so...this is mistral here today instead of the author because she's currently celebrating that she got through her first day of college. she...kinda ordered me to do this last second, but i think that's because she wanted me to pass along a message. c.d., or as some know her, darkphoenix512, has started college. she doesn't know how it'll affect the update schedule, but she wanted me to put that out there for her.

i'll just answer reviews for her while i'm here.

first, she wanted a special thanks to HungryGremlin for informing her properly about asl nicknames last chapter.

to bLeuwErewOlf25, c.d. doesn't really know much about core frisk, but i'll tell her to look into it.

uh...TheFieryRedCloak? i was there when c.d. read your review and...she may have cackled maniacally.

Maxiforce, c.d.'s got big plans for later on. i don't think she'd like me spoiling them. also, swap mistral isn't really much of a swap. you see, when i fell underground, i hit the front of my skull on the way down. swap mistral just hit his head harder and doesn't remember much about the surface. no fear of humans, no fear of screwing up every little thing, nothing like that...lucky.

there are actually a few things c.d.'s planned to put in later on that aren't spoilers that might help you not be confused, Pokemonmaster223. swap me's basically what i'd be like if i had no memory of them. he's a mezzo like fell me was before red (sans) and edgy (papyrus) got to him, so he's a lot more confident and formal when he talks. as for abilities...i don't really know. c.d. hasn't even told me what all my abilities will end up being, let alone what the other aus of me will end up being.

also, c.d.'d want me to thank Fallen-Ryu, Firehedgehog,Pokemonever1994, Ender the multiverse Detective, Boots, crazy dragon ninja, Arashi - IV of VI, and Curious Kit for reviewing...ow, that doesn't feel very good. i'm just gonna stop cutting off my font for a bit...

"so...what you're telling me is that misty's not actin' like himself."

"YES...HE SEEMED SURPRISED TO SEE ME, AND EVEN ASKED IF I WISHED TO GO TO MUFFET'S."

"wait, what?"

"I KNOW! HE SHOULD KNOW THAT MUFFET WILL NOT BE EXPANDING TO THE SURFACE UNTIL AFTER WE ARE FINISHED AT HOGWARTS FOR THE YEAR!"

"no, that's not it, bro. it's that i think i know exactly what happened."

"...Sans? What did happen?"

"eh, nothin' ta worry about, girlie. just know that if a certain skeleton hurts my little bro, he's gonna have a bad time."

Papyrus blinked as he watched the alternate version of his little brother shrink down on himself, too terrified to reply. "maybe i should dial it down a bit..." he muttered before raising his voice again. "look kid, if you just tell me where you're from, this'll all blow over, i can find my mistral, and we can all go home happy, capisce?"

The version of Mistral looked like he was attempting to hyperventilate. As it was, Papyrus had to strain to hear his voice and attempt to pick out individual words from how much the little skeleton was slurring. "s-snowdin, b-b-but now i l-live in n-newer home..."

"ok, not underswap," Papyrus mumbled. "that doesn't narrow it down much, but it's a start. defintely not underfell from the way he's acting." He cleared his throat. "who's the leader of the monsters?" This was the defining thing. There hadn't been very many aus that had formed yet, so asking him who was king would help determine from the remaining two where he was from.

"k-king a-asgore," the version of Mistral said, confusion evident in his voice.

Original. Papyrus sighed in relief, letting the integrity magic he had holding the skeleton in place lift. "sorry 'bout that, mistral, but you can't be too careful."

Slowly, the skeleton turned to face Papyrus. Now that he had turned, Papyrus could see the younger skeleton's cloak shift open to reveal green and blue clothing underneath. Confirmed original. Papyrus shifted his gaze to Mistral's face to see blue and green tears welling up in his widening eye sockets. "y-you're not p-paps," he hiccuped.

Dang it. He made the poor kid cry. Getting down on his knees, he put a hand on Mistral's shoulder. "well, that's where you're wrong, pal...i'm kinda papyrus, but i'm kinda not."

Mistral cocked his head in such a way that his cloak's hood covered more of his face. "that...d-doesn't make sense." Papyrus noticed how the skeleton was pulling his cloak closed as tightly as he could, as if he was using it like a security blanket. Just like his Mistral would do when he was trying to hide his fear.

"ok...how do i explain this?" Papyrus muttered, hooking his hand over the top of his mandible. Much to his surprise, Mistral giggled. He pulled his hand out of his mouth. "what's so funny?"

"papyrus does the e-exact same thing w-when he's thinking hard," the little skeleton explained, still giggling slightly.

