Other Half
Chapter 9
The blue clad skeleton looked at his phone. Again. Zero missed calls, messages, or anything else, as usual. Eventually, sans turned back to the television. Now that the underground was open to everyone, human broadcasting companies showed a variety of things in the underground. They had access to the tv networks that surrounded the surface part of Mt. Ebott, so that definitely made this more interesting. Now that monsters moved to the surface, Alphys worked with various world leaders to combine their Undernet with its surface counterpart, the internet. There were countless technological advances that Sans had yet to discover, but he couldn't find entertainment on any of them. Instead, sans looked towards his device for the hundredth time that day.
"You know, you could just go visit the hotel and ask when she'll be back." Gaster spoke, after watching his behavior. At first, as a person trapped in the void, Gaster considered himself content with watching the lives of others from afar. He had no issues with watching monster-kind progress while he was in the void, and he'd spent thousands of years in that place. Still, he had no idea that a monster could be that aggravating. Gaster watched Sans look toward the cell phone, look away, then look again, check it, rinse, wash, and repeat for hours on end. After his 58th check, Gaster became so annoyed that he had to intervene. Watching him gain hope, only to have it removed when she didn't call, AND do the same thing again was maddening.
Sans considered the monster's suggestion.
"I can't. I told her to call me, not wait for my random visit into her life." Sans said, then he looked at the phone again. Gaster had to resist the urge to scream. After a second, he looked back at the tv. Gaster started counting down seconds. As he reached 1, Sans looked at the phone again, sighed, and checked it. Sans sighed once more. No missed calls. He looked back at the TV, ready to start the process again, when it rang. Gaster never thought he would be this happy to hear a ringtone, but he felt like jumping for joy. Or, oozing around for joy, because he couldn't really jump anymore. Still, he was more than thankful for the human's call. Finally. Gaster didn't really want to work with this human, especially if they were allied with Chara, but at that moment, he couldn't be happier with this person.
"Hello?" He heard her voice ask on the other end. Gaster expected greetings to go normally. Instead, Sans let out a strangled noise, then blushed blue, and covered it with a cough.
"I- Hi! Hello! Sorry, I coughed!" He said, rushing his words together. Gaster couldn't help but doing his equivalent of rolling his eyes.
"You sit around all day trying to talk to her, and now you lack the ability to say hello?" Gaster asked, a little mirth in his tone.
"No! I can do this!" Sans said, and apparently, she heard him.
"Uh, what?" Frisk asked, and Sans froze, then sighed. She heard him.
"Oh, nothing. So, casual question, where are you right now?" He asked, and at this Frisk sighed.
"I'm in the lobby of the MTT hotel and resort, right in front of the doors." Sans made a noise of affirmation. He immediately teleported in behind her.
"Boo!" He shouted. Unfortunately, she still had the phone in her ear, and he spoke directly into his device. Frisk shrieked at the loud noise, then immediately grabbed her ear and groaned. The people milling around in the lobby all stared at her, and Frisk's cheeks burned. Sans had a pun ready and everything, but he hadn't meant to screech in her ear. "Sorry!" He said, wincing. Frisk just sighed.
"That- it's fine." She responded, and he gestured to the doors. She walked out of the hotel with the gigantic skeleton in tow, and the two stood outside. "So," She said, rubbing her eyes. "We kind of need to talk. Where should we go?" She asked, and Sans thought about it for a solid five seconds before responding.
"I know a place." He said, offering her a hand. She took it quizzically, then looked significantly less surprised as the world faded away. After she realized they arrived, Frisk looked around. The area smelled a little greasy, and Frisk looked surprised to find snow underneath her feet. She immediately shivered.
"W-Where are w-we?" She asked, finally deciding to look around. Sans just tapped her on the back, then opened the door to a restaurant for her. She immediately walked inside towards the warmth, then sighed in appreciation as the entire area felt warm. She immediately noticed the layout of the area. There were tables, then a few booths. Sans walked in after her and motioned to a booth, where they both sat across from each other.
"Welcome to Grillby's, Frisk." He said, allowing her to look around a little before making eye to eye socket contact. "If you were on a tour, especially one at the core, then that must have taken hours. You're probably hungry, huh?" He asked. Frisk's stomach responded for her, and Sans made an expression similar to raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, maybe a little." She paused for a minute. "Shut up!" she said quietly, her face darkening a little in embarrassment.
"Oh, speaking of our…friends. Do you have any idea what's going on?" He asked, looking at her quizzically. Last night, she would have said no, but now she had a little information.
