more information.

 “You’re a monster, right? So is the rest of this cavern filled with monsters too? Are they all skeletons like you?”

 He actually laughed. It was a low, breathy chuckle. “in order: yes, for the third time, i am a monster. yes, there are other monsters besides me living down here. and no, the whole cavern isn’t occupied entirely by skeletons. there’s slime monsters, fire elemental monsters, spider monsters... and some that can’t even be classified. the word ‘monster’ is more like an umbrella term, i think - there’s a whole lot of variety in our race.”

 “Okay… Next line of business. Who are you? What’s your name? Or do you even have one?”

 He chuckled again, his shoulders bouncing up and down just slightly. “no, i have a name. it’s sans. sans the skeleton. but you probably already knew that last part. …why did you wanna know?”

 Rather than answer his own question, she responded with, “So, your name isn’t ‘smiley trashbag’?”

 “no. it’s not now, and it never was.” His tone flattened, as well as the usually ever-present grin on his face.

 “Well, I thought I might as well ask...” Frisk mumbled. “Flowey the flower isn’t a really creative name, either... I wondered if the only other living being I’ve come across since I fell down here was a victim of unfortunate naming too.”

 “no, that was just him being awful. as per usual.” Sans crossed his arms with a sigh and a soft scowl adorning his features. “nothing too out of the ordinary there...”

 ...Nothing out of the ordinary?

 “Another question; would you mind telling me what was up with that flower monster in the first place?”

 “tibia honest with ya... i don’t really know all that much about him myself.” He scratched the back of his skull with another self-conscious grin when she showed no visible reaction to his pun. “right, right... probably not the best time for jokes. anyway, that flower, he isn’t a monster; that’s as much as i know about him. he just... showed up one day in the ruins. he started bullying monsters, making threats, eating all the candy out of the candy bowl... and generally just making a complete nuisance of himself every time he showed up.”

 “He seemed like much more than a nuisance when it was me he was around...” Frisk recalled, the torturous sensation of being slung against the floor and wall of the cave in rapid succession still fresh in her mind and limbs, despite the numbing medicine she had been given – she suspected it was beginning to wear off now, but she couldn’t let her boney caretaker become conscious of this.

 If he knew she was in pain, he might send her to sleep again. And Frisk felt she couldn’t rest until all her present questions have been answered.

 “he didn’t stay just an annoying weed for long. after a while of being content with tormenting others, one day, he started trying to kill monsters. i was on my way back from checking for any fallen humans, like i do every day, when i caught him cornering a whimsun. whimsuns, they’re small, winged, fairy-like monsters. incredibly shy, and they never bother anybody because they’re afraid of being engaged in conflict. so even without knowing what kind of person he was already, i would have known right there that the attack was entirely unprovoked. that was... quite a while ago, when that happened, and i thought what i said to him then was enough to scare him out of the ruins for good.”

 If even a fraction of the anger in Sans’s voice had been present at that time compared to when he came to rescue her earlier, then Frisk wasn’t certain how Flowey hadn’t spontaneously wilted right then and there during either confrontation. He was either incredibly determined, or incredibly stupid to have come back again after that warning.

 “...but i couldn’t have been more wrong.” Sans appeared shamefaced, silently acknowledging that it was only by mere coincidence and sheer luck that he’d arrived in time to save her at all. “i guess he was just hiding this whole time, and biding his own time, waiting for when a human finally showed up...”

 “...Are humans supposed to be the enemies of monsters here, like you’re supposed to be for us on the surface?” She inquired a touch fearfully, still unsure of what intentions this skeleton may hold for her. “In this world, in the Underground, is it really kill or be killed?”

 “no. no, no, no, no... no.” He spoke quickly, his hands fluttering about anxiously, but the firm tone he spoke with didn’t match his frantic movements. “don’t let that insignificant weed be put in the position of the mouthpiece for the rest of the underground. what he wants is senseless violence, to see the world around him burn. i’d like you to forget as much as you can about him and anything he may have said to you, if at all possible.”

 “Being nearly mauled to death by a talking flower that first was pretending to help you is kind of a hard thing to push out of your memory entirely.”

 “i know... and i’m sorry. i should’ve got there sooner. then maybe this wouldn’t be as bad as it is now.” He stood up and was suddenly at her side in one fluid motion; he gently rested one hand on her broken and bandaged leg, the contact and sudden unexpected pressure against her injuries causing her entire body to flinch.

 He immediately removed his hand – at first, Sans thought that she just didn’t want him touching her, but the way her eyes clenched shut and her lips twisted into a grimace made him think differently.

 “...did-did that hurt? are you in pain right now?” When she wouldn’t answer, he gave her leg another experimental brush, the tips of his phalanges featherlight against her wounds as if to soothe them.

 As cautious as he was with his ministrations, even the slightest of touches was enough to make her cringe.

 “...and so i see the medicine i gave you has worn off.” He gazed at her sternly, his tone scolding. “and just how long were you planning on keeping this from me?”

 “For as long as I could.” She answered without any hesitation or shame.

 At hearing her bold and defiant response, he frowned in that way that managed to somehow tug at her heartstrings for the second instance without fail.

 “you still don’t trust me, do you...?”

 “No.” She didn’t know why admitting this to his face hurt as much as it did. “I don’t.”

 To her surprise, he didn’t appear frustrated or angry. He breathed a heavy sigh, though, and smiled wearily at her.

 “i guess i’ll just have to earn it, then. prove my word’s worth. gradually.”

 “G-Gradually?” That last word brought to her a sudden and harsh realization, a question that must be asked, and she did so with a sense of urgency. “How... how long will it be until my limbs have healed?”

 “even with my magic helping the healing process along, it’s gonna be a while until you’re back on your feet. the damage you sustained from your fall into the underground must have been bad enough, but that awful weed did a real number on ya. if i were to estimate, i’d say it’ll probably be anywhere from two months at the least to three and a half at the most until you’ve made a complete recovery.”

 “Three... and a half months...” She repeated brokenly, the full extent of his diagnosis not having sunk in quite just yet.

 She didn’t even notice his mentioning of the term ‘magic’, she was so distressed.

 “so that’ll give us plenty of time to get to know one another.” He chuckled mirthfully, before his grin turned tight. “...surely you won’t still hate me three months from now, will you...?”

 “I don’t hate you! I’m just... scared. And I’m still so confused...”

 “over what...?”

 “Several more things. Too many to count, and too many issues to cover in a single conversation, probably.”

 “no, that wasn’t what i... i already knew that much; it’s obvious you would still have plenty of questions left in need of answering, but that will have to wait until later. what i was referring to was what you said before that... what is it that you’re scared of?”

 “...I can’t really explain it.”

 That was all Frisk could reply with after a lengthy pause.

 “...is it me? if it is, it’s... alright. i understand. completely.”

 “I didn’t say that.” She insisted halfheartedly.

 “you didn’t have to.”

 It was written all over her face, expressed in her movements, heard within the inflections of her voice...

 He walked towards the door, not even turning around as he said,

 “...wait right here. i have to get your medicine.”

 “As if I could go anywhere else...” She frowned to herself, but acknowledged that his words had sounded incredibly strained, as though he thought if the girl did have the choice available to her, she would have bolted for the nearest exit as soon as his back was turned.

 Frisk couldn’t deny that the thought hadn’t crossed her mind, of escaping this house, if only her broken body would allow her to do so. But so far, it appeared Sans the skeleton had done everything within his power to help her and absolutely nothing to warrant her distrust.

 But then again, the same could be said of Flowey, who had appeared amiable and offered what was supposed to have been some kindhearted assistance to a helpless and wounded surface dweller, only to purposefully injure her further.

 It was true that every indication had been made that the two couldn’t stand one another, but that didn’t have to mean that Sans was her friend; no matter how the saying went about what the enemy of your enemy was to you. He could hold the very same animosity towards humans that Flowey fostered, and Frisk felt it was safest to keep her guard up, search for any signs of existing hostility, detect even the slightest traces of deceit that could be hiding behind that seemingly friendly smile...

 Sans, however, was inwardly distraught.

 He was thankful that an opportunity had presented itself for him to excuse himself from the presence of the human girl in his company. He couldn’t withstand it a second longer, being subjected to her harsh judging gaze.

 This wasn’t his first time caring for a human, particularly a stubborn one. Some of them had accepted his help and embraced him with open arms, overjoyed to find a friendly face. Others needed some coaxing, some convincing that he wasn’t going to hurt them, and it wasn’t long at all until they believed his claims and found them to be true.

 But they had all been children.

 This was an adult human, a woman with perpetual scorn in her gaze despite his best efforts. And he didn’t know how to handle that.

 “none of them ever hated me before...”

 He returned a few minutes later, carefully carrying a tea cup in hand with wisps of steam wafting from its rim. It was made of creamy white porcelain, which was crafted into the shape of an oversimplified skull. Even the artistry of the handle abided to the skeleton theme present, looking as though it were made from a trio of assembled milky colored bones.

 Frisk sat up in the bed, wincing as she did so. Yes, the medicine she ingested yesterday had most definitely worn off, but she was also delighted to discover that her limbs had in fact unexpectedly, almost unbelievably regained some of their former mobility.

 Even so, she wasn’t exactly looking forward to taking more, though it would numb the pain burdening her and Sans had mentioned that it didn’t taste bitter when mixed in with the tea. The flavor wasn’t her concern, however. Waking up after swallowing whatever was in that concoction had left her feeling as though she had been hit by a truck. Her entire body had felt heavy as lead, as if some unseen pressure were weighing her down.

 Somehow sensing Frisk’s apprehension and correctly deducing the cause, he spoke,

 “this isn’t the same medicine as before. it’ll make you sleepy in a little while and you’ll probably need a nap after, but it won’t knock you out for hours.”

 That was... somewhat reassuring, she thought.

 If he was telling the truth, that is.

 Instead of handing her the cup or forcing it into her hands, Sans set it on the nightstand Frisk had just noticed was there, most likely because she couldn’t move her head towards that angle earlier. The cup would be out of sight should she lay down again, just like the piece of furniture it rested atop, but it would still easily be within her reach should her hands search for it.

 “...do you want to eat now or later?”

 “later.” She answered, both out of wariness and a genuine lack of appetite.

 “ok.”

 Several moments passed with not another word from either of them. Sans was still there, he hadn’t made a single move that suggested he was going to leave, but he wasn’t looking at her like he was earlier, or even at all.

 He wouldn’t look at her.

 Frisk eventually decided to break the silence herself.

 “Don’t you want me to drink it?”

 “yes, i do. but i’m not going to force you.”

 “That didn’t stop you before.”

 “that was an emergency.” He was swift in delivering his rebuttal. “whether you were aware of it or not, you were dying back there. i had to get you somewhere else quick so i could take care of you, and i couldn’t let you suffer for no reason the entire way when there was a safe and ready alternative available. so i’m sorry i fed you something strange to knock you unconscious and brought you here against your will, but if i had to do it over again, i’d still make the same choice. over and over again, without hesitation.”

 He was speaking to her in a serious, stern, nearly scolding tone, but something about the manner in which he spoke managed to prick at her heartstrings, almost as effectively as when the skeleton had expressed his vulnerability earlier. Even while cross, there was a caring, almost loving impression discernible underneath.

 Slowly, and with some amount of delay, Frisk took the tea cup off the night stand and brought the warm liquid to her lips, sipping it quietly.

 Just as Sans had said earlier, the tea disguised the taste of the medicine. In fact, she couldn’t detect it at all on her taste buds.

 “...It’s good.” Frisk muttered at last.

 “i’m glad.” Her drinking the tea made the corners of his mouth quirk upwards, but the expression soon vanished as quickly as it had come. “...i get that you aren’t too keen on the idea of putting any of your trust in me, what with flowey abusing it and all... but i really do want to help you. and i can’t do that if you won’t let me.”

 “...Sans, can you come closer?”

 He complied, albeit confusedly, blatant bewilderment written across his features as he made his approach. Frisk didn’t say anything else until the skeleton was positioned exactly where she wanted him to be, continuing to motion him forward until he was standing directly in front of her bedside.

 “Now what I need you to do is look me in the eyes - not at the floor, the wall, your hands, or anything else you’ve been staring at that isn’t me.”

 “a-alright...” He stuttered unsurely, wondering why she had become so commanding so suddenly and what it was she was going to ask of him next. “i’m looking at you. just you and only you.”

 “One last thing, Sans. ...I need you to tell me, no, promise me that you’re not planning to do anything sinister or rotten to me like Flowey was. I need you to give me your word right here and now. And depending on how you do that, how you respond to this demand of mine, you just might earn my trust.”

 He frowned down at her, and she could tell that he wasn’t exactly happy with being compared to and lumped in with the likes of Flowey, who so far seemed to be more or less his arch nemesis.

 However, Sans maintained eye contact with her, as she had requested, and took a breath,

 “i don’t have anything awful in store for you – all i want is to see that you get better and are well taken care of, regardless of the fact that we’re of different races that are usually perceived to be deeply prejudiced against one another and are all but demanded rather than advised to remain bitter enemies. that’s it. honest. i swear on my SOUL, if that means anything to you.”

 He had hesitated just a moment before answering, just like when Frisk had asked him to make a promise before - something that shouldn’t have boded well for him with her currently playing the role of his judge.

 But the sincerity she found in his voice, the sheer conviction with which he stated his intentions, the sparks of gentle warmth she saw within the lights of his sockets... that was enough to sway her thoughts and opinions on this monster.

 They gazed into each other’s eyes for the longest of times, neither having moved a muscle or a joint since his declaration. Sans was obviously anxious; beads of sweat decorated his skull, and the grin he wore was incredibly forced in a feeble attempt to mask his dread and unease.

 Finally, Frisk was prepared to announce the results of her assessment.

 “...You pass.”

 “...what?” He inquired, breathlessly.

 “You pass.” She repeated plainly. “I’ve decided that I’m going to trust you. You’ve managed to convince me. From this point onward, I’ll go along with your suggestions and your efforts in helping me to heal.”

