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.
No, this is not an April Fools chapter.
Out of the corner of your eye, you spot a familiar ball of white fur bounce past.
Papyrus
TODAY WAS A GREAT DAY FOR SECOND MONDAY OF THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY. THE SUN WAS SHINING, BIRDS WERE CHIRPING. ON DAYS LIKE TODAY, KIDS LIKE SILVER WERE GOING TO START SCHOOL!
THE QUEEN HAD BEEN WORRIED HER CHILD WOULD BE UNABLE TO BEGIN UNTIL THE THIRD TRIMESTER OF HER SCHOOL'S YEAR, BUT THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAD BEEN CERTAIN SILVER WOULD SUCCEED IN HER LESSONS ENOUGH TO BE MOSTLY NORMAL BY THE BEGINNING OF THE SECOND, AND HE HAD BEEN RIGHT! THE CURIOUS EVENTS IN THE PARK LAST WEEK HAD ONLY BEEN A TEMPORARY SETBACK.
TODAY HE AND HIS AMAZING BROTHER SANS WERE GOING TO TAKE HER TO SCHOOL. IT WAS EXCITING! HER MAJESTY HAD GIVEN HIM THIS GREAT MISSION AFTER INFORMING HIM OF AN UNFORTUNATELY SCHEDULED CONFERENCE SHE WAS REQUIRED TO ATTEND. WHY SUCH A CONFERENCE OF EDUCATORS WOULD BE PLANNED ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE SEMESTER OF ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS SCHOOLS IN THE WORLD WAS INCOMPREHENSIBLE! SURELY DURING ONE OF THE BREAKS WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER? IN ANY CASE, HE HAD GLADLY ACCEPTED THE CHALLENGE OF ESCORTING SILVER TO HER FIRST DAY OF CLASSES.
HE CAREFULLY PARKED THEIR CAR IN THE DRIVE BEFORE THE ROYAL RESIDENCE, REMEMBERING NOT TO RUN OVER THE FLOWERS LIKE UNDYNE HAD DONE LAST YEAR. HE TURNED TO HIS BROTHER, WHO, LAZYBONES THAT HE WAS, HAD FALLEN ASLEEP, "SANS! QUIT NAPPING, WE HAVE ARRIVED!"
"wwwwhat? oh, yeah. yeah. i'm awake. totally."
"SANS, WE MUST MAKE A GOOD IMPRESSION, SO I DO NOT WANT YOU PULLING ANY OF YOUR PRANKS OR PUNS ON THE QUEEN. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT."
"but bro, we saw her yesterday. she gave you that box of pasta asgore found in bangkok, didn't she?" AH YES, THE THIN WHITE ONES. HE WAS STILL UNCERTAIN AS TO THEIR FLAVOR, BUT THAT WOULD NOT STOP THE GREAT PAPYRUS FROM PREPARING WITH THEM AN EXCELLENT DISH!
"THAT STILL DOES NOT MEAN WE SHOULD NOT STRIVE OUR UTMOST TO MAKE A GOOD IMPRESSION!" HE STOOD UP FROM THE CAR, MAKING CERTAIN TO GRAB THE KEYS AND BRING THEM ALONG THIS TIME.
HIS BROTHER SHRUGGED ACROSS THE HOOD OF THEIR RED CONVERTIBLE, "whatever you say, bro."
Sans
Papyrus drove in relative silence, but he knew it wouldn't last long. Today was turning out to be a speech day, and, once his incredible brother got started on one of those, there was no stopping him. Poor Silver didn't know what they were in for.
"TINY HUMAN, LET ME TELL YOU OF SOME COMPLEX FEELINGS," ah, there it is, "THE FEELING OF WORRY THAT YOU WILL NOT MEET AN IMPORTANT SOMEONE'S STANDARDS. THE FEELING OF EXCITEMENT AT MEETING NEW FRIENDS. THE FEELING OF CURIOSITY AT THE START OF A NEW ADVENTURE...THESE MUST BE WHAT YOU'RE FEELING NOW!"
Silence. He let his eyelights slide over to the child next to him. Granted, silence was pretty much their default state of being, but...at least a 'mhmn' would've been nice. Note: introduce Silver to the art of zoning out without getting caught, "YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE ASHAMED TO ADMIT TO SUCH FEELINGS, TINY HUMAN. EVEN I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, FELT THEM AT ONE TIME," his bro was the best.
"...okay," aaaand we're back to our regularly scheduled awkward silence. Tori'd been trying to get her to stop doing that, but old habits died hard...or something like that.
