Previously: Flowey agreed to assist Deos, Frisk and Toriel with their individual missions in return for a proposition known fully to both of them, after examining the hidden surveillance that the Royal Scientist has left outside, they are then met by Sans the Skeleton, the (seemingly lazy) sentry just outside the ruins, the same sentry that had promised Toriel to protect any human that walked out of the ruins, he and Frisk then agreed to be a part of Sans' scheme to make his brother, Papyrus, feel better...by their lack of refusal.

(Snowdin)

They walk to Sans' sentry post, it was nicely maintained and nearby is...

"Quick, hide behind that conveniently shaped lamp." Sans said, Frisk does so, while Deos and Toriel don't feel the need to hide as Deos is hidden behind his getup and Toriel can't be seen or heard by Papyrus. Then walking into view is "The Great" Papyrus, a 1980's Saturday Morning cartoon villain with a moral inversion and Asperger's Syndrome, the brother who actually has ambitions and takes his job seriously, this is probably the most important person in Sans' life...even if he's dressed in his "Battle Body", which appears more style over substance. "Sup, bro?"

Papyrus looks annoyed "YOU KNOW WHAT'S 'SUP,' BROTHER! IT'S BEEN EIGHT DAYS AND YOU STILL HAVEN'T...RECALIBRATED. YOUR. PUZZLES! YOU JUST HANG AROUND OUTSIDE YOUR STATION! WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING?!

Deos interrupts them "He was about to inform you that he's received word of a human in the area, it's fairly recent, isn't that right, Sans?"

Sans was surprised by this "Y-yeah, I was told that there was a human up ahead, if we're quick, we might catch up to them."

This excites Papyrus "WOWIE! YOU'RE FINALLY TAKING YOUR JOB SERIOUSLY! I THOUGHT THAT YOU WERE GETTING LAZIER AND LAZIER EVERY DAY!...AND WHO ARE YOU?" He looked at Deos "I'VE NEVER SEEN YOU AROUND BEFORE!"

"I am Deos, I've come from an out of the way part of the underground, it was pretty isolated, I guess that it was a dark way to live..."

Sans makes a badum-ching, which annoys Papyrus "UGH! YOU'VE BEEN HANGING AROUND SANS, HAVEN'T YOU?!"

Deos has some minor irritations to his voice "Sorry, that wasn't on purpose, that's been happening a ton lately."

...and right on cue "A Skele-ton?" Sans makes another badum-ching, much to the annoyance of Papyrus.

"SANS! WE DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS! A HUMAN IS IN THE AREA! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS MUST BE THE ONE TO CAPTURE A HUMAN! I NEED TO TRACK THE HUMAN DOWN BEFORE SOMEONE ELSE DOES! RESPECT...RECGONITION...JOINING THE ROYAL GUARD! IT'S ALL SO CLOSE."

"Yeah, you go ahead, I catch you up, I want to tidy up my station before we're snowed in." Sans makes yet another badum-ching.

"SANS!..." Papyrus is losing his patience, Deos can see that clearly.

"You might want to get to your puzzles before your head explodes with how much you're being annoyed by the constant irritations that you have today."

"INDEED, I SHALL DEOS!...AND SANS!...PUT A LITTLE MORE, 'BACKBONE' INTO IT!"

Deos signs and shakes his head "Save the bad jokes for your brother..."

This makes Papyrus laugh "NYEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE!" and after a brief pause he comes back for a brief "HEH!".

Frisk then comes out of hiding, Toriel was laughing at this exchange between them, although Papyrus couldn't hear her "That was the most fun I've had since I've met you, Sans!"

"I had to improvise, since Deos here added some material of his own". Sans said.

"It was not meant to be funny or irritating, depending on who you're thinking of. Now before we deal with the trials that Snowdin has in store for us, there's something that I want to find out before we move forward." he turns to Frisk and kneels "Frisk, I need to learn a little more about you, if you're willing, I need to touch that bandage and your stick, it might help explain why you don't talk that much." Frisk nodded and Deos then touched those two items and whatever Deos saw, it was too much for him to keep in, he hugged Frisk with tears in his eyes. "You've had it the worst so far!..." Toriel came out of the Dimensional Pocket Amulet to join in the hug session.

