Hemlock, a flower that is as innocent looking as it is deadly. A tree by the same common name symbolizes protection.
You're hot.
The world is dark. The blackness moves in front of your eyes, it takes forms and shapes that ebb in and out of your view. It was nauseating.
You have no real sense of your body, or where you were. You couldn't feel anything. It was as if you weren't even in a body, or had one, it was just your mind.
Your mind floating in nothing.
There's only nothing.
It's peaceful and calming.
You have the feeling that you once wanted this nothing.
...But your soul refuses it now.
Why was it so hot?
There's clicking, suddenly, in the quiet loudness of your hollow head. The metal sound pulls at your consciousness. It tugs at you, pulling you back. As the sound grows louder, your mind expands and you start feeling the heaviness of your body.
You wake up.
Immediately you lurch, rolling to the side as vomit comes bubbling out of your mouth. Cold metal presses into your feverish cheek as you heave. It hits wetly on the ground below you.
When your stomach is emptied, you peel your eyes open, blinking multiple times as you get used to the bleak lighting.
The clicking metal sounds again and you slowly look around, trying not to move your throbbing head too fast. You wipe your mouth off on your arm and manage to sit up.
You're in a dimly lit doctors office. The room was small and you were laid out in the middle of it, on a metal bed. There were cabinets and a few sinks and multiple scales. The vials of odd liquid and the messy, scattered papers and folders made you second guess "doctors office". Maybe it was a small lab. The thought makes you shiver.
Why were you here?
You wipe the beads of sweat off your forehead. Swinging your legs off the table, you hop down to your feet, steadying your heavy body against the bed until you fully get your senses back.
The last thing you remember… That's right, Undyne. She… She must've put something in your drink. She had drugged you. Then you assumed she'd taken you here. Wherever here was.
At least she wasn't here with you now.
You catch something moving out of the corner of your eye and see a vent up above the door. One of the metal slats bounces against the one below it, making the metal clicking noise you had heard.
The taste of vomit on your tongue makes you shiver. You rub at your eyes, trying to clear your blurry vision. Taking a tentative step away from the table that you were braced on, you make your way to one of the sinks. You reach for the faucet handle, but you stop just before you twist it.
Something about this felt eerily familiar.
You shift through your hazy thoughts, trying to fish out the memory that gave you this deja vu. Something about the dark room and the sinks made your heart plummet.
Stepping away from the sinks you try the handle to the door. Surprisingly, it turns easily and pops open. It takes you a moment before you duck your head out, checking to make sure Undyne wasn't close before you slide out.
Out here, your memory catches up to you. This place… This was Alphys's secret lab. Or, well, "Undyne's" secret lab in this reality. It was the long forgotten closed up laboratory that you had chased Alphys into.
The horrors you had found here, the unjust and unkind experiments that you had met nearly tore your kind soul apart. It had been an all round scary and draining experience the first time you'd seen it. Finding yourself here again… But this time without the scientist on your side or Frisk for support…
You want to go home.
You wanted to be anywhere but here.
The room is hot and humid. It felt as if you were under direct sunlight right after a rainstorm. It made sweat bead up on your forehead and roll down to your jaw.
Trying to remember the layout of the lab, you head off. Vaguely you recalled the hallways you and Frisk had walked through. You also remembered most of the spots where the experiments, the amalgamates, had jumped you.
You were going to avoid them at all cost.
The lab is eerily quiet, the only sound being the distant hum of some kind of machine and your own loud footsteps.
While you walk you swear you hear someone behind you, but every time you look the hall is empty.
You come to a large room, filled with metal beds and the stale smell of blood and dust. You knew this room. However, this version of the room was tinged with a grotesque amount of red and black compared to your memory. What bothers you the most is how recent the mess looks.
The lab you remembered had been abandoned, only ever been visited by Alphys. The desks and shelves had been covered in layers of dirt and cobwebs. It had been stale and lost.