 Although, to him, she sounded mostly unimpressed with his heartfelt response... But Sans wasn’t so skeptical that he was about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

 He exhaled, patent relief blossoming over his skull. “thank you... i... i promise i won’t do anything to have this honor that was bestowed on me revoked.”

 “But if you do, you’re gonna be wishing that Flowey had succeeded in killing me.” She retorted, half-jokingly and halfway serious.

 “never.” Came his swift reply in that chiding yet close to loving tone.

 Whether Sans meant that he was never going to betray her trust now that he had it or that he wasn’t even going to entertain the notion of the alternate outcome where Flowey killed her, she wasn’t sure.

 But what she was made aware of was, Sans had a nice smile. This one was genuine; unlike the others he had previously displayed with tight grins that didn’t reach his eye sockets. It was sincere, welcoming. Perhaps even sweet.

 And seeing him like this, it made the corners of her own mouth curve upwards.

 Frisk took the tea from where it rested on the nightstand again, intending to drink every drop of it. Her grip wasn’t steady however, and she nearly spilled the entirety of its contents on herself and the bedsheets. Seeing her struggle, Sans kneeled by the bed and curled his phalanges around the cup and consequently her own hands, his large palms engulfing them. He gently eased the tea cup towards her lips.

 She felt heat surrounding the skin of her hands like a warm, comforting blanket, and Frisk believed it wasn’t emanating solely from the beverage she held. How could a skeleton, a being without blood, feel warm?

 The texture of his bones wasn’t how she thought it would be either; they felt smooth to the touch, as expected, but weren’t entirely rigid. There was some suppleness to them. How could a skeleton be soft?

 But he was. Sans was warm and soft; something Frisk likely never would have learned, paid attention to, or cared for at all if she still harbored the same mistrust towards him as she had earlier.

 His low hesitant voice next to her ear caught her notice. “is this okay...? i’m not making you uncomfortable?”

 “No, not at all.” She answered with a chuckle, internally somewhat taken aback by her own reply and the instantaneousness of it.

 He was only assisting her with holding the cup so it didn’t spill, Frisk tried to reason with herself, but still she continued her mental debate with herself; wasn’t what they were doing now a bit too much of a jump compared to before, a bit too cuddly, considering this was the same skeleton monster who she had only began to place some amount of her trust in no more than five minutes ago?

 Even if this was so, she found herself enjoying this unexpected warmth, this sweet and sincere gesture. So much so, Frisk could practically feel the lingering disbelief that remained slowly melting away around her like snow that desperately clung to one’s clothes while in front of a crackling fireplace.

 Sans kept his hands wrapped around hers until the cup was completely empty. He then plucked it from her grasp and set it back on the nightstand before turning around again to face her.

 “you’ve got about an hour, give or take, until the medicine kicks in. that should be enough time to eat something if you’re hungry, unless you really do have no appetite.” When she nodded at the end of his statement, he frowned at her in that distraught way that inexplicably pulled at her heartstrings. “but it’s been a day, a whole twenty-four hours since I found you. even if you ate a big meal directly before falling down here, that’s still a long time to go without putting any food in your body.”

 “You’re awfully insistent about getting me to eat something.” She stated, raising an eyebrow just slightly then continued in a clearly joking manner, “...You’re aren’t trying to fatten me up, are you, Sans?”

 He threw back his head and laughed, barely stifling a snort as he replied, “noooo, i’m just worried about your health is all.” Sans took her response as a sign to proceed, moving towards the door and preparing to go to the kitchen to make something; something that wouldn’t consume too much time and would be light enough on her stomach that it shouldn’t upset her if she truly didn’t have much of an appetite. But not before poking his head back into the room immediately after he left it to cheekily add, “...even if you are cute enough to eat.”

 It was just him teasing her in the same manner as she had seconds prior, she told herself, but still Frisk blushed at the boldness of his words that one could misread as being flirtatious in nature. ...Surely it wasn’t. Just some silly banter between new pals; that’s what it was, right?

 She shook this thought away, as one she deemed more important entered her mind. She narrowly suppressed the excitement in her voice as she called out to him,

 “Sans!”

 Almost instantly, she heard the approaching sound of his slipper-clad feet thundering against the floor of the hallway outside. The door then swung open and there he stood, demanding to know what was wrong with worry gracing his skull.

 It vanished at once after her next sentence, his concerned expression being replaced with one of immeasurable joy.

