FRISK

LV 1

HP 40/40

G 10


She offered to give him his phone back, but Papyrus would have none of it.

"I'M FINE, HUMAN... AND YOU NEED IT MORE THAN I DO!" He'd gotten his breathing under control, and didn't seem to be as upset as before, but Frisk could tell Papyrus had changed. In some way, it was the same as how Sans had changed. "IT'S... EMBARRASSING, REALLY. THE GREAT PAPYRUS DOES NOT GET SCARED!"

She curled up next to him on the edge of the walkway, holding her knees close to her face. "It's okay, you know, I get scared too."

"O-OF COURSE YOU DO, HUMAN! BUT... UH..." the child frowned as Papyrus searched for words, feigning a sheepish smile, "SOMEONE AS GREAT AS I... CAN HANDLE ANY OBSTACLE IN MY WAY! SO THERE IS NO NEED FOR ME TO BE SCARED!"

She scooted closer to him. "But he's a scary guy so it's okay to be scared of him..."

Papyrus folded his arms, trying not to tremble. "NO! HE IS... NOT THAT SCARY." But then his expression fell, and he said a smidgen quieter, "EVEN SO, WE DON'T HAVE TO GO LOOKING FOR HIM, RIGHT?"

This was a question that Frisk didn't know how to answer. But if she didn't answer, she had a feeling Papyrus might take that for an answer. "Just...what are we going to tell Alphys?"

There was a long silence for a minute. Frisk looked down at her feet, which she turned in and out, until finally she heard Papyrus say, "MAYBE WE CAN TELL HER... ... ...THAT IT WAS A BAD IDEA?" He shifted uncomfortably, rubbing the handplate covered over by his glove. "OR. SHE CAN HAVE SOMEONE ELSE DO IT?"

Frisk scratched the back of her head, "I guess, when we get back, we can suggest some other people..." Although as the words left her mouth, it still left an upset feeling in her stomach. She quickly turned her head away as if her attention was caught by something.

But the high volume of Papyrus' voice made her turn right back again. "YES. ...HUMAN, WHEN DO YOU THINK WE'LL BE ABLE TO LEAVE?"

"Oh," wetting her lips, Frisk played with her sleeves and grinned big. "I'm really sure it'll be soon!"


But they weren't able to leave soon. In fact, the hours that they were lingering in the colorless reality turned into a day. Eventually Undyne decided that they would spend the next wandering around a little of Waterfall, the former guard captain struggling to feel the water on her skin and growing irritated when that failed. They went back to Snowdin, too, and some of the other caverns that used to make up the Capital of New Home, but they could find no more patches of true reality there and there was nothing of interest except the grey animals that ignored them.

None of them grew any hungrier or thirstier, but that only made it difficult to tell how much time was passing.

Everywhere they went, Undyne or Frisk went first, as if by an unspoken agreement with each other. If they were going to encounter Dr. Gaster, they would rather it was one of them and not the two brothers who seemed unable to consider meeting him without their moods changing radically. Frisk was grateful that Sans and Papyrus were more occupied with staying with each other to notice them taking this precaution. They were talking a lot as they stayed back in their travels through the caverns

By the time another day, or perhaps two, passed, they all agreed to stay for the most part in Hotland where the patches of true reality were. Those patches seemed to be growing, albeit very very slowly. Since they had a bit of reality in them, they were probably their best bet for finding a way home. That was what they figured, although there wasn't much to do with them except for step in and enjoy the reality.

Everyone was a little anxious about investigating the Core, given precedent. Frisk was the only one who felt it worth the risk, as a human, and as one nervous about how long they were starting to stay there. Even then, she went to investigate when the others had gone to sleep for the... ... probably night.

So she was alone when she walked to that building, on the lookout for more patches of reality. She wondered if she would even be able to use the elevator, though. Was it still there?

When she got to the entrance, she could see someone else a little farther inside. "Ah-!"

At her gasp, he turned with a not-too-startled expression. Since there was no one else around, it was obviously Dr. Gaster. Biting her lip, Frisk drew out her phone and started sliding for the app on the touch screen.

Initially he didn't say anything to her, despite her clear anxiety. He had in his hands a pen and piece of paper, which he had previously been writing on by using the wall for a flat surface; now, finishing his thought, he folded it back up and put it in his pocket. Then Dr. Gaster approached the child at a slow pace, cautious.