This lab was used. Not a speck of year old dirt or grime. The metal tables were polished under the fresh gooey ooze and though the air was stale from being so hot there was a freshness to it. The fact that you could tell this horrible lab was still in use made your skin crawl.
The beds were empty, as far as you could tell. You didn't dare investigate every stained sheet. Instead you hobbled through the beds, taking care not to touch any of them.
Just as you get to the other side, another long hallway in front of you, there's a sudden buzz in the air. You freeze up, listening to the crackling.
"I know you escaped, human." Bites Undyne. You flinch at her sudden voice. Immediately you know she's not in the room with you, but you think back to the camera system she had in her upper lab.
There's a speaker in the corner of the room. A horn. It shakes as Undyne talks through it, dust raining from it. You don't see any cameras near it. It must be an older system compared to what she worked with above.
"If I thought you'd wake up again after that dose I would've locked the door…" You hear rustling and… Was she taking notes? What dose? Had she… Actually tried to kill you? "I'll know better this time around. My intent was to never let you leave, but now that you've seen my lab, I'll have to take extra steps to make sure you don't. I've invited my coworkers to help handle you." You hear her moving and then the clicking of buttons. Then there's a rumbling.
"Oh yeah!" Yells a familiar voice, sounding like the scream of an excited 90's rocker. The blood drains from your face. The speaker chokes off and the sudden silence that fills the room again makes your heart sink into your stomach.
You turn and run.
If you remembered right, the elevator that took you and Frisk into the lab the first time was close by. You weave through hallways, keeping an ear out for the clicking of Undyne's heels. Though you didn't know for sure if she was going to come down herself or not, you were prepared to see her crazed smile at the end of every turn you made.
At the end of an achingly long hall you come to the open doors of a stainless steel elevator. The inside was warmly lit, inviting you inside. The relief that washes over you at the sight of it was palpable. You were slightly surprised by how easy it'd been to find the exit without running into Undyne but you didn't linger. You step inside, eyes finding the wall of three buttons on the side. The middle button was the only one labeled and it simply read "lab". You assume that was the main level you'd been on prior to being drugged and dragged underground.
Just as your fingers ghost over it, you hesitate. You glance out the seemingly safe elevator towards the dark and humid hall.
What if there was a piece of a soul down here?
If there was any place closest to your Gaster, you're sure it'd be down here, in his personal lab. The only time you'd been able to get down here was when you'd befriended Undyne and Alphys and had followed Alphys down here. If you were following this reality's rules right, and if any of the relationships were similar, then you'd have to befriend Royal Guard giant Alphys to get to mad scientist Undyne.
But you'd found a loophole. It did involve you somehow surviving Undyne's lethal dose of buttercups, but it was still a loophole that was a lot quicker. And… somehow maybe safer than trying to befriend this realities Alphys.
Did you want to risk venturing through this lab when you knew Undyne was sending Mattaton- or… was it going to be Napstablook? He seemed like the only one close enough with Mettaton to switch but, then again, you were trying to make sense of an alternate reality where Undyne was somehow a mad scientist so you didn't bet too much on your assumption. Either way, whoever was being sent was a genocidal robot that, you were sure, was going to bring light to what the copious amounts of "red liquid" was in the room before coating the metal beds and floor.
You didn't want to chance dying here. Maybe back in your Underground you had the ability to reload but… You hadn't found any save stars and Gaster had already spoken about your dwindling Determination, the source of your restarting power.
You were defenseless, unarmed, and still somehow hoping that Undyne trying to kill you was a fluke and that not all of your friends were that intent on ending you.
The elevator here was a choice. You could go back to the main lab, hopefully not run into Undyne, and find some kind of defensive weapon or something to protect you. Maybe you could go and play nice, befriend the boss monsters as you and Frisk had done a long time ago. That friendship would be enough protection from whatever secrets were buried down here. Maybe the soul piece wasn't even down in this lab; in this reality.
But what if it was?
