Level 9

"Just take the pitchfork!"

"No!"

Undyne clenched her fists harder when staring up at Papyrus, who she had cornered in the same room Sans and Gerson were in. He held his stick out and waved it whenever Undyne got close, eyes darting madly for an escape.

In one of Undyne's fists she held a green fork, trying to give it to Papyrus but he responded with a wave of his stick. "Ngah, I want this to be a fair fight! How am I supposed to prove that monsters are stronger than humans if I kill you now?!"

"Don't kill me! That's a strong move!"

"You two having fun over there?" Undyne turned her head back when Gerson called out to them. Sans was also looking upon the scene, a little worried for his brother even with Gerson's constant reassurance.

"He won't take the pitchfork!" Undyne yelled in anger, eyes quickly darting back to Papyrus when she heard him move. He froze again in his stance.

"Aw, now that's not very fun, is it?" Gerson lifted a hand to his mouth, shouting. "Just humor her, sonny! I promise fish lips won't do you in!"

"Easy for you to say over there!" Papyrus shouted back, stifling a quick gasp when he saw Undyne smack the stick out of his hands. It plopped into the nearby water, and before Papyrus could blink Undyne had placed the green fork in his hand.

She backed up triumphantly. "Yes! Now that you have my pitchfork-"

Papyrus shoved the fork into Undyne's face. "This is a fork!"

Undyne's face went red. "No it's not! It's a miniature pitchfork, perfect for dealing with weak humans like you!"

With a flick of her wrist a blue fork zapped into existence to which she took into both of her hands. She bent lightly forward to show Papyrus even more blue forks floating behind her.

She grinned. "Now we can fight!"

Sans flinched as he watched his brother horribly fail to dodge the forks, but it didn't look as though they were doing him a lot of damage.

"Hey Gerson, throw the other human over here!" Undyne excitedly turned back to look at him, as if the notion of him watching pumped her adrenaline. "I want to show you how strong I am!"

"I got this one, Undyne, don't worry about him." Sans looked back over to Gerson, who was eyeing him slyly. "We're playing a mind game."

"A mind game?" Undyne let her arms drop for a second before she pulled them closer to her chest. "That sounds brutal! You'll have to teach me after I'm done with this one!"

"Might want to pay attention to yours first." Gerson pointed ahead of Undyne, and it was at that moment when she heard frantic splashing.

She turned back around to notice Papyrus darting back towards where they first landed, with Undyne and her army of forks pursuing. "Hey! I didn't say you can run!"

Sans heard Gerson laugh as Undyne went to fetch Papyrus, prompting Sans to turn back in his chair. Gerson kept one of his elbows on the table. "I haven't seen Undyne this riled up since she used to follow me around and watch me beat up baddies."

Gerson slouched back in his chair, giving a light groan with it as if to relieve some pain in his back. "But those are days of old. Now your question though…"

A claw lightly touched Sans' photo album, with Gerson having one eye opened once more. "Your question is very old. You believe you have monster ancestors?"

Sans shook his head. "No, I know we have monster ancestors. Things wouldn't make sense if we didn't."

"Such as?" Gerson still kept only one eye cracked open, which meant to Sans that he didn't fully believe him.

Hand moving from the photo album, Sans lifted the book up and frantically searched through the pages, trying to find what he knew was there. "Where is it…"

His hand almost flipped to another page but froze while Sans' eyebrows lurched, digging the photo out of its encasement. He lifted it up gingerly before showing it to Gerson. "Like this photo. My mom told me that this was a photo taken long ago of my ancestors, but…"

Gerson sat up to get a better look at the picture, its paper washed out with browns, grays and blacks. The edges were starting to crumble, but the more important part was the picture. It was a tall, chubby woman, who had bent over and held two young boys beneath her. They were both dressed formally as if they were prepared for the picture, and several other people were in the background doing their own thing. It would have been flawless, except for the fact that the top left was completely cut away, and the shorter one of the two boys' eyes seemed to be staring at something that wasn't there anymore.

Sans took the photo back when Gerson had looked long enough, cradling the picture as if it would turn to dust and blow away. "Mom says she received the photo like this and that she was assured there was nothing in that missing spot, but I can't help but wonder what was torn off."

"Your mom could be right; it could be nothing." Gerson laid back in his chair, while watching Sans put the photo away.

He shook his head stubbornly. "No, that wouldn't make sense. Why would one of the boys be looking at nothing? And there's so many people in the background, it doesn't look like a planned event."

"Is that all the evidence you have?" Gerson asked, deciding to switch subjects which jarred Sans for a moment.

He searched his brain for some more evidence to convince Gerson that what he was saying wasn't foolish. "Well what about when I was with Mary and Carrie. They told me the lullaby I knew was the royal monster lullaby."