 “My name isn’t ‘you’, Sans. It’s Frisk.”

 ~~~~~~~~~~

 Whatever remained of Frisk’s suspicions towards Sans, they completely dissipated by her fourth day under his care.

 Even throughout the first day, after the robed skeleton returned to her room with a steaming hot bowl of stew in hand and insistences that he feed her so as not to further aggravate the injuries of her arms, Frisk found it exceedingly difficult to continue regarding him with doubt.

 He was astonishingly, profoundly considerate, she concluded.

 Having to be fed by him was embarrassing, even if he had stated that there was no reason for her to feel this way when she voiced her sentiments aloud. He was more than happy to do so since she couldn’t. Perhaps he was simply the type that enjoyed caring for and doting on others, Frisk mused.

 Whenever she wasn’t asleep, Sans was almost constantly at her bedside; at her every beck and call. The girl couldn’t recall having ever received such attentiveness before in her entire life, not even from her mother and father. It made her feel a twinge of guilt to place this monster, who was more or less a stranger to her though an incredibly kindhearted one on a higher pedestal than her own parents, but Frisk couldn’t deny that during their so far brief period of knowing one another, Sans has possibly shown more consideration towards her than anyone aboveground ever had.

 Something else that Frisk had learned during her stay is that, when Sans claimed he would provide answers to all her inquiries, he had really meant it.

 Every single question that fell from her lips, no matter how abrupt or bizarre it may have been, the skeleton would never fail to supply her with an answer or an explanation. He never seemed to tire of responding to her endless plethora of questions, strangely; in fact, Sans appeared to find some amount of delight in her never-ending curiosity. Frisk had always been someone who possessed a boundless thirst for knowledge, eternally seeking clarifications in subjects others cared little for, and taking intrigue in forming and uncovering solutions to mysteries that most preferred to remain unknown.

 “Hey, Sans? Why is it that you’re a skeleton, but you’re able to eat? I didn’t think skeletons would need to, or even could eat. Shouldn’t it pass directly through you? Where does it all go?” She had asked one evening when Sans had decided to join her for supper, even after Frisk’s hands had healed enough that him assisting her was no longer necessary – ‘so she wouldn’t be alone’, he had stated somewhat shyly.

 “magic.” Came his simple reply, accompanied by a grin and a wink.

 “Well fine! All right, then! Keep your secrets...”

 “no, i was being entirely literal. magic really is how and why i eat.” He chuckled at what must have been her disbelieving stare. “the bodies of monsters are made of magic, condensed into a solid form. the food down here is made from our concentrated magic, so anything we eat is absorbed directly by our bodies, and the same goes for any humans that consume monster food. ...that’s why the majority of us down here don’t have toilets.”

 “...That explains so much.” So that’s why she hadn’t felt the need to use the restroom since her untimely arrival here... And from there, Frisk’s mind then drifted to the thought of whether skeletons could also gain weight if they could eat. “And yet, I feel this also opens up an entirely new area of discussion that demands to be explored.”

 “i’ll tell you just about anything you want to know about monsters and the underground, but... from where this conversation seems to be headed, is this really a topic that you wanna discuss over dinner?”

 “What? No, noooo - that wasn’t what I was thinking of talking about at all. You were the one that brought up toilets in the first place, so who’s the gross one here?” She laughed freely, the sound causing shivers of delight to run down his spine.

 “if that wasn’t it, then what were you wanting to talk about?”

 “About you.” Frisk answered with just a hint of bashful hesitance, resulting in his SOUL skipping a beat.

 “what... what about me...?” Sans nearly croaked as he pointed to himself, his throat suddenly going dry.

 “Anything and everything you’re willing to share.” She confessed, not quite looking him in the eye socket. “I think you’re really interesting Sans, and I... I want to know more about you. I feel like I could spend years questioning you, all day every day, and I would still never get bored of what you have to say.”

 He must have gaped at her for a good solid minute at the very least, concerning her slightly and making her wonder if she had said something alarming or offensive.

 But then a beautiful grin graced his skull and he shakily replied,

 “ha... ahaha...... hoo boy.” He rubbed the back of his head with a nervous chuckle, unable to look at her while aware that his zygomas were flushed and glowing a bright, near blinding blue. “i... i can’t say anyone’s ever said anything like that to me before... uh, you... you said you’ve still got questions, wasn’t that right, frisk? keep ‘em rollin’.”

 Sans was different – he entertained her inquisitiveness, encouraged it. She would even go so far as to say he almost appeared flattered by it instead of finding her and her various interests annoying.

 Frisk wondered if he was lonely.

 That was the only conceivable reason why he would tolerate her oddities as much as he had, she thought.

 After Frisk decided that he had earned her trust and that she enjoyed his company, she began to notice the little things about him. How, even when he was smiling brightly, there was something sad about those pale white spheres of light within his sockets. Beneath them were dark circles present, like how humans would develop dark circles under their eyes due to stress or loss of sleep.

 She had commented at least once that he appeared to be exhausted, not directly mentioning the easily visible marks beneath his sockets, but Sans had brushed her off with a smile. He assured her that he slept plenty, perhaps too much, the skeleton added with a quiet chuckle. Still, it concerned her – the thought of him taking an uncaring approach to his own health when he had put so much effort into bettering hers was a saddening one.

 But the longer she stayed in his company, the lighter the markings underneath his sockets became.

 It didn’t make much sense to her – if anything, Frisk would have thought that tending to the needs of another as exceedingly as he had for her the past few weeks would have only exhausted him further. Instead, every morning when he came to her room to greet her, Sans seemed just a little bit more perky than the previous day.

 Did he really enjoy her presence that much?

 As the days passed on, one after the other, the more sure she became that this was the truth.

 Another peculiar habit of his was how shy he seemed to be around her. Frisk wasn’t certain if he acted this way around everyone or if she was some sort of exception, since the only person she had seen him interact with so far other than herself was Flowey and as far as she was concerned that nasty little buttercup had no relevance in this private mental discourse of hers - but one day she became confident enough to ask him.

 Apparently, the answer was a little of both.

 Ever since he was small, Sans has felt somewhat uncomfortable conversing and spending an extended period of time with those he wasn’t familiar with. However, he then stated that Frisk was a special case to him and further affected his shyness. So much so, Sans admitted to the girl that he felt as though he had been dangerously close to fainting himself when speaking to her for the first time; the sole reason why he hadn’t was there had been the more important and pressing task of tending to her injuries to focus on at the moment.

  When she questioned him as to why he would feel that way towards her, this was what he had to say,

 “you... you’re really pretty.” He professed, a blue blush beginning to creep over his cheeks. “i’ve never met anyone as pretty before, and when i first saw you, that actually scared me just a little. i... i got nervous.”

 Sans couldn’t be as shy as he claimed to be if he was willing to admit that to her face, even if he couldn’t quite muster up the courage to look at it as he said that.

 But as their time together gradually increased, his timidity gradually began to wane.

 He would still mumble and stutter when he spoke to her, but his actions and words became undeniably more bold.

 It had all began one late evening while Sans was at her bedside, sitting in that same wooden chair that was much too little for his build as he responded to her vast quantities of questions, as per usual. The tiny chair could support his weight no longer; the legs collapsed underneath him with an oddly thunderous crackling, dumping the skeleton out onto the floor on his back.

 Frisk knew she shouldn’t have, but she laughed.

 She hadn’t meant to, but it was beyond her impulse control! To begin with, the small uncharacteristically high-pitched yelp that he let out when he was sent tumbling backwards was nothing short of hysterical, but the expression on his face as it happened was something that deserved not to be ignored. His eye sockets had gone impossibly wide and the spheres inside them had shrunken down to tiny pinpricks. But after he crashed against the floor, his eyelights had enlarged to the point they looked like twin moons.

 The entire scene was too humorous, or humerus as Sans would call it, to keep her face straight and her mouth shut.

 But when Sans didn’t move after longer than a few seconds had passed of him silently staring up at the ceiling just blinking his sockets, that was when the giggles died down and concern began to take over.

 Frisk’s body moved on its own accord, rolling out of bed and landing on her feet before limping over to him.

 “Sans? Sans! Are you alright? You’re not hurt, are you?!” She took his face in her hands, practically yelling directly in it. The sheer panic in her voice made him snap out of whatever trance he was in.

 “i... i’m fine. i think.” His eyelights still looked a bit wonky to her; they had returned to their normal size, but the white orbs were facing different directions and they were spinning round and around...

 He sat up a bit straighter, willing the spheres in his eyes to go back to normal. Only then did she begin to relax, releasing her frightened grip on his skull and arms returning to her sides.

 “everything’s fine, frisk; it’ll take just a little more than that to do anything serious to these old bones.”

 “Are you sure? You’re not just saying that so I won’t worry, are you?”

 “‘m sure.”

 She still wasn’t totally convinced he was telling the truth, but she would let him off the hook for now – if he really was hurt, it would be made apparent to her soon enough.

 “I’m so sorry that I laughed...” She apologized as she lowered her gaze, deeply ashamed.

 “don’t be.” One phalange found its way under her chin, gently lifting her head up. “it was kind of funny, wasn’t it?”

 “If it had been me that fell instead, you wouldn’t have been laughing.” Frisk stated bluntly, knowing that what she said was true.

 “frisk, i wasn’t hurt, so it’s fine.” He replied with a tone of finality, then smiled at her. “but it’s nice to know that you chair about me so much.”

 Once she had processed the pun, Frisk’s eyes automatically narrowed and her nose wrinkled in mock disgust. He laughed at her petulant expression, and the sound was enough for the disgruntled look on her face to slip just slightly. It vanished entirely when the phalange that had been under her chin shifted, the hand it belonged to reaching up to cup her cheek.

 Sans’s own expression had softened as well; a warm smile elevating the corners of his mouth coupled with a tender gaze meant solely for her. His other hand rose to brush the stray and uneven strands of hair away from the girl’s eyes as his thumb traced smooth circles against the skin of her cheek.

 Anything she had to say to him prior had died on her lips.

 His actions had rendered her entirely speechless.

 Sans spent the next few minutes gently running his boney fingers through her hair and stroking her face, appreciating the different types of softness from both. His eye sockets were lidded from sheer bliss, he was enjoying this moment that much.

 However, he returned to his senses not too long afterward, his sockets snapping open with a gasp of sudden realization. He immediately removed his hands and scrambled backwards, nearly on all fours, until his back hit the wall.

 Frisk stared at him with even more confusion evident than when he had been affectionately pawing at her.

 “i... i can explain, i...” Sans stuttered, hands fluttering about as if on the defensive and anticipating her to attack him for his behavior. “no, no i can’t explain anything this time... not at all. oh stars, frisk, i... i’m so sorry. i don’t know what came over me.”

 “No, no... It’s... it’s alright! I’m not mad at you, Sans, so there’s no reason at all for you to act like I am.” She shuffled towards him once more, but only made it a few steps across the room before her legs gave out on her – they were still far too weak due to a combination of several consecutive weeks of bedrest and the injuries she sustained when she first fell into the Underground and encountered Flowey.

 Sans pushed his previous thought process to the side and moved to assist her. He was at her side in an instant, hoisting Frisk into his arms before she could begin to question him of his objective. He carried her back to the bed, placing her gently underneath the covers then pulling the sheets up to her chest, all the while struggling to aim an admonishing look at his patient.

 He was immensely flattered by how quickly she had rose to her feet, for the first time in weeks, just to make certain that he hadn’t injured himself despite the pain she must have felt in doing so. However, as much as this gesture of hers touched the very depths of his SOUL, he also wished that she hadn’t left the bed in the first place. She was still recuperating, and if he hadn’t carelessly broken the chair he had been sitting on, then Frisk wouldn’t have had a reason to exert herself.

 Sans had no one to blame but himself for this... and perhaps Flowey. He too was responsible, in a roundabout sort of way, but Sans knew he couldn’t pin every single thing that went wrong during the process of Frisk’s recovery on him, as tempting as the thought was. That was just escaping responsibility.

 “What’s with the sour face, Mr. Grumpybones?” She took notice of his bitter expression and was swift in pointing it out.

 “i would think the answer to that question is obvious – you got out of bed when i specifically told you just this morning not to.”

 “But what was I supposed to do then? Just... lay here and watch you have a staring contest with the ceiling when it was totally possible and reasonable for me to think that you might have split the back of your skull open because you didn’t pop right back up after that fall you took?”

 “i was in a minor case of shock from the impact.” Sans struggled to remain firm with her. “i would have gotten up, eventually.”

 “Well, even if what you’re saying is true...,” He momentarily scowled at her, but not for long until it too evaporated. “...Eventually just wasn’t good enough for me.”

 His mouth opened and closed in rapid succession, but eventually, he just smiled down at her with all the warmth and quiet intensity that had been present before. Again, he carded his phalanges through her bangs, then said quietly, almost inaudibly,

 “get some rest, pumpkin.”

 He was trying to escape the conversation, Frisk surmised, but her thoughts were cut short when she felt a soft pressure against her forehead. Sans quickly turned off the lamp and shuffled out of the room as if embarrassed, almost ashamed. What reason would he have to be embarrassed? Frisk was fairly certain the lingering sensation she felt on her forehead was from a kiss.

 How that could even possible she wasn’t entirely certain, but Frisk had previously witnessed him drinking from a straw on some occasions during their mealtimes together, so perhaps him being capable of kissing wasn’t too much of a stretch. At any rate, Sans had fled the scene before she had the chance to question him about it, and perhaps that was exactly the point.

 However, Sans didn’t remain bashful concerning his gestures of affection. The next morning, he greeted Frisk with another hesitant kiss to the cheek, just like the night before, but instead of apologizing and stumbling over his words, his bright eyelights studied her closely, gauging her reaction for any signs of discomfort or disgust. Finding none, he grinned widely, and from there, the adoration he felt and actively expressed towards her only increased.

 He gave her kisses sparingly, and gave plenty of warning beforehand from that point onward, just in case... She allowed him at each occasion, even turning her cheek towards him and tapping it with her index finger feigning impatience sometimes when it seemed to her he wanted to press his mouth against her skin, but refrained from it for whatever reason; perhaps it was that timidity of his creeping back every so often to remind him of its existence and to make itself known.

 During one instance when he leaned down to give her a peck on the forehead, he hesitated, much longer than usual and too long in her opinion. So to remedy the situation, Frisk leaned upwards slightly... and placed a peck of her own on the tip of his nasal ridge. He leapt backwards as if she had slung cold water on him instead, and yes, during her stay here, Frisk had learned that magical skeleton monsters could be affected by changes in temperatures and experience sensations similar to a human’s nerve endings. His spine was pressed up against the closed door – she wasn’t entirely certain how he had managed to scurry that distance, and in reverse so quickly; Frisk was halfway convinced that he had somehow teleported.

 He blinked owlishly at her for several extended, drawn out seconds, then broke out into a wide grin and laughed.

 Afterward, Sans gave her a kiss at the beginning and conclusion of each day they spent in one another’s company.

 It wasn’t long after until Frisk found the strength to walk again, on the condition that she was under constant supervision as a precaution in case her legs collapsed underneath her again. The first few days, Sans held her hand in a strong but gentle grip, leading the girl around his home wherever it was she wanted to go. He would chide her on pushing her limits, but he could only surmise how liberating it must have felt to be able to move around again and stretch her legs after so long of being confined to a single room, and unable to even leave bed at that.

 Her first time leaving the bedroom was almost exciting, to finally see what lied beyond the walls of that child-sized, enclosed room. The hallway outside seemed so wide, and seemed to stretch further than it really did. Aside from the door to Frisk’s room, there were two others visible – one led to Sans’s bedroom, and the other was a mystery. When Sans caught her staring at it and the sign dangling from the doorframe, which politely deterred any would-be trespassers from entering, he led her away and guided her attentions towards the living area. She was still curious about it, but pushed any thoughts pertaining to the prohibited door to the side to ponder later.

 Sans’s house was a bit on the small side and simple in design, but also cozy and comforting; the very epitome of a cottage dwelling. The living room was her favorite place to be – often she and Sans would sit and make themselves comfy in that giant armchair of his and read by the fireplace together. There was no danger of this one breaking under their combined weight, he insisted, but Frisk was still cautious about sitting on the arm of the chair, no matter how well-built and sturdy it looked.

 When she voiced this concern aloud, he then offered her a place by his side. If she took him up on this suggestion, then she would practically be sitting in his lap. Perhaps not, and while Frisk would admit that she was growing more and more fond of him with each passing day in a certain sense, going so far as allowing him to kiss her face and finding herself often returning the gesture, the girl still couldn’t quite say she was comfortable to that extent with cozying up to Sans.

 And yet, Frisk found herself inching closer and closer to him anyway, unconsciously moving more towards his immediate vicinity each time they sat together in that armchair suitable for a king. Not to the degree that she was ever settled in his lap, but she had definitely brushed shoulders with him, even leaned against him a time or two. He welcomed the dwindling proximity between them, occasionally wrapping an arm around her own shoulders if she was enough within his reach to do so.

 How this routine of theirs even began was when Frisk had spotted a bookshelf next to the armchair, each row filled with titles unfamiliar to her. They were all authored by the monsters inhabiting the Underground, he informed her, and she then wanted to view their contents for herself. She was astounded to find that the words on the pages inside were written in her language and not one unfamiliar to her, but Sans spoke English as well, so it really shouldn’t have surprised her as much as it did.

 Some of them were children’s books and fairytales, stories that Sans had owned since he was small – they were in excellent condition for their estimated age, which briefly made her wonder how old Sans actually was. Others were of the nonfictional variety, like biographies containing tales and accounts of humans and monsters having once lived in harmony many, many years ago. She learned this period of peace between the races came to an abrupt end when humanity waged war against the monsters; the humans emerged victorious, rounded up the monster population, and sealed them away in a deep cavern under Mount Ebott behind a magical barrier.

 If it weren’t for the fact that Frisk was brutally assaulted by a talking flower and was currently sitting next to a giant living animate skeleton, she wouldn’t have believed it.

 “...They didn’t tell us about this in history class at school on the surface.”

 “ha! i can believe that. it seems like the vast majority of humanity has forgotten that we even exist, much less ever lived alongside them. now monsters have been relegated to malignant figures in your stories that terrorize children and other innocents...”

 “I can’t even begin to imagine how insulting that must be to you.” She frowned, eying him with sympathy in her gaze. “...Are you the only monster that feels this way about humans, wanting to put what happened in the past behind you, or are the rest all like Flowey and think we’re evil?”

