FanFiction stopped being stupid, which means that I can access the next chapter (which I need to learn to back up in multiple areas apparently), which means that I am able to post this!
...A day late.
I blame the internet.
Reviews!
jjlol: EVO (monster puberty) is not what is happening to Mistral. Mistral basically went through a magical growth spurt, though, and he's having a bit of trouble getting it down.
Spyash2: No, monsters in general are Children of Magic. The skeletons were just the diplomats for the species. When they were attacked, the humans basically declared war on the monsters.
The trolls' names were a reference to the trolls in the Hobbit!
Thank you to ravenclawoutcast13, Guest, Boots, Have a Little Feith, Guest, Yoruko Rhapsodos, SaphireDemonStar, FluffySheepLion, CharaFrisk, Inferno est in animo, Ender the multiverse Detective, Arashi IV of VI, Youdontseethis, HourglassMadness, Fallen-Ryu, WanderingWatermelon, and thumper23 for reviewing!
Tumblr for this story: darkphoenix512. tumblr. com
"OKAY," Mistral said to himself as he stood outside of the Great Hall. "I CAN DO THIS. IT'S JUST A SMALL MAGIC CONTROL PROBLEM. I WON'T BE ABLE TO SPEAK ANYTHING BUT WINGDINGS, BUT I HAVE TO CHECK ON HERMIONE." He sighed. "MAYBE I COULD...NO, I HAVE TO DO THIS." With that, Mistral pulled his hood up and walked in.
Hermione halfheartedly played with her eggs as Frisk's constant stream of reassurances popped up one by one out of the corner of her eye. She had seen Mistral back away from her, even after talking down the troll. One of her only friends (Frisk had ambushed her shortly after she had gotten to the Common room the night before, asking to be her friend) was terrified if her and she didn't even know if she'd ever get the chance to apologize.
Suddenly, Hermione noticed the lack of black text boxes appearing in her vision. She looked at Frisk and was surprised to see Mistral standing near them, a large grin threatening to split his face. Frisk scooched over, letting Mistral sit between them and Hermione. Happily sitting, Mistral opened his mouth to speak only for a series of unidentifiable noises to escape him and his hands to gesture erratically.
"I'm sorry, what was that?"
Mistral's eye sockets widened for a moment before he held up a finger and pulled a piece of paper and a pen out from within his cloak. He quickly scribbled down a note and proudly handed it to Hermione.
"Um...Mistral?" Hermione said. "Are these Wingdings?"
The skeleton stared at the paper for a moment before giving a groan and dropping his skull onto the table with a loud thud. Without warning, he jolted up again, pulling a laptop out this time. He opened a web browser and began chicken-pecking the keys with his left hand while he grumbled and gestured with his right
Curious, Hermione leaned over to see what he was doing. Whenever Mistral typed in a letter, however, it was readable for only a moment before warping into a wingding character. She had to ask about that later.
After a display of the fastest chicken-pecking Hermione had ever seen, Mistral hit 'enter', bringing up a page of images on a well-known search engine. He clicked one, bringing it to full screen.
It was a Wingdings-to-English conversion chart. Grinning widely, Mistral pointed at the note he had written, at Hermione, then pushed the laptop towards her, nearly taking out Frisk's pumpkin juice in the process.
Getting the idea, Hermione took the pen Mistral had left on the table and began translating the note. Once she had finished, she read it over.
Sorry, Hermione. Last night was the first time I had ever changed font, even on accident, and I have no idea how to change it back. I'm going to try again tonight (with Sans and Papyrus watching) and hope I can get from a barely understandable font to a semi-understandable font!
Sorry for panicking last night, by the way.
"Your...font changed?" Hermione asked. "Like writing fonts? Oh..." Her eyes widened. "Professor Papyrus...he writes in papyrus! Yours is mistral, obviously, but what is Sans?"
Mistral was laughing silently at Hermione's outburst. Once he calmed down slightly, he took the paper back, wrote a bit, and handed it back.
What did the skeleton say after laughing at a joke?
That sure was humerus ;)
Hermione's face became neutral. "Is he honestly...?"
Frisk stared in confusion as Mistral nodded.
*You ask Hermione what she means.
Hermione looked conflicted between laughing and sighing. "Sans's real name is Comic Sans."
