Chapter 14
Examination RoomThat friday afternoon the two of them pack some snacks and take the train to a Kio-ryo labs facility, one of the many established around the world since the monsters were integrated into human society. They will be meeting one of Sans' friends there to give them the medical exam and fill in the paperwork for their ID. They can't mask their excitement, boots tapping on the underside of Sans' seat across from them. He stares out the window most of the time, but sometimes he stares at them and when they catch him, Frisk smiles, he bears his fangs back at them in a hesitant grin.
They comment on the scenery and he does his best to explain where they are. The hours and miles fly by, another train and a bus later they are walking onto a crowded city street. The looming buildings covered in glass and the neat perpendicular streets are fascinating. Everything is so lean and flashy compared to the small town they live in. Frisk feels both dwarfed and filled with wonder; caught in the tandem of new sounds, smells and sights. Sans stops to buy some bagels from a street stand, the warmth from the snack's magic dancing alongside the emotion fizzling on their bones.
The Kio-ryo building stands out from a few blocks away, though it is also quite tall there is something very block-like about the stout structure. Its beveled surfaces give it an almost plastic look, cream walls and blue green windows. The company logo is smack dab on the center of the entrance, a yellow lizard curled in on itself over a white background, like an egg yolk. Frisk can't help it and asks Sans to take a picture of it, he complies with a low chuckle, making them stand in the frame to their embarrassment.
They walk up to the desk and are sent into an inner waiting room. A few monitors showcase the company's products and though they are familiar with them, Frisk feels a sense of awe at the fact they are going to meet the monster who brought all this technology to the surface. In a few minutes a tall and pretty monster approaches them slithering over the polished floor; introducing herself as one of Alphy's lab assistants. Her body is covered in green scales, reptilian head hooded like a cobra, with a shockingly red tongue flickering between her equally red lips when she speaks. As she leads them into the medical offices Frisk tries their best not to gawk.
The monster gives them a brief tour of the assembly and research areas before they take the elevator into the lower levels. They exit onto a long hallway with many glass and metal doors; but before they can enter the office, the assistant stops dead in her tracks. A short yellow monster is walking towards them, like most of the staff it wears a white labcoat with the company logo, except this one has no name tag. They talk to the statuesque assistant shily, barely able to look at her face before the snake lady turns back to them.
"Mr. and Mx. Skeleton, it is my pleasure to introduce you to the founder and CEO of Kio-ryo industries, Ms. Alphys Kyoryu."
"It's nice to meet you properly, Frisk. Hi Sans!" she waves her hand timidly at them.
"Hey, Alphys. Long time no see." he waves lazily.
"Nice to meet you, too." they hold out their hand and she takes it shakily, her scales are smoother than they look, if the way their bones slide over her hand is any indication.
"I-I was finishing up some repairs, which is why I'm...a little late."
"Better late than never, lead the way." Sans grins and pats her shoulder, she leans into him in a one arm hug before leading them into the office they would use.
After showing them around the she sits to face them both across the low, minty green desk. Frisk trains their eye on her face and away from the images on the computer behind her, of anime characters fighting to the death with vibrantly colored results. She notices their distraction and closes the video window with a blush.
"Today I'll be giving you a full evaluation. We'll do the basic vitals: taking your weight, height, and t-then of course...your picture." She says with a shy smile. "I also need to take a dermal sample, measure your magic output and we also can examine the um, flower situation."
Frisk nods and smiles at her, bright eyed; simultaneously curious and frightened of what she may find. Alphys takes them into a more secluded area where they are weighed, examined and measured. At the point when they have to remove their clothes, Frisk doesn't feel more than the standard mortification, they are sure she means no harm despite her crippling awkwardness. At least she gets on with the embarrassing parts fast, since she examines their bones thoroughly, but quickly. As they open the curtain, Sans throws them an encouraging smile, with the usual apprehension still stuck in his eyes. The doctor then questions Frisk about their sleeping and eating habits, taking notes on her tablet.
"I'm going to need your complete name, in order to um, fill in the documents for your Hand link, Frisk."
"It's going to be Cambria...the name on the ID." they say evenly. Her eyes go to Sans and something transpires through the pointed frown he gives her.
They pick a common skeleton monster second name from a list she hands them. The doctor continues to question them until they reach the extent of their collective knowledge. From now on the information they glean will have to be directly from Frisk's body. She brings a device from behind the adjacent counter closer, the heavy machine has an indented greenish screen with multiple dials underneath.
"I'll be checking your wavelength now. You might feel a...slight tingle."
They nod and she stands, connecting a wire from a stethoscope-like tool into one of the holes in the machine. She asks for permission before placing its end on their chest, moving it around until the machine makes an audible beep. She holds it there, a steady beeping marking the rhythm. The lines in the monitor draw a single wave every few seconds; it trebles, too far spaced to be a heartbeat, but it still makes their eye water.