He decided to try a different tactic, "hey kiddo, you taken a look at your schedule yet? i hear it's a real keeper...got some great new goals for you to aim towards?...c'mon, don't tell me i'm striking out here, i'm dying for a perfect score."
"...that was a stretch," he sighed. Someday, he swore, he'd get this kid to lighten up. Today was not that day. Tomorrow didn't look good either.
"yeah, i know. so, the schedule?" His brother had returned his focus to driving, leaving Sans to deal with the uncooperative child in the back seat.
"...fine," she dragged her small bag over to her side and rummaged around, finally pulling out the phone Alphys had built her. Alphys insisted all her friends have the latest in phone technology, including dimensional boxes, jetpacks, texting, stats monitors...it was nice, sometimes. He'd had to fiddle with his to blip out his MANA stats, but she hadn't seemed to notice yet. Silver finally managed to pull up the scheduling app Tori's school used for all its students, "...Children's Literature, Monster History, Intro to 2D Art, Musical Exploration, Mathematics...Social Hour?"
He blinked. When had he heard Tori talking about that… "AH! THAT IS WHAT THE HUMANS ONCE CALLED RECESS," oh, right, "WITH SO MANY DIFFERENT-AGED HUMANS AND MONSTERS AT HER SCHOOL, THE QUEEN DECIDED THAT, IN ORDER TO FACILITATE THE HEALTHY GROWTH OF KINDNESS AND COMPASSION, EVERY AGE GROUP SHOULD HAVE A TIME TO MEET AND ENJOY THEMSELVES OUTSIDE OF THE RIGORS OF CLASS LIFE. SHE SEEMED...UPSET WHEN SHE HEARD THAT MANY OF THE HUMAN SCHOOLS FOR CHILDREN HAD CEASED THIS PRACTICE."
That was an understatement. Toriel had been furious; it had taken the combined efforts of Frisk, Asgore, Sans, and Undyne to keep her from finding the humans responsible and...well, they would have had a bad time. Considering that they monsterkind were able to view the things, they had a better understanding of the SOUL than most humans did. Because of this, their educational system placed greater value in individual expression and personal development...thus social hour, music, and art classes were required of every student. Fitness and Magic Practice usually was required too (a combination of exercise and combat training that had initially frightened, then fascinated), but...Silver had a note from Alphys excusing her for life. Her friends and family would be handling that aspect of her education.
Sans noticed Silver was nodding, although she didn't appear to share Papyrus' enthusiasm...or, really, have any emotion at all. He sighed. This was going to be tricky, "kiddo, remember when paps here took you to the park?" she nodded reluctantly, "same sort of deal. try to make at least one friend, please? tori said the dogi's puppies would be in the same group as you. they're pretty friendly, just remember to let them sniff you and you'll be fine."
"THAT IS RIGHT, TINY HUMAN! FRIENDS ARE VERY IMPORTANT," he nodded sagely, "FRIENDS GIVE US WARMTH AND AFFECTION, AND IN RETURN WE GIVE THEM THE SAME. FRIENDS HELP US WHEN WE ASK, AND SOMETIMES WHEN WE DON'T," Sans ignored the pointed glare his brother shot him, "FRIENDS REMIND US WHY WE ARE HERE, WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO," Sans stiffened. The echo in his brother's voice backed off, "FRIENDS ARE IMPORTANT!"
Silver didn't look convinced. He tried for a compromise, "at least try to using all those manners tori and papyrus have been teaching you. the friend thing can come later."
Nothing. His brother did not seem satisfied with this, "TINY HUMAN, PROMISE ME YOU WILL BE NICE TODAY!" she reluctantly nodded, and silence descended once more.
Silver
-Ney-ney, what's a 'recess'?- I'm curious now that I'm almost to this 'Social Hour' thing, and as Nyssa and Nessa were-are the right age to know, I ask them.
-It's fun! Everyone gets to play and talk, or sleep, or sit and think, or-
-Nyssa, you're being confusing again.-
-Sorry- her ear-flaps fold back in...that not-happy-sorry-mistake thingy. I wonder if there's a word for it? It would have to be pretty, like a piece of broken glass in the sun - not happy, but still pretty.