Can you ask Frisk if they're still planning on coming for lunch?
"Frisk? Mistral's wondering if you're still coming for lunch."
*You tell Mistral that you are.
*You ask if Hermione can come, too.
If she wants to.
"I-I'd love to. What would we be having?"
*You tell Hermione about Mistral's spaghetti.
Heads up, Papyrus is cooking.
"Mistral says that Professor Papyrus is...why are you making that face?"
Hermione wasn't sure what to expect when she entered the skeleton professors' rooms, but it definitely wasn't what she saw.
The first thing she noticed was a laid-back song that seemed to resonate through the room. The second thing was the TV set up against one of the walls. "Does your telly work?" Hermione blurted.
A deep chuckle from behind her made the switch jump. "monster-made. it takes some of the magic from the air to work. the royal scientist before alphys figured out how ta do it."
Hermione struggled to suppress a scowl at Sans's actions while Mistral started laughing. He said something unintelligible, which had Sans chuckling again.
A tap on her shoulder reminded her that she had to move away from the doorway to let Frisk in. Once they could get in, Frisk casually walked by her and headed for the small kitchenette.
The cooking area was normal enough, with Papyrus happily preparing food. Any other details were lost when Hermione saw the sink, which was easily taller than Papyrus could reach. Without realizing it, she gaped. "Why...?"
Seeing Hermione's confused expression, Frisk began gesturing. Papyrus paused his cooking, turning his skull to face them. "WHAT? WHY WOULD SHE BE? IT IS PERFECTLY NORMAL TO INCREASE THE HEIGHT OF YOUR SINK!" Frisk gestured more in a way Hermione recognized as...
"Frisk?" the inquisitive Gryffindor asked. "Are you using sign language? How did Professor Papyrus know what you were saying without looking?"
Nod. A text box appeared before Hermione. *You tell Hermione, "Mmmmmagic!"
Hermione frowned, obviously displeased with the response. Before she could speak up, however, Papyrus ran up to her, his modified 'Kiss the Cook' apron (read: 'Kiss the' crossed off and 'is Great' written in underneath) clearly visible. "THE SINK HAS IN INCREASED HEIGHT, MUCH LIKE THE ONE AT MY HOME, SO THAT I MAY STORE MORE BONES UNDER IT! WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE?"
Caught off guard by the fact that a skeleton could successfully do the puppy dog eyes, Hermione could only nod.
"VERY WELL, HUMAN! PREPARE TO BE AMAZED!" Papyrus opened the cupboard under the sink to reveal a white dog gnawing on a single bone. "HEY! HOW DID YOU GET IN THERE?" The dog tensed up before making a break for it. "CATCH THAT MANGY DOG!"
Somehow, despite lacking both height and opposable thumbs, the dog opened the door and disappeared into the rest of the school.
Papyrus stamped his foot on the ground. "CURSES!"
The doors to two side rooms opened, revealing that, at some point, Sans and Mistral had retreated to them. Sans held a trombone in his phalanges while Mistral had somehow managed to lug a huge piano in front of the door. They each played what Hermione knew as the universal trombone song of failure, with Mistral improvising to add to each note. The second they were done, both doors closed.
"SANS! MISTRAL! WHY DO YOU TWO INSIST ON PLAGUING MY LIFE WITH INCIDENTAL MUSIC?!"
"WHAT? OF COURSE I, MASTER CHEF PAPYRUS, DIDN'T ADD TOO MUCH!"
Hermione watched from her place on the couch as Mistral, from what Papyrus was saying, attempted to be a backseat chef. The youngest of the three skeletons seemed to have taken it upon himself to make sure that Papyrus did...something to the spaghetti that he was cooking.
A few minutes after the Dog Incident (which Papyrus had made her swear never to mention outside of the skeleton brothers' rooms), Frisk had pulled Hermione over to the living room area and sat down on the couch. They had turned on the TV, much to Hermione's shock ("But electronics don't work around magic!" "DR. ALPHYS AND THE ROYAL SCIENTIST BEFORE HER HAD MANY YEARS TO PERFECT THE ART OF SHIELDING TECHNOLOGY FROM MAGIC, HUMAN!"), and watched as a...metallic box on a unicycle appeared on screen, singing about his forbidden love.