You hear something, then. It's the distant hum of a person's voice. It's a medley you don't bother to recognize as you press yourself into the sidewall of the elevator, out of sight. You hold your breath as you hear the slow sound of metal clicking. It was a weird noise and you try not to be surprised when you recognize it as the sound of Mettaton's joints rubbing, even when you knew this wasn't Mettaton.
For some reason you suddenly remember, distinctly, the sound of Mettaton moving around on polished floors. Your eyes lose focus as the memory washes over you.
You're standing in a large parlor, the front entrance of Mettaton's new home. He's talking a mile a minute, rambling about the amount of gold the place was, how hard it was to find people to work for him, excetera excetera. You're attentively listening, watching him as he moves back and forth, face lighting up as he picks up pillows and potted plants to place finishing touches. It's then that your ears catch the sound of his joints as he works. The metal sliding against other metal pieces, that soft scratching noise, along with the distant hum of whatever powered his body. It wasn't like you'd never heard the sound of Mettaton move before, but never the sound of it in such a quiet environment. It was such a weird thing to suddenly notice, you think. You contemplate asking Mettaton if he feels the weight of the large amount of metal he's made out of or if he feels light because he was a ghost embodying the body. When he sends another smile your way you completely forget the question. Instead you step over to help him thread the silk curtains onto their poles.
The memory distorts and then it's gone, leaving you panting in the less inviting elevator.
The squeaking of metal stops a breath away from the shaft and you stop breathing.
"Hah… This is so boring…I hate mazes." Mumbles the bot. You definitely recognize Napstablook's voice. It was weird not hearing him being so nervous and quiet. You resist the urge to see what he looks like in this reality, knowing he wasn't there to entertain.
It feels like forever as you wait for him to either turn away and leave or run you through when he finds you a step away from him. It sounded like he was fiddling with something metal but you didn't dare to check.
Finally, he leaves, mumbling about labyrinth labs and being late for a show.
You don't breathe until you're sure he's out of the hall.
You rub your eyes, taking a moment to reorient yourself.
It would be stupid to continue through the lab now, knowing exactly who was after you.
Yet, you find yourself stepping out of the elevator into the hallway that seemed to have grown even darker.
You weren't going to get another chance like this so easily. You needed to explore Gaster's lab. Plus, you had a gut feeling that the piece of soul you were after was definitely down here. You just hoped that you weren't signing your life away making this decision...
At the end of the hall you peek around the corner, checking the next room to make sure robot Napstablook wasn't lingering. Napstabot? Napstaton?
Seeing no one you slink into the room, avoiding puddles of unnerving liquid, not trusting them with how dark that place was.
You're sure that since Undyne was still obviously using the lab, that it most definitely had power. Which meant that she was keeping the lights off on purpose. There was no reason to keep the lab so dark. Though your eyes have somewhat adjusted you could still barely see anything in front of you. You're sure that the place had grown a lot darker than when you first woke up, but you're not sure why or how.
You hip bumps into something cold and you jump back, fist already flying to connect with whatever you touched. Your knuckles scrape something sharp and you feel the skin split.
It was a table. You had run into the blunt edge of a table. Sighing you cup your hand close, trying to squint and see the damage.
You hover a hand over your chest. You couldn't continue without some kind of light. Especially if a killer robot was after you. You couldn't risk him being able to see you in the dark and you not even being able to see your own hands. The moment you found a way to light your way you'd put your soul back, but for now it was your last option.
You take a deep breath as you call your soul forward. It sinks out of your chest, feeling heavy as it drops down into your waiting hand. It doesn't touch your palm, just hovers an inch out of it, but somehow you still feel it's weight. It's green glow immediately lights up the room you're in. The green reflects on the puddle by your feet. It turns a sickly brown and you're positive it's blood.
You let your soul float in front of you, hovering a hand close to it as you continue venturing forward. With the light you're able to figure out the hallways and as you move the layout becomes easier to remember.
You planned to go room by room, searching for the whispers that'd tell if Gaster's soul was near or not. Perhaps the soul piece wasn't absently floating in the outer arms of the lab, maybe it was in the control panel room that activated all of the power in the building. If it wasn't there, you could at least use the main elevator to get out of the lab, but that'd be the last place you checked.