-Recess is...time when you don't have any rules to follow...not many, anyway. You don't have to be a student, or an artist, or obedient, or quiet. You can do whatever you feel like.-
I tilt my head, and feel the others in my head react to the looks we're getting. I don't understand why they're so...not happy. They're just trying to figure out what I'll do, if I'm a threat...aren't they? -How does it work?-
I see Nyssa and Nessa looking at each other, unable to answer. Usik, who was enjoying making faces at the strangers looking at us, piped up. -Depends. Lots of people just talk to friends. Sometimes someone will start up a game, and puzzles are ALWAYS a winner.-
Consolas throws a bone at him from across the room. Oh, that was sarcasm. Usik dodges...Consolas didn't even look up. He seems...busy. Thinking. I- oh, I'm here. Okay. I give my name to the bunny guarding the door, and he writes it down on his clipboard. My sister told me clipboards aren't always bad, but I still try to keep an eye on the monster at the door.
The room is...odd. The sides are like buildings but up high, in the...trees. Yeah, those look like trees. The roof is gone, but I think they can put it back pretty easily...a roof which comes when needed and leaves when the sun shines bright. A nice idea. The middle has swings and a puzzle-thing and tables and other stuff I remember seeing at the park and didn't ask about. I wander around, asking the others questions and trying to understand.
Wandering over by one of the building-in-trees, I hear some noises I recognise. Someone is being hurt!
3rd Person
The Bully stands in a darkened alcove, flanked by his groupies. Angry words, or maybe not so angry, more twisted than furied, are aimed at a crouching boy. The scene is decorated in stripes - the bullies variations upon black and color, the victim's orange, green, and white. Fear and hatred radiate off the child, tinged with pain. Still, it could be worse. There is no blood, no bone. There are no cracks upon these SOULs, only children losing their way.
"I would think very carefully about what you're going to say next."
The lead villain pulls off an MTT Heel Turn #3, facing the child half a foot shorter than him leaning in the entryway, only to see the backs of several black-and-color sweaters vanish in the light. His change in posture indicates a slower pick up time on dangerous tones of voice.
"Who do think you are, punk? Frisk?" A scoff, a spin, a victim closing his eyes.
"Nope," In the light, one could almost see the glint of an evil smile, "Just their sister."
FIGHT!
* Never turn your back on an enemy, never turn your back on a threat.
The bully, familiar with the ENCOUNTER screen, slams his orange SOUL down on FIGHT!
* Your blows fail to connect.
"...I think you might be confused. This isn't what you should be doing."
* Silver looks at the bully solemnly.
Thinking it a fluke, the orange SOUL hits FIGHT again.
*-3hp. Silver seems disappointed in you.
"...something tells me you've been on both ends of this situation."
*The Girl looks on you with eyes like steel balls.
Encouraged by their injury, the bully ignores their nagging doubts to strike again.
* Ironically, fighting doesn't seem to be the solution to this situation. -3hp
"...the empty echoes in your heart won't go away like this, you know...you will only make more."
*Silence echoes through you.
The bully shivered...and ran away.
0 Exp, 0 G
The victim watched from his crouch, anger and shame and confusion mixing in his eyes. After all, only monsters should be able to initiate ENCOUNTERs...right? The girl approaches the fallen child.
"...you need help getting up, or what?" Her eyes do not see him, but stare at the wall beyond.
"NO!...I don't need your help," silence.
The girl sighs, "You don't, they did," confusion echoes again, "Never mind...aren't you going to get up?"
The victim turns, pulling himself up the wall. Scrapes and scratches sting and ache, but SOULs remain unbroken. A parting shot at one who dared to see him in his failure, "You shouldn't lie, you know."
Footsteps fade to silence, and a giggle sounds into the half-dark, "...I know," The Girl collapses against the wall, hanging on by 2hp, "...well, that just happened...Papyrus will be mad with me, won't he?...I broke my promise, didn't I?...I'm useless-yes, I...fine. We can work on it later."
A step towards the exit, and she quietly collapses. A single silver light flicks and is gone.
Sans
He was fairly pleased with his class. They'd been working on the behavior of magical spells in a non-Newtonian fluid, a subject some of his colleagues had struggled with the modeling of, and the kids had taken to it like fish to water...yeah, that sounded about right. One of them had made an interesting point about the blue-orange overlay when placed in a non-stationary environment. He'd have to ask his brother or one of the former Royal Guards if they'd be willing to let him run some experiments. He dug through his desk drawers for a pen, catching a glimpse of movement out of the corner of his eye socket. Better not be that damned Annoying Dog again…
A silver bullet floated above his desk, its frequency urgent, but not terrifyingly so. Who...oh. Crap. He grabbed his coat and teleported.