"Well, I know a little. The one in my head was trapped in the void, and I apparently opened an escape route when I dropped that snow globe thing in the waterfall last night." Sans stopped her for a second when their waiter appeared. Sans expected the Grillbiz, so he looked back in confusion when a smaller, green flamed and female version of the monster materialized in front of them.
"Oh, Hi." Sans said, looking at her. She looked down at him in confusion before gasping.
"Wait, are you Sans?" she asked, her eyes getting a little wide.
"I see my name precedes me." He said, a smile on his face. The server chuckled.
"So does your tab. Grillby always talks about you."
"Really? Are you sure you're not fibula-ing?" he asked, inserting a little pun. The green woman laughed a little, but sighed.
"Nope, but he has been talking less since you've been gone. Grillby's needs their best customer." She finally noticed Frisk, who stopped paying attention to their conversation to read the menu instead. "But We can talk about my cousin later, huh? You have company." She said with a wink, and Sans shook his skull.
"I'm afraid that this is more of a business meeting, really. Still, I bet this one is hungry." He said, making it clear that she could order first. She wasn't paying attention and didn't hear them until sans tapped her lightly on the shoulder.
"What? I- Oh, May I have the burger?" She asked, looking up immediately. The waitress wrote down her order.
"And you, Sans?" She asked, pen ready.
"Can I just have the-"
"No, you can't drink that from the bottle! Order something, or I'm just serving her." She said, a little attitude in her tone.
"Fine, fine. Just as fiery as ever, Amy. I'll take the fries." He said, using a pun yet again. She nodded with satisfaction, then left. "So, where were we?" Sans asked frisk, who sat back in the seat easily.
"Right, so I freed them from the void. Apparently it has random effects on everyone, but considering that we haven't turned into pianos yet, we probably shouldn't worry about it." She said, and Sans nodded. "What about you? Have you learned anything about our situation?"
"Well, Mine has been trapped in the void since almost directly after the monster-human war. Okay, we'll get more info on that later. It may have affected my magic, but besides that, everything is normal. What about this?" He asked, pulling out his paradox notebook. "Why is your name in it?" Frisk flipped through the pages.
"Chara?" Frisk asked aloud, but the being was creepily silent. Frisk sighed. "I have no idea. This one is being silent." She said, gesturing to her head. Sans shuddered, and Frisk looked at him, confusion apparent on her face. Sans seemed puzzled with his odd reaction to the name, but it had no significance in his mind.
"Chara? That name is… I don't know." Sans said, shaking his head. "Anyway, it looks like we need to talk to them some more, and apparently, if we're in the same room, ours won't talk." Sans reasoned, and Frisk nodded.
"What about if we learn something new? Could we have something like a weekly meeting? Just so that we can figure out what's going on?" Frisk asked, and Sans considered the idea.
"Alright. We can figure out days and times later." He said, and the server brought them their food. Frisk thanked her, and sans smiled as she walked off. He picked up a bottle of ketchup and offered it to the girl, who politely refused.
"Suit yourself. That means more for me!" He said, and Immediately tilted the bottle back into his mouth. Frisk watched with gruesome fascination as the red liquid entered his mouth, then disappeared instead of dripping through his skull. Sans noticed her expression and laughed.
"Sorry, I'm being rude. It's just…Ketchup? That's really different." She said, eyeing the almost empty bottle. Sans just shrugged.
"I guess we have different tastes, kid." He responded, then finished off the red sludge. "So, I know a little about the situation, but I know nothing about you. What's up?" He asked, ready for proper introductions.
"Well," Frisk started. "My name is Frisk. Frisk Dr-" She paused. What was her last name? For some reason, she couldn't recall. "Just Frisk." She said, and Sans looked at her quizzically.
"Frisk Just Frisk? That's an interesting name." Sans joked, but he looked at her in concern. Frisk laughed a little in response, but her lack of information confused her.
"That's me, Frisk Just Frisk. Anyway, I live on the surface, and I go to the monster and human university. We're in the underground on a fieldtrip. I want to be an ambassador, and I like… golden flowers." She said, struggling to make the conversation less forced.
"Well, My name is Sans. I am a skeleton. I go to the university too, and I don't know what I'll do when I get out. I'm good-" He paused, then gave a dramatic sigh. "Alright, I'm okay at science. I like puns, and I did comedy when we lived underground." He said, looking off to the side. Frisk leaned forward, her expression looking interested.
