Hello Everyone!
Bold is still Interference, and WHO is still hidden.
Underlines are still magicky.
Italics are puns.
I am still not owner of Undertale's stuff, only my chars.
Sorry for all the char jumping, but everyone wants a chance to talk, and I just work the keyboard for them.
Yes, Azzy is referring to Frisk as 'she'. They're trying it out, and he's willing to do just about anything for them, kay?
ngrey - I know; don't worry, there's an explanation coming soon, and some humans can use magic (e.g. the wizards), and *neutral spoilers* humans can absorb boss monster SOULs, too - Alphys tells you about it.
If you ARE a cat, that's awesome.
Toriel
The child was so thin...I could not wait to get them home and bake them some pie. Frisk has told me that snail pie is not something most humans are comfortable with, so I will have to think about what flavor to bake. I think I shall make the same pie I made for Frisk.
I will not think about the problems back in Newer Home while I am here - Sans asked me not to, and I understand...it would not be right, when I am watching over them, to let myself become distracted. I will think about what needs to be done for when I bring them home.
They will need somewhere to sleep - I should ask Frisk if they would mind sharing, while we finish a new room for the child. I wonder what color they would like? Maybe purple...I shall ask them - no, they are still sleeping. They look cold, despite the blankets...no, they're temperature is normal. Maybe it is the thin gown. They will need clothes, certainly - Undyne told me there were no spare clothes for the children in that terrible place. I am glad that Courier and her son had left things with their relatives. She seems to enjoy working as Royal Secretary, and her handwriting is better than mine.
How thin the poor child is! I cannot make them a sweater until they have some more...body to them. I'll make a wrap - I still have some of that copper angora from Papyrus' present, and if I get some turquoise, it would wake a lovely contrast, and the angora is so soft, even if Undyne says it itches. I hope she isn't overdoing it again, but I suppose I can't really order her to bed. She should be here soon.
Undyne
Telling her Majesty was...awkward. I don't think she knew why Sans and I had gone up there in the first place, and then this...well, I can't blame her for getting mad. I'd be furious myself, if I hadn't been suspecting after the little skelly's description of their keepers. I hope Papyrus can keep Sans from doing anything too stupid, they only just finished replacing the kitchen from our last cooking lesson.
Poor Frisk. I asked the Prince to break it to her gently. What kid wants to know their parents are torturers?
This night feels so much longer than the last, even though it's not yet half gone. The girl hasn't stirred since her seizure...what could I have done to STOP it? I should've SEEN something, DONE something...guess I'm too much of a numbskull - gods, Sans is rubbing off on me.
I hope my lab goons can figure out which of the girls we got out is Frisk's sister. How can they deal with that...just, waking up one day and learning you have a half-grown sister you've never HEARD of, who's been raised in such a F-MESSED UP place, that we can't even figure out HOW OLD SHE IS, OR WHAT SHE LOOKS LIKE! ...I hope she's one of the younger ones...they didn't seem as bad.
WHO NAMES THEIR KID FRISK, ANYWAY! OR CORK, FOR THAT MATTER! OR SPATULA...NO, WE NEED A BETTER NAME FOR THE KID...crud, what are good names for human kids? I'll have to ask Toriel...or maybe let the kid name themselves? She's got no papers, won't be that much of a problem to give her a new name.
Papyrus
THIS ROOM ISN'T TOO BAD. THE CURTAINS ARE NICE, AND THE WALLS ARE A GOOD COLOR. SOOTHING.
-Hey, can you let Sans know I won't be able to come? Azzy'll still be there, but one of my teachers dropped a last minute essay on us-
-OF COURSE, FRISK! SCHOOL IS VERY IMPORTANT. EVEN I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WENT THROUGH IT!-
-Thanks, Uncle Pap. -
THE GREAT PAPYRUS CHUCKLED. REMEMBERING THE FIRST TIME FRISK HAD CALLED HIM THAT, HE WONDERED HOW THEY'D EVER HAD A PROBLEM DECIDING. HE WAS THEIR UNCLE, AND SO WAS SANS, AND UNDYNE WAS THEIR BEST FRIEND. HE WASN'T SURE HOW THEY THOUGHT ABOUT ASRIEL, BUT THEY SPENT A LOT OF TIME TOGETHER, SO IT WAS OKAY...WHATEVER IT WAS.
