193X
Tensions are already high between humans and monsters. But everyone tends to keep to themselves. There are a few handfuls of humans and monsters that work together and even live near each other. Some actually live TOGETHER. Neither side wants anything to happen… But the side of monsters wants war to happen even less than the humans.
A couple million monsters live around the world. But about 5 million humans cover the earth. The relations have nearly always been uncertain and strained. The humans have corralled almost all monsters into set villages and towns. But the monsters don't mind. They don't fight back. They are too weak…
In one village, a young 15 year old Wingdings Gaster is sewing a hole in a pocket of his pants with a peculiar look on his face. He focuses intently on sewing quickly and accurately. Gaster hates being stuck in the house doing chores and other menial tasks. He wants to go outside and mess around with his friends. But his parents are pretty strict with him… Gaster accepts it though. "If you break it, you fix it." "If you don't eat your dinner then you go to bed with nothing until the morning." Everything had to be earned.
Gaster's father, who is a skeleton, worked a lot. Mostly in the crop fields. Everyone worked together and whatever they harvested they could keep. If one family had too much, they would kindly give it to the family with less. His mother, a Noh faced ghost monster, would also work in the fields often, but she mostly stayed at home taking care of the livestock. And of course she would make Gaster help. Even though he'd groan and complain about boring house work, he would do his job and he would do it well. He loved his parents and he wanted to make them proud and show them that no matter what, he would be there to help them.
Finally done sewing and with no other work, Gaster stands up and rushes to the door and slips his holed feet into some slip on shoes made of leather.
"MOTHER, I'M LEAVING!" He shouted once he stepped out of the house. Somewhere in the back with the animals he could hear his mother saying "Alright!" He sprints off finally free of work. The warm breeze is so nice! The sky is so blue and the trees are a luscious green! Some monsters even have PINK trees! Gaster likes those the most. The ground is mostly dirt, but every home has its own little yard of grass.
At one house with a pink tree, he skids and puts his hands to the side of his face and calls out to a friend that lives there.
"ARE YOU DONE WITH WORK?!" He yells. The mother of his friend peeks out and gives him a glare.
"He is NOT done with work, Wingdings. Come back in an hour when he's finished." She says with irritation. Gaster can only surmise that his friend upset his usually very nice mother. He nods and rushes off to another friend's house.
Gaster whistles at the next place. From the back of the small (but rather tall) hut comes a female owl monster with brown feathers and a cream colored neck tuft. She smiles and rushes over, swinging her winged arms around Gaster in a tight hug.
"Hello Wingdings! What timing you've got, I just finished the wheat storage! Do you know how hard it is for a BIRD not to eat the grains right in front of her? It's REALLY difficult." She says. The two laugh and then rush off to find any other friends that are free. Three more join the group and together they all play a sport ball game. The ball is made of sewn together leather and it's hard on some of their feet, but it's too much fun for any of them to notice the pain.
"Wingdings, over here!" Gaster kicks the ball to them and they rush around and dodge the others to make a goal. The goal is really just two rocks spaced out with some sticks coming out of the ground. This area is a dirt patch of land that's too awful to use for crops. It's also many yards away from the village where only recently some trees have been cut down to make more houses and huts.
The ball makes it through the goal and the opposing team of friends groan at the lost point. But Gaster laughs and cheers with his team. The owl monster rushes to grab the ball from her side of the court.
"Sorry guys! I couldn't stop it in time." She says with little remorse. It is just a game after all. The others just shrug and get back into the gaming mood. Both teams get ready to kick the ball around again until they see a trail of earthy dust coming from the west. Everyone stops and gathers together to look.
"I SEE MONSTER MAGIC." Gaster says. His friends relax. Any time the monsters see a group of human magic approaching them, everyone gets nervous. Some parents will lock their doors and close the blinds, holding their children closely… But this time it's just a group of monsters.
"What do you think they're doing? The West is the pretty nice area isn't it? Why would they come here to the East?" Civette asks one of the others. They just shrug.
"I dunno. I hope nothing happened that forced them to move out. I have a feeling those cheesier's won't like us 'dirt eaters' much." They say with disdain. Gaster agrees silently and folds his arms.
The East and West are extremely different… The West is full of what some monsters might call "suck ups." Some consider them traitors. But most just know that the monsters are dealing with the circumstances they landed in. The Western Monsters work with the more irritating and spoiled humans with their copious amounts of electricity and cars and fancy food.
The East on the other hand is mostly full of the poorer Monsters. Some are poor and some just choose to keep the old style of living. The most electricity they have is the occasional lamp in a nicer home. Gaster's home has one lamp in the kitchen. Many nights are spent in there talking late even when they know they should be sleeping.
