Hey Everyone!

Interference in bold, puns and memories in italics, magic is underlined.

-text- indicates either texts, or mental "talking".

All Undertale stuff owned by Toby Fox, else me.

This time the reference is more stylistic than anything else.

I don't have any kind of an updating schedule, since I write when I can and post pretty quickly after I finish, so if there are big gaps between postings, it's not that I've given up.

You become aware of the grinning skeleton leaning over your shoulder.

Sans

Unfortunately for Sans, his cold hadn't gone away by the next morning, and Aster's mom wasn't about to let her son, immune system weakened during his time in the complex, to visit the house of a sick skeleton monster. He could understand, really he could, but it was damn annoying. Still, it gave him time to plan just how he wanted to go about this while his brother was over at the Dreemur's house.

The direct approach was out - asking someone if they were the reincarnated SOUL of his older brother whom nobody remembered wasn't the smartest plan. He only had the one picture, and considering he'd drawn it when he was six, it wasn't that good of a likeness. Definitely not enough to trigger a reaction. Maybe he could...no, that wouldn't work. Or maybe - nope...damn, he was clueless.

-Then perhaps you would like a hint?-

He slowly stiffened, then turned his head quickly, magic flaring. Nothing. He sent out a pulse of magic - no reactions in the house, only strong traces were his brother and him, faint echoes of Toriel, Undyne, Asriel, Asgore...nothing out of place.

-While this show is certainly entertaining, it is nevertheless a waste of time and energy. I am not inside your house, skeleton. I am inside your head.-

He growled and released the magic. Not THIS again, "and that's supposed to be reassuring? i thought i told you to get the fuck out of my head."

-Yes, well...you seemed at a bit of a loss, and I'd hate for you to get stuck because of a simple cold interfering with your thought process.-

"because clearly a mysterious voice is so much better," his pinpricks rolled in his sockets.

-The sarcasm does not become you, skeleton.-

He sighed, "fine. what is this famous hint?"

-You wish me to tell you then?-

He grumbled under his breath, "great, she's read paarfi," he ignored the chuckle in his mind and spoke louder, voice dripping with sarcasm, "i think i have been asking for nothing else for an hour."

He distinctly felt the smirk. -This is it then. You must dig into your memories of your brother and find the strongest. Pull from these those things he loved most.-

He blinked. That...could work. Even if the kid didn't have the memories, some things were SOUL deep, like Pap's scarf and ketchup and…

-Have fun with your memories, little skeleton. Be seeing you~-

"hey, wait a minute!" His mind felt oddly empty, "what's your name?" But nobody came.

Texts between Alphys and Sans

-hey alph, got a minute? got a question for you.-

-Sans, it's t-t-too early in the morning for this.-

-welp, sorry, cause i got a femur. do you have any lab mazes i could borrow?-

-Sans, w-what?-

-do you?-

-Yes, of course. My lab-b has quite a large array of p-p-projects going on-

-fine, good. do you have any of the old magic-neural interface models lying around?-

-...yes.-

-okay. do you know if undyne has any recordings of old carbon's jazz piano from the underground?-

-I have n-n-no idea, let me ask...she's got the s-s-set. What is this ab-b-bout?-

-tibia honest, i'm testing out a theory of memory recovery in reincarnated SOULs through object association.-

-Oh! C-c-can I help?-

-...fine. my house, wednesday morning.-

Texts between Toriel and Sans

-knock knock-

-Who is there?-

-canoe-

-Canoe who?-

-canoe help me with a project?-

-Of course, Sans. ]:) What is it that you need?-

-i crust ask you to bake me a boysenberry pie.-

-May I ask who this is for? ]:|-

-tibia honest, it's forrrrrrrrrr-

-Sans, do you need my assistance? I would not want to rain on your parade. You are still under the weather, are you not?-

-'m fine. the annoying dog stole my phone.-

-Ah. I will bring you the pie this evening, along with another pot of soup. You must drink enough liquids when you have a cold.-

-thanks, don't know what i would have bone without you.-

Sans

"BROTHER, I AM HOME! I HAVE SUCCEEDED IN LOCATING A ZIG-ZAGGY THROW RUG AS YOU REQUESTED," Sans looked up to see his brother contorted over the rolled up rug, trying to fit both it and him through the front door at the same time. After several tries, he managed it by tying the rug to his back with his scarf and crawling in the doorway. Sans definitely wasn't going to mention the fact that he could have opened the second door and ruin his amazing brother's triumph, "WHERE DO YOU WISH ME TO PUT IT?"

"well, bro, do you think you could set it up under the window at the bottom of the stairs? No, turn it the other way - that's better. thanks, bro."