"Is...is that my heart?" they blurt out.
"Well, more precisely, its your soul, Frisk. The machine measures the flow of magic in your body. Magic tends to fluctuate depending on emotion and on...how you use it." She casts a glance at Sans but he's idly thumbing through a bowl of candy on her other desk. "I guess you're a lefty a-at heart, huh?" she says with a nasally laugh as she holds the device to the left side of their chest, Sans grunts appreciatively. Frisk looks down at their chest, wondering why their soul is off-center.
"Isn't that normal?" Beside them the machine beeps erratically, their nerves now plainly audible. She simply shrugs.
"Monster souls are usually centered on the body, but some have theirs a little more to one side or the other. Don't worry it's totally fine! W-would you like to, uh, hear its wavelength?" She says noting their unease.
" You can hear what my soul sounds like?"
"To put it simply, yes. Every monster has a specific wavelength...they uh, vibrate to. You can hear it clearly when you use color magic. But not every monster can do color magic soo...that's what we have these for!" she pats the machine heartily.
They nod at her, completely enthralled and after she fiddles with the dials for a few moments a faint sound begins to spill from the machine. Though crackling with static, there is a single harmony coming from it in a continuous hum. Alphys turns a dial making the sound build up, clear earthy tones repeating, ebbing, like a light fading in and out of the room each time it plays. It makes them smile in wonder and when they look at Sans, their eyes meet for just a moment. There is something odd about the way the red in his eyes flickers, letting some other, starry light filter out from inside. But then he frowns and the red flares back up like a wall, he turns away and it's gone so fast Frisk is not sure what they saw.
After that they follow Alphys to a seat on the other side of the room. The counter around it is covered in rows of glass tubes with rubber covers of various colors. The shelves mounted above it are stacked with glass bottles and even more tubes. They recognize the blood drawing station from television, rather than experience. Whatever memories they do have bring nothing but a small, uneasy shudder.
"Please sit here and place one of our arms on the board. I will be taking your um, dermal samples now." She says, putting on a pair of latex gloves with practiced ease.
"Dermal? Like skin?"they frown in confusion.
"W-well no, I….Sans!" She turns to him, the awkward curl of her lip becoming something close to a snarl. Frisk stares at her face, only just now noticing a scar running up the side of her mouth towards her eye. The ragged shape ripples with her lip as she berates Sans, her girly mannerisms at odds with the brutal mark on her face. She turns back to them and they snap to, trying to figure out what she'd said.
"I can explain it, if you don't...mind?" she repeats.
"Sure, I'd like that."
"Okay…" she takes a steadying breath. "Complete medical examinations require a sample from t-the monster's body. Usually deep tissues, since we don't have blood. As you know when a monster is hurt the magic that holds them together dissipates and their body basically b-breaks down a-and turns to ash…"
They nod, their face plain and calm to show their attention is focused on her.
"The ash left behind has traces of the monster's white magic and the physical components that don't dissipate: like carbon, calcium and phosphorus, contain information a-about the body. With another type of monster I could just uh, use a needle to take a sample. " She shows them one of the needles, its wide,sharp tip glinting evilly through its plastic casing, they stare at it nervously.
"Needles to say it would just go right through them." Sans mutters making her giggle amusedly, while Frisk shakes their head.
"In your case though, you don't have tissues so we um, take a sample of your dermal layer." She turns and glares at Sans pointedly, he shrugs lazily. Frisk doesn't mind the lack of explanation, but is starting to get annoyed that in his stubbornness he's also keeping practical information like this to himself.
"I looked some information up online, I know it's what covers the bones...but I'm not sure I understand how it works."
"Oh, alright, well a monster's body is primarily held together by white magic, while the soul is made of color magic. For skeleton monsters that magic takes the form of three main components: the soul, the bones and the dermal cartilage. The cartilage covers the bones and it's what conducts magic throughout your body and lets you feel your surroundings." They sit and hold out their left arm, and she places a foldable desk bar under it.
"You will be able to see it...on the um, scans later. The dermal cartilage covers everything but your claws and your teeth for, heh, obvious reasons." Frisk nods at her and she continues, like Sans, her voice is much clearer once she explains things that interest her and they feel a sudden fondness for her.
"Inside your eyes and ribs you have the darker 'internal dermis', which is m-much more conductive but also more sensitive. I will be taking a small piece of the external dermis in your arm and use it to make the analysis. It might sting a b-bit…"
"That's ok, you definitely know what you're doing." They smile encouragingly at her, rolling up their sleeves and she nods, a russet blush spreading on her cheeks at the comment. Over her shoulder Sans has his eyes fixed on them warily.