HE LOOKED DOWN AT THE TINY HUMAN HIS BROTHER HAD SAVED. HE HAD SEEN HUMANS WITH ALL KINDS OF WOUNDS AND ILLNESSES, BUT IT ALWAYS HURT WHEN HE SAW THE ONES WHOSE PAIN WAS CAUSED BY OTHER PEOPLE, ON PURPOSE. HE'D LEARNED HOW TO MAKE THEM LAUGH, AND THAT SOME LOVED HEARING STORIES THAT WERE HAPPY, AND SOMETIMES ONES THAT WERE SAD. HE'D LEARNED HOW TO TELL WHAT TO TALK ABOUT, AND HOW TO LISTEN.
"...where am I?" HE LOOKED OVER AND SAW THE TINY HUMAN 'S EYES WERE OPEN, EVEN IF THEY WEREN'T MOVING VERY NORMALLY. HE KNEW THAT HUMANS OFTEN LOOKED LIKE THAT WHEN THEY WERE ON PAIN MEDICATIONS.
"YOU ARE SAFE. MY BROTHER BROUGHT YOU HERE SO YOU CAN GET BETTER, TINY HUMAN." HE TRIED TO BE QUIET, BUT HE KNEW HE WASN'T VERY GOOD AT IT.
"...why?" THE GREAT PAPYRUS WAS SHOCKED. HE KNEW HUMANS WERE ODD WHEN THEY WERE ON THE PAIN MEDICATIONS, BUT SURELY THE TINY HUMAN COULD TELL THEY WERE HURT?
"YOU WERE HURT. YOU NEED TO GET BETTER."
"...no, why does he care? No one has before…" THE GREAT PAPYRUS SUCKED IN A BREATH. SANS HAD SAID THE PLACE WAS BAD, BUT THIS WAS TOO MUCH. BEFORE HE COULD CHOOSE HOW TO RESPOND, HOWEVER, THE TINY HUMAN FELL BACK ASLEEP.
Sans
Sans sent his brother over to check on Toriel - he knew she'd take care of him, and him of her. He settled back into the chair, then remembered he needed to look over the kid's file. Oh well. He pulled it over to him. They were doing better, probably would be well enough to go home with the Queen by the end of the week. He hoped Undyne's people could figure out who they were before then - or maybe not. If they're parents wanted them back, it would tear Tori's heart in two to give them up.
He wasn't even sure if the thing should be let out of the hospital, really. He'd managed to get hold of some of the more technical files from the complex, and what that man had been trying to do...didn't match up with what he saw. The man clearly hadn't had the least clue how monster SOULs worked, and the large pile of notebooks marked 'FAILURE' didn't surprise him, although the insides sickened him. But this...SOUL Amalgamation didn't look like anything the madman would have done. Sometimes, it almost looked...peaceful. Like all the SOULs agreed to do it, or at least, hadn't objected.
"...who's there?" Sans looked up at the weak voice, "...when did it get so dark?"
"Well, kid, didn't mean to leave you in the dark. The name's Sans, Sans the Skeleton. It's night to meet you."
"...that was bad." He wasn't sure if they honestly had no sense of humor, or if the drugs they were on were messing with their head. Pap had tried to explain that humans on painkillers could be odd, but he'd shrugged it off. Chemistry was Alphys' thing, not his.
"I know. How're you feeling?"
The silence grew long. He started to get up, to see if they'd fallen asleep, but, "I don't know. Can't, really. What did the big guy do to me this time?"
For a moment he thought they meant Papyrus; then it hit him. He cursed his curiosity even as he answered, "What's the last thing you remember?"
The silence introduced its twin. "...he played around with my bones last week, didn't he? M-the keepers had to get Jeff to do the scrubbing, since my arms were useless. And then he took some more blood, yesterday. Left me pretty...um...lightheaded..." The kid was asleep again. He wondered what they'd been going to say, before they'd mentioned 'the keepers'. That was what the kids had been calling the two adults who'd been in charge of them.
They'd only learned about them when one of the younger ones asked when they'd be back with dinner. Frantic searching had uncovered no one the kids thought were their keepers. It had driven him nuts, once the kids had started telling what those keepers did to them, that they of all the complex had gotten away. Now...he thought about snow, good old snow, nothing maddening about snow, sink the rage into the snow, watch it melt...not enough snow.
He stepped into one of the time knots he kept around for occasions like this and started tearing things apart - mostly his attack bones, a couple of empty ketchup bottles, and various broken furniture from Undyne's frequent visits. He let out his fury at what the keepers, what Frisk's parents, had done, at letting them get away...it took a long time to get back under control. He stepped back.