"IT IS ODD, BUT I FEEL LIKE WE USED TO HAVE A RUG LIKE THIS BACK IN OUR HOUSE IN THE UNDERGROUND A VERY LONG TIME AGO...BUT WE HAD CARPETS, DIDN'T WE?" Crap. He hadn't thought about the fact that Papyrus might remember something...but was it really that bad? After all, if this worked, he'd have to figure it out eventually.

"yeah, bro. we got the carpeting a few months after your eighth birthday, remember? used to have a bunch of rugs."

"AH! I REMEMBER, WE HAD A GREEN ONE BY THE FRONT DOOR, AND A RED ONE UNDER THE COUCH...THE COUCH USED TO BE RED TOO, DIDN'T IT? OH YES, AND THEN I SPILLED GRAPE JUICE ALL OVER IT, AND…AND THEN…" and then Gaster found a green sofa in the garbage dump, hardly any wear at all, just some scratching on the arms. This green sofa, which they'd dragged all the way up here from their house in Snowdin, "AND THEN WE GOT A NEW COUCH!"

"yeah, bro," well, it's a start, anyway.

Papyrus

THE HOUSE FELT...ODD. HIS BROTHER HAD HIM RUNNING ERRAND ALL DAY, TRADING FURNITURE AND BUYING GEWGAWS. EVERY TIME HE RETURNED TO THE HOUSE, IT WAS DIFFERENT, STRANGE, NEW, AND YET...AND YET...HE FELT AS IF IT WAS VERY FAMILIAR. AS IF THIS WAS HOW IT WAS SUPPOSED TO LOOK, AND HE HAD FORGOTTEN, NOT ONLY THAT, BUT SOMETHING ELSE, SOMETHING IMPORTANT.

IT WAS NOT UNTIL HER MAJESTY ARRIVED WITH HER GIFTS OF FOOD THAT HE REALISED WHAT WAS NAGGING HIM. HE GREETED HER AT THE DOOR, HIS USUAL SMILE IN PLACE, AND GALLANTLY OFFERED TO CARRY THE PIE FOR HER. SHE GLADLY HANDED IT OVER, READJUSTING THE CROCK OF SOUP, THE BOXES OF GOLDEN FLOWER TEA, AND THE ODDLY LUMPY HANDBAG SHE CARRIED EVERYWHERE. HE TURNED TO GO TO THE KITCHEN, BREATHED IN-

Papyrus (sometime between Chara's fall and Frisk's)

PAPYRUS WAS GRUMPY. IT WASN'T FAIR THAT HIS BROTHERS HAD TO GO AWAY EVERY DAY. HE WANTED TO PLAY RIGHT NOW, AND THEY HAD GONE OFF WITH THAT STUPID SCIENTIST AGAIN. EVER SINCE MOM DIED, THE MONSTER HAD BEEN SHOWING UP.

AT FIRST, SANS HAD STAYED WITH HIM, PLAYING HIDE AND SEEK IN THE BASEMENT FOR A LONG TIME. HE'D SAID THE SCIENTIST WAS IT, AND PAPYRUS COULDN'T LET HIM CATCH THEM, AND HE'D FOUND A GOOD HIDING SPOT. SANS' HIDING SPOT WASN'T AS GOOD, THOUGH, BECAUSE AFTER A FEW DAYS THE SCIENTIST HAD FOUND HIM. SANS HADN'T SOUNDED VERY HAPPY, HE'D EVEN THROWN SOME OF HIS ATTACK BONES. PAPYRUS WAS CONFUSED ABOUT THAT, BECAUSE GASTER ALWAYS SAID THAT HURTING PEOPLE WAS WRONG. IF IT WAS JUST A GAME, WHY DID SANS SOUND SO SCARED?

NOW GASTER AND SANS WOULD GO WITH THE SCIENTIST EVERY MORNING, AND SOMETIMES THEY WOULDN'T COME HOME IN TIME TO READ HIM HIS BEDTIME STORY! LAST NIGHT WAS ONE OF THOSE NIGHTS, AND HE WAS EVEN GRUMPIER ABOUT THAT. GASTER HAD FALLEN OVER ON THE NEW GREEN COUCH, AND SANS HAD RUN OVER TO HIM AND TRIED TO GET HIM TO STAND UP. PAPYRUS WAS CONFUSED, BUT THEN HE SAW THAT GASTER WAS LEAKING SOME KIND OF RED STUFF, AND IT WAS GOING TO STAIN THE NEW COUCH! HE RAN OVER AND HELPED SANS GET THEIR OLDER BROTHER UP TO HIS BEDROOM. SANS HAD FALLEN ASLEEP NEXT TO GASTER.