She takes a small container and attaches it to a metal tool with a snap, its metal handle gleams, seemingly out of place with the hard plastic attachment at its tip. Frisk stares as she places it flat against the thickest part of their ulna, near the crook of their elbow.
"I'm g-going to count to three, ok?"
"Okay."
She counts down and then her clawed thumb quickly slides a tab on the handle upwards, inside the plastic tip they see a glint of metal before they feel a pressure sliding down their arm. The sharp stinging comes a few seconds after, when she removes it. A rectangular piece of the bone had been shaved out, barely an inch long and a quarter inch wide, like a small slot. They keep their mouth shut tightly as she pries the attachment off the handle and takes out a small plastic container from inside.
The container is completely see through; inside it the rectangle of cartilage holds its shape for a moment before slowly crumbling, like the burning tip of a cigarette, into dust. Frisk glances at their arm, trying not to put their hand over the cut. Alphys fumbles getting a bandage out of its wrapper, before placing it precisely over the cut. The bandage has tiny cats in dresses on it...nope, those are girls with cat ears, they realize with a smile. She hands them a piece of hard candy, round as a marble, urging them to eat. They pop the candy into their mouth, feeling it clatter against their teeth and cheeks, as the bubbly fritz of magic and sugar fills their mouth and tingles down their spine.
"That should help heal your arm faster. Make sure you eat it now, so it doesn't leave a mark!"
"Thank you, ." they mumble around the candy.
"Aw, it was nothing, really."
After they're done with the candy, they move on to the magic measuring process. She walks them to another part of the office behind a metal door that slides out of their way with a woosh. Frisk stares openly, marveling in the technology that is still entirely a novelty to them. There are machines hanging above them in a wide oval, at the center of the room there is a long leather chair, similar to what they've seen dentists have, except at the ends of the armrests this one has two metal cylinders. Now that they look at it closely, all the segments the chair is divided into have at least two metal indentations, as if something was meant to be plugged into it.
Alphys asks them to sit back, she sits on a small stool next to them and presses her short back legs against the pedals on the base of the big chair, making it lean into a half sitting position. As per her instructions they grip the metal bars at the end of the arm rests and let her place a sensor on their sternum to keep track of their soul. On one of the monitors above their head, they see their wavelength outlined again, they still can't help but to think of it as a heartbeat.
"Now Frisk, when I give you the signal I will start the timer and you will pour as much magic as you can into the handles. Don't give it any shape, just, put as much as you can and I will tell you when to stop, okay?"
Frisk nods at her, a little uncomfortable despite knowing it won't hurt. They shift their head and manage to see Sans on the other side of the chair, he gives them a half-smile and makes a joke, soon after the timer starts. They close their eyes, vaguely aware of Alphys' murmured encouragements as they push all of the magic they can. They can feel it flowing from their chest and down their spine, building and rushing to their hands and feet. They urge their magic to focus on their hands and before they know it their time is up. They open their eyes to see the flowers on their arms writhing a little, multiplying as they use their magic. Alphys repeats the process at least three times, at which point they are already sweating and covered in flowers. They pull their hands from the metal, their fingers itching with magic. When Sans reaches out to help them out of the chair, their hands crackle with a static as they meet.
"Don't look so shocked, kiddo, yer magic is still settling. Ya should be fine in a bit." he chuckles.
Alphys leads them back into the main office to take their picture. She taps some commands into her tablet and a small drone with a camera buzzes into the air from some unseen compartment in her desk. She asks them to stand still for a moment as the device flies in circles around them, a green light running from it up and down their face and shoulders. She makes them take several pictures until she gets 'the most kawaii one' and lets them sit while the ID is finished. Alphys finally retrieves the acrylic card out of a printer-like device, talking with Sans as Frisk stares at the ID, their ID.
State ID
number: 17740980
Given name: Cambria the Skeletal
16 Mulberry St. Downtown/ Jackson WY
Sex: A
HGT EST: 5'0"
WGT: 85
Eyes: 1-yellow
EST-DOB: Aug 27 1985
MRate: 4.74
This was their ticket into the Underground, they think as they turn the thick, glass-like card in their hands, staring back at their own image as it spins in place on the surface. Sans interrupt their thoughts nudging them on the ribs lightly.
"Sorry, I spaced out, what were you saying?" they say.
"That we're, I mean, I-I'm going to examine the...flowers on your body now if you're, um, ready?" She gestures to the long leather stretcher against the main office wall. They hop on, still holding the ID close, sharing a look with Sans before they lay back.
Her shaky hands turn steady as they examine Frisk's ribcage, taking a flower from their arm out with their permission and putting it in another container. With the flowers, as with the physical test, they won't see the results until a few days, but she assures them she'll keep in touch. Next she examines their eye, they glance at her nervously as she shines a light into one socket and then the other. She touches the flower lightly with a small instrument, they barely feel anything at all. With their permission she cuts off a small part of the petals and puts it away too.