"Who is this 'we' that you refer of?" She asked, looking at him.
"Oh, that would be my brother, Papyrus. He works for Mettaton as a bodyguard or something." Sans said. Frisk looked at him thoughtfully.
"Is he tall? And a skeleton?" She asked. Sans paused for a moment.
"Yes, he is. Why?"
"I think I saw him today, when Mettaton asked us to dance." She said, remembering the excited voice of the skeleton. "His name is Papyrus, right?" Sans looked at her in surprise.
"Yeah, that's him. You danced with Mettaton today?" Sans asked, his eye sockets widening. Frisk shrugged.
"Mettaton asked my friend and I to volunteer on stage. Those holograms were hard to avoid, but I think it ended up looking good." Frisk said, remembering Mettaton's comment about ratings.
"I'll be sure to check out the show tonight. Hopefully they'll replay some of that concert." Sans commented. Frisk looked up at the monster through her hair.
"I hope it looks okay. I'm not exactly an accomplished dancer." Frisk said, remembering her random movements to dodge the projectiles.
"Neither am I." Sans responded. "I guess people say I'm pretty funny though. I'm sure that makes up for lack of dancing talent." Sans said, and Frisk looked at him challengingly.
"Really? Alright, give me your best joke. I won't laugh." She said, trying to freeze her face in a frown. She felt a little sigh of relief when he cracked his knuckles and stared at her, a challenging expression on his skeletal face.
"You sure kid? I wouldn't put money on it. No one can resist my humor, not even Pap, and he hates puns. Frisk offered him a smirk. She honestly had no issue with laughing, but she felt comforted to relieve some tension. Still, now that their conversation became a challenge, she felt determined not to laugh, or smile.
"Okay kid, here I go. Knock Knock?" He asked, using the wooden table as a door. Frisk looked at him quizzically.
"Who's there?" She asked. Less than a minute later, she broke out into giggles. "Okay, okay!" She said, stopping for a second to catch her breath. "You win! I didn't even know knock knock jokes could be that funny." She responded, wiping a tear from her eye. Sans looked self-satisfied.
"It's all about the presentation. Plus, I practiced a lot underground." He said, emitting a little shrug. Frisk's giggles finally subsided, and she continued to contribute to the conversation.
"You practiced underground? Were you a comedian?" She asked, now genuinely interested. Sans offered her a nonchalant shrug in response.
"I did work as a comedian, but that was more of a casual job. Actually, I worked at Mettaton's restaurant. Still, I tried not to stress over it too much. It was fun." He responded, and Frisk nodded thoughtfully. "You know, I enjoyed telling my jokes to a crowd, but there was another time when I really enjoyed sharing some laughs." He said, and it was clear that he'd go into a reverie.
"When?" Frisk asked, and a smile hit the skeleton's face.
"So, I'm was a sentry in Snowdin forest, right?" He said, trying to effectively lay out a scene in her mind. "I used to sit out there and watch for humans. It's kind of boring. Fortunately, deep in the forest, there's this HUGE door, and it's perfect for practicing knock knock jokes." He paused. "So one day, I'm knocking 'em out, like usual. I knock on the door, and say 'knock knock', and suddenly from the other side, I hear a woman's voice.
'Who is there'? She asks. So naturally, I respond.
'Dishes.' And of course, she continues it.
'Dishes who?'
'Dishes a very bad joke.' And she just howls in laugheter, like it's the funniest joke she's heard in a hundred years!" He pauses again, smiling at the memory. "I keep them coming, and she keeps laughing! She's the best audience I've ever had." He says, and Frisk smiles, imagining the skeleton in front of a gigantic door. "Then, after a dozen of them, she knocks!" Frisk could hear the glee in his voice.
"'Knock knock!'
'Who's there?'
'Old lady.' She says, and at this point, I put down the joke book I was holding.
'Old lady who?' I say, and then she hits the punch line perfectly.
'Oh! I did not know you could yodel.' Needless to say, this woman is extremely good. We kept telling each other jokes. We did this for hours. Eventually, I had to leave. Papyrus gets kind of cranky without his bed time story. She still told me to come back again, so I did! Then I did it again, and again." Sans pauses, and Frisk is smiling. "So it's a thing, telling bad jokes through doors. It rules. One day though, I told her a joke. I noticed she wasn't laughing as much, so I asked her what was up. Then, she told me something strange.
'If a human ever comes through this door, could you please, please promise me something?" Sans pauses again.