HE MISSED WHEN SANS WAS SO ENERGETIC AND ALWAYS HAD TIME TO PLAY WITH HIM. HE MISSED WHEN GASTER WOULD READ THEM A BEDTIME STORY AND DO ALL THE FUNNY VOICES. HE MISSED WHEN HIS BROTHERS WOULD TAKE HIM TO WATERFALL, AND GASTER WOULD PLAY THE OLD PIANO AND SANS WOULD PLAY HIS TROMBONE AND HE'D PLAY THE SAXOPHONE AND THEY'D MAKE PRETTY MUSIC. HE MISSED HIS FAMILY. HE DECIDED TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

HE'D WOKEN UP REALLY EARLY, LIKE USUAL, AND SANS AND GASTER WERE STILL ASLEEP. HE RAN OVER TO THE STORE AND DID HIS 'CUTENESS ATTACK' AND GOT THE SHOPKEEPER'S DAUGHTERS TO GIVE HIM SOME BOYSENBERRIES. HE'D RUN OVER TO THE RUINS' DOOR AND KNOCKED VERY LOUDLY.

WHEN THE NICE LADY ANSWERED, HE ASKED HER HOW TO BAKE A PIE, BECAUSE MOM SAID SHE MADE THE BEST PIES. THE LADY PAUSED, THEN ASKED IF HE WOULD WAIT A MINUTE, AND SHE WOULD BAKE HIM ONE. HE SAID ONLY IF SHE USED THE BERRIES HE'D GOTTEN AND FINISHED BEFORE SANS AND GASTER WOKE UP.

HE WAS RUNNING BACK HOME WITH A HOT PIE IN HIS GLOVES BEFORE THE MORNING SENTRIES HAD GOTTEN TO THEIR POSTS. HE ALMOST TRIPPED GOING IN THE FRONT DOOR, BUT SAVED HIMSELF, THEN CAREFULLY GOT OUT HIS STOOL AND DUG AROUND IN THE CUPBOARDS FOR CLEAN PLATES. ONE OF THEM FELL, AND WHEN HE TURNED TO GRAB IT, HIS BROTHER GASTER WAS THERE, SMILING, PLATE IN HAND.

GASTER HELPED HIM SET UP THE PLATES, AND THEY HAD JUST FINISHED WHEN SANS CAME DOWN THE STAIRS, RUBBING HIS EYE. GASTER FROWNED, AND WALKED OVER, MAKING SANS STOP. HE ASKED HIS BROTHER TO LIGHT UP HIS MAGIC, AND ONE OF SANS' OTHER EYE FLARED. PAPYRUS SQUEAKED - THAT WAS SO COOL! GASTER DIDN'T SEEM EXCITED THOUGH, BECAUSE HE WAS RUNNING OVER TO THE FIRST AID KIT AND WRAPPING A BANDAGE AROUND THE EYE SANS HAD BEEN RUBBING.

WHEN THAT WAS FINISHED, GASTER HELPED SANS SIT DOWN, THEN ASKED PAPYRUS WHAT THE SURPRISE WAS. PAPYRUS JUMPED UP AND DOWN, CLAPPING HIS GLOVES, THEN RUSHED OVER AND BROUGHT BACK THE PIE. GASTER WAS SURPRISED, AND SANS SEEMED WORRIED, BUT WHEN HE TOLD THEM ABOUT GOING TO THE NICE LADY IN THE RUINS THEY SEEMED HAPPY, HAPPIER THAN THEY HAD BEEN IN A LONG TIME! PAPYRUS WAS SATISFIED THAT HE HAD MADE HIS BROTHERS SMILE.

Toriel (back in the present)

I finish detangling my bag, and glance around the skeletons' house. It seems Sans has decided to redecorate while he has been ill, and I cannot help but feel nostalgic at the old furniture. It reminds me of the house my best friend built for his wife in Snowdin long ago...I have not thought about that house in ages. I had heard of his death not long before Chara fell, and did not have time to visit Kaiti and their children...their children. Kaiti and Times...were skeletons, were they not? I have not...I...but they had three children, three boys, surely…I never met the younger two, but the eldest...I...what was his name?

I hear the rustle of blankets, and a skeletal hand takes my arm, guiding me over to a chair. I look up, expecting to see Times' familiar scowl of concern, but...Sans is there, clearly worried. That is Sans, you have known him for twelve years now, he has a job at Frisk's college as a Professor of Magical Engineering. His younger brother...where is Papyrus?

A long stripe of red flutters behind Sans. I look up, certain in my heart that Kaiti's beautiful voice shall hail me in a moment - but it is Papyrus, who is staring at the boysenberry pie I prepared for him and his brothers… "Sans, you once had an older brother named Gaster, did you not?"

Sans

Well, shit. How did Tori know THAT name? She'd never even met him before Frisk fell into the Underground; how could she know the name of the brother who had vanished into the Void? Clearly she did, though, and from the way she'd reacted to the new decor, she'd been in their house way back when. He had no idea how to deal with this revelation, so he looked around for a distraction.