There's a moan.
Your mind goes silent as you still. There's a huffing noise and then the sound of something wet hitting the floor. You hadn't heard the noise when you had wandered into the room, but whatever was making it didn't sound like it was coming towards you. Slowly you turn, eyes scanning what you can see in the green light.
You had made it back to the room full of metal hospital beds. Before you could only see a few of the beds, but now with your soul out you could make out the shapes of shadows of the gooey amalgamates further out. They lingered at their bed sides, or on their thin sheets, seeming to exist in their own little bubbles.
A tall bird-like creature, oozing green and purple, slammed its head over and over against the wall, splattering the black goo across the white wall. A black pile of monster closer to you continuously melted apart, parts of its body sloughing onto the ground with a grotesque moist noise, only for it to refill as if rewinding time for it to just drip off again. You catch yourself staring at the moaning and gurgling creatures. Some paced in circles while others stared at walls or at their cot mates.
Your green soul ripples in the air and before you can pull it back in to safety you feel a wave of anguish.
Hopelessness.
Pain.
Fear.
Your body physically reacts to the overload of painfully melancholy emotions. You double over, feeling your chest swell and tears not your own bubbling to your eyes. You cover your mouth, trying to hide the noise of the fiery pain you felt of second-hand emotions. Having experienced the secret lab once, you should've been prepared for the repercussion of your green soul being out.
The last time you'd been down here Alphys almost had a heart attack at the idea that you, holder of a green soul, was in her lab around the amalgamates. She had said something about how a Kind soul reacted to the monsters left behind but she never had enough time to explain it. Maybe she had once you had gotten to the surface, but you wouldn't know.
All you knew was that when your soul was out, and emotions were strung high, you could feel what others were feeling. It was how you learned how to speak with Asgore in your final encounter. It was something you had barely learned to grasp control over before you broke the barrier.
Being in a room full of experiments that only knew loss and pain was nearly enough to kill you.
"There you are." You hug yourself tightly as if your arms are the only things holding you together, and look up. A robot stares boredly back from a doorway across the room and your soul sinks.
This version of Napstablook was… unnerving. He had a robot body designed something that was akin to what you knew of Mettaton. However this version was an armless and legless bot that hung in the air as if strings held all of his weight. Napstaton had a white, dingy haircut that looked like it'd never been brushed out. He wore a set of expensive looking headphones hooked around the back of his neck but a puffy navy marshmallow vest that had to be from the Waterfall trash heap. His eyes were low and half lidded, only a red light in his left eye seemed to work, the other off and hollow. Though he had no arms, he had two sets of large hands that floated around him. It jarringly reminded you of Gaster and for some reason that scared you even more, but you weren't quite sure why.
It's the large wet knife that glints a dark, nearly black, brown in the glow of your green soul that sends your nerves through the roof.
If there had been a chance for you to return your soul to its home inside of you, it was lost the moment the bot caught your eyes. It would've been useless either way. He immediately pulls your soul into an encounter you can't resist.
"Undyne sent me to retrieve you." Napstaton said. He sounded bored as he brandished his knife. "I have a show soon so just come over here and make this easier for the both of us." One of his disembodied gloved hands beckoned you closer. You don't move. Partly because you planned to make this as hard as possible, and partly because you couldn't feel your legs. Tears continuously rolled down your cheeks, blurring your vision.
You needed to get away from these amalgamates.
"I'm just gonna wander around for a bit so… You can come back for me after your show?" He looks unimpressed at your try at bargaining.
"Normally I'd leave you to chase your own tail. Handling someone else's business isn't worth my time; you're not worth my time." He looks down on you as he starts to float closer. Though his torso was short he hovered higher up so that he could loom over you. The liquid - oil you presume by the smell - dripped from his severed thighs. It splashed up against your shins.
"Better reason to go! I'm sure the amalgamates will get to me eventually." Napstaton nodded, eyeing you over. He looked to take note of your obvious lack of weapons.