"'Watch over them, and protect them, will you not?' Now, I hate making promises, and I don't even know this woman's name! But someone that sincerely likes bad jokes has an integrity I can't say no to. Do you get what I'm saying?" He asked suddenly, and Frisk's heart beat wildly. She didn't respond. Her silence didn't originate from unkindness, but she stayed quiet because she was thinking. Sans opened a closed eye socket to stare at the girl.
"Kid?" He asked, his voice incredibly soft. Frisk vaguely heard Chara make noises of discomfort in her mind.
"I- I don't-" Frisk tried, looking down at her hands. "Is… she's." She paused. It's like the word was at the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't figure out what she was trying to say. Chara was holding their breath. Frisk could tell, and the second it took for her to recognize this, she lost whatever lead she was about to gain. Frisk heard a large sigh of relief in her head.
"Are you alright?" Sans asked, now incredibly concerned for the girl. Frisk shook her head.
"Yes! I mean, no. Something is missing!" She insisted. "I- I know who you're talking about, but I don't! I care about her, but I don't know who she is!" Frisk spoke in frustration. Sans frowned.
"Something is wrong, you're right. Let's start from my notebook again." He said, attempting to help her feel less irritation. Frisk let out an unsatisfied sigh, but nodded.
"Alright, can I see it? Where did you find it?" She asked, reaching for the book. Sans immediately handed it over to her.
"I found it on sale in the underground. When I opened it, the book had my hand writing in it." He explained. Frisk flipped through it.
"My name is in here a bunch of times. Maybe we knew each other in another life or something?" She asked. Sans nodded.
"I think this is a timeline thing. I know a little about the time space continuum, but definitely not enough to be super helpful. Either way, I think we did know each other, but in another timeline." He said. "And the only person I know that could have knowledge about this isn't talking right now, so I guess his knowledge is suppressed." Frisk's eyes widened.
"Wait, say that again! The thing about the doctor in your head."
"He's not talking right now?" Sans guessed. "We already knew that." He said, and Frisk shook her head.
"No, the other thing!" She said, and Sans looked at her quizzically.
"His knowledge is being suppressed?" He said, and suddenly his eyes widened. "Wait, you don't think-"
"I do! That's why I knew who you were talking about. That's why I know I care, that's why you shuddered at Chara's name! Something is suppressing our memories." Sans nodded.
"Okay, but how do we find out who's become an amnesiac? It can't just be us." Frisk's eyebrows lowered, and she looked around the table for some inspiration.
"That's it! This is how! The names- they're probably the people in this book. Plus we can know if we feel something for these people. Those are probably the ones who have been suppressed." She smiled. Finally, they had a handle of some sort on their situation.
"Alright, so I guess we start by finding the first name in the book, huh?" Sans asked, and Frisk nodded. She opened up the book, then put a hand on the dried ink.
"I guess we need to talk to…Toriel." She said, and Sans just nodded. 'Toriel?' Frisk thought, her heart swelling with an unidentified feeling. "Here we come."
AN: Woo! This was tough to write. I really wanted to just finish up my first contribution to the Homestuck fandom. (Which, may I add, is the sole reason why I'm in this fandom, and largely the reason why undertale exists. I hope you had a happy 4/13 Homestucks.)) Thankfully, I didn't turn this chapter into a filler. I actually had to re write this entirely from where Sans actually met up with Frisk, because it was definitely going somewhere that I didn't want. Still, here's the first of Sans and Frisk's weekly meetings. I'm doing this to have a regular way for Sans and Frisk to interact. Don't worry, I'll still keep up the interactions with other characters. Hopefully you can expect them to meet Alphys, Undyne, and a few more people of Undertale's main cast. They probably won't have huge parts in the story, because the idea is really to center around Frisk and Sans.
Also, if anyone would be kind enough to edit or beta this story, I would be really appreciative. This could ((DESPERATELY)) use some grammar checkups, and I would love getting a second outlook on the story. If you're interested, send me a PM, or let me know in a review. As always, thank you for reading and reviewing.
Question: Is Ted Cruz the Zodiac Killer? (No, just kidding. Sorry, I wrote this with debates in the background.) ((of course, i don't have anything for or against Ted Cruz!)) What's your favorite skeleton pun (Or, just Undertale joke in general)? If you're in the fandom, I'm sure you've heard at least a few. Is it humorous? Is it so bad that it's good? If so, let me know in a review! I'll most likely laugh, because I love bad puns.
Stay determined, you guys!