"No! Work, dammit, work! Pleeeeease!"
Crumbling hands shake the vessel.
"It's too soon! If I just had mo-ore time… Nngh! Please…"
The soul has been accepted. Project 'Gaster' is functional.
They open their eyes. Dust falls into their eye socket. Kneeling above them is a monster, insubstantial, colours bleeding, face dripping, a terror to behold; it grabs their shoulders, heaving them up and pressing them to the wall.
"Fiiiinish my work, Gaster. This is your purpose," it says, dust falling with every word. "Do you understa-and?"
Not knowing what else to do, Gaster nods. The other monster's grip loosens on their arms.
"Good."
It falls to dust. A blanket flutters to the ground.
The one known as Gaster stands on shaky legs, dust falling from their person as they rise out of the pile. They look around. It is dark in the lab.
Lab. They know the word; they know it is short for laboratory. They do not know how they know.
With a hand on the wall, they take their first steps. A glass door stands before them; they are encased in a small, glass box hooked up to a machine. They open the door and pass through.
The air is cold and clammy. Gaster can hear water in the distance. They notice many more lights in the ceiling than those that are on and wonder where the switch is. They walk around the machine they emerged from and examine the screen.
SOUL READINGS: NULLSTABILIZATION: OFF
DOOR OPEN. PLEASE CLOSE DOOR TO RESUME.
They feel it appropriate to oblige the machine and go close the door. The machine beeps.
CLEANING CONTAINMENT UNIT.Gaster notices another, much smaller pile of dust on the far end of the machine before both piles are swept away by the sudden gust of wind that fills the unit. A chill ripples through their soul when they realize that was likely the remains of another monster. Their hand curls on the glass, and they turn away to try to wipe away the dust that has stuck to their body.
Gaster wanders the lab. Some machines they recognize, some they don't. Some they know partially how to use, some they know so well it was as if they had made it themself.
Finish my work.
That was what the monster had said before it turned to dust. Is this what it had meant? Learn to work all these machines? They feel uncertain; they aren't sure they even want to learn about them. They move faster.
The longer Gaster wanders, the more they begin to wonder if lab is short for labyrinth, not laboratory. They have found supply closet, supply closet, supply closet, supply closet, supply closet. There have been at least five bedrooms. How many live down here? they wonder. They haven't seen a single other soul.
At least, they have the confirmation that they are, indeed, making progress: the air has grown drier and warmer. The sound of water is gone, replaced by an occasional faint rumbling.
At last, they reach a long hallway with an elevator at the end. Their fractured memory recognizes this: an exit. They cannot hurry towards it fast enough.