At first, Blue didn't even notice the phone ringing. He was way too immersed in working on the machine. He noticed it when Rus grabbed him by the shoulders and yanked him away from his work, though. He immediately opened his mouth to protest. Rus was faster. "BROTHER, IF YOU DO NOT ANSWER YOUR PHONE IN THE NEXT THIRTEEN SECONDS I WILL TAKE YOU UPSTAIRS AND LOCK YOU IN YOUR ROOM UNTIL YOU DO."
Blue had never moved his hands so fast. He patted around his pockets to try and find the right one. Damned Muffler and her obsession with pockets. Then he found it, hiding in the pocket on the inside of his left breast - the fifth one he'd checked. He yanked it out of there and hit the answer button just in time. He didn't even have time to bring it to his ear before a familiar voice boomed out, "BLUE, I SINCERELY HOPE YOU HAVE A PLAN TO GET BACK HERE OR I, THE MAGNIFICENT AND HORRIBLE RAZZ, WILL HAVE TO BE STERN WITH YOU!"
Blue's face lit up. He couldn't believe it. "razz? is that really you?"
"OF COURSE IT'S ME! WHO ELSE WOULD BE CALLING YOU WITH A MESSAGE LIKE THAT?" Razz said. Blue could practically hear him rolling his eye lights.
Blue's eye lights slid sideways to stare at his brother, then looked back at the phone. He wanted to chuckle. "well, it could have been my brother, but since he's right here with me it'd be kinda silly of me to think it was him."
"YOUR BROTHER? I THOUGHT YOUR BROTHER WAS DEAD," Razz said, but his emotions didn't say that he was surprised. Blue grinned. His soulmate was so smart.
"nope. seems that there was some kind of a loop made in time? i dunno what to call it. a reset or a load, maybe? everyone who was dead seems to be back and worried about me. i, uh, was kinda gone here a long time. my brother kept track to the second. they looked everywhere for me. a human's even involved in the search. seems to be a nice kid, from what my brother's said. everyone was really freaked about the bandages, but i explained about them. i can't wait for you guys to meet them. i've been working on the machine a bit-"
"ALMOST NONSTOP," Rus interjected.
"-and i think i've got the math right to pull this off," Blue finished smugly.
Through the phone, the voice of Slim said, "pull what off?"
Blue smiled wider. His brother, the only one in this conversation who could see him, rolled his eye lights. Blue stuck his tongue out at his brother and answered the question. "i think i figured it out so we can merge the universes. that way we can combine the human souls we have and all reach the surface that much sooner!" Silence reigned for several minutes. Blue's grin slowly fell. He asked, "is there… something wrong with that?"
"well…" Slim said slowly, "that really depends on how you do it. also, how successfully we can keep people from trying to kill each other, but that's not my problem."
"OH, WHOSE IS IT THEN, MINE?" Razz said archly.
"i was thinking that would be alphys', bro. she's the one in charge right now, so it falls to reason that this is her problem," Slim said. Blue could hear the shrug in his voice, probably just because he knew what it sounded like in his brother and himself.
"WHY WOULD YOU PUT DR. ALPHYS IN CHARGE? SHE CAN HARDLY TAKE CARE OF HERSELF, LET ALONE ANYONE ELSE!" Rus said.
"ouch," Blue said with a grin.
Rus rolled his eyes, making Blue's grin grow even wider. "OH PLEASE, BROTHER, YOU KNOW IT'S TRUE, AND IT'S NOT LIKE SHE'S HERE."
"OUR ALPHYS IS.. WAS THE CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD. SHE IS USED TO TAKING CARE OF A LARGE NUMBER OF PEOPLE. I UNDERSTAND THAT SHE IS MUCH LIKE YOUR UNDYNE IN HER ROLE, IF SOMEWHAT DIFFERENT DUE TO THE CULTURE SHE GREW UP IN," Razz explained.
"AH, THAT WOULD EXPLAIN IT. I WOULD DEFINITELY TRUST UNDYNE TO TAKE CARE OF ME!" Rus said brightly.
Blue shuddered. "i wouldn't. sorry, bro, i know she's your best friend, but… personal experience, eh? she was the one who took charge after the human came through in the last timeline, and things… didn't exactly go well. then again. having you around might have helped her to keep sane. stars know it does for me."
Rus gave him a soft look that held more understanding in it that Blue thought he deserved. "I SUPPOSE IT WOULD, BROTHER. WELL, THEN, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING MIGHT BE THE PROBLEM WITH BLUE'S PLAN, OTHER ME?"
Slim coughed. "well, it's a bit technical, but i really want to know how he plans to combine them, because, um, there's so many ways this could go wrong. we could end up all splattered on each other, or stuck as some weird sort of siamese twins, or only one population but split between two undergrounds, or half of each population missing or dead, or randomly appearing all over the place, or-"
Blue cut him off before he went totally off the deep end. "i was planning on just connecting the door to that artifact room in both our worlds. nobody but the ghosts can get in there on your end or ours, right? no one can remember the combination."
"THE GHOSTS CAN'T GET EITHER," Two voices said in unison.
Blue blinked at the phone, then at his brother. Razz and Rus had been the ones to speak. "um… why?"
Rus shrugged. "I DON'T KNOW ABOUT THERE, BUT IT'S BEEN TRUE HERE EVER SINCE YOU WENT MISSING. DR. ALPHYS SAID IT WAS SOME KIND OF INTERFERENCE IN THE MOLECULAR STRUCTURE OF THE WALL, POSSIBLY AS A RESULT OF EXTRA-DIMENSIONAL OR EXTRA-NATURAL FORCES."
Blue grinned. "she just said some alien or god like from one of her animes made the wall weird."
Rus sighed. His face was so disappointed in his brother for pointing that out while they were still on the phone. "YES, YES SHE DID. I WAS TRYING TO MAKE HER SOUND MORE IMPRESSIVE TO THESE OTHER US-ES, BLUE."
Slim sniggered through the phone. "if she's anything like our dr. undyne, that's a monumental task, but i bet you can try a-brain."
The groan that Razz and Rus let out was almost identical. Blue knew there was fondness behind it, though. If Rus really hadn't liked his puns, he would have asked him to stop very firmly and clearly, and he bet that Razz would have done the same. They were just that cool.
"MOVING ON FROM THAT ANNOYING INTERLUDE, WILL BLUE'S PLAN TO CONNECT THOSE ROOMS SUFFICE, BROTHER?" Razz asked.
Slim laughed. Blue noticed, out of the corner of his eye, that Rus was blushing. Interesting. He wasn't sure what to think about that. On the one hand, that was his little brother that he'd basically raised after Gaster had disappeared. On the other hand, he shipped it. Hard. "nyeh. yeah, bro, that'll be fine. i still wanna hear his math. wouldn't want to end up on the ceiling because he missed a negative sign somewhere. do you wanna go tell alphys so she can get prepping?'
"FINE. YOU HAVE FUN TALKING ABOUT YOUR MATH WITHOUT ME. MAYBE BLUE'S BROTHER CAN GO AND TALK TO HIS UNDYNE ABOUT THE SAME THING."
"I WILL!" Rus said, saluting. "SEE YOU LATER, BROTHER!"
"bye!" Blue said, waving goodbye to his brother. then he turned to the bench and grabbed his current set of notes. "okay, slim, i started this whole thing with the machine alphys used to drag me here. she used the weirdest combination of…"