Frisk looked up when he was a foot away from her, and she gave him a wavering smile. "...H-hi again..."

Now that changed his expression, his eyebrows raising in bewilderment. He spoke, using his strange font. The phone then began to crackle and out came, in a clear and strong voice, "What are you doing here alone?" Now that, hearing his own translated speech coming out of the phone, made him even more surprised.

Frisk had begun to speak with a huge, genuine grin on her face, "Wow your voice is really-" only for him to close the distance between them and snatch the phone out of her hands. "Um-!"

"What is this?" His open eye was wide as he spoke into the phone, hearing it translated with a second delay on the other end. "Hello? Hello? Testing... The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog... Is that really what I sound like...?" He then closed the translator window and began to scroll through the rest of it. "What an unusual device..."

"It's a cellphone," Frisk said.

Remembering that the human was still there, he looked up and frowned. "I know what a cellphone is." Albeit he hadn't seen one of this make before. As the child reached to take the phone back, he instinctively held it closer and out of her timid reach. "Where did you get this?"

Frisk rocked backwards on her heels, clutching her hands behind her back. "It-it's Papyrus's. He's letting me borrow it."

"Not the phone." Dr. Gaster's frown deepened into a scowl. Looking through it only a little, he could tell who it belonged to. Soon enough he just had the translating app open. "I mean this."

"Oh," Frisk nodded, "Dr. Alphys made that."

She made another reach for it, and this time was able to discreetly pull it away from his bony fingers and holey hands. Dr. Gaster was looking down and squinting, murmuring, "Alphys...? She always was very good with electronics."

"I like your voice."

He looked back over at her. "I beg your pardon?"

"...It sounds nice..." Not like the voice of a murderer, or a father who brands his sons. Frisk's own voice got progressively quieter and she looked behind her. "Um, what are you doing here?"

Dr. Gaster's hands went into his labcoat pockets. He looked more bored, now, than anything. "I asked you that first."

Well, he did do that. The child looked behind her again. No sign of Sans, Papyrus, or Undyne. She couldn't help but remember what Sans had told her back in Snowdin. He wants to kill you... But she put on a smile when she turned back to him again. "I want to help, so I thought to look into the inner Core."

"I've already checked the Core. A casual observer's study of it would be of no use."

Stopped cold, Frisk's hand fumbled for her locket again. So, that was another dead end... "Ohhhhh. Hmm."

In a lower voice, he asked with that same cold and bored expression, "Where are your friends?" The child didn't respond at first, gaze moving up and down suspiciously as though expecting him to draw a knife from that pocket. That was ridiculous, of course. He didn't need a knife to do damage to her. She pointed over behind herself, at the old structure of the hotel. "We're all sleeping just back there."

"I see."

"Where are you sleeping?"

"I am not."

Frisk's smile got bigger, and she stood a step backwards. Her heart was beating so hard, she didn't dare release her hold on the locket or the phone. "Don't exhaust yourself, okay? Are you feeling better?"

Finally, she heard him exhale a little at this. "...Yes. I have recovered."

So the child gave him a big smile, "That's good." Before there could even be an awkward silence, she went on in a quiet voice, "...I know Sans has reasons. E-even if he won't tell me what they are. B-but I've never seen him act like that, s-so... it's..."

Dr. Gaster tilted his head one way. "... You... intervened because you don't approve?"

Frisk nodded, her smile falling. Well, something like that. "I don't approve. Of people. Killing people."

He exhaled again. "...Then I am fortunate this policy also applied to me." And then, brusquely, he added, "But I am busy trying to look for exits. If you're going to return to your friends, do it now."

Smiling again, and again briefly nodding, Frisk turned and gratefully ran across the walkway.

Watching her leave, Dr. Gaster shook his head and went back inside with a growing scowl on his face.


I can't tell if the human lacks in intelligence, or if their naivete is a result of their youth.

Although faced with warning signs on at least three counts - the deaths of my "followers", their friends' reactions, and my own high LV - they continue to treat me as though I am not, in fact, a threat. Not as though I desire for them or their friends to see me as such, necessarily... it is best to continue my research and search for my pieces unhindered. But I would have expected more distrust, and from a human of all things, than this.

In fairness, it seemed to be only a one-time meeting on their part. I have not been visited in the Core again.