After several minutes of watching the group get closer, the kids can finally squint and see more monsters clearer. Once the group gets up to the town, Gaster and his friends have moved to the side. He and two other friends give the gaggle of people some slight glares. An adult monster comes up to the kids.
"Hello children, who owns this town? Can we talk to them?"
"NOBODY /OWNS/ THIS TOWN BUT US." Gaster says. The adult wrings their claws, prepared to ask another question. Another of Gaster's friends steps forward and points to the center of town.
"In the middle of town is the town hall. You can talk to them." The adult nods and rushes off with a "thank you" and the group follows them.
Deep in the center of the large group of perhaps 50 monsters total, is a bright red cloth that catches Gaster's eye. He moves his head around to try and see who it's attached to. It's wrapped around the neck of a girl who's face he can't see. But… part of him believes she's a skeleton! Gaster finally gets an alright angle and can see that she's got the white skull of a skeleton monster! This is actually pretty good news to the boy. It's a bit rare to find skeleton monsters these days. Gaster isn't sure why that is, but he's happy to see one of his own in the group… He wonders what her story is.
The group of people all make it to the town hall and Gaster's friends poke him.
"Hey what are you starin' at Dings? We got a game to get back to!"
"OH RIGHT, SORRY. I FORGOT THAT WE WERE TOTALLY KICKING YOUR BUTT. LET'S GET BACK TO THAT." Gaster says with a grin to his friend. They split back up into their teams and the game continues.
An hour passes when the friends decide they're bored of this game and want to play another one. Gaster rushes to get the ball and agrees calls it quits. The ball has landed just next to a tree. When he runs up to it, someone steps out and also grabs the ball. The two knock heads rather violently and each of them yelp in pain. Gaster grabs his head and sees the red cloth. When he looks up, he sees that skeleton monster from earlier that came in with the group. It's a girl. And Gaster can't stop himself from thinking she's stunning and beautiful… The red scarf wraps around her neck and shoulders and she's got a cream colored floral dress on that goes to her shins. It's so nice and so clean…
"H-HEY WATCH IT YOU!" Gaster says, rubbing his skull. The girl rubs her own skull and blinks at him.
"Sorry… I thought I'd grab your ball for you. You don't have to be a jerk about it." The girl stuffs the ball into Gaster's hands and folds her arms. Gaster takes the ball and stares at her…
"WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING OVER HERE ANYWAY? DID THE HUMANS KICK YOU OUT OR SOMETHING?" He asks, not masking his annoyed tone. The girl just looks to the side and glares at the ground. She's quiet for a few seconds, thinking of a proper answer… then she nods.
"Yes they did. They said it was for our safety, but I don't buy that drivel."
"FOR YOUR SAFETY? FROM WHAT? IS SOMETHING GOING ON?" Gaster asks, suddenly concerned. The girl unfolds her arms and nods.
"You wouldn't believe what the humans are like now in the city… The technology they have is frightening, and there's so much in-fighting I'm scared they're going to start a war within their own ranks… The town we lived in told us all to pack up and leave because we were unsafe. But I'm wondering if it's just because they wanted to expand their own land and we were in the way…" She looks up into the sky and sighs. Gaster can see that she's quite upset. He tries to imagine what she went through, suddenly being forced to move from her home.
"THAT SOUNDS SCARY… AND STUPID. HOW LIKE THE HUMANS… WHERE ARE YOU ALL GOING TO BE LIVING NOW?"
"Here. It's the only place that we can stay for now… I don't know for how long, but this place will be our home too."
Gaster's eyes go wide. This place doesn't have room for more people! They're beginning to overcrowd as it is since the humans made the borders so tight! How is their town supposed to support these new monsters? He knows the adults will do their best, but Gaster isn't entirely sure he wants to help! They're going to take everything without even having worked for it!
"GOOD LUCK WITH THAT. THE WHOLE LOT OF YOU WILL BE STARVING. SOME OF US ARE BEING FORCED TO EAT HUMAN FOOD JUST TO SURVIVE…" He can't put his finger on why he's being so mean to this girl, but he can't help it. This girl and her group of people are going to make life so much harder for the monsters already living here. He just sighs and turns around and goes back to his friend without a second look back. The girl stands there in shock at this boy's rudeness.
"I…Well I won't be asking for help from YOU that's for sure!" She calls after him and speed walks away. Gaster gets back to his friends and they all ask him questions about the new girl. He explains everything and the others are a bit concerned…. Is this the beginning of the end for this town?
()
A very difficult week goes by. All the monsters help the new group move in and they help make huts and houses and Gaster is forced to help till the fields for several houses so they can make their own crops. One of the houses belongs to the skeleton girl. A few times he notices her watching him from inside the house through the window. He'll glare and she'll glare back. It's quite childish.