 He instantly looked discomforted by her question. Sans was visibly squirming in his seat, seeming more nervous than she ever could recall having seen him. He almost appeared pained, he was so unsettled.

 But before she could retract her inquiry, apologize, or attempt to comfort him, he at last answered her. “opinions are... varied, among monsterkind.”

 “......Oh.” She said quietly, taking as long with her own reply as he had.

 An uncomfortable silence followed.

 Neither of them would look at one another. Both could only writhe uncomfortably where they sat, both consumed with regret for the things that were said. The warm, domestic mood around them had been spoiled, and Frisk felt it was her fault for bringing up such a serious, not to mention grim topic in the first place.

 But now that the topic had surfaced, it made her begin to consider something, and this wasn’t the first time that this particular something had plagued her thoughts before.

 From his actions and his behavior towards her, Frisk could deduce that Sans obviously held a great deal of compassion towards humanity. He didn’t have to help her at all when he did, and neither would a human if she were being honest, but especially not him when her own kind had imprisoned his entire race. He had no obligation to assist her and would gain nothing from doing so, nothing that she could think of at any rate, and yet he had without a second thought. Not even for his own safety, as Sans had faced Flowey in order to get to her.

 Flowey’s last words of parting to the skeleton had been haunting her lately.

 “You fool… Humans will always despise monsters. You remember that when you’re at the mercy of this one and it has none to spare…”

 Was Sans an outcast among the rest of his kind because of his stance towards humans? Is that why he lived alone in this little house, and never brought home any company?

 Sans wasn’t entirely without companionship, at least this was what Frisk tried to convince herself of; he seemed to have at least one friend in the spider lady that had taught him how to sew the beautiful blue blanket with the bones stitched in the fabric that currently sat atop her bed, who he mentioned when she had once asked him where it came from. However, Sans had spoken as though that had been some time ago. Perhaps he truly didn’t have anyone else in his life aside from herself.

 Dwelling on that thought as she did suddenly made her unbearably sad, feeling as though the blame lied solely on her shoulders that such a wonderful, patient, and kind monster would spend the remainder of his life alone as long as she was here.

 So much so, that Frisk wasn’t even aware she was crying until she felt Sans begin to wipe the tears that cascaded down her cheeks with his thumb.

 “please... please don’t cry, pumpkin.” She wasn’t sure why, perhaps it was his mournful tone or the just as saddened expression on his face that was rendered slightly blurry through her tearstained vision, but she only wailed all the more, which was the exact opposite of what Sans wanted. He then reached out for her, to envelop her in his arms in a comforting embrace, the history book that he had held loosely in his hands tumbling to the floor, forgotten. “pumpkin, why are you crying...?”

 “Sans, am I... not supposed to be here...?” She sniffled, struggling to extricate herself from his gentle grasp, feeling as though she didn’t deserve it or him. “Am I the reason why you’re alone?”

 She heard him let out a quiet gasp before holding her even closer to himself, against his chest. In the small space of time prior to him speaking again, she heard something else, a pulsing, thumping sound emanating from somewhere deep within his ribcage. It was almost like a heartbeat... If she wasn’t so wrapped up in her own sorrow, Frisk might have contemplated why she would be hearing something that was so similar to a heartbeat coming from Sans when skeleton monsters shouldn’t have hearts.

 “...why would you think something like that?” He was running his phalanges through her hair, barely nuzzling the top of head as he urged her to speak. “why are you blaming yourself for that? why? tell me.”

 Frisk didn’t want to mention what Flowey had said, or what was written in the book for that matter. She wasn’t sure why he even bothered asking her, if only to hear her say it in that awful, croaky, hiccup-laden voice of hers - they both knew exactly why. She didn’t want to talk about this at all, even though the two of them having arrived at this point was entirely through her doing.

 She couldn’t think of anything to say, so the girl only let out a sob and shook her head, refusing to reply.

 He sighed, squeezing her tighter, but not so much that it would be discomforting or painful, then moved his mouth next to her ear, so he could ascertain that what he had to say would be heard.

 “frisk, i need you to calm down, pumpkin. i need you to breathe. it’s not your fault. none of this is.” When she weakly attempted to argue, he shushed her, his voice little above a whisper. “yes, it’s true you’re not supposed to be down here, according to the law of monsterkind, but it’s not because of you that i’m alone – that has nothing to do with you. i made my choice a long time ago, long before you ever fell down here. and i have no regrets about that. none at all.”

 “But... But it’s not fair!” She clutched onto his robe and bawled into his shoulder, the cloth becoming damp with her tears, but he didn’t care.

 “i know it’s not fair, it’s not fair at all, but that’s just how things are down here, pumpkin. it’s not your fault.”

 “Why does it feel like it is, though?” The question escaped her lips before she could stop it; it was probably the only one she has asked him that he didn’t have an answer for.

 “i don’t know. but if i’ve said or done anything to make you feel this way, then i’m sorry. i won’t ever do it again.” The smoothness that was his cheek rubbed against her wet one as he again asked of her, his request sounding more like a plea, “just please, please stop crying... i can’t take it. it hurts too much.”

 “I... I don’t know if I can...” She choked out, and his hands shifted from their place tangled in her hair to rubbing slow, soothing circles into her back.

 “...then i’ll hold you for as long as it takes. if you’ll allow me to.”

 Frisk responded by clinging to him desperately, her fingers grabbing at his broad shoulders for grounding. Again, she heard the sound of the strange inexplicable pulsing within his chest; it was even louder than before, almost as if demanding its existence to be known. The curious thumping against his bones calmed her, and it wasn’t long after that she felt her own heartbeat slowing down, the flow of her tears beginning to slow, and with that the mysterious palpitations next to her other ear began to fade as well.

 By the time her tearful fit had reached its conclusion, Frisk was left feeling embarrassed and ashamed over that spontaneous emotional outburst. She had put Sans in an uncomfortable position, she was sure, both figuratively and literally – when he had reached out to embrace her, she had been maneuvered until she was more or less in his lap. Not quite there, but close enough that it would be undoubtedly awkward should he notice and decide to bring attention towards it.

 But when she mustered the courage to look him in the eye sockets again, she found nothing but sympathy and concern in his gaze.

 “you alright now, pumpkin?” He inquired softly with the tiniest frown.

 “Yeah, I’m all cried out. My eyes are entirely bone dry now.” She replied with a laugh that was just as dry as she claimed her eyes currently were.

 Sans quietly chuckled at the pun before his expression turned serious. “i’m so sorry, frisk. i didn’t mean to make you cry. that was all my fault – i shouldn’t have been so insensitive when there were so many other ways i could’ve gone about telling you.”

 “No, no, you’ve got it wrong, Sans. You weren’t being insensitive; I was being too sensitive and couldn’t handle what you said in a mature manner. It was entirely my fault Sans, all mine.” Before he could protest, she continued, “I guess that what you said just surprised me... I mean, I knew that things must be bad between our races, considering what happened in the past, but... hearing that so many monsters hate me already even though I’ve never met them... I suppose that just got to me is all.”

 “they don’t hate you, pumpkin. i don’t think anyone could.”

 Sans didn’t know how wrong he was, she thought.

 “the problem is that they just don’t know you. they don’t know you like i do.” He smiled tenderly at her. “i think that if the rest of the monsters here that feel the way they do about humans got to know you, if they gave you a fair chance, every single one of them would inevitably fall in love with you. ......like i did.”

 She almost gaped at him once Frisk processed what it was he had said.

 Sans had most definitely said that he loved her, and he had said it with a glowing deep blue blush coating the majority of his cheekbones area. What he had said was unquestionably sweet, but she was left wondering in what sense was he referring to when he professed his love. Surely, it must be of the platonic sort, or possibly even the familial. As implausibly tolerant as he was towards her kind, surely he, a monster, wouldn’t develop feelings for a human...

 She gathered what was left of her wits and asked him for clarification.

 “...What do you mean, ‘like you did’? What does that mean?”

 “whatever you want it to.” He replied simply, punctuating his statement with a swift peck against the crown of her head.

 Her face screwed into a look of irritation and confusion – that answered nothing at all. If anything, it only left her with more questions.

 What did she want it to mean? This wasn’t the first time that she pondered the state of their relationship, especially once Sans had began kissing her as often as he did. These thoughts only multiplied once she began anticipating his affectionate gestures and eventually returning them.

 She didn’t know what she wanted it to be; she was still confused over her exact feelings towards him, but what Frisk did know was, she liked Sans. In what way, she wasn’t completely certain – but she liked him.

 “...why don’t we talk about something else, something lighter.” He suggested, snapping Frisk out of her reverie.

 “Wait. I have one other question about this humans and monsters subject. One more.”

 “alright...” He responded cautiously, at least willing to hear her out.

 “What makes you different from them?” Noticing signs of perplexity surfacing on his skull, she elaborated, “Why do you feel the way you do about humans, showing them mercy, when the other monsters apparently don’t? Why are you different?”

 Sans appeared to hesitate before replying, but when he did, he wore a grin that was different than the other ones she had seem from him; beaming, almost proud.

 “the reason why i’m like i am is because of my older brother.” His sockets closed, seeming to reminisce. “he was obsessed with humans, despite everything he had always been told about them growing up. the rest of the underground thought that he was an oddball, but he was determined to show everyone down here that humans weren’t as bad as all the stories from the war made them out to be.”

 Frisk smiled at the fondness he clearly showed for his brother, but then a certain detail she discerned in his speech commanded her attention – Sans spoke of him in past tense.

 “...Sans? Did... Did something happen? ...To your brother?”

 His grin then turned into a grimace. “he’s... he’s no longer with us. he passed away. and i’d... really rather not talk about what happened.”

 “That’s okay! You’ve told me enough now; we can talk about something else, if you’d like.”

 “...but what about you, though?” He questioned, his voice sounding strained to her for some reason. “what about your family on the surface?”

 “Oh, them...” Now it was her turn to frown. “I have a mother and a younger sister. I doubt either of them has noticed I’m gone. Or anyone I know, for that matter.”

 “that can’t be true. i refuse to believe that could ever be true. ...what kind of relationship do you have with your sister?”

 “She hates my guts.” Frisk stated none too delicately.

 “...oh.” Sans looked at her with all the consolation that he could summon, as if it was the most tragic thing he had ever heard. “i’m sorry... ...i have a younger sibling myself. another brother. we... we haven’t spoken for some time. ...he did something. something terrible. something so horrible that perhaps it’s even unforgiveable, and i haven’t been able to look at him the same way ever since. ...so i left, and moved here, into our old childhood home. the one place in the underground i know he’ll never think to look for me.”

 “So you sort of understand how it is, to feel this way about a sibling. I don’t hate my sister, but I... I really can’t say I like her either.”

 “i as well wouldn’t say i hate him, for what he did. ...i don’t think i could ever say that i hate my brother, but i’m not sure if i can ever bring myself to forgive him for what he did, much less allow him to reenter my life when i’m reasonably sure he isn’t sorry for what happened between us that caused the rift in the first place.”

 “...And it just got worse after the dispute that caused you to leave. Everyone takes the side of your younger brother over yours.”

 “you know us so well, it’s as if you were actually there to experience everything there is that exists between the two of us.”

 “Like I said, I kind of understand where you’re coming from, maybe.”

 “...but you don’t deserve to know what that’s like.” He cupped her cheek with one of his large palms, staring deeply into her eyes. “you deserve the best life has to offer, frisk. not... whatever it was that you went through on the surface. not whatever it was that caused you to come to this stars forsaken mountain, of all places.”

 “You might be the only one to think so, Sans.”

 “...then i’ll love you enough for all of them.” Sans murmured as he rested one of his large palms over hers, cradling her hand as if it were something irreplaceably precious.

 Another lengthy moment of silence passed between them, far longer but also far more peaceful than the one before. It held the sense of calmness that followed after a harsh and heavy storm, a reminder that the terror had passed and those who weathered through it were permitted to relax and put their qualms at ease.

 Sans wrapped his free arm around Frisk’s shoulders, bringing her closer to him than she had ever been, but still not quite to the extent that she was sitting in his lap. He gently urged her to rest her head against his shoulder, and she did, feeling exhausted from her crying episode earlier. He then rested his own atop hers, his eye sockets closing contentedly with a soft pleased hum.

 Before she slipped into a state of slumber, Frisk thought she heard him repeat in a hushed whisper that he loved her, as if to remind her in case this detail had somehow been forgotten.

 How could she forget? It was the first time someone had said something like that to her with so much emotion and sincerity.

 Sans did love her, she realized, more than anyone in her life ever had. Perhaps that was why she found herself accepting his kisses and tender touches so easily, and even reciprocating them. Now that she had learned what real affection was from him, Frisk was almost constantly starved for it, though she never once voiced this aloud, far to embarrassed and more than enough ashamed for thinking and feeling such things.

 Thankfully, she never had to. Sans was more than enough willing to provide her with the attention she so secretly craved, as long as his shyness didn’t interfere - and even then, that aspect of him was swiftly vanishing.

 ...So why was it that Frisk at times longed for what was found elsewhere, on the surface?

 As lovely as Sans’s house was, after a few weeks had passed of her having regained her ability to walk, the girl was beginning to get a little stir crazy. The need to move her legs and explore what lied beyond was becoming unbearable, and the walls of the tiny cottage were feeling smaller and smaller every day, to the point it was near suffocating.

 She needed fresh air. She needed to breathe.

 “and just where do you think you’re going?”

 Sans had caught her attempting to exit through the door in the hallway; not the one with the descending stairs – he was adamant about not letting her go down there. He insisted it was a basement, but he would have a reaction that was close to a panic attack whenever she would venture too close to it. Perhaps he was afraid she would stumble down them and injure herself further?

 Anyway, it wasn’t quite accurate to say he had caught her – Frisk wasn’t even trying to hide the fact that she was heading outside, but judging from the tone the skeleton used when he noticed her, it was clearly no different than if she had.

 “I was going outside?”

 “absolutely out of the question.” He responded swiftly and sternly.

 “But Sans! I... I’m feeling a bit cramped here!” She spoke over his objections. “I’ve tried walking back and forth from the living room to the end of the hallway to get rid of this feeling, but it’s just not working anymore!”

 “no.” He nearly growled, surprising her slightly, but there was a distinct fear in his eye sockets.

 “...Are you afraid that a monster is gonna see me, realize I’m human, and then attack me or something?” Frisk inquired, the possibility of such a thing occurring having now just dawned upon her.

 “that... that’s not the only thing i’m worried about. most of the monsters that live here would accept and adore you if they got to know you, i’m absolutely sure of this, but... it’s not really them you and i should be so concerned with here – it’s flowey.”

 “...Oh yeah. Him...” She had honestly almost forgotten about him, fortunately.

 “if he found you again, if he decided to come back here despite what happened then... i’m afraid that he might try to, ah..., ‘finish the job’ from last time...”

 “If he wanted to do that, then why hasn’t he tried to after all this time since he almost killed me? Is it because of you?”

 “i think that might be a possible explanation as to why he’s never tried ambushing this place.” He gestured to the space around them, the little cottage that he called home, “even when he’d have to know that i’m sleeping, and as much as he obviously detests me, he’s never tried to sneak inside and attack me during the night. ...i believe it might be because... he’s afraid of me.”

 After hearing the voice Sans spoke to him with and witnessing what he had done to the evil flower, Frisk could understand why he would now.

 “Well, if you’re so afraid that he’d attack me and so sure that he’s scared of you, then why not go with me?”

 “...pardon?”

 “Go. With. Me. On a walk through the Ruins.” She bounced eagerly on her heels, stretching out her hand for him to take. “Everything should be fine then, right? As long as you’re with me.”

 He was so quiet and for so long that she was afraid Sans was attempting to sort out the easiest way to deny her in his head. However, a bright blue blush eventually found its way on and covered his cheeks, and slowly, he took her hand in his.

 “...at the first sign of trouble, we’re coming back. immediately.”

 “Understood.” She happily agreed, then gave their conjoined hands a tug forward. “Come on, old man! Let’s get those feet moving!”

 “i’ve already told you before – i’m not that old.”

 “Then you should start acting your age – prove you’re not by shaking a leg and getting a move on!”

 And so walks around the Ruins became a part of their daily routine. At first Sans was insistent that they remain restricted to his front yard and the area around it, but as their days together outside increased, he gradually became more lenient and they would travel a little further than the previous day. Eventually, the pair reached the beginning of the cavern, where Frisk had fallen down some time ago.

 And there awaiting them was a sharp bone stabbed into the ground, the marrow thickly coated in a light green colored fluid.

 Though the vile flower was nowhere to be found, this spiteful act was enough for both to be made aware that he had indeed survived being stabbed in the stem by Sans. He highly doubted that Flowey would feel up to trying anything gutsy while he was here, but the arm he had wrapped around Frisk to steady her tightened protectively, in preparation should his assumption turn out to be wrong.

 Frisk’s attention eventually strayed from the spear made of bone to the bed of flowers that had broken her fall.

 “Y’know, it’s kind of funny in a really surreal way. I was almost killed by a literally living flower right at this spot, but if it weren’t for those flowers, I might not have even survived the fall down here.”

 An oddly morose look crossed Sans’s face as he stared down at the bed of buttercups, feeling his sockets moisten.

 “oh gaster... even after everything that happened back then, even while in the grave, you’re still doing everything within your power to help humankind... that’s just like something you would do...”

 When his older brother had died, crumbled away to dust right before him, Sans remembered his request, in his final breaths, that he be given a human burial. Humans buried their dead underneath the earth, and while he certainly didn’t understand it or even try to, Sans honored this, as it was the last thing he could do for him. His younger brother had staunchly protested this, demanding that his dust be scattered in front of the barrier, closest to the surface that most monsters longed to one day see and experience, but Sans fulfilled their dear departed brother’s final desire anyway, despite the anger he had outwardly expressed.

 Sans had felt just as furious at the time, but he respected Gaster enough to not argue against his dying wishes.

 And as he carried the sleeping Frisk home due to her having valiantly struggled but failed to remain awake about one third of the way back, Sans was more grateful than ever that he had heeded his older brother’s parting words of wisdom. If he hadn’t, then he was absolutely certain that he never would have met and fallen so deeply and hopelessly in love with the woman he held in his arms.

 The mere thought brought a cold chill of pure terror down his spine, but he managed to will it away by focusing on the weight and warmth present of the adorable human he held so closely to his SOUL in the most literal and figurative definition imaginable.

 She was here. She was safe.

 Here and safe, with him.

 And she always would be, if he had any say in it.