Now that I have left it behind, I can see them - both the human and their companions - making excursions around Hotland. Like me, they seem to seek a way out of this world but have no materials or even prior experience to work with. To that end, they are merely conducting rudimentary magical tests with the spots of reality they come in contact with around the hotel. Their constant presence makes it difficult for me to make my way back to the site of my laboratory, where I could at least have access to my notes and equipment. I'm not especially eager to get into a fight with-

With three capable monsters at once.

The human suffers from a mild form of insomnia, invalidating the option of sneaking past while their group is asleep. At certain points, when they are awake and not too close to their "friends," I am able to study them for a little while. Occasionally, I am able to even see interactions between them and the other members of the group, although during these times I need to be especially careful that I am not caught.

Contrary to my earlier assessments, the human usually tries to avoid verbal conversation when they can help it, communicating with gestures, facial expressions, and noises instead. That doesn't stop conversation from occurring between themselves and others, but the majority of it seems to be one-sided. I spent approximately half an hour observing as they played the audience for jokes from Subject 1 before moving on. Subject 1 appears overly fond of making terrible jokes. I don't know where this immature behavior came from, as it doesn't seem shared or even tolerated by Subject 2.

Aside from conversation, they are behaviorally identical to monster children, which I suppose can be expected. When not entertaining themselves with games on the phone, they follow the others around constantly, not quite begging for attention but always looking to receive it. For most of the time I've been able to see them, they seem to be determined to learn how to sign after their first encounter with me. They've gone through asking the others for help, but each one appears to have failed somehow.

They imitate some of the same patterns of behavior as the adults around them, as well; for instance, I have seen them several times smiling hugely in the same way as that former captain of the royal guard, although their teeth are not big enough for such mimicry. When not in use, they hide their hands in a myriad of ways, perhaps because of how often those two do it. I wonder if their quiet mumbling is also their way of mimicking Subject 1.

That's not important. I don't know why the human interests me. Perhaps I simply grow frustrated with throwing my efforts towards a problem that refuses to reveal the answer. And so with no other object of study, I've begun turning my attention to them. Thinking about it, they are, after all, the first human that I have seen for centuries. And, eventually, I may require them to bring one of my "followers" out of one plane of reality into this one. So.. it is best that I at least keep an eye on them, as it were.

My study has its consequences, however. It's during one of these occasions, when the human is suffering from their insomnia again, that I am spotted.

As a result, they've approached me again.

This time, I am told not to come too close, and in this I learn that this was not, in fact, the first time the human has spotted me. But it is the first time I was given a warning, weak as it is coming from the mouth of this child. As expected, my presence would be... upsetting... to my former subjects if anyone else were to spot me.

I in turn inform them that I would not be remaining here if I could reach my lab.

They tell me that the laboratory here was dismantled. Of course, I already know that part - but True Lab is not so easily dismantled. Not underground, and not filled with so much delicate equipment as it is. So they ask me what I want in True Lab. I see no reason to lie. That lab is probably the only place with technology left in this evacuated kingdom.

Evidently, they have been there.

But they don't seem interested in aiding me down to that level of Hotland. I only spoke to them for a moment before they returned to the inside of the Hotel, and in quite a hurry at that.

...What I believe to be a day later...

The came out unprompted, and of their own will. They gave me a strange request. They asked if I could teach them sign language, evidently unable to give up on this aspiration.

I asked them why, when they already had a means of understanding me. They looked at me oddly, then, and said they would be giving "Papyrus" his phone back eventually. I suppose I can't argue with that. But when I asked why they could not have someone else teach them, they replied that while "Papyrus" and Undyne were incapable of teaching it, they suspected that "Sans" was teaching them curse words.

I told them to sign what they had learned and the human was both correct and incorrect. While Sans had not been teaching them curse words, he had taught them a very specific curse. Using the child as a medium for his sense of humor does seem characteristic of him. Whatever the case, there is little point to me teaching this human anything, so I declined and they left.

But while their friends were sleeping, they came yet again.

They asked me why, if I desired to reach True Lab, I hadn't gone yet.

Hmm. Evidently, they do not intend to stop me, then.

That's fine. Locating the entrance in that rubble should be simple enough, as long as I am allowed to reach the site. If these are their intentions, I will finally go and see what resources I can find in my old workplace. The best case scenario being that I might even find one of my pieces in True Lab, in a place that is so undeniably familiar.

When I am ready, I will come back.


Next Chapter: This is Just Getting Harder