The kid hadn't moved - not that they would have, since no actual time had passed anywhere outside his knot. He fell over into the chair, slumped in a pile of his own guilt. He hadn't done enough, Undyne had been right, he was useless, he couldn't even catch two a-people he'd been hunting for for so many years. He...heard the creature...crying.
"H-h-hey, kid. What's with the waterworks?" It-they sucked in their breath, "Come on, now. You can tell me, always does to have a skeleton in your closet," the thing hiccuped.
"...I...had a bad dream…" He arched an eyesocket. The meds she was on wouldn't let her dream, the navy nurse had made sure, after the first incident, "...we were in the big hall, and the sirens were going off, and then the big guy came in, and he was smiling and he had a knife...and then he was going after the little skeleton, Aster, and I went after him...and then my arm went away, only I could still see it, and my head was spinny...and then he was on the ground and his neck wasn't right and he wasn't breathing and I think I killed him and it wasn't a dream, was it?"
The twin silences watched as Sans blinked. He couldn't think how to respond - yes, it was a dream, you didn't snap his neck...? No, that was real, I watched you kill him you little murderer...? You're just reacting to the pain meds we gave you to block out the pain of what he did to you…? Nothing seemed right.
"...didn't think so."
Asriel
I close the door behind Sans, saying, "No excuses, Sans. Go home, get some sleep. Talk to Pappy. Don't come back till you're over this stink."
-Pappy, can you make sure Uncle Sans gets some sleep? Last night didn't go well -
-WILL DO, PRINCE ASRIEL!-
-I thought we agreed I was going to be Azzy?-
-RIGHT. I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, SWEAR I WILL REMEMBER TO CALL THE PRINCE AZZY-
*sigh* One of these days, Pappy will get over it. I just hope it happens soon. I hate having people calling me 'your Highness' and bowing, especially when it's one of my friends. I can't make Undyne stop, but then, she does it to Frisk, too, when no one's around. I'm glad someone knows about us, even if Frisk isn't so sure she wants to tell yet - about us, or about having decided...looks like she's getting out of class in a bit.
I hope she finds the determination to tell everyone soon. We've been dating for years now, and I don't think I can live without her. It's not just what she did for me...I love her, even if she does drive me nuts.*buzz*
-Out of class, what's up?-
-Hanging with the kid. How was Snory today?-
-Don't ask. He's so slow, it makes my bones ache.-
-Ache for what, though-
-Sans, you better not have stolen Azzy's phone again-
-relax, it's me. I just had to shove him out of here by force, though.-
-what, lazybones himself?-
-he's taken watching this kid personally. Reminds me how he gets about you-
-yeah. they up yet?-
"...what are you doing?"
-yeah, gotta go-
"I'm watching out for you. How ya feeling?" I will not sound like a deranged flower, I will not sound like a deranged flower.
"...why do people keep asking me that?" Jeez, kid, what kind of painkillers do they have you on? Oh, well, that'd explain it. Why would they put someone who weighs so little on that many, though?
"They're worried abou'cha, kid." Here's her admittance report...golly, kid, how'd you manage to survive all that?
"Why? I'm not worth it." What-they're...serious?
"Kid, there are a long list of people in this world who aren't worth saving, and your name isn't anywhere on it," My name used to be on there, but Frisk hasn't even heard of the thing, "Anyway, you've kinda stumbled on one of the largest, most stubborn families ANYWHERE to have...well, we don't give up on ANYONE, kid. And you've kinda been sucked in."
"...I'm a murderer," their voice was so quiet…
"Doesn't matter - Ah! Sans...you remember him? Yeah, he was there, and he says you were just trying to keep that...man...away from Aster. Sans is pretty sharp, and he wouldn't lie about something like this." Please believe me kid, you are a million times better than Flowey ever was.
"I'm still a murderer though, and...I...I liked it," the last was almost a whisper.
"You were trying to save someone, kid, and from what's come out of that place, he's been hurting you for a long time," I hope that wince doesn't mean...no, he never did THAT, not if the chart's right, "He deserved it. NO ONE should have been doing ANYTHING like that. If you hadn't...he would have been arrested. Do you know about...for everything he'd done...for everything we can prove, even, and we know he'd done more...he would have been sentenced to death. You ended his life with a lot less pain than he would have going that way."
"...but-"
"How do you feel about it now? Do you want to strangle someone else? What about Sans, he can be pretty annoying?" I think they're trying to shake their head, although they're too well tied up, "No? Then I wouldn't be worried about it," you might look a bit more uncertain kid, I don't think it's clear enough. Well, here goes nothing, "Let me tell you a story. Many years ago, there was a young girl who fell down into the Underground…"