"...Interesting." She murmurs.
"What is?" they ask, trying not to move.
"Try closing your eye sockets for me, please?"
They do so, self-conscious of the fact they can only close one eye.
"Can you see anything...out of your right eye?"
"Um, no, just the stuff you see when you close your eyes."
"What stuff exactly?" she says too quickly.
"You know, like all black but sometimes with colors in it and stuff, like when you stare at the sun too much and you close your eyes and still sort of see it there?"
"I understand...would you mind trying to do that now? C-close your eye and tell me what you can see."
Frisk closes their eyes, trying to see any colors in the dark, covering their good eye with their hand to block out the sliver of light peeking in. There's dark, but inside it there are those motes trickling from one side of their vision. They turn into it slightly and the colors become clearer, a soft yellow blob of light and a column of dark red streaming next to it. They relay the information, too deeply focused in seeing the colors to hear what Alphys is telling them until she shakes their arm.
"...K-keep your eyes closed, and look closer! Can you see...anything else?"
They frown and try harder. "... I see a ball at the center...like a brighter spot on the yellow, cloud? I dunno what shape it is, it's kind of round...and it moves slower than the red, the red light looks like it's moving up and it's darker? Hmm no it's bright too, I mean like, there's something else going on with it...like there's more colors in there it's...blue?"
Alphys makes a high pitched squeak, making Frisk jump. They look at her and her face is glowing with excitement. She taps away into the tablet, mumbling to herself and leads them back to her desk. The three of them sit together as she explains.
"As far as I can see-" Sans snorts and she tries to glare at him before continuing with a reluctant smile. "Shush this is important! I think the flowers are not an immediate danger. Frisk is quite healthy the flowers don't appear to be hurting them, just reacting to their magic...Besides, they shouldn't affect your health because from what I can tell, they're not part of your body."
"Whaddaya mean?" Sans asks, suddenly serious.
"Well I-I'll need to wait for the tests, just to be sure...but if the flowers were a part of their body they would just turn to ash when separated, like their cartilage did. Sooo that means they could be something else...right?"
"Yeah, we already knew that." he admits begrudgingly.
"Something else...like magic?" Frisk asks warily.
"Uh, I'm not sure yet. But I did find something else that's interesting!" She fidgets for a moment, eyes shifting between them and Sans. "I think that maybe the flower o-on your eye...can see magic!"
"What?!"
"What?!"
Frisk spares a glance at Sans, who returns it with the same surprise, Alphys giggles at them and continues.
"What you described sounds very much like seeing magic, right Sans?" she pushes her glasses up her nose with an amused smirk.
"Uh, yeah it kinda does…" He scratches his neck vertebrae with a soft clatter, avoiding their eyes.
"Really? I...I thought that was...huh." They run their fingers over the flower thoughtfully before glancing at Sans. They wonder if he can see things like this too. At least now the red lights they keep seeing before falling asleep make more sense.
"I'm just guessing, really, but it's what makes the most sense...I mean, most monsters don't have biophotons since they don't have optical nerves, after all. So it's odd for us to see much of uh, anything when we close our eyes."
Alphys goes on to explain her ideas for a while until her phone's ringing interrupts her. She is late for a meeting and says goodbye quickly, shaking hands with Frisk multiple times until her assistant comes by and gently ushers her away. Another employee leads them to the cafeteria where they have some sushi for lunch before leaving.
On the way back home, Sans seems oddly quiet, only this time Frisk doesn't fill the silence, caught in their own excitement and thoughts. As they leave the train station Sans leads them in a different direction from their home, back into the mains streets lined with small stores. He leads them to the electronics store, 'ID-all' where he works.
"Why are we stopping here?" they ask.
"We're getting ya a Hand-link. Wasn't that in yer list of 'Things to do when I get an ID'?"
"Oh, right...well I was thinking I'd buy it when I get a job." they say shyly, he just shrugs.
"How are they gonna call ya to tell you yer hired when you don't got a phone? Don't sweat it, I get a discount." he winks conspiratorially trying to ease their apprehension.
Frisk sorts through the available models, following Sans advice since the devices all look the same to them. The rest of the evening is spent downloading applications and getting the hang of using their new handlink phone. They copy some of Sans' contacts, mainly food delivery and his work. They talk to Pete for a few minutes to share in their excitement of having their own phone for the first time they can recall. Frisk then calls Flowey, who immediately friend requests them from every possible social media he can find. He is just as excited as they are, not just about being able to communicate more often, but also of the possibility of traveling back Underground. Meanwhile Sans watches from the sidelines, still caught in the sickening feeling of not wanting to let Frisk go back to the place where he nearly lost them forever.