"You still sing yourself to sleep with a lullaby?" It was a tease, but Gerson didn't laugh at his own joke. "The Queen used to sing that to all the monster children back before the war, before she had her son."

"How about this?" Sans pointed to his blue eye.

Gerson smiled. "That's a nice eye color you have there. Whose side of the family?"

"My mom's." Sans felt his eyes dart to the table below him. "She has blue eyes like this, and my grandpa had orange eyes like Papyrus."

"Mmm I don't know much about humans, but I know orange isn't an eye color for your species." Gerson started to sit up, getting more invested with the conversation. "You two born that way?"

"Actually no. Our eyes changed when we got hit with something." Sans frowned, trying to make sense of the scene before. "It was like a bomb, but it exploded into different colors. I couldn't breathe, and my bones felt on fire."

Gerson didn't respond so quickly, giving a deep hum as if to verbally say, 'I'm thinking'. "That's interesting."

"What is?" Sans' eyes darted back up to Gerson, desperate for any information.

"You and your brother were hit with a magic amplifying bomb. It's the Royal Guard's newest weapon, courtesy of ol' Wingdings. When the bomb explodes it's supposed to expel a bunch of magic into whoever is nearby, making their attacks wild and uncontrollable. The Guard says it's supposed to stun them so that they can capture bad monsters, but I think the bomb is just a bad idea, Wahaha!"

Sans frowned. "Why not make a bomb that cuts off magic?"

"That's what I asked, too! 'That's too complicated' was all Wingdings said. Sometimes I wonder if he just likes to see his crazy ideas get built and taken seriously."

The old turtle gave Sans a soft smile, but it also looked apologetic. "You must have run into Sagiv by now, haven't you?"

Sans gritted his teeth and decided to stare at the garbage beside them, which was all the Gerson needed to know. "He prides himself on being the head of the Royal Guard; no one quicker to draw his blade than him. Well, maybe not the only one."

His eyes shifted to Undyne, but Sans didn't get the moment to turn his head and look at where Gerson was glancing before he drew him back in. "You'll have to forgive him for being so hostile. He fought in the war when he was no older than you. He learned a lot of things through it, bad things…"

Gerson sat up, both eyes opening. "But that's not the main subject of our conversation. No, let's talk ancestors."

"So you believe me?" Sans felt a blossom of hope swell inside his chest, his smile returning.

Gerson batted a claw. "Oh I've known since I first laid eyes on you two, I just wanted to see how much you believed it yourself. You both reek of magic, so maybe I should say when I first smelled you two, Wahaha!"

Sans lost his smile as quickly as it appeared. "What do you mean?"

Gerson shook his head. "I mean that the monster part within you has taken a calling to all that magic that was floating around in that bomb. Should you have never encountered monster magic, I would say that you two would live a normal, human life. But now that something inside of you has awoken-!"

Gerson held up a claw, but not to Sans. "I'm getting ahead of myself. To understand the present, you must understand the past.

"Now, I'm an old turtle. I remember a lot of things, but sadly I forget just as much too, so I apologize if this isn't very clear. Now I would hope you know what happened in the war. Monsters and Humans fought, the humans won and drove us down underground. But before we left, there was an issue with dividing people.

"See, not all humans stayed with their kind. There was a lot of fraternizing between monsters and humans before the war, so-"

"Whoa, whoa." Sans held up his hands, cutting Gerson off. He looked a little miffed Sans had stopped his discussion, who still kept his hands up. "Fraternizing? I mean, aren't monsters made of magic? So how uh…"

Gerson folded his arms. "You want me to talk about the birds and the bees?"

When Sans gave an uncomfortable look back Gerson let his annoyance blow away with his chuckles. "What are they teaching you kids up there these days? Ok, so I hope you would know how humans reproduce, yes? Well, monsters do relatively the same thing, only with our magic. Let's call it 'baby magic'. Now combining normal attacks together won't make a monster, only when a male and a female monster come together and use that 'baby magic' can a baby monster be conceived. And if you're wondering, they squeal and whine about as much as human babies do."

"Then how can a human and monster come together?" Sans was still confused.

Gerson leaned lightly back in his chair. "Now there's a question many humans and monsters have been pondering for awhile. You see, contrary to belief, humans do have magic. It's very small, but they do hold something within themselves similar to what we have. When a human and a monster come together, the monster simply draws some of that magic out of the human and into the 'baby magic', but it takes a lot more magic from the monster in order to create a child. And even then, sometimes they aren't stable, depending on how much magic was drawn from the human. Too little, and they revert into monsters like their monster parents or the monster in question fades to dust from drawing too much magic out of themselves. Too much and the child will be stable, but the human parent dies from having too much magic drawn from them.

"Anyways, big issue that arose when the war was over was where the monster-human children would go. The parents who fraternized with monsters were to be executed, but who could say what child would turn into a monster and who wouldn't? Only us monsters could tell, but they wanted their children on the surface."