 ~~~~~~~~~~

 “i beg your pardon?!”

 Sans had all but yelped that one fateful morning at breakfast, having spat out his tea all over the tablecloth in his shock. Frisk didn’t think that what she had to say would have surprised him as much as it did, but he had immediately proven her wrong.

 “Sans, are you alright?!” She rose up from her chair, scampered over to his side, and began rapidly patting his back even though she wasn’t certain if choking worked the same for skeleton monsters as it did for humans.

 “yes... i’m fine...” His voice still sounded hoarse from all his sputtering. “you just... surprised me. that’s all.”

 It had been well over four months since she had found herself in his care. Her injuries had healed entirely, and as much as she enjoyed Sans’s companionship, Frisk understood that she was overstaying her welcome and it was time for her to leave. He spent basically every single waking moment by her side, only going outside when they took their walks through the Ruins – this was not the sort of life that he should live. She couldn’t keep imposing on him like this, no matter how much he insisted that she wasn’t. He was just too kind for his own good.

 Telling him of her plans to go was more painful for her than he would ever know, if she could help it – she had to be firm with him, make her intentions clear and show no indication of hesitation or doubt, otherwise he might just convince her to stay. She had held off on bringing up this subject for long enough, and Frisk felt this was something that had to be done.

 Sans appeared utterly miserable at the revelation that she was indeed leaving, and this almost made her retract her previous statement. However, he managed to muster a smile for her before she could and asked,

 “but before you go, would you at least have one last cup of tea with me?”

 How could she turn away such an innocent request, especially accompanied with a face like that?

 Sans had asked her to wait in the living room for him; they would also read one more book together – again, she couldn’t find it within her to say no, even though it would undoubtedly make it all the more difficult for her to leave.

 It was halfway through his narration of the adventures starring a fluffy bunny and after she had finished her cup that it happened – Frisk was struck with a sudden and overpowering sensation of drowsiness. Her eyelids grew heavier and heavier, and Sans’s voice was beginning to sound far away even though she was right next to him.

 She reached out to weakly clutch onto his sleeve, and he stopped mid-sentence.

 “frisk?”

 “Sans... I... I can’t...” She mumbled, her words sounding slurred to her own ears.

 “can’t what? what’s wrong?” He questioned, setting the storybook to the side just in time for her to collapse onto his lap. “frisk!”

 “I’m sorry... I can’t anymore... I can’t...” She fought against the darkness of sleep that threatened to overtake her, but it was all in vain, she realized. “I can’t... stay awake... anymore...”

 Then everything. Went. Black.

 When she finally awoke from what had felt like a thousand-year sleep, the first thing that came into Frisk’s steadily returning vision was the familiar walls of the guest room and Sans’s worried face hovering over her, his eyelights having been reduced to tiny trembling pinpricks. The relief that washed over his expression was instantaneous, letting out a sigh of repose as he reached out to tenderly cradle her cheek.

 “pumpkin, how are you feeling? ...speak to me, baby girl.”

 “Sans...” She whimpered, still feeling lightheaded and weak. “...I feel like I’m made of stone and I’m falling. ...It’s horrible. I’m scared.”

 “frisk... i’m sorry... i’m so, so sorry...” Sans looked to be on the verge of tears; she wasn’t sure why he would be saying he was sorry – he had nothing to apologize for, no reason to blame himself. “...that unpleasant sensation of yours might go away in a few minutes. i hope... but frisk...? i think it might be best if you stay with me for a while longer, until you recover from this. maybe a few more days? on the chance that this might happen again?”

 “I... I think you might be right about that.” She groaned, her body feeling heavy as lead. “Because I can’t go anywhere like this. I can barely even move my head from side to side, much less my arms and legs. ...I’m the one that should really be sorry, Sans. You were finally going to be free of me, haha... And now you’re stuck with the burden of taking care of me again.”

 “hush. that’s enough of that.” He placed a bony finger against her lips. “i... i’ve never for a single instance seen you as a burden, frisk. and right now is no different. i’ll watch over and take care of you for as long as need be. because i love you...”

 She certainly believed him; there were no lingering doubts in her heart that he did, but Frisk still felt as though she didn’t deserve his love.

 The next few days passed by in a hazy blur. Frisk had once again regained mobility, late into the day after she had abruptly lost consciousness, but her motions and steps were still unpredictable and wobbly. Sans would take her by the hand and gently lead her wherever it was she needed to go, just like when she was relearning to walk when the bones in her legs had healed. She would outwardly bemoan how helpless she had become, but Sans persisted with his assertions that he didn’t mind offering her his assistance in the slightest.

 Sans rarely ever left her side since she arrived here, but today was one of those extremely rare occasions where he was forced to.

 Her skeletal pal had to run errands and leave her all alone for several hours – the supply of food in the house was running dreadfully low, so much so that the cabinets and fridge were practically empty. This was a task that must be done, Sans bitterly lamented, and he resolved to get it done and over with as quickly as possible so he could return to his dearly beloved human.

 Frisk did enjoy his presence, immensely so, but she also had to admit to herself that it was nice to finally have some alone time. The girl decided to take this opportunity to further explore the house in ways she couldn’t before. Like the basement that he was so determined to keep her out of. Every time she asked about it, he always gave her a different excuse as to why she shouldn’t wander down there when she pressed him enough. It was dirty down there, it was cold, it was dusty, she could get hurt...

 But something was calling her to it.

 She waited at least half an hour after Sans had left to begin her private research – just in case he forgot something and came back. She couldn’t have that. This felt so childish, a part of her argued, and perhaps it was. But as much as she adored him, Frisk was more than a bit put off with the way that he would sometimes treat her like an incompetent clumsy child that needed to constantly be looked after. Sans knew she wasn’t one and he had let her know on more than one occasion that he acknowledged this, but that didn’t stop him from babying her far more than necessary. Sometimes, she genuinely enjoyed it. And other times, it became annoying. And the past few days, it had been annoying.

 This was her tiny little slice of revenge! And Sans would never have to know, because it’s not like she would ever see him again after all this was over anyway...

 Frisk had previously pondered just how she was going to escape the Underground and return to the surface when she finally got around to doing it, and just where the rest of the Underground even was... and now she knew where to begin.

 At the end of the long, empty, hallway that Sans had frequently claimed was a basement, was a massive set of doors.

 There was a chilling air emanating around and from beyond them, so he hadn’t been completely misleading her about that. Everything else, though? Frisk now acknowledged that he had been more or less lying to her - and the worst part about that was, there was absolutely no reason for him to, as far as she understood.

 This discovery shouldn’t have been anything to obsess over, but she couldn’t help but feel a slight sting of betrayal.

 With nothing else to gawk at down here, she spun on her heel and headed back upstairs to continue her investigation.

 The next item on her list was to traverse the other room that was branded taboo for her to enter. Not Sans’s room, no; she was almost always welcome there. The room at the very end of the hallway next to the mirror with the sign hanging on it that said ‘room under renovations’. It was entirely possible and believable that it truly was being reconditioned, but she’s had a hunch ever since she first laid eyes on it that there was something more to what lied beyond that door, something mysterious that the normally kindly skeleton didn’t want her seeing or bearing knowledge of.

 Well, Frisk was never one to follow directions to the exact letter.

 And it wasn’t like the sign placed on the door was telling her not to enter. The very same could be said of her visiting the lower level of the house. Sans had never once directly instructed her not to enter either, so there was no fault to be found in doing so.

 At least, this is what she tried to convince herself of as she twisted the knob, the guilt for merely touching it flooding her system. She could make all the excuses she wanted, bring forth all the technicalities that existed surrounding what she was doing, but deep inside her heart and SOUL, Frisk knew that this was wrong, that she was invading a space that Sans didn’t want her to step foot into.

 ...But that still didn’t stop her from doing it.

 The people that frequented her life in the past had often told Frisk while growing up that her curiosity would one day bring about her undoing. Perhaps they were right about that – she wouldn’t have gotten herself into this entire situation in the first place were it not for her inquisitive nature. Curiosity may indeed kill the cat, but the latter half of the saying was so often forgotten or dismissed.

 And right at this moment in time, Frisk was once again treading into dangerous territory in her never-ending quest for satisfaction.

 The door let out a slow creak that echoed horribly throughout the hallway, causing her to jolt and search for any sign of her caretaker while simultaneously struggling to formulate a believable justification for what she was doing before regaining her bearings and reminding herself that Sans was nowhere inside the house.

 Tentatively, she tiptoed into the dark room.

 The light that was cast from the hallway provided some much-needed illumination; she could see a wooden trunk of some sort next to a small child-sized bed, no two. One was decorated in blue sheets, and the other orange. Stepping closer, Frisk spotted something carved into the headboards of each. She inspected the blue one first – ‘Sans’ was chiseled in pretty cursive writing, accompanied by little artistic whittlings of bones.

 This must have been his old bed from when he was a babybones, she thought with delight – after constantly being dwarfed the big guy for so long, it was almost impossible for her to imagine that he had ever been that small!

 The second bed must have been his brother’s, then. Where his name had been on the first, the name ‘Papyrus’ was scrawled.

 She wondered what had caused the two brothers to separate. She hadn’t asked Sans about it, hadn’t even mentioned his brother again after that one time, since the subject seemed to deeply depress him.

 She doubted that this tiny bedroom would provide her with any answers, but Frisk wanted to look over everything that was present regardless.

 The girl then turned her attention towards the chest that was situated between the two beds; there was a lock on it, she noticed despairingly. Was the key somewhere in this room? Or was it hidden in Sans’s? Or perhaps elsewhere in the house? After a swift but thorough search, she decided that it couldn’t be anywhere here.

 It was time to search Sans’s room.

 Meticulously, she poked through his belongings, making certain that everything was in its exact place prior to her tampering with it before moving onto another area. She peeked under the king-sized bed, in the compartments of his desk, even his sock drawer (scandalous!), and caught not a single glimpse of the key she was seeking. Just as she was considering giving up on her curious quest, sitting on the bed with an irritated huff and a pout, a sudden thought, or rather a heightened sense of intuition came to her. And with it followed a burst of determination to finish what she had began.

 She then stood up and immediately thrust her hand beneath the mattress, groping the space between the fabric case and the rest of the bed until her fingers touched something cool and metallic. Frisk clasped her fingers around it and withdrew her arm from the cushiony confine and found that the object was indeed a key. Perhaps not the one she was looking for, but a key nonetheless.

 She sprinted back to the chest and jammed the key into the lock; it fit perfectly, and when she twisted it, the latch came undone with a satisfying click. Setting both to the side, Frisk then lifted the lid to the trunk.

 Inside it was... clothes. A lot of clothes. Specifically children’s clothes. Nothing too surprising, seeing as she was currently standing in what for all intents and purposes appeared to be the brothers’ childhood bedroom, but something felt... strangely off to her about them.

 She pushed the garments out of the way, rummaging through the contents of the trunk for anything else of interest; she uncovered one other thing – a book.

 Opening the cover revealed it to be a photo album. Frisk flipped through the pages, barely stifling the squeal that threatened to escape at the adorable sight of Sans as a small chubby child – she would swear her heart skipped a beat. The photographs in front of her were so precious that they almost hurt her heart!

 Taking the album, Frisk sat down on the floor to get more comfortable as she witnessed more scenes from his life. One that particularly stood out was little Sans grinning as he was being held by a much taller and older skeleton with one arm, while another one with small beady eyes was slung over his other shoulder, giggling. Underneath the photo was written in that same exquisite cursive writing, ‘I take a day off to spend with Sans and Papyrus! It’s obvious they’ve missed me a lot, even though I’ve been right there with them this entire time...’.

 Frisk felt her heart throb a bit again, this time out of sadness – this family was so happy in the past. She may not know their entire story, but whatever happened to them wasn’t fair at all.

 More and more photos of the two young brothers and this other skeleton appeared. In many of them, the adult brother was wearing a robe and crown, with the boys wearing similar regal finery. It was only when she saw a picture of the three, all sitting on extravagant thrones in the backdrop of what most definitely seemed to be a castle that the ball dropped.

 If this man was indeed the kind of monsters... then that made Sans a prince.

 At once, a pathway to a possible answer, though still foggy in places, had been revealed to her; a reasoning as to why Sans had chosen to live here after he fought with his younger brother. Sans had previously mentioned that his older brother adored humans. After he passed away, the two must have had a disagreement involving this. Sans clearly loved them as well, and though he should have been next in line for the throne, it was entirely plausible that monsterkind rejected his rule because of this.

 However, what she next discovered on the following pages caused her blood to run cold.

 There were photos of Sans, now an adult, posed alongside children. Human children. She counted six different ones, three boys and three girls, with none ever appearing in the same picture together. But perhaps the most startling thing of all that she became aware of was that the clothes they wore were identical to the ones stowed away in the trunk where she had found the album.

 ...What happened to all these children?

 They escaped the Underground, Frisk attempted to convince herself so she wouldn’t lose her mind. But a terrible ache in the pit of her stomach argued otherwise. If they had successfully returned to the surface, then why would their belongings be here? Something had happened to them, that much her heightened intuition was certain of.

 ...But surely Sans didn’t have anything to do with it.

 ......Did he?

 She didn’t have to ponder over this for long, because the sudden creaking of the door behind her alerted Frisk to the presence of another. There he was, the very monster she had just begun to doubt, standing there at the doorframe, having caught her rummaging through his personal belongings in a room that he had all but explicitly stated through thinly veiled hints that he wanted her to stay out of and away from.

 His expression was unreadable to her. He gazed at her with wide, empty sockets, his usual grin entirely absent on his face – his mouth was set in a firm line that conveyed no emotion whatsoever. Sans didn’t say a word, didn’t move a single bone that composed his skeletal body. He just stared at her with those giant vacant black holes in the front of his skull.

 And Frisk then knew that what she had done, had utterly broken him.

 “Sans... I...” She spoke, her voice near unintelligibly faint, but after a few more seconds of silence, Frisk gave up on any attempt to explain herself – there was nothing to say, nothing she could say to make this situation she had created any better.

 He took one step towards her and she flinched. At this, the round white lights in his sockets returned, their appearance comparable to twin full moons in a starless night sky. They were large and gave off the impression of being unbearably sad, and the thin line of his mouth had morphed into a deep frown that dragged down the corners of his mouth further than she’d ever seen them before.