"Too bad Undyne paid for you to be brought to her dead, but unmangled. I'd let you play around down here otherwise." You stiffen. The lack of emotion in his voice as he talked about your death was unnerving.
"Is the money worth missing your show?" He cocks his head to the side as he drags the tip of his finger down his blade.
"Down here money can buy anything." His one working eye flickers, the glowing light becoming brighter. "And who says I'll miss my show? As if killing you will take up that much time." His lips twitch into a smug smile for a brief second.
Then he's swinging.
You duck out of the way of his blade, immediately back peddling. He pushes forward, continuously swiping his knife. You dodge him and sprint past, tugging a hospital bed to block his path.
You groan when he floats over it without even registering your try at blocking his path. One of his hands grabs the back of your shirt as you turn to run, pulling you back towards the end of his knife.
Your soul surges, the green it was already emitting flashed brighter, bathing the room in an intense light.
Just as you feel the cold metal press against your side there's a scream.
It's not from you.
The blade cuts into you as Napstaton goes flying, an oversized amalgamate smothering him against the wall. You don't know why the monster attacked him all of a sudden but at that moment you didn't care. You press a hand to your bleeding waist at the same time as you scoop up the knife Napstaton dropped.
"Who said you could touch me? Get off!" Napstaton yelled, using both sets of his hands to pull and rip at the oozing monster. It held fast though, looking unbothered by the robot's try at getting it off. The other amalgamates seemed to have noticed you and Napstaton by then. They started to head for the robot in a slow moving, pulsating crowd, only moving faster the more he angrily yelled. They didn't spare you a second thought, parting around you as if you were a rock in the middle of a river.
Without another glance back you take off running, careful to weave around the monsters so you didn't come into physical contact with them.
The moment you're out of the room you shuffle your soul back, closer to your chest. You contemplate letting it stay out as your guiding light, but the idea of being emotional hindered was too much of a fear. You scooped it back and the tears immediately stopped flowing as the ache in your chest subsided.
You're sure the amalgamates would keep Napstaton busy for only a short time. He wouldn't be out of your hair for long. Hopefully though he'd be gone long enough for you to feel out the last of the rooms.
You couldn't hear or feel Gaster's soul anywhere. Each room you ran to you only had to duck into to know that what you were looking for wasn't there. It made searching a lot quicker. It also made it easier to avoid any trouble you might've run into if you had to thoroughly search.
"You're so annoying." Napstaton had caught up. You could hear his motors behind you as he followed. You tried not to look over your shoulder too much as you ran, but you couldn't help yourself. On one of these twist arounds your foot caught on something and you went flying. "If I miss my show because of you, Undyne owes me double."
You scramble back to your feet and almost go right off the edge, only catching yourself at the last second before you tumbled off. Before you is a pit. You don't know how far it reached below but by the heat puffing out of it, it made you think only magma awaited.
You're in the room with the DT extraction machine. The dark metal hangs unsettlingly above your head. The way the machine was built made you feel like the sharp metal was a skull grinning down at you. It seemed to laugh at you, knowing you had little options of escape down this path.
It's when you turn, facing the glaring robot with definite murder in his eyes, that you hear it.
You hear the whispers.
Knowing how close you were to your goal, you steel yourself
Napstaton charges you, four hands glowing and ready to grab you. You swing the knife, ripping it into one of his hands and spin around him. He tries to follow, mouth open mid curse, when you plunge the knife and his hand into his own back. The motor you kept hearing sputtered to a stop. Immediately his body fell without anything holding him up. His limbless body hit the ground hard.
There's a moment where you just stare, watching as he rolls towards the edge.
You react slowly, reaching out to stop him just as he tilts over. Luckily you're able to haul him back to safety.
You try to think of something to say to him. Now would be a good time to try and pacify his anger. You're sure Frisk would know exactly what to say to the murderous bot. However, you couldn't think of anything kind, so you decide to leave him there, knowing Undyne would come to retrieve him when he didn't return.