Suddenly, it hit him. "i have quite a few of your papyrus's habits," Papyrus said. "there are a few from some aus, too, but i'm mostly like your sans."

Mistral looked at the floor, his voice trailing. "does thmnyrammhmmph?"

"sorry, what?"

A little louder, Mistral repeated himself. "does that mean you're a punny guy?"

Papyrus froze, trying to process what he had heard. Once it clicked, he chuckled. "yeah, pal, it does, no bones about it."

Mistral laughed a little more openly, completely letting go of the edges of his cloak. Good.

Carefully putting an arm around the shoulders of the younger skeleton, Papyrus began walking toward the staircase. "c'mon, your bro should be tryin' to contact us in a few, so why don't we play some video games while we wait?"

"what are video games?"

Sans enveloped 'Mistral' in a cocoon of gravity magic and carefully moved him onto the couch. Once he was set down, Sans walked up the staircase, well aware of his two followers and the slower-than-normal version of Papyrus's theme playing from the kitchen. He turned into his room, opening the door-

-and closing his work space's door behind him, most likely surprising Hermione and irritating Frisk. Sans would have chuckled at the thought if not for the fact that he was on a mission. He walked over to the corner of his work space and pulled the sheet off of the large machine he kept there. It was only during the past summer that he had finally felt inspired to finish it, and he had managed to finish it roughly around the middle of August. Starting it up was no problem as he felt its usual attempt to connect to his magic. Seeing as how he only felt its intent to aid him, he let it connect.

Using the machine as a way to both help visualize and make what he was doing easier, Sans began reaching out mentally, sweeping the multiverse for the soul that was his brother's. After a few minutes of searching, Sans found the exact version he was looking for. "underswap 5047; mistral anomaly 1," Sans read off the screen of his machine. "so mistswap 1." He entered his findings into the machine's makeshift keyboard, making sure to save them into the system. Once set, he pressed a button on the side of the keyboard that looked like a blue call symbol. "you'd better pick up, carrot..."

Hermione wiggled the doorknob despite knowing perfectly well that it was locked, quietly mumbling curses at the skeleton that had locked it. She wasn't able to use magic to try to unlock it or risk expulsion, and she didn't have a key, so all she could do was keep wiggling the handle and hope that Sans gave in on the other side.

A tap on her shoulder made the witch stop and turn towards Frisk. They held up a small, yellow and red touchscreen phone with a keychain attached. Six keys were on it, but one was specifically separated from the others. "...This is the key, isn't it," Hermione stated, unamused.

Nodding, Frisk handed her the keychain and phone. She stuck the key in the lock and turned it, hearing the satisfying click of the door unlocking. Shoving the keychain back into Frisk's hands, Hermione opened the door.

Inside the room, it was if no natural light existed. Hesitantly, remembering both Mistral and Papyrus claiming on multiple occasions that Sans's room was worse than a pig sty, Hermione walked inside...and kept walking. "How big is this room?" she asked, amazed.

Frisk hit the light switch before groaning silently.

Hermione stopped walking immediately, letting the treadmill she had been walking on carry her over to the floor. The room was honestly fairly clean, save for the pile of socks in the corner, the ball of sheets on the lone mattress, and the... "Is that a tornado?" Hermione asked.

Frisk nodded. *You tell Hermione that it is a self-sustaining trash tornado.

The young witch ran up to the tornado, getting as close as she dared go as she examined it. Frisk merely sighed in irritation, wondering where the heck Sans could've taken a shortcut to.

Papyrus let his version of the Multiverse Scanning and Contacting Device (or Multiscan for short) latch onto his magic with an unpleasant ping. Almsot immediately, the screen lit up to reveal a short skeleton in a blue hoodie. "heya," Papyrus said, giving him a lazy salute. "to what do i owe the pleasure?"

"your bro's passed out on my couch," Sans said. "any idea why?"

"probably the same reason that your bro's playing portal 2 with blueberry," Papyrus shot back lazily.

Sans's pupil lights glowed a little brighter. "good. your bro kinda talked to my paps for a bit and crashed, by the way."

"what? how'd he do that?"

The bigger-boned skeleton shrugged. "guess your bro didn't expect to see someone that looked like you acting like your older bro."

"guess that makes sense," Papyrus said, shrugging as well. "so...guess that you know more than one mistral exists, you're gonna give 'em both nicknames, then?"

"since we've officially made contact? yeah," Sans said. "i don't know enough about your mistral to make up one for him, but mine's just gonna be misty."