 “...it’s not what you think.” He whispered, his voice sounding unnatural and croaky, as if holding back a sob. “i swear, it’s not. i didn’t do anything to them, frisk.”

 She clutched the photo album closer, wrapping her arms around its cover and pressing it against her chest as if it were a lifeline. She didn’t move, aside from her trembling. She was firmly locked into place while being subjected to his probing gaze.

 “...What happened to them then, Sans?” She fearfully questioned, her inquiry leaving her lips as nothing more than a murmur. “Who are these children?”

 “...they were mine.” He said at last, taking a shuddering breath. “they were like you – they fell down here and i took care of them. they stayed a while, and then they left me. ...and then i never saw any of them again.”

 “...Where are they now?” She asked, as if she didn’t already know.

 He mumbled something unintelligible.

 “I can’t hear you, Sans. You’re... you’re going to have to speak up if you want me to understand what it is that you’re saying...”

 His shoulders were shaking, violently so. His tightly closed fists were clenching the fabric of his robe so roughly that it threatened to tear.

 “Sans...?”

 “for the love of god, frisk! don’t make me say it!”

 His sudden shout caused her to cry out in alarm, letting out a short shriek of fright as she looked into those usually gentle, sleepy, and loving sockets that now displayed nothing but indescribable anguish, boundless sorrow, and unbridled fury.

 Frisk didn’t push him further for an answer, but he gave her one regardless.

 “you want to know where they are now, what happened to them?!” He hissed, his expression contorting to a hateful grimace as he thundered towards her. “they’re dead, frisk. they died... and he was the one that killed them!”

 “Who?!” She inadvertently yelped, shambling backwards to put some distance between them until her back inevitably hit the wall.

 “the king of monsters! the ruler of the underground! papyrus! my brother!” He howled in agony, his head tipping backwards with his scream while hot tears poured endlessly down his cheeks. “he killed every single one of them! one after the other! he made it law for any human discovered in the underground to be executed! and he didn’t show any of them the slightest shred of mercy, even though they were just children and he knew they were mine!”

 At the end of his outburst, Sans then collapsed onto his knees, pounding the wooden flooring underneath him with his fists as though doing this would lessen the pain he felt inside by even the smallest of amounts.

 He wouldn’t look at her, his head hung low as he glared at the floor with as much hatred as he could muster.

 “before our older brother passed, all he asked of us in his final moments was to love them, the humans. to grant them mercy despite everything... despite what the humans had done to him...” He said with a wet sob. “papyrus was angry... and i was too. but i respected him enough to obey his last request. it’s what he would have wanted. not... not this! he never would have wanted humans to die and another war to be declared in his name! i knew that, so i don’t know why papyrus would think that senseless violence and bloodshed was what he would have wanted as a direct result of his own death, when what he requested was the exact opposite!”

 Somewhere during Sans’s speech, Frisk had begun wailing herself, filled with remorse and regret.

 She had wanted answers... but not like this.

 She hadn’t expected her baneful curiosity would eventually lead to him becoming so upset that he would be reduced to a bawling puddle of bones before her very eyes.

 “I’m sorry...! I’m so, so sorry, Sans!” She sniveled, shamefully burying her face into her hands.

 She would have fully understood if he slapped her for betraying his trust the instant his back had been turned and causing him to relive such unpleasant, traumatic memories. What she didn’t understand was him weakly crawling towards her before gathering her trembling form in his arms, holding her close to him as if she were the most important thing in the world.

 “...you know what this means, don’t you, frisk?” He mumbled throatily as he nuzzled the top of her head with his nasal ridge. When she didn’t respond, he continued, “you can’t ever leave this place, frisk. you can’t ever leave me... because the moment you do, the moment the other monsters find you, they’ll kill you.”

 “...I can’t ever go to the surface again?”

 “no, pumpkin. i’m sorry...”

 “But...” Any protests that she may have had instantly died on her lips.

 “i know this is a lot to take in, pumpkin. i said so before, that i really do believe if the rest of the monsters got to know you, if they would only give you the chance, they would grow to love you. ...but i thought the exact same of them, the children...”

 “You... You told me that it would be three and a half months...” She recalled aloud, eyes wide. “You said it would be three months and a half months until I could move. Until I could leave-”

 “i never said then that you could leave!” He cut her off, his expression and tone severe. “i said that’s how long it would take for you to make a complete recovery. ...i never once mentioned the possibility of you leaving the ruins.”

 “But you led me to believe that I could.” She argued, a hint of accusation in her own tone. “...Just when were you planning on telling me the truth? About all of this?”

 “i... i was going to, believe me, i was!” His front teeth bit down on the bottom of his mouth, a trait of his that manifested when under extreme stress. “it’s just... it seemed as if you enjoyed being with me. i thought... why bring up such a grim topic when you appeared perfectly happy?”

 “I was happy... Being with you, Sans... every day felt like something to look forward to. You’ve given me perhaps some of the happiest moments of my life so far.”

 “so naturally, you would want to leave me.” He bitterly spat, aiming a spurned pointed glare at her as he sarcastically added, “oh, i understand. i understand perfectly why you would want to leave now, frisk.”

 “Sans-”

 He abruptly grabbed her face, cradling her cheeks with his big skeletal hands, forcing her to look at him.

 “would staying here really be as horrible as you obviously think it will be? because... because your only other option here... is death! would you really rather die a senseless death than stay here with me? is that the point that you’re trying to get across?!”

 “Sans, you know that’s not-”

 “then what?! what have i done wrong?!”

 He was getting hysterical again, Frisk realized. She needed to say or do something that would settle him down.

 “Sans, you’ve done nothing wrong.” She calmly lied, patting his still quaking shoulders consolingly. “This is... This is just a lot to take in at once, like you said. I think I might just need some time for it all to sink in. Can you give me that? Some time?”

 “......ok.” He took a deep, shuddering breath. “if time is all you need, i can give you that. i’ll... i’ll give you anything you want, frisk. anything within my power and the bounds of reason. just... please don’t leave me!”

 She didn’t say anything else; she just continued to soothingly stroke his bones until he regained his composure. By the time he did, it was late. And after all of that crying, both agreed that it was almost time for bed. Sans had cooked dinner for them, but Frisk told him that she had lost her appetite. He believed her excuse, but then told her that she was eating double portions at the breakfast table to make up for the lost meal.

 For a long while after having headed back to the guest room, Frisk just laid back on the bed, arms held behind her head, staring up at the ceiling.

 Waiting.

 After no less than two hours had passed, this was when she decided to make her move. She climbed off the bed and took one last look at her surroundings that had become so familiar to her these past few months... then carefully crept down the hallway.

 When she reached Sans’s room, she pressed her ear against the door and stilled her breath, listening. He didn’t snore when he slept, she had learned that some time ago, but he did audibly mumble. About what, she wasn’t entirely sure. Sometimes his murmuring made some amount of sense and on other occasions it was utter nonsense, but the meaning of his unconscious soliloquies wasn’t what she needed to dwell on.

 No, what she couldn’t forget, the single thought that wouldn’t leave her mind and likely wouldn’t for some time was – Sans had drugged her.

 It was the tea that he had fed her immediately after she had mentioned leaving several days ago, this she was sure of. She had become weak and lost consciousness shortly after swallowing it. It had seemed like a mere coincidence then, but now, after having witnessed firsthand his desperation to keep her here...

 He may have had the best of intentions in doing so, but she couldn’t be around someone that would drug her, no matter how remorseful he was about it.

 Now certain that he was deep in sleep, Frisk then made her way towards the descending staircase. Her heart hammered inside her chest with every step she took, but she had managed to make it down into the hallway underneath the house without making any noise.

 As she rounded the corner, Frisk let out a long, soft sigh she hadn’t been aware she was holding. It was only a matter of time before she left this place behind, forever, and then it would be a fight for her own survival.

 But despite how terrifying Sans had made it sound...

 Frisk felt determined. Determined that she could survive the trials that awaited her in the Underground and reach the surface.

 But this sudden spark of determination was immediately snuffed out when she saw who was waiting for her at the end of the hallway.

 “this is the second time today that you’ve broken my trust, pumpkin.” Sans’s voice was unsettlingly calm considering the situation. “we’ve still got some time left until midnight – want to try and make it a third?”

 ...Where had he come from? How could he have made it to the doors before her when he would have had to of passed her in order to do so?

 “...I thought you were asleep.”

 “i could say the same for you.”

 “How did you know? Were you awake the whole time and heard me in the hallway upstairs? Did you know the exact moment when I got out of bed?”

 “no, i was definitely asleep. i didn’t hear a thing. but i felt it. i could feel you getting further and further away from me...” Sans’s left hand rose up to clutch at the fabric of his robe directly atop where his heart would be, if he had one. “...you’re really doing a number on my SOUL tonight, you know that, right?”

 “Sans, let me go.”

 “no! i’ll never let you go! i can’t! what part of certain death lying beyond this door are you not comprehending?!”

 “I think I can make it to the surface, Sans.” She tried to remain firm with her resolution, standing her ground against him. “Those other humans did die before me, but they were children-”

 “yes! you’re absolutely correct! they most certainly were children!” Came his dry, barking laughter. “and if monsterkind wouldn’t show mercy towards an innocent child, what makes you believe they would towards a stubborn adult woman?”

 “I... I don’t know! I just think I can-”

 “they all said the exact same thing! they all believed they were unstoppable...” He scowled at her, one of his pupils disappearing and the other turning a brightly glowing blue. “and i was convinced that this was true. all of their deaths were the result of my negligence. their demises are entirely my mistakes. ...but i won’t be making that same mistake again.”

 Sans then raised his hand and a red heart, cartoonish in shape, burst from her chest. Its color then changed to a deep blue, and an unanticipated weight fell over her, not unlike the one that came when she consumed his drugged tea. She found it incredibly difficult to move, but not impossible.

 Frisk took a few staggering steps towards him, towards the door. However, the girl was stopped in her tracks when she was magically lifted up into the air. She struggled to shake off the invisible grip his mysterious power had over her, but it was no use.

 “Sans, put me down!” She hissed, narrowing her eyes at him in warning, but he wasn’t even looking at her.

 He was looking down the hallway, where both of them had come from. He then began walking in that direction, with her still dangling in midair.

 “Are you... Are you seriously going to leave me here like this?!” She yelped.

 “of course not. it’s cold here.” He huffed, motioning her body forward with her having no choice but to obey his command.

 “What... What are you going to do to me, then?” She fearfully inquired, causing his hardened gaze to soften just slightly.

 “the first thing i’m going to do is put you to bed for the night. ...i’m not going to hurt you, pumpkin, if that’s what you’re thinking. never.” He assured her in his usual low and gentle tone. “...but if you insist on acting like a child, then i’m going to treat you like one until you can behave like the grown woman you actually are.”

  As she was being dragged away, Frisk took one last look at the door that separated the Ruins from the rest of the Underground, knowing that she wouldn’t be seeing it again for a long, long time, if ever.

#franstastic writes #frans #sans x frisk #yandere altertale #sans #frisk #flowey

[butnobodycame627]

Flowering

Prologue: A Call For Help

I've been kind of worried about posting this for a while now, but it's Undertale's anniversary, so I decided I'd just go for it. I haven't worked on this story in a long time, actually, this is not recent. But if people like it, I might keep working on it. I have the first chapter done, but I'll probably check for mistakes before I post that. But uh... yeah, I hope this isn't too bad? I know I'm not the best writer, but I had been planning this story for a long time and I really want to finally post something about it. So... here is that. It's not too long, just a prologue. I'm not sure how long the chapters will be, I have difficulty knowing when to end chapters and they often end up being too short. I guess we'll just see when I post them.

Fresh air, a gentle breeze, fully bloomed flowers... This was an incredible day. Beautiful. The kind of day anyone would take to relax and unwind. The kind of day to go for a walk outside.

And for a normal day in a normal town, you would think just about everyone would be calm and collected, taking a break.

This is why the people all around town were shocked when they saw a mysterious figure run by. He was running so quickly that no one could really tell who he was or what he was doing. He was wearing a black cloak, which was not a very common thing for people to wear around town, especially not on a summer day where black would only make you more warm.

He seemed to be holding his hood down, as if it were important to hide his facial features with the shadow it cast.

He also stumbled every now and then, implying that he was injured or had trouble walking.

He was looking at every building, as if unsure where his destination was located, but yet it seemed that he had a place in mind somehow. Something he was looking for that he just could not find.

He had finally found it. The laboratory. No one knew why he wanted to go there or who he was. He knocked on the door three times.

The door opened, and as soon as it did, he rushed inside. As he closed the door behind him, he immediately blurted out "Dr Alphys, I seriously need your help, I don't know how to explain, but-".

"Woah, woah, woah! Wh-who are you? What's g-g-going on?" Alphys asked, startled. She, just like everybody else, did not know who this was. The only person she knew of that wore a cloak like this was the River Person. But the River Person never left their boat and had not moved to the surface yet. This was someone else. She did not know who. She did not know why he had come here. She was visibly alarmed.

He took a deep breath, then seemed to think about the best way to put his thoughts into words. "You.... you remember Flowey?"

"Hard to forget. Is he causing t-trouble or s-s-something?" She tilted her head, trying to figure out what this person was getting at. "I don't know what you've h-heard, b-b-b-but I'm not the best person to help with that."

"No, I..." He shook his head. Then, with eyes closed as if acknowledging how silly it sounded, said "I am Flowey".

It was obviously difficult to believe. This figure differed in size and shape compared to a flower and had a different voice than Flowey had. Alphys could easily assume this was some sort of joke.

"If you're here to make fun of me j-j-just because you th-think I'm some loser scientist that doesn't know what I'm d-doing, you know where the exit is!" Alphys was trying to sound like Undyne, it seemed.

"I'm not here for any reason like that. I just want your help. You're the only person that I think can help."

Alphys was stuck on that last sentence. When was the last time someone had told her that?