Finally able to take a break, Gaster lays down in the grass in front of his house. His mother and father have allowed him to shirk some of his duties since he's been doing double his workload this week. Normally his father would make a special pie for new comers or for extra hard work, but any spare ingredients they had were given to other families so they can settle in. Outwardly Gaster says he doesn't mind at all. But inside he REALLY wants that pie. Being selfish in silence is so irritating!
Above him he hears someone touch the wooden fence in front of the house. He looks upside down at whoever—ah it's that girl again.
"WHAT DO YOU WANT NOW?" He says. The girl is holding her red scarf and she looks ready to cry with frustration. Gaster sits up, never having seen that expression on her before… But he maintains his attitude.
"I… I… I need… your help." It's clear that she's having a hard time asking for help. She did say that she wouldn't ask for Gaster's help after all and yet here she is.
"WOW WHAT A SURPRISE THAT IS. THE SPOILED GIRL NEEDS MORE HELP."
"Please?... It's super easy." Gaster notes her tone. She really IS about to cry. He sighs and stands up. Wingdings knows for a fact that if his parents caught him being rude to a lady he'd have TRIPLE his workload piled onto him. With a roll of his shoulder he goes over to the gate and opens it.
"FINE. COME IN AND TELL ME WHAT THE PROBLEM IS THIS TIME." He relaxes his tone and opens the front door of the house to the girl. She walks into the gate and closes it behind her then nods to Gaster as she ducks into the house. Gaster gets a cushioned seat and pulls it out for the girl and he notices that she's wearing the same dress. She's BEEN wearing the same dress for a week at least. The edges have begun to fray terribly. Her hands have dirt on them. Did she try working in the yard or something? A spoiled girl like this? Heh, interesting.
The skeleton girl sits down with the red scarf in her hands and Gaster sits down on a chair in front of her.
"My-… I was… I was trying to move the tilling plow so I could do a line of my own crops… I don't want to bother my parents by taking any of their food so I wanted to make my own. And when I was trying to move it, my… my very precious scarf got ripped. I tripped over it and…" Her sockets swell up with fresh tears. She quickly wipes them away and looks back up at Gaster.
"And as embarrassing enough as this is-…" Gaster raises a brow with surprise.
"DON'T TELL ME YOU CAN'T /SEW/…" The girl looks back down… and shakes her head.
"No. My mother always did the sewing. So I have no idea how to fix my scarf. And I saw you doing some work a few days ago on someone's curtains."
"WHY DON'T YOU JUST ASK YOUR MOM FOR HELP?"
"She's very busy now. I don't want to bother her with my foolishness and clumsiness… You were the only person I knew even a LITTLE bit that I thought I could ask help for. So now that you've made me say it, please won't you help me?... I don't know yet how I'd repay you, but I promise I will! Do you trust me? Even a little?"
Gaster stares at the girl, her dirty hands, fraying dress and ripped scarf. He was sure that she wouldn't be able to adjust at all to this lifestyle in comparison to city living. But she's trying to make her OWN food separate from her parents and she tried working the plow… He has to give her credit for that at least. Gaster decides to help her. But on the inside he tries to tell himself it's because she's pretty and that's IT.
"FINE, I'LL FIX IT. STAY HERE. I'LL SHOW YOU HOW TO SEW. IT'S REALLY EASY ACTUALLY, EVEN WITH OUR SLIPPERY BONEY FINGERS." Gaster gets up and finds a small sewing kit in his room then rushes out and sits back down, taking the scarf away from her. He studies it and finds the tear.
"Uhm… I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself at all… No wonder you don't like me much. I'm Vrinda." She says. Gaster looks up at her. She's taking blame for Gaster being mean to her? Gaster's insides twist up a little. He knows it was his own selfish childish nature that made him be mean to her. Guilt creeps up into his cheeks.
"I'M WINGDINGS GASTER. AND UH… I'M THE ONE THAT'S SORRY. I WAS A JERK TO YOU THE DAY WE MET. IT WAS FOR A STUPID REASON." Gaster stares down the hole of a needle as he threads it in one go. Red thread. Such a thing is rare for a small town like this, but he didn't want to give her any other color. It would look silly. And this beautiful scarf looking silly on a beautiful girl is unacceptable… Wow, what are these thoughts? Stop that, she's just some girl!
"Wingdings Gaster… That's a very old language. Wingdings is. Do you know how to speak it?" Vrinda asks, trying to tiptoe into the subject. Gaster looks away from his needle placement and right into Vrinda's eyes. He shouldn't be surprised that another skeleton knows what that language is, but living in a town with no skeletons besides himself and his father, this is surprising to him. He nods.