Papyrus snorted. "yeah, because he's the original. of course he's gonna have a nickname he already has."

"what d'you think'd be a good nickname for your version?"

"BROTHER, YOU AREN'T DOING AS WELL AT THIS AS YOU USUALLY DO. ARE YOU FEELING ALL RIGHT?"

"i-i'm fine, p-sans. really, i am."

"YOU ARE ALSO MUCH SOFTER-SPOKEN THAN USUAL AS WELL..."

"nothing's wrong, sans. R-really."

"RON AND HIS FAMILY ARE OVER AT CLONE TORIEL'S HOUSE RIGHT NOW...AFTER WE FINISH THIS LEVEL, LET US GO THERE AS WELL! I, THE MAGNIFICENT SANS, HAVE ALREADY FINISHED THE TACOS TO SHARE!"

"...ok, that sounds like a...good idea. why don't i go find papyrus?"

"EXCELLENT! ONCE WE FINISH GETTING THROUGH THIS COURSE, WE CAN-ARGH!"

"what is it, sans?"

"WHY MUST YOU ALWAYS DO THIS WHENEVER WE PLAY THIS GAME?"

"do what?"

"DO NOT PLAY INNOCENT! YOU DROPPED THE BRIDGE AS I WAS CROSSING IT!"

"sans, i'm hurt that you would even suggest such a thing!"

"papyrus, please please please please be in here!"

"yeah, i'm down here, misty."

"so that's what swap mistral looks like? heh, i just thought of a nickname for him!"

"How did you even know this was back here?" Hermione asked, surprised to see the small door at the back of the skeleton family's house. Because of how narrow the alley behind the house was, if she hadn't been led back, Hermione would have never found it.

Frisk grinned mischievously, signing, Don't snoop behind houses. You might be mistaken for a trash can.

Hermione slowly translated her friend's words in her head before frowning. "What does that even mean?"

Music, Frisk signed before selecting a key and unlocking the door. They silently made their way down the staircase inside, Hermione following close behind them. As they got farther down, several voices became audible.

"-how to get you back. it won't be that hard now that we've got contact."

"but there's the question on how to get plum to calm down. he doesn't know you guys."

"just promise him you're trying to help. he'll see that you're like his papyrus and, if he's anything like me, he'll trust you."

Hermione gasped. "Is that-"

Frisk threw their hand over her mouth, putting a finger up against their lips.

"did you guys here that?"

Hermione's eyes widened in fear as Frisk adopted a stoic expression. After a few moments of complete silence, Sans spoke up. "nah, s'probly nothing."

The witch gave a sigh of relief only to see both her and Frisk's souls pop out of their chests, turn dark blue, and send them flying into the wall passed the staircase. Frisk reoriented quickly, landing feet first while Hermione smacked into the wall. Both souls turned ninety degrees, yanking their owners down to the floor. The hum of something powerful being charged up echoed through the room.

"sans, stop! it's frisk and hermione!"

"what?! we don't need that demon here screwing up everything!"

"uh...frisk isn't a demon. what the hell are you talking about?"

"language."

Slowly, Hermione looked up to a confusing sight. On what appeared to be a computer monitor, a smoking Papyrus in an orange hoodie was jokingly arguing with a Mistral in a deep purple cloak (as opposed to his normal half-faded blue-violet). In front of the monitor, Sans stood with his left hand outstretched, his left eye socket glowing blue and a large dog/dragon skull hovering behind him, a white light charging within its maw. Sans, upon realizing who he had just thrown around, let the skull vanish and the blue of Hermione's soul fade to a vibrant purple. "mind tellin' me why you two were eavesdropping?" Sans asked, shoving his hand back into his hoodie's pocket.

Frisk, their face still neutral, merely pulled up a text box. *You tell them that this isn't what it looks like.

"really? cause it looks to me like you two were chilling on the stairs, waiting for the right moment to help us start planning."

Hermione blinked in surprise and Frisk grinned widely.

Uh...I've calmed down now. Random stuff!

Ever notice how different versions of characters from different AUs have different nicknames? Well, now Misty and Plum have them, too!

'Plum' is actually Swap Mistral's nickname for a few reasons. For one, it's a shade of purple, which has quite a few meanings that, according to www. bourncreative meaning-of-the-color-purple, is associated with magic, wisdom, independence, lifting spirits, and helping "align oneself with the whole of the universe". In this case, though, the last one is used in meaning the multiverse. The shade itself, well...Swap Papyrus is called Carrot, Swap Sans is called Blueberry, so...dumb leap of logic.