"I'll go on ahead, I don't want to keep Papy waiting." Sans said as he went ahead, feeling that he'd only get in the way of this, Flowey just watched this annoyance, waiting for them to be done before they move on, he was left outside of earshot so that he didn't say anything upsetting towards Papyrus, meanwhile...

(Ebott City)

Neil, the Light Blue Mage is sitting outside drinking coffee and having a sandwich in his Light blue buttoned shirt and white pants. He's visibly worried about Frisk, whom he reported was missing, he had heard that the other children were causing that child some problems, but he thought that he could resolve the issue with enough time, unfortunately Frisk wasn't as patient as him. Then he saw Cali, he had called upon her non-magical skills from time to time, skills that he lacked, she looked visibly angry.

"That inconsiderate...UGH!" Neil saw this behaviour in the children that he was responsible for, but he rarely had to deal with it in the fully grown.

"Is something wrong, Cali?"

"Yes, NEIL! Deos knows where Frisk is and he's down there now, all he did was give me a message and instructions of what to do next! Could he not have waited for me, we're in this together?"

Neil can understand her anger towards Deos, although he treads carefully with this as he doesn't want to make her anger worse. "Yes, his behaviour can be annoying sometimes, but he wouldn't do this to intentionally annoy..." He then reacted in surprise when he remembered a specific part of her side of the conversation "WHAT? Did you say that Deos has found Frisk?!"

"YES!"

"At least we can hope that he's caught up with that child, we know two things that he intends to do there, we were all involved in that at some point during the development of it, but there are some things that he's kept hidden."

"I know! That's why I'm heading to his apartment, I have a spare key that he told me about, we each knew the code, we just didn't know which one it was, the rest is in that drawer, you know the one."

Neil has a look of worry and then he and Cali look to the side of them "Yeah, the one that he makes sure we don't open when he's there" they find the voice coming from Paula, she was listening in on their conversation and was in her ECPD uniform, she kept her hair in a bun when on duty and had an appearance which hinted Spanish descent, but that wasn't something that people paid much attention to around Ebott City. "So where is this missing child?"

Cali had calmed down somewhat, but was still angry "Under Mt. Ebott..."

Paula had a look of dread "Oh..."

Neil then expanded on Cali's brief statement "Don't worry, Deos is down there right now, he felt a need to leave hastily, only having time to leave a message for Cali to pick up" Cali grunts at this "As for the specifics of why, at least one of us will need to ask him about that."

"That's my next stop, I'll also need to update the others about this and I'll let you know what I've found out, I am NOT looking forward to that..." Cali said with a hint of disgust.

Neil understands what she meant "Oh...you're talking about our inside source, aren't you?"

Cali looks disgusted "Yes...I dislike most of them because they're 'accessories to murder' as Deos put it, but THAT one...I dislike most of all, she's so...secretive!"

Paula knows what she means by 'secretive' as she is capable of detecting the consequences of the actions of others or bad karma, a useful ability in her line of work "You're telling me! What she's done is weighing heavily on her, although it's not something she did to intentionally cause harm or destroy, no more than whatever you did at one point."

This annoys Cali "What do you mean by that, Paula?..."

Paula raised her hands in response to this sudden hostile tone "I'm saying that you both got issues that you don't want to talk about with others, I respect that, if you feel like talking about it with anyone, why not someone who might understand your position better."

Neil, sensing the tense atmosphere, decided to change the subject "It might be a good idea to head to his apartment, that way our inside source can at least give us updates on their situation."

Cali, although she didn't like that possibility, agreed with Neil as even if Deos and Frisk wasn't there yet, she'd at least find out where they are. "Yeah, I'll keep you informed!" she storms away from them, Neil and Paula weren't at all surprised by this and decided not to draw attention to it, she had legitimate reason to be angry at Deos about this.

What will Cali find in that drawer that Paula mentioned? What has happened to Frisk, Deos and Toriel as they travel through the frigid part of the Underground known as Snowdin? Find out in Chapter 6: Cold Shoulders.