Sans felt confused. "But wait, how were the humans able to make a barrier strong enough to keep the monsters trapped? Did they have access to their magic?"

"They did." Gerson nodded his head. "Humans had access to magic back then, but it mostly came from the weapons they used, not from within. True, they do have magic in their souls but it's relatively small compared to a monster's magic, so they need the aid of a staff of enchanted item to draw upon it. Monsters draw from their souls, humans draw it from the item they use. But back to my story.

"It wasn't until, oh, what was his name." Gerson rubbed his goatee. "He had the silliest mustache I had ever seen. Anyways, Mr. silly mustache decided that since they couldn't tell who would change they would divide the children according to how they appeared at the moment. Smart, isn't he."

Gerson took a moment to chuckle. "As if you could tell who was monster and who wasn't by how they looked. But in all seriousness, a lot of families were divided because of it. The children that looked human were kept with relatives on the surface, while any with unusual features were forced to leave with the monsters. However, the two biggest cases I bared witness to were the spiders and skeletons.

"Now, the humans had a very hard time coming to a decision with these two. Both humans that had fraternized were from high-standing houses, and their children looked relatively normal. Some humans wanted the children on the surface so that they could carry on their respective houses; others wanted them banished for being impure. Us monsters could see that the children had powerful magic coursing through them, but where they would go wasn't our place to say.

"Finally a decision was made. The skeleton children were to be kept on the surface with relatives, but the spiders however were banished. I guess they would have preferred the children turning into skeletons over giant spiders."

Sans shuddered at the thought of giant spiders rampaging through a stereotypical city.

"So does that mean…?" Sans felt a hand slowly go to his chest, fear steadily crawling up his back. His bones felt like they were pressing too hard against his skin.

Gerson shook his head. "Now don't panic on me, Sans. Just because I talked about that case doesn't mean they were the only children to stay on the surface. There were other, less involved cases were monster children were kept above ground. The only thing we can say for certain is that you and your brother are descendents of the children who were kept on the surface, and now the monster part in you is trying to come out."

Sans took a hard swallow, for once finding it hard to speak. "T-Trying to come… out?"

Gerson had a look on his face that said he wasn't kidding. "I'm afraid so. Now I'm not a scientist, so I don't have an explanation as to why this is happening or really if you will turn into a monster or not. Maybe nothing will happen because the part of you that's monster is so tiny from several generations of humans in your ancestral tree."

He then shook his head, as if he were apologetic. "But I can't say for certain what will happen. Those spider children I talked about earlier? Well, they transformed into monsters after being around magic for so long. They even forgot who they were after awhile once their human soul completely transformed into a monster soul."

Gerson rasped a few claws on the table. "And the skeletons? Well, I don't know what went down on the surface, but one of them returned to the Underground. A few monster-children did that actually, from either being chased to the mountain by angry villagers or wanting to go back to their people. It was a dark time, really."

Gerson let out a light groan, as if his long talk had winded him. "Now, I don't know why you came down here."

He eyed Sans backpack. "But I can't believe that you falling down here was an accident. If you want my advice, I would head home. You two still have a chance to leave while your human souls are intact. But you should change into a monster, well… you won't be seeing sunlight or your family for a long time."

Sans felt his eyes move down to the table once more, where his hand still promptly rested on the photo album. "Yeah, I'll keep that in mind."

The sound of grunting and splashing water soon turned Gerson and Sans' attention back over to Papyrus and Undyne, who had brought themselves back into their view. Undyne was throwing more and more forks at Papyrus from all sides, while the teenager was getting the hang of dodging with his green fork and continuing to move.

"You're not bad, human!" Undyne cried out, her breathing heavy as she continued to throw her glowing forks. "This will only make your defeat that much sweeter when you fall!"

"Nyeh, try and best the Great Papyrus!" Papyrus yelled back, turning half around to hit one of the blue forks with his green one. "I could do this all day!"

"Nice brother you have there." Sans turned back around in his chair from Gerson's comment.

He was smiling more sincerely now, as if the heavy tension from before never happened. "He seems to be getting the hang of Undyne's attacks."

Sans felt a small smile form on his lips. "Heh, Papyrus was always a fast learner."

"That so?" Gerson was a bit surprised when Sans moved his hand off of the photo album and flipped it open.

Sans gave a soft look back. "Yeah, Papyrus was the athlete in our family. He was good at any sport or athletic he tried."

In turning to one page Sans couldn't help but chuckle. "One time Papyrus tried to impress a cheerleader that he had a crush on at our middle school."

"So he became a football player?" Gerson asked.

Sans laughed. "Nah, he joined the cheerleading squad."