The human at the front desk of The School wasn't entirely comfortable telling him where Silver was supposed to be, but luckily one of the monsters working in the back recognised his voice. A somewhat familiar skeleton wearing an old fashioned gray twill women's three-piece suit scurried over, "Oh! I thought I recognised that voice, it's lovely to see you again sir; you know, I never did ask, but would you happen to know if we're related? There are so few skeleton families after all, I'm almost certain there would be a connection somewhere, and-"
"hey, nice to see you too. tibia honest, i'm in a bit of a hurry, so if it isn't too much trouble, would you let this nice human know i'm an okay skeleton? i'm here checking on one of the other kiddos-"
"Oh of course! Helga, this nice skeleton is perfectly fine, in fact I'm fairly certain I've heard the Queen mentioning him as a friend. Sans, right? Oh yes, isn't it lovely seeing the old naming traditions kept up. Anyway, I'm certain I heard her talking about how much help he and his brother have been with young Silver; that's probably who he's coming to see. I'd call her up and ask, but you know she is at that conference and I'm certain I remember that one of the more troubling debates was starting about now, and…"
He tuned out the rest of the monologue, as did the human, who gave him an apologetic look as she quickly wrote down the information he needed, passing him a badge for the children's section as she did so. He pinned it, gave her a wink, and hurried out.
He vaguely remembered where the building she'd written was, although not well enough to use a shortcut. He asked one of the passing teachers for directions, a monster he fondly remembered giving pun advice to back in Snowdin. He seemed to be doing well, mentioning how ice it was to see a familiar face. Sans backed out of the question with a wave and broke into his run - not the magic induced speed trap he'd sometimes pull, but a shambling sprint which fit more into character while still providing a decent amount of speed.
The bunny guarding the door was a teenager he...oh yeah, the innkeeper's kid. Wow, he'd grown fast. The kid beamed at him, waving him through, and he mentally thanked his past self for spending so long with the Snowdin crowd under the stars when they'd first made it up. Those star talks had been his only interest outside of his brother for a while, but it seemed they were worth it.
Inside the...courtyard? Sure, why not...he panicked. So many kids, but these looked too little...at least, maybe a bit? He wasn't…
A pulse of magic aimed at him gave him a direction. He skirted the battleground of the hopscotch court, dodged the foursquare ball which rolled out to trip him, and hopped through a double dutch game to the sound of applause. Turning for a quick bow, he sprinted towards the growing tug of Silver's magic.
When he rounded the corner, he found the kid curled half under the eaves of one of the pseudo-treehouses that bordered the courtyard, he bent down beside her, definitely not reaching out. Reaching out could be...bad. Until they asked for help or moved on their own, he'd just have to wait...he thought they were conscious, but...well, better check, "knock knock."
"...who's there…?" Um...oh, right. He hadn't really done a knock knock joke with them before. This weekend would be an introduction to the Great Art of Situational Humor and Puns.
"somebody," a long pause.
"...somebody who…?"
"somebody hurting under there?"
Silence, then, "...I'm sorry."
He sighed. This was going to be fun, "what for, kiddo?"
"...I broke my promise to Papyrus," Sans frowned, then tried to figure out what promise they could possibly be referring to. They'd promised not to run from the shower...there was a promise not to drink ketchup out of the bottle like he did...she didn't mean she'd done this to herself, did she? What he could see of her injuries didn't seem to be self inflicted, but maybe, "...I scared some of the other kids."
Well, that...his brother HAD made her promise to be nice, and that WASN'T exactly being nice, but...she couldn't have done this to herself. He was certain of that, he could see the outline of a human hand beginning to swell up on her good shoulder...she couldn't have scared them that badly, could she? No, she was, well, Silver. She wouldn't hurt someone, not physically, and while she could be weird, she wasn't weird enough to instigate an attack like this in less than an hour.
So...bullies. Not many people would go after someone like her on the first day, though. She looked human enough, and she was wearing a sweater in Dreemur purple and silver stripes - NO ONE outside the Royal family wore that color, not in that kind of quantity. No, she wasn't the one who had been picked on, which meant she'd been trying to protect someone else. He sighed, "kiddo, were these other kids picking on someone?"
"...yeah."
"then you didn't break your promise. protecting bullies by ignoring them isn't nice, but...well, why didn't you ask for help?" Her surprised expression, mixed with a liberal dose of confusion, told him all he needed to know, "kid, you're not alone, you know that? that kid at the front door would've helped you."
She gave him an odd look, expression a mix of doubt, faint traces of fear, the trust in the word of another which you didn't quite believe to be true, and a pinch of cynicism he loathed to see, "...clipboard," oh, yeah, that. He remembered that conversation. Yeah, she wasn't going to trust the kid with a clipboard.