.... The Amalgamates. When they were dying. Their families had said the same thing.

"I can't help you. Please j-just leave..."

"Dr Alphys, seriously." He took off his hood to reveal the face of a Boss Monster. His eyes were black and he had horns, shorter than Asgore's, but longer than Toriel's. Another Boss Monster. Alphys did not know that there were any others. "I don't want to be like this anymore."

She was unsure how to react. All that she managed to say was "Who are you?"

The Boss Monster rolled his eyes in response. He had already given this information. "Flowey. I'm Flowey." Noticing Alphys' dissatisfaction, he decided a full explanation would be a good place to start.

"When a monster dies, they turn to dust. At funerals, their dust is spread on their favourite object so that their essence lives on in it."

"Where are you g-going with this?" Alphys asked, although seemingly less annoyed and more curious. That gave Flowey a good boost of confidence.

"You've heard the story of Asriel, right?" He shifted uncomfortably where he stood, looking disgusted, as if there were a strand of hair in his mouth. He clearly did not like thinking of that story. "From what I can tell, just about everyone has. He was the prince. He died. Turned to dust. And that was where the flowers grew."

Alphys froze. She understood now.

"You h-have Asriel's essence, then. B-B-But... that still d-doesn't explain this!" Alphys said, gesturing to him. "You were soulless. Asriel was not. There is no way you could have suddenly changed into him unless you absorbed seven human souls!"

"That's why I need help. I want to go back to being a flower."

Alphys could not understand why. It seemed Flowey had no intention to tell her.

Flowey knew that he was not telling the full story, but she did not need to know that he absorbed seven human souls. They were gone now, that was not the issue.

So what was the issue?

#he prefers to be called flowey in this story #also i do have a reason for him staying like this #and i do have a reason for him wanting to change back #happy anniversary to undertale by the way #i'm not great at writing so i literally have like no plans for the second chapter oof #i hope i can figure out how to finish it #anyway #normal tag time #undertale #undertale fanfiction #flowey the flower #alphys #asriel dreemurr #bnc627 writing #flowering story

[missholoska]

At long last, it’s the goats’ time to shine ✨🐐

(For anyone unfamiliar with my Swap content, see the character sheets for Papyrus & Sans, Undyne & Alphys, and more about Underswap MH here!)

Before the usual further rambles under the cut I want to properly explain one little detail in Asgore’s info box: Asriel being his nephew. I didn’t change this just for the sake of it! It has to do with everyone's roles and actions making sense to me and keeping certain details intact, and I'll talk about it more in Asriel's character sheet but here's the shortest way I can explain it:

Basically Asriel being alive in Underswap and still being Toriel and Asgore's son without any of them aging doesn't really make sense to me, and physical distance doesn't seem enough reason for none of them to have aged a day in 100 years, as Boss Monsters should. I've also seen (and liked) some Swap takes where Asriel instead has only a distant relation to the Dreemurrs or even none at all, but speaking purely for my Underswap it just feels kinda sad for him to have nothing to do with them.

So my middle ground for both of these points is Swap MH Asriel is their nephew instead, allowing him to have a close family bond with both Dandelion and Orchid without any of them aging, and lets him be separate enough to live his own life in Snowdin in UT Monster Kid's role. His parents are dead and about as relevant as MK’s biological parents, which is uh. not at all, but that’s just how it's gotta be.

As I've often said with Underswap MH, I don't mind if this doesn't appeal to everyone! I know it might be odd even with thought-out reasons for it, but in the end I'm still just doing what I want with my version.

anyway on with the enormous amount of extra info for these two:

Because they have no biological children (and to be clear, it's not that they can't have kids, they just didn't), Dandelion and Orchid are physically younger than their UT counterparts. Personally I don't think they were that old when they gained their Boss Monster immortality and I headcanon UT Asriel as 10 when he died, so I see UT Toriel and Asgore as being physically around their late 30s and early 40s respectively.

It took a while to figure out why Orchid would ever kill the six humans because it always felt out of character for a Swap Toriel who retains some of UT Toriel's personality. I can't see her killing anyone voluntarily at first, but UT Toriel is able to kill UT Frisk accidentally, so likewise killing the first human to fall after Swap Frisk was not intentional. She still tried to reason with every human who faced her, but being unable to convince them to stay in the Underground in peace and already having blood on her hands, was resigned to her duty.

On Dandelion's side of events, he still has UT Asgore's traits of being prone to anger in grief and somewhat cowardly about his duty, hence him still calling the declaration of war on humanity but then backing out on it. Feeling like he'd betrayed the memory of their children and knowing he'd hurt Orchid emotionally, he exiled himself to Ruins, assuming that in his absence she would call the war off again.

Orchid's reason for not using a human soul to cross the barrier (i.e. exactly what UT Toriel calls Asgore out on) is that taking the first child's life traumatised her on top of her grief in not wanting to follow the doomed footsteps of her adoptive children. As she's still Toriel she still considered doing exactly that, but wasn't emotionally capable of it and is very aware of her hypocrisy.

...basically if you think the eternal fandom slapfights over whether Toriel is just as bad as Asgore or either of them did nothing wrong are a mess, it's definitely even more complicated in Underswap MH. They both made wrong decisions in grief, but in the end both deserve mercy too.

Orchid's throne room, rather than being covered by a bed of golden flowers, features the same black tree seen in front of UT Toriel's home, with red leaves covering the floor (meanwhile the Ruins has no red leaves). Her throne sits directly in front of the tree and the room is darker, and the original game's room of coffins in New Home is nonexistent as Orchid buried the fallen humans in the throne room to show them what respect she could.

Instead of trying to destroy the Ruins' exit like UT Toriel, Dandelion leads Chara there when they ask to leave and tells them the monsters on the other side will try to kill them. He apologises and says it is his fault for that, and the least he can do is give them the choice to stay with him in safety or prove that they can survive out there, and as mentioned above they can always change their mind and come back.

Dandelion could hypothetically still do the orange/blue eye-flashing attack UT Asgore does, but doesn't because he's the tutorial boss. In Orchid's battle, the orb of her sceptre flashes orange or blue before she attacks with flames of the same colours (she'd also destroy the mercy button with a column of fire).

I spent too much time thinking about whether Orchid should still speak without contractions like UT Toriel, because speech styles are mostly swapped but it's such a Toriel thing, so... I decided her natural thoughts/spoken words still lack contractions, but she forces herself to use them fairly often to try and keep up with modern speech. Meanwhile Dandelion mostly speaks without contractions, but occasionally some slip out.

Given that I'm a Bigtime Soriel Shipper™ it's probably worth mentioning that the role equivalent of UT Sans and Toriel's friendship between Noodle and Dandelion remains platonic, primarily due to Noodle being aromantic. But Dandelion is panromantic and Noodle would definitely be his wingman if anyone took his fancy, and their bond is incredibly important to them both! They basically have one of those friendships where sometimes you just make small talk and chat about mutual interests, and sometimes you both unload your entire life's emotional baggage and support each other's mental health.

and yes because I have to give a mention to my beloved Swap Soriel: Neptune initially has no intention of telling Orchid about his feelings for her because he doesn't want to make their friendship awkward, but he ends up blurting out how much she means to him when she's feeling especially bad some time in post-pacifist. As mentioned above she doesn't feel the same at first and their friendship continues (no man has ever been as genuinely happy to be friendzoned as Neptune), but she begins to return his feelings before too long. There's actually so much more depth to their friendship I'd love to share immediately, but trust me it'll be much better in comic form ;v;

I've forgotten the flower meanings of dandelions I read while I was looking up yellow/gold flowers to name Asgore after, but most of the reason I chose that for him is because I see Asgore as part lion and he is very fine and dandy. As for Toriel, apparently purple orchids represent things like royalty, respect and dignity which sounded fitting!

I swear I absolutely will not let my current pattern of procrastinating on the next character sheets for a whole entire year continue, I want to get the last three done much quicker!! Chara and Asriel will be next :D

#Undertale #Underswap #Underswap MH #Toriel #Asgore #underswap toriel #underswap asgore #undertale art #holoskart #long post // #if read mores still don't work on mobile I am so /so/ sorry :D;;;; #half the reason I delayed this for so long is I just kept getting more and more ideas I wanted to develop properly #anyway in saying that it's fine people don't like my ideas for these two I'm still nervous about uh. pretty much everything in this post #but that's just the typical anxiety of sharing concepts I've been working on for months I suppose ahah;; #also no extra doodles this time bc halloween is approaching and the deadline for my overly ambitious art plan is scaring me #orchid (swap mh toriel) #dandelion (swap mh asgore)

[chemicalcindercat]

Frisk freed the monsters from the underground, completing a true-pacifist run. She was living happily on the surface with her monster family. Everything was perfect. Until it wasn't. When Frisk gets hit by a car on her way over to Sans house, everything changes. Not only does Frisk forget herself, her friends, and all of her adventures in the Underground, but something else has changed. Frisk glitches the Multiverse.

Chapter Summary: Frisk did not expect to have this many “best friends”.

Chapters (8/?): 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

Fandom: Undertale

Rating: T (For violence and hints of adult themes)

Relationships: Sans x Frisk, Underfell Sans x Frisk, Underswap Papyrus x Chara, Slight Underswap Sans x Frisk

Additional Tags: Amnesia, Lost memories, Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, ...Have I mentioned there is Hurt/Comfort?, Hurt, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Goat Mom is best mom (Undertale), King Fluffy-Buns - Freeform, Sad Asgore (Undertale), Female Frisk (Undertale), Aged up Frisk (Undertale), Like duh she’s an adult i’m not a pedo, gross, Verbal Frisk, Frisk has a voice in her head, Sans is a depressed bean, Papyrus is so innocent, Frisk glitched the multiverse, oh whoops, spoiler alert, more tags will be added as we progress

"Well, Ms. Dreemurr, it would appear you have a mild case of Amnesia." The doctor said, flipping the pages on his clipboard. "You hit your head pretty hard when that car slammed into you. You're lucky it isn't worse." He looked at the worried couple standing in the corner of the room. "Her memories should be back by the end of the week. We'll keep her here for tonight, but tomorrow she can go home. She doesn't have any broken ribs, or really anything wrong except for the memory loss, which is practically unheard of for an incident like this. But anyways," The doctor turned back to the confused girl laying in the hospital bed. "If you need anything, just hit the buzzer on the bed next to you." And with that he left the room.

As soon as the doctor was gone, the couple turned to look at the girl. They were strange, the girl could tell. She couldn't remember anything past 10 minutes ago, when she woke up, but something told her that goats weren't usually able to walk, talk, and be, well, normal people.

"Um...Frisk, are you feeling well?" The woman asked, worried. The girl thought for a moment. Was she feeling fine? She honestly didn't know. How could you know if you were feeling fine, when you didn't know what fine was? She didn't know if fine for her was everything being perfect, or terrible. So instead of answering the question, she answered with a question of her own.

"'Frisk'? Is...Is that my name?"

The woman looked like she was about to break down in tears, so the man took over. "Yes, dear, that's your name. Frisk. Do you really not remember anything?" Frisk shook her head. "Well, uh...I-"

"She's your 'mom', Toriel, who you live with; He's your 'dad', Asgore, who you don't. They're divorced, you're adopted, and I'm Flowey, your 'best friend'." Frisk jumped. She had forgotten about the flower on the desk next to her that could talk.

"N-now, Asriel, that's no way to-"

"My name is Flowey." The flower corrected. Okay, Frisk was confused, to say the least. What in Asgore's name were they talking about? Before she could ask, the door slammed open, a blue fish-woman entering, with a yellow lizard-woman following behind nervously.

"Frisk!" Yelled the fish-girl, running over to the hospital bed. "We heard what happened! Are you okay? How are you feeling? Did you break anything? Because that would be cool and yet suck all at the same time. Did you finish Mew Mew: Kissy Cutie? Are you-"

"U-undyne, M-maybe we shouldn't b-bombard her with s-so many questions at o-once? Her head p-probably hurts." The lizard girl interrupted. Undyne looked at her, before looking back at Frisk.

"Oh my Asgore, I'm sorry! Are you okay? Does your head hurt? Are you-"

"Undyne, Frisk has amnesia." Toriel announced. Both Undyne and Alphys turned to look at her.

"What??" They said in unison.

"Y-you mean… Y-you don't remember us? You d-don't know who we a-are?" Alphys asked, walking over to Frisk. The human girl simply shook her head.

"I...I don't remember anything. And no, I don't know who you are. Who are you?" She asked.

"We're your anime pals!" Undyne said, putting her arm around Alphys' shoulder and grinning. Alphys blushed.

"E-every T-Tuesday you come over t-to our house and w-watch anime with us." Alphys explained. "T-this week, the newest season of M-Mew Mew: Kissy C-Cutie is airing, a-and we were going t-to watch it together. You r-really don't remember?"

Frisk looked down at her hands sadly. "No...I don't...I'm sorry."

Toriel came over and hugged Frisk. "It's okay, my child. There is no need to apologize. Do not blame yourself, child; There is nothing you can do. The doctor said by the end of the week, you'll remember, and I'm sure he is right. All we have to do is wait."

Frisk wasn't sure how she felt about this woman she couldn't remember hugging her, but she decided she kind of liked it. Besides, the lady seemed to need it more than Frisk did. Before Frisk could say anything, the lady stepped back, and the door slammed open again. At this point, Frisk was surprised it hadn't fallen off it's hinges. This time, there were two skeletons who entered the room. One was really tall, as tall as Undyne and Asgore, with a red scarf. He was also carrying what appeared to be a plate of home cooked spaghetti. The other one had a blue hoodie, and was shorter, maybe even shorter than Frisk. Once she thought about it, Frisk realized she didn't know how tall she was; She hadn't stood up yet. Would she even remember how to walk? She started panicking, wondering how she would remember to do normal, everyday stuff.

Calm down, Said a voice in her head. Quit panicking about everything.

Before Frisk could respond, the tall skeleton came over and set the plate down on the desk beside her.