His brother had a dazed look on his face as he smelled that pie, which made sense, since he'd been the one to get the first one. Sans couldn't remember much about that day, since he'd been fighting the incredible pain in his eye to stay conscious, but Gaster had been so happy when Pap had served the thing, he'd thought getting another one might help with the memory recovery.

"Sans, please do not avoid my question. You had an older brother named Gaster, did you not?"

He sighed, "yeah, tori, we do-did?" She raised an eyebrow at him, "sorry, hard to explain. how do you know the name?"

Her brows furrowed, "I...remembered this house, this furniture. It reminded me a great deal of the house my best friend built in Snowdin for his wife when we were forced Underground. Asgore and I helped them with the construction - I remember Asgore forgetting to build a door connecting to the balcony," he'd always wondered about that. Why have a balcony when no one but a teleporter could get to it? Figures Fluffybuns had something to do with it.

"Times was a historian, and it was with his help that we were able to build such a functional society underground. He asked Asgore and I to be the godparents of his eldest...Gaster. Kaiti had one of the most beautiful voices in the Underground, but she prefered composing music to performing it...she wrote the music for the Memorial..."

He...remembered that. His dad died...in a rockfall? A snowstorm? Some kind of natural disaster, right around the same time the first child had fallen. His mom was devastated. Gaster spent days trying to get her to smile, Sans had pulled prank after prank, Papyrus had made her a special puzzle - nothing worked.

Then word had reached Snowdin of the deaths of the Prince and Chara, and it was like a switch got flipped. She went through two notebooks of paper working on the thing before she was satisfied. She'd given them to Doggo's father to pass along to the Capitol.

"I...had intended to stay with her, when I ran to the Ruins, but...I did not. There was a snowstorm that day, and I missed Snowdin entirely in the snow. I should have turned back, but I- I did not. I could not bring myself to leave, once I made it past that door...not until Frisk needed me...that nice young ghost - Nabstablook? - he took my messages to Kaiti for some time. One day, we made plans for her to visit me, to see if she thought her sons would be happy in the Ruins...but she never came. Nabstablook did not know what happened to her."

Sans remembered that day. His mom had gone out on an errand, saying she would be back soon. Gaster had gotten worried when she wasn't back by nightfall, and had taken Sans and Papyrus to go look for her. They'd found her dust and scarf next to one of the sentry stations, more inside with Doggo's father's armor, and the bloody corpse of a mad bear that must have fallen down in the Ruins. It had choked on one of her bone attacks.

"It was not long after that that the second child fell down, and quickly I was too busy taking care of them to worry about my old friend. It was not until after the third had left me that I was reminded. A young monster knocked on the door one morning, asking for instructions on how to bake a pie," Oh, that was where Papyrus got the pie. No wonder Gaster liked it, if Toriel had been involved.

"I convinced him to let me bake it for him, but he insisted on speed. He was worried his brother...Gaster...would wake up before he got back… I remembered that that was the name of Times' eldest, my godson. I could not refuse such a request, but I...I was too scared to leave, too angry at Asgore, too worried another child would fall down. The monster was so thoroughly wrapped in Kaiti's red scarf when I brought out the pie, I could not see his face...it was a boysenberry pie…"

Toriel looked over at his brother, who was still standing in the doorway with the pie. She blinked, then stood up, walking over to Papyrus and taking the pie from his gloved hands, "I see this is the second boysenberry pie I have baked for you two."

Sans chuckled, "if i'd known you baked the first one, i would have asked for another before this," he coughed - stupid cold, "papyrus, you okay?"

Papyrus blinked, eye sockets finally focusing out of whatever memory he'd been stuck in. He slowly turned from side to side, clearly looking for someone. His eyes stopped at Toriel for a moment, then moved on, "I AM FINE BROTHER, BUT WHERE IS GASTER?"

Sans froze. Oh no. No, no no, no. He was NOT prepared to deal with this. Toriel had been fine, she'd hardly know him, but Papyrus...if Papyrus found out…

-Do not panic, skeleton. Tell them the truth.-

-oh good, the mysterious voice in my head is telling me not to panic. fine- He stood up, rushing over to the door.

-Would you rather he remembered on his own, or with you to protect him?-

He paused, the smoking wheels in his mind stopping dead at the thought of his brother, helple- damn, this...voice was good. They knew EXACTLY how to manipulate him, didn't they? -fine, but only if you tell me your name.-

He felt the smirk. Okay, double damn, they were THAT far ahead of him, were they? Great. Deal with it later, Sans. -We have a bargain. My name is Nimaron, now keep your half of the deal.-

The Author

-Oh look, they know my name. How splendid~-

"Nimaron, stop teasing the readers."

-Only if you do. I do believe you have just left them with a rather large cliffhanger.-

"...you're evil, you do know that?"

-No, I am a trickster. You do know that, do you not?"