"well, next time, go get him, okay? he's a bonefied friend to those in need. born in snowdin, used to sneak him cinnabunnies from his aunt's place. he'll help ya," doubt lingered, but she nodded. Good. He went on to his next topic, not interfering as she began to pull herself out of the overhang, "another thing. how'd you get into a FIGHT? was it a monster kid?" He doubted that the lingering traces of an ENCOUNTER he could feel in the air were the result of a friendly sparring session.
"...no, they were human...the smallest one wouldn't catch on when I used Ney-ney's intimidation spell," she'd managed to get completely out from under the overhang, and now she seemed to be summoning the energy to sit up. He doubted she'd make it, but let her try anyway.
"so you pulled up a FIGHT screen?"
"...is that the black screen thingy? Usik did that," He rolled his eyelights. Another thing they'd have to cover, how to hide your magic. It wasn't as if they'd wanted to discourage her, before, since unused magic could be...dangerous, but...crap. This was going to be a hard one.
"uh, well," he tried to think how to phrase this, "humans aren't supposed to be able to pull those up, kiddo. you didn't use any bullets on them, did you?" she shook her head vigorously, then winced. He saw the way her eyes moved, and mentally cursed. Concussion, mild at the least, probably from her collapse rather than the FIGHT. Most damage in an ENCOUNTER didn't leave more than superficial injuries - it was why they taught it to the kids here. Broken bones and concussions were hard to get in a FIGHT, and one of his current pet projects was a reliable method for non-mage, determination negative humans to initiate ENCOUNTERs on their own.
"...there was an option…*truth…? I used that," that...sounded a lot like what he used back in the old days, when he was the Judge...well, he still was, but...she was just a kid, right?
"heh, well...guess that works...why didn't you dodge, though? thought uncle con was working on that with you."
"I tried, it's just...tired," ah, yeah. Long day, still healing, low hp. Yeah, he could understand that.
"s'okay, kiddo. wanna head home? i'll bail you out, so tori won't get mad at you."
"...yeah. M'sleepy," crap, that wasn't good.
"hey, stay awake for me, will ya? i gotta get you outta here first, kay?" She nodded, sloppily, "hey, you want we to lift you?"
"Yeah!..." okay, this was going to be tricky. Not the lifting, that was easy. The whole 'I'm-carrying-a-half-unconscious-human-with-magic-across-campus-during-daylight' thing, that was the challenge. Not too bad, though, since the kiddo managed to stay awake enough to respond to him. He had them telling the story of their name, since Tori had told him it was pretty impressive. He had to agree with her. Halfway to the office, he realised he couldn't bring the kid through a shortcut like this.
Damn. Was anyone around who had a car? Tori in the city, Undyne was out of the country, Alphys was...he had no clue, but probably not anywhere nearby. Papyrus had been called over to one of the big hospitals on the other side of the river - an old case of his had had a relapse thanks to a stupid prescription error, not that his patient brother would be complaining...Azzy and Frisk were back at school - he'd had lunch with them an hour ago - Asgore was...somewhere. Actually, where was Fluffybuns? He sent out a quick text.
-hey, fluffybuns, you wouldn't happen to be in ebott, would you?-
Not ten seconds later, he got a response.
-Why, yes, I am. ]:[)].-
He rolled his eyes. Who had given Asgore his own emoji again? He shot back:
-you free to swing by the school?-
Twenty seconds, smile at the staring humans. Ding.
-Has something happened to Silver?-
Sans felt the protective surge not far from him...Newer Home? That was close enough.
-yeah, the kid really worked themselves to the bone. mind giving us a lift?-
The energy dissipated. Not that...well, actually, Silver had probably scared the bully better than Fluffybuns ever could, but at least The School wouldn't be dealing with a repeat of the Statue incident. That had been...mildly amusing mixed with terrifying. Wonder what happened to that human…
-Oh! I shall be there in a moment with a mug of tea.-
He felt a smile, and showed the text to Silver, "fluffybuns really likes tea, doesn't he? you could say he goat-a fixation on the stuff."
"...fixation?" He lost himself in the tangle of definitions that was explaining ANYTHING to Silver.
Finally, they made it to the office, and Sans found the poor receptionist still trapped under the monologue of...Courier, that was the name. He dealt with the paperwork while Silver watched the female skeleton with an expression that suggested mild hypnotization. At least she wasn't asleep. He made a quick check, and, no, the swelling wasn't obvious enough that the tea wouldn't have time to act before Fluffybuns noticed...he hoped.