"HERE YOU GO, HUMAN! THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAS MADE YOU SOME YUMMY SPAGHETTI!! FEEL FREE TO EAT IT WHENEVER YOU FEEL LIKE IT, FOR IT WILL SURELY BE THE BEST! NYEH HEH HEH!" He yelled, and Frisk winced a little, not expecting it. She smiled softly at him, not knowing who he was.

I sure did have a lot of friends. She thought.

Yeah, no kidding. Said the voice in her head.

...I just wish I could remember them…

The smaller skeleton pushed past the bigger one, with a nervous grin on his face. "how ya feelin', kiddo?" He asked, his voice surprisingly deep compared to the other skeleton.

"Um...well...I-"

"NONSENSE, BROTHER. WHY ASK HOW SHE IS FEELING WHEN SHE'S IN THE HOSPITAL?" The tall skeleton interrupted. Frisk couldn't believe it. Were they really brothers? They were so different! The skeleton turned towards her. "BUT DON'T WORRY, HUMAN. I'M SURE MY SPAGHETTI WILL MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER IN NO TIME!"

"yeah, kid, eat up. boneappetite." The shorter one said. The bigger one groaned.

"UGH, SANS, DO YOU HAVE TO MAKE PUNS RIGHT NOW? YOU MIGHT GIVE THE HUMAN A HEADACHE!"

"nah, look at her, paps. she likes it, you should know that by now, ya numbskull." Oh, so I like puns? That's good to know. Even as Frisk thought this, she could immediately tell it was true. When Sans (was that his name?) made a pun, she had struggled not to laugh.

"BROTHER!!" The taller skeleton protested. "WHETHER SHE LIKES IT OR NOT, A HOSPITAL IS HARDLY THE PLACE TO MAKE PUNS!" He yelled.

"geez, paps, who broke your funny bone?" The shorter one asked, winking at Frisk and stepping closer to her. Something inside of her pulled, and she could tell that he was really close to her. "so anyways, bucko, how're you feeling?" He asked softer, so that only she would hear.

"Well, I just-"

"Heya Papyrus, how're you doing?" Asked Undyne, throwing her arm around the taller skeleton's shoulder. "I know the situation isn't the best, with Frisk and all, but are you still up for some training today?"

"YOU BET, UNDYNE!" Papyrus said loudly. "AS LONG AS THE HUMAN IS ALRIGHT, THAT IS! THE GREAT PAPYRUS MUST BE THE BEST FRIEND EVER, AND A GOOD FRIEND WOULD TAKE CARE OF HER!"

"You're right, Papyrus, but I'm her best friend! Remember?" Undyne argued.

"SUUUUUURE, YOU CAN BELIEVE THAT IF YOU WANT, BUT IT'S WRONG!"

"Guys, I-" Frisk was interrupted by Flowey, suddenly defensive.

"Whatever, you idiots can pretend that she likes you better, but I'm obviously her BeSt FrIeNd!" Flowey claimed, in a demonic voice that sent a shiver down Frisk's spine. Suddenly everyone started talking all at once, Undyne and Papyrus still arguing over Frisk, Flowey hissing at everyone, Alphys nervously asking Asgore how he's been, Toriel joining in the conversation. All of the noise, and all of the new information was really giving Frisk a migraine. She sank deeper under her blanket, trying to block everything out.

Someone grabbed Frisk's hand, and she immediately jumped and yanked her hand back, to see Sans with a look of confusion and hurt. It quickly faded back into his normal smile.

"so, kid, what is it you've been trying to say this whole time?" He asked. Frisk gulped nervously as he leaned closer to her, and she leaned away from him a bit. Doesn't this guy know anything about personal space??

"I...Well, uh...Who are you, exactly?" Frisk asked.

Everyone immediately stopped talking and turned to Frisk.

The pupils in Sans' eyes disappeared, leaving two empty eye sockets, a look of pure shock. For a couple of moments, nobody dared to say anything.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, HUMAN?" Papyrus asked, being the first to break the silence. "'WHO ARE WE?' IT IS I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AND MY BROTHER SANS, YOUR-"

"frisk, what did the doctor say? what…wh...you...you really don't remember me? remember us? anything?" Sans asked, his pupils returning and studying Frisk closely.

All Frisk could do was shake her head.

"I… I have amnesia."

Before anyone could say anything, Sans was gone.

#update #fanfic #Amnesia #frans #amnesia frans #angst #and so THE PLOT THICKENS #heh #we’re just getting started >:) #mwahahaHAHAHAHA

[invertedfate]

Random Ask Dump - Anniversary Edition (50+ REALLY OLD ASKS!)

Going through OLD AND CRUSTY ASKS to try and chip away at the inbox. HERE WE GOOOO...

That’s an interesting idea, and I could run it by Cake, but I think it would honestly be a LOT to track from a programming perspective. Especially ‘cause killing Sans is gonna result in a “bad ending,” so to speak.

An attempt was made by Undyne to have all three hang out at the same time. Papyrus was SUPER EAGER. ...but one thing led to another and there were many messy explosions of chemicals and lots of smoke. Alphys had to step in before things got out of hand. It was all very daunting for her. Pap and Undyne are VERY LOUD, VERY AMBITIOUS PEOPLE.

I actually have some ideas of some side comics I may do at some point! :o It’s just that right now there’s a lot going on.

I need to poke Carni about that at some point. He’s just been very busy with other projects!

Clearly he’s standing on the “out to lunch” sign.

I wanna say that it’s very possible in theory. :o It probably affects them differently since monsters’ emotional state affects their magic and their physical state.

I do like little easter eggs like that, though I’m not sure where I’d fit it in atm just ‘cause I already showed Pap’s room, haha.

I made the chase theme for Mad Dummy as well as Mad Mew Mew’s battle theme. @pinewsun​ made the battle theme for Mad Dummy, and @thomasthepencil​ made the Season Dude battle theme and MD’s overworld theme. :o

That’s a really fascinating conundrum! You’re absolutely right- if IF was a standalone game, then from a writing standpoint, having more subtle implications would make sense! The reason I chose a different approach for IF is because it’s set after Flowey’s already known to be evil and I like to give different POVs rather than stick to just Frisk’s.

That’s an interesting thing, actually- both fights lean heavily on the fourth wall. Both are treated as climaxes for their given routes. It’s funny because Asriel’s fight is a lot more straightforward and less meta by comparison.

I agree! The thing with Papyrus is that he’s extremely powerful- he just doesn’t want to kill. But it’s a deliberate choice not to kill- he’s able to force his attacks to do next to no damage. He’s also pretty darn crafty, as he made the Gauntlet himself. It really is just a case of Undyne’s personal biases and concern for him.

That was a deliberate choice. :O Papyrus is very influential toward Frisk. He is best skeleboi.

Papybot loves you, anon! He just wants to feed you WHOLESOME SPAGHETTI!!!

It is possible to whistle through teeth. ...alternatively, magic. As for the music, Undertale implies that the music is heard! Maybe it’s just... a thing that exists in this world. Or it’s just meant to be a silly meta joke. I try to keep it somewhat ambiguous other than occasional nods to it. Chara’s pants are lighter because I just... felt like it, I guess? Haha. I wanted their feet and pants to stand out more from each other, so they have khaki pants. As for the Undyne fight being animated, well, this ask is old by now, but Sparks was the one who was down for it.

Well, the teaser’s been out for a long time now, but that’s the idea! It’s also why this has been in production for so long. The Determinator has some really over the top attacks (that weren’t even shown in the teaser), and Sparks animated in Photoshop. That’s how hardcore he is.

Shhhhh. Don’t give me ideas. I’m already slacking on Tem Village. :P

Sometimes I do have slumps and burnouts (see Antipode’s lengthy hiatus), but breaks lead to me being refreshed and coming back with even more enthusiasm than before!

Oh, there are a lot of these throughout the comic. For instance...

Flowey appears in a few background shots in the Ruins!

When Sans says “or maybe...” he looks at the empty flower pot. This was one of the earliest bits of foreshadowing about who created Flowey, and nobody noticed it at the time!

The MTT vending machines initially look like this but have helpful items.

And then they look like this, with an angry face and pose- Mad Dummy has possessed them!

As of Part 38, it’s been revealed that he did first meet Asgore as “Santa.” As for whether or not he knows the truth, time will tell. :o

Oh, these are excellent suggestions for calls! I’ll try to keep these in mind.

So, I believe Glyde uses the Mysterious Door motif. Jerry uses the motif in its battle theme- I believe it’s a mix of original motif and Wrong Number song?

Sans is a master of power napping. He probably gets a decent amount of sleep, though.

There are a lot of ways to interpret Pap’s lack of sleep! In IF, he can get by without it, but he also has a lot of reasons to avoid sleeping. Some reasons include productivity but also due to a looooot of heavy baggage. More on that later.

I think sleep can definitely make monsters healthier. Rest = better mental health as well as physical health, and with how important mental and emotional help is for monsters, that’s very important!

They just really like socks. Socks are warm. Socks are slinky. And googly eyes are the best. So they took on the form of a really eccentric sock puppet and sock collector. Scandalous.

It also has Alphys’ motif, as the two are the leaders of the royal guard!

I would say the lack of Asgore as an influence has left Undyne slightly less grounded? Like, she had Toriel and Gerson in her life, but her relationship with Toriel is... definitely not quite as close? Like, Toriel by that point kept people at an arm’s length due to losing multiple children (including one from old age). So, while they were on friendly terms until the aftermath of the DT experiments and the tapes’ release, it was more like mutual respect and a sorta professional relationship with Undyne admiring Toriel and wanting to spare her from more heartache.

That is a really interesting idea. While that didn’t happen, I do need to maybe revisit the grumpy dog at some point or another. He’s still a lil’ salty.

I think in terms of layout it won’t change much, but there will be new/different content for sure. :O

Mad Dummy’s base design is mostly original, but she has a wig + headband from DIO from Jojo Part 3! Fun fact: While MTT has Kamina shades, Papyrus’ goggles are loosely based on Simon from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann in terms of color. :O

So basically, when Asriel defeated Frisk, he had the power over the timeline to reset it as he pleased- in theory. However, that power was overwhelming for him, and due his lack of understanding OF said power and one last ditch attempt at resisting from Chara, things went wrong.

There is a track that takes some inspiration from Rage Awakened. It’s not released, and it’s not exact, but it won’t be released for a WHILE. Like until the part comes out.

I think it’s just the fact that tacos are so random. Like, my biggest beef in that regard was that OG Underswap had a lot of arbitrary replacements for things in UT and not all of them made sense. Like, if Sans was to make a foreign food, ramen would’ve made more sense due to Alphys being weeb trash, haha.

Okay, so the rough timeline iiiis... Falling: - Cyan - Green - Orange - Blue - Purple - Yellow Dying: - Cyan - Orange - Blue - Purple - Yellow - Green

You know, it’s funny because this ask is super old, but that’s basically sorta what happened. :O It became a beach-themed resort.

Never forget MTT fangirl Temmie’s pool escapades.

I think Forgespring for me because I had to make the tileset myself (it took a few months, I think?), but Aquarius was definitely in the works for a while. But once I had the tileset from Fours, the rooms were very easy to design!

That woulda been pretty rad! Maybe I can find another spot for it one day, haha.

I think for Dohj, I’d have to check with Fours, but I’m certainly not opposed at some point? Right now, the following chars can take questions: - Frisk - Papyrus - Sans - Undyne - Alphys - Napstablook - Mettaton - Asgore - Chara - Flowey

Cyan appears in Part 45! :O No answer about orange for now, tho.

I do have vague ideas for Tem village. I just haven’t had time to go back and do it.

Stay tuned and you may find out! :O

Hmmmm... I had a lot of fun with MTT SPIRAL and the Determinator, tbh. They were both very time consuming, but I love how they came out! Also, buff Jerry.

Turnabout Storm. :)

It’s a really awesome fan crossover that works way better than it should. :P

None taken! We know that with headcanons, everyone is gonna have their own interpretations. These are just the voices we liked for Fireglobe Production, but everyone has their right to their favored interpretations!

Yeah, Knight Knight is one of the coolest CORE mercs in the original game. It was fun to repurpose them for Inverted Fate as royal guards. :o It made room for unique encounters in the CORE in the form of them robots- as Undyne would rather use machines than other monsters to do her work.

Personally, I see it as an Asriel motif, but I also acknowledge that at one point it WAS gonna be an Asgore motif. Toby has a habit of just using whatever music works for a scene (see sans. at the snail farm.)

I do have a few ideas, though I won’t say for what yet. :o

He’s likely made blueprints for that train. :P

It probably would just have different flavor text/progression!

So basically, I treat the starting motif for BAaTH/Power of NEO is just a “true hero” motif.

MTT is definitely major in IF! As for whether or not he’ll have a hangout, time will tell. There’s definitely more to resolve with him, though.

I’m gonna remake at least a few of the older tracks, including Regret. My goal is just to bring the OST to a similar standard of quality.

So, animated parts coming up: Part 47, Part 49, Part 50. There may be some other parts, but we’re gonna wanna scale things back for a little bit for the sake of all our sanities.

I go with both. ;)

Honestly, probably fairly similar to the bully fight in the Ruins- which is why I ultimately decided not to do one. Both fill similar archetypes, though I think if I did do a battle, I woulda still had Flowey interrupt at the end and scare them off.

It’s a very emotional scene. Far more tragic than her geno death, IMO.

Well, the main goal in that regard is the remasters (Part 9 is in progress). Otherwise, I do think these hiatuses are good for working ahead. I’ve still gotta do more work, though, because my buffer this time around is a lot smaller from the trial-hiatus buffer. Alas!

Honestly, the website is the best thing to happen to IF. It’s allowed us to do so much with the comic’s presentation that would be impossible with imgur. NORIX IS THE BEST...

#inverted fate #ask dump #asks #undertale au #behind the scenes #undyne #frisk #papyrus #asgore #sans #alphys #lore #toriel #fallen humans