You heave a sigh. Your side burned more from having to pull the heavy robot back to the edge.
Napstaton doesn't say anything to you when you leave the room. He just watches you go.
The north path brings you to a familiar television and VHS player. The shelves are riddled with old vhs tapes that were less familiar. You remembered this room. You'd found Frisk here, watching videos of the first fallen human, Chara, and the child of King and Queen Dreemur, Asriel.
The whispering was loud. It echoed in the small room, worming its way into the back of your head painfully.
You run your fingers over the dusty tapes, making clean trails as your hand fell. Just as you're about to turn away to turn over the room, your hand touches a tape and there's a jolt of energy. You look back over the shelf, brows knitting. You run your hand over the same pile and come to a specific tape that feels like pop rocks under your fingertips. Pulling it out to look at it closer, you frown at how inconspicuous it is. It was dusty like all the others and looked just as aged. You check the side, seeing someone had written something on it, but you can't make out the handwriting. It looked like… symbols?
You're surprised when the TV and VHS player both turn on without any issues. They were both so old and covered in grime you had half expected for them both to be long dead. You slide the tape in and step back to watch the screen.
There's a buzzing noise as the boxy TV set flickers to life. The screen flashes back before displaying… A white tiled floor?
"There I think… I got it." It's Sans. It's his voice, at least. The familiarity immediately makes your tensed muscles relax. You don't know how you know it's your Sans, since you'd met and seen a couple so far, but you just knew. Sans lifts the camera from the floor and shows a lab. Not just any lab, or the lab that Alphys ran, but the clean and well lit version of the one you'd just been sprinting through.
"I am surprised it still works." Comes a raspy voice. "I can not remember the last time anyone used it." The camera pans a bit more to the right and… There's Gaster. A very real Gaster with a very real voice. He looked solid. Not the ghostly phasing Gaster you knew. His skull only had one crack too, down through his wilted eyes, but the other cheek was unmarked. He was in the middle of throwing on his lab coat over a well-kept turtleneck, a badge of ID on his breast.
"There was some stuff on it." Sans said. "Think the King used to use it." Gaster hums in thought and then starts moving, long legs taking him across the lab in a couple steps. Sans follows as closely as he can with his much shorter stride.
"It will do just fine for our report. If the King stil needed it he would not have given it to us for our research. Now, film this." The camera follows Gaster's wave of his hand towards a towering paneling. Lights flickered on and off all over it, it all looked like a mesh of wires and knobs that made no sense, but Gaster's hand flew across it with precision.
It looked… Familiar.
"When I created the Core, the Underground's current source of unlimited power, it made me realize something about our on-going dilemma." Gaster waved again for Sans to direct the camera away, over to a podium that had similar lights and wires. "That, if the right environment was accessed, any resource could become unlimited." He flips a switch and the podium begins glowing. It's then that it blurs and you realize whatever it was producing had the same unfocusing effect as the machine that Gaster had used to get you into this mess. Sans makes a noise behind the camera. You wonder if this was the first time he was seeing it.
"We're testin' it?" Sans asks, voice low as if he was making sure no one could hear him but Gaster. Though, to you, it looked and seemed to be there it was only the two of them in the lab. Right? "I dunno if it's ready for a full run through yet-"
"It can handle something small." Gaster insisted, already working. Sans shuffled behind the camera but kept quiet. "Something like… This." The podium glows brightly and then, with a resounding pop, a glass of water sits there where nothing had been prior. The two monsters go quiet, staring at the cup.
"It...worked." Sans finally said, breathlessly.
"Yes. It did. This machine was made to reach into other worlds like our own. Alternate versions of what we already know." Gaster moved soundlessly as he picked up the glass and showed it off. "Now imagine that it will be able to pull anything from anywhere. Imagine… Being able to pull a human soul to us from a different reality."
The camera abruptly cuts off and you jump. The screen buzzes as gray and black rikrak dance. A moment later the camera came on again, this time showing Sans and Gaster. The camera was positioned higher than last, but it was probably only a head height over Sans, still held below Gaster's towering figure.