"I CERTAINLY DO. MY PARENTS AND I SPEAK THAT NORMALLY WHEN IT'S JUST US."
"Say something in Wingdings!" Vrinda says with some excitement. Gaster just squints at her.
"[[I THINK YOU'RE A DOOKY HEAD SPOILED BRAT.]]" Gaster says. Vrinda glares
"Jeez, you coulda just said something like 'the sky is blue and grass is green' instead of being snarky. [[Two can play at that game you donkey's rear end.]]" Gaster feels his soul beat a bit harder. Her voice in that language is beautiful. He can't help but laugh and smile widely. It's so nice to hear someone else speak his language.
"WOW, YOU SPEAK IT PRETTY FLUENTLY TOO. THAT'S A RARE SOUND THESE DAYS. A DONKEY'S REAR END HUH? SO I'M AN ASSES ASS?" He says with a snicker. Vrinda can't stifle her giggle. She puts her hand over her mouth to at least attempt to mask the noise. But Gaster heard it loud and clear.
"Language mister. You're not supposed to curse in front of a lady."
"[[I SEE NO LADY HERE.]]" Gaster says and smirks. Vrinda just reaches over and baps Gaster's leg a little, playfully with a smile.
"Now now, show me how to sew. I haven't got all day Wingdings."
"YOU CAN JUST CALL ME GASTER. IT'S QUICKER. NOW PAY ATTENTION, I'M NOT GONNA TEACH YOU AGAIN."
Gaster spends the next hour and a half teaching Vrinda to sew. They giggle and speak in Wingdings a lot. Vrinda insists that she knows how to do the proper pattern, but when she tries she drops the needle several times. But each time, Gaster helps her and rethreads it and shows her again even though he said he wouldn't.
Gaster's father walks in the door and sees the two sitting at the table and asks what they're doing? The two scoot away from each other, not noticing how close they'd gotten during that time and they each explain with varying degrees of embarrassment.
But finally the scarf is finished. The two kids stand up and Gaster wraps the scarf around her neck for her and then swings the end of it over her face with a snicker. She laughs and takes it off, then stares at the perfect mending job they both did.
"It's got a battle scar, but… I think it was worth it in the end. Thank you so much for helping me Gaster. Do you have any ideas for how you want me to repay you?"
With a wave of his hand Gaster shakes his head.
"YOU DON'T HAVE TO REPAY ME… BUT I GUESS YOU COULD TELL ME WHY THAT SCARF IS SO IMPORTANT TO YOU IN THE FIRST PLACE." Vrinda smiles fondly at the scarf and feels the fabric between her fingers.
"My father bought it for my mother when they first started dating. And then my mom gave it to me. It's just a piece of cloth, but it means a lot to me and my parents. I'm hoping that someday I can give it to the guy I'm with and we'll be just as happy and in love as my parents were."
Gaster gulps a little. Gosh that IS important. "I'M GLAD WE COULD FIX IT. MAYBE NEXT TIME DON'T WEAR IT WHEN YOU'RE WORKING." Vrinda nods.
"I won't make that mistake again that's for sure…. Oh my gosh what time is it?" Gaster walks over to the window and looks at the sun.
"I'D CALL IT ABOUT TWO O CLOCK? YOUR PARENTS ARE PROBABLY WONDERING WHERE YOU ARE."
"Worse than that, I have to make dinner! It's going to take forever if I don't leave now. I'll see you later Gaster!" She says, rushing to the door.
"Thanks so much again for helping me fix my scarf!" Vrinda runs outside and Gaster pokes his head out the door and waves at her.
"[[HEY IF YOU NEED MY HELP AGAIN YOU CAN COME TO ME IF YOU WANT!]]" He calls after her in Wingdings. She turns around and waves with a smile, confirming that she will indeed. Gaster stands there and watches her rush back home and can't help but notice how good he feels… That's so strange, considering not long ago he didn't even like her for being a spoiled brat. Perhaps it's because he realized that he was being a jerk first… and he didn't know that she was trying to help her family instead of just sitting back like a princess or something and not working. And that she's funny and pretty smart. It occurs to him that he's probably Vrinda's first friend in this town.
Gaster's father comes up behind him with a sly smirk on his face.
"Starin' at her gams boy?" He says. Gaster gasps and goes back inside quickly trying to hide any purple blush that might come up. Why would be blush anyway?
"NO I AM NOT LOOKING AT HER LEGS /DAD/." He says and rushes to the hamper to start doing laundry even though he doesn't need to.
It might be hard for Gaster to see, but his father is not blind. He thinks his son has a small crush on that girl. This should be interesting indeed.