When Hermione asked what the box was, Papyrus started lecturing her about a celebrity she had never heard of called 'Mettaton'.
She didn't really pay very much attention to the many exploits of Mettaton, instead watching Papyrus cook with Mistral, who somehow appeared silently during the middle of Papyrus's rant.
The tall skeleton appeared to have finished what he was cooking, because he carried two bowls over to the table set up in the corner, yelling, "HUMANS, SANS, I, MASTER CHEF PAPYRUS, HAVE COMPLETED LUNCH!"
Frisk seemed to shudder momentarily before getting to their feet, confusing Hermione. She stood up as well, seeing that a lone seat was still empty. Hesitantly, she took it just as Papyrus scooped a large portion of spaghetti onto her plate. It sparkled as though it was covered in glitter. Hermione grinned nervously. "Uh...it looks wonderful, Professor."
Mistral grinned widely, speaking again and bobbing his head.
Sans chuckled. "yeah, think you got the balance right, bro."
Papyrus brightened, if that was even possible. "REALLY? WOWIE, I MUST TRULY BE GIFTED TO BE ABLE TO MAKE MY LEGENDARY COOKING EVEN MORE AMAZING!" He finished placing the pasta onto everyone's plates. He sat down and immediately began shoveling spaghetti into his mouth.
Frisk followed slowly, their face scrunching up on reflex.
Hermione decided to take a bite as well, feeling body attempt to recoil on instinct. The taste was indescribable.
Mistral spoke up, drawing the attention of everyone at the table. Despite how impossible the language sounded, the older skeletons seemed to understand perfectly.
"after lunch, ok misty? wouldn't be fun for you to be bone tired before you can start."
The youngest of the skeletons sighed sadly, bowing his head.
"seriously, you mutt be kidding me, misty," Sans said, shaking his skull. "you've been spending way too much time with the royal guard if you can pull off a kicked puppy look like that."
Mistral shrugged before saying something back.
Papyrus tried to scowl, but the huge grin on his face made it hard to believe. "MUST YOU TWO ALWAYS DO THIS WHEN WE ARE EATING?"
"c'mon, you're smiling."
"I AM AND I HATE IT!"
Frisk grinned mischievously, a text box appearing in front of their plate. *You tell a bad pun about pasta. Somehow, Hermione got the sense that Frisk had honestly told a terrible pun.
Papyrus must have felt it as well, because he groaned loudly, getting to his feet. "THAT IS IT. I AM GOING TO WORK ON LESSON PLANS FOR THIS COMING WEEK." He picked up his empty plate and walked over to the kitchen.
"paps, it's pasta time for that!"
Mistral pitched something in that Hermione was still unable to understand.
"'sides, we gotta help misty, right?"
The skeleton placed his dishes on the counter before posing heroically. "YOU'RE RIGHT! WHAT KIND OF BROTHER WOULD I BE IF I WASN'T THERE TO HELP MY YOUNGER SIBLING WORK THROUGH THIS GROWTH IN MAGIC?"
Hermione frowned. "What do you mean, a 'growth in magic'? Magical cores develop over time, but they don't hurt the one they're within as they grow-"
"girlie, we're monsters, not wizards," Sans cut her off. "s'just how we work." He stood up, taking his dishes ("When did he even eat?") over to where Papyrus's were. Mistral followed him, bouncing on his calcanei.
Mistral said something, a hopeful look on his face, making Sans laugh.
"yeah, bro. you can do the thing."
Immediately, a look of intense concentration crossed Mistral's face as he began talking. At first, it was intelligible, but quickly transitioned to understandable. "-I MEAN SERIOUSLY, HOW HARD CAN IT BE TO SWITCH BACK TO MY FONT, RIGHT? IT'S JUST so irritating that I've been stuck like that and now i...wait, i did it!"
"GOOD JOB, MISTRAL!" Papyrus praised. "NOW YOU MUST KEEP YOUR FONT STEADY. YOU CAN DO THIS!"
Mistral grinned widely, "i think i've got it now, papyrus."
I know that Frisk didn't speak much, but...Frisk doesn't speak much.
Hermione was kind of caught up in the awkwardness of being in the home of not one, but TWO teachers, so she had a *cough*horrible*cough* well-justified reason to be on the quiet side.