"You got it?" Sans asks, eyeing the person behind the camera warily.
"OF COURSE!" Papyrus exclaims. The screen shakes as Papyrus keeps moving. It was nowhere near as steady as Sans had been holding it earlier. Sans comments that Papyrus needs to hold still and Paps only laughs. Gaster smiles at the both of them before clearing his throat and gesturing to the familiar podium. Sans crosses over to the other side, working on the machine to start it up.
"Test seven." Gaster states. "We have decided to focus on being able to bring over organisms. Our first few attempts were less than adequate, but I believe we have made a breakthrough."
"I dunno if this counts as a breakthrough." Sans said, sending a bashful look towards the camera.
"Any step forward is a breakthrough in this field, Sans." Gaster glances towards the stout skeleton and then smiles kindly. "Give yourself more credit. This will be seen by the King, afterall, and he should know how much you have helped me." Sans goes blue in his cheek bones, avoiding the camera entirely by turning his back to it.
"You're the one workin' so hard all the time..." Sans mumbled. "And I learned from you." His words cut off as he threw a switch. Gaster just chuckles warmly and faces the podium.
It's only then that you realize that this Sans is younger than the one you knew. Bones rounder, smaller; there was no age clinging to the bottom of his eye sockets or the morbid edge of sadness that sharpened his words.
"COME ON SANS! YOU ARE NOT IN THE SHOT IF YOU FACE THAT WAY!" Papyrus reaches a hand into sight so he could aggressively wave at Sans. The short skeleton blushed more turned back around, hesitantly sidestepping to Gaster's side.
Gaster touches two places on the podium, it lights up and the ephemeral pop sounds. Then, in the middle, sits a small slug.
"WOWIE! ...WHAT IS IT?" Sans sends his brother a look, as if to keep him quiet as Gaster picks up the animal.
"This, Papyrus, is a gastropod. A slug." The thing gently inches across Gaster's boney palms, creating a slime trail that the scientist smiles at.
"WHY A SLUG?" Paps asks and this time Sans answers, looking annoyed by his younger brother.
"It's not that it's a slug. It's the fact it's alive n' moving n' not comin' to us dead." There's a tension there, between Sans and Papyrus that'd you never witnessed before. The brothers go quiet, Sans still somewhat glaring. You'd only ever seen them thick as thieves. Sans has always gushed about his brother. This wasn't a side of them you were used to and for a moment you wonder if this was another alternate reality you were peering into and not your own.
"Now Sans," Gaster intercepts. "Papyrus asked something important. Why a slug? Out of all the smaller animals and insects that we could have reached for, we chose a slug, specifically." Gaster waves for Sans to go and grab something. The skeleton wanders off as Gaster continues. "Simply put, this slug is more used to the Undergrounds environment than most other creatures. It is also easier to test this slug for after effects of our project than, say, a type of worm. Thank you for that segway." Gaster smiles at Paps and the bouncing returns to the screen.
Sans re-enters, holding a terrarium that Gaster gently slips the slug into.
"We will monitor this slug for any side effects." Gaster nods and the camera falls to focus on the floor. There's a moment of Paps trying to figure out how to turn it off. Sans grumbles and moves to help him while Gaster warmly laughs at the both of them.
When the screen flickers off, the video tape pops itself out.
You stay still, staring for a minute, before you finally lean down and pull it out. The tape feels warm against your palms.
The whispering returns, each unconceivable word sparking more heat in the tape. The plastic melts in your hands. It doesn't burn your skin as it falls away, dripping between your fingers down to the ground.
Your hands cup a floating piece of Gaster's soul. It pulsates, warm light bathing you. You don't hear the exact words of the soul, you feel it's lingering feelings.
Pride, excitement, happiness… It was a fragment that was close to reaching the goal it aspired. This soul piece wasn't aware of the future that befell it and the person it belonged to.
When your fingers ghost against it the world around you disappears.
You hear a pop.