He then held up the page for Gerson to see, in which it was a photo for the Bobcats Middle School Cheerleading team. There were 14 girls all dressed in their uniforms, with Papyrus in the middle doing a split and his arms raised in the air, a look of pure bliss on his face. The other cheerleaders in the photo looked less enthusiastic.

Gerson couldn't help but laugh too. "Wahaha! I'm sure he attracted a lot of girls that way."

"Oh he attracted attention." Sans' smile slightly waivered, but he thoughts turned to something happier. "He also took a lot of dance classes in high school. Dad was never a fan but he became pretty popular with the dance club. Bro can dance any dance you ask."

Gerson hesitantly lifted his hand up. "Would you mind?"

Sans shrugged, giving Gerson the photo album. "I don't."

"Thank you." Gerson started at the beginning, absentmindedly flipping through the photos and chuckling when he saw fit. Sans couldn't help but get up and stand behind the old turtle, pointing at certain photos and telling him in detail of the memories him and Papyrus shared.

There was the time Papyrus had brought home a sick cat on a rainy day when he was 11 and the two kept the cat until their mom found it and had an allergic reaction. He took a photo of the day he found a trash bag full of leaves in Papyrus' room when he was 14 and it led to the two of them talking all night about how his coach was harassing him in class for never putting his full force into his swings when they did boxing. And who could forget the day the two tried to open up their own hotdog stand just two summers ago that got rained out?

But while there were so many Papyrus photos, there were a few where Sans had been the victim to the elusive camera. He told stories of his 6th Halloween and how Papyrus dressed him up as a princess so that he could be a knight and tote him around saying he was his sister so they would get extra candy. There was the time when the two tried out for the school talent show by dressing up as skeletons and doing a comedy skit, where they got third for Papyrus' hilarious reactions. And Sans winced a little when looking at the photo of his early years in high school and how he took up band while Papyrus joined choir. The two never went back after the first year.

Sans hadn't laughed so hard in a while.

Gerson gently closed the back of the book when he had gone through all the photos, handing it back to Sans. "Well, it seems to me that you love your brother a lot."

He took it gently and placed it back in his backpack, nodding his head. "He's the only friend I have, really."

"Well, I would hold onto that bond you two have for as long as you can." Gerson placed his hands on the table, a warm smile present for Sans to see. "You never know what might come and take it away."

As if hitting Sans himself the teenager's mood seemed to darken. His eyes shifted away and his smile fell, muttering. "Yeah…"

Gerson gave a puzzled expression, about to ask if something was wrong when Undyne had bounded her way over, screaming at the top of her lungs. "GERSON, I DID IT!"

Gerson's attention shifted over to Undyne as he gave her a teasing smile with a cocked eyebrow. "And what might you have done, Undyne?"

Her grin was only more frightening with her sharp teeth. "I beat the human! Now he knows how strong us monsters are!"

For a moment, Sans believed that Undyne had killed his brother. He was about to leap from his chair and find his brother when Papyrus had walked over to his chair, resting half of his body over the top and onto Sans.

He breathed heavily; apparently Undyne had wiped him out. "Ok… your turn to fight the fish."

Gerson slapped a hand on his knee. "Wahaha! So you did fish lips, congrats."

He ruffled her matted, red hair. "I'm very proud of you, Undyne."

Undyne flashed a bigger grin, her hands reaching up to hold his. "Just wait till I grow older, Gerson! I'll be the head of the Royal Guard, kicking a lot more bad-guy butt than you!"

"Well then, I can't wait for the day I get to trail you around while you beat up bad guys."

Both monsters shared a nice chuckle and from where Papyrus and Sans sat they could almost feel the warmth radiating off of them.

When her laughter ceased Undyne, with her clenched fists brought them up to her chest. "Now teach me that mind trick you used on the fat human!"

Sans frowned for a second, then rolled his eyes. He wasn't going to deny the truth, but Gerson only lightly chuckled. "Alright, if we must. But not in front of them, you don't want them catching on do you?"

Undyne's eyes darted to the two of them before back at Gerson eagerly. "Nah, I want to hit them where they least expect it!"

Triumphantly Undyne threw her hands into the air as Gerson helped himself out of his seat. "That's the spirit, fish lips."

He motioned with his head. "Come along now, I'll teach it to you in my shop."

Undyne bolted out of the water and down the stone path as if to race Gerson there, who only shook his head silently. With a simple turn he bid the two humans farewell with a smile. "Stop by my shop any time, you two, and good luck on your journey."

He started to walk off when the old turtle seemed to remember something. "Oh, and Papyrus?"

Papyrus was a bit confused as to why this turtle knew his name, but he soon figured out why when he looked back with a teasing smile. "Next time you drop by, I want to hear about middle school from you."

He then walked off with a chuckle to where Undyne had disappeared, leaving Sans and Papyrus to look at one another for a brief moment.

Papyrus gave Sans a deadpanned look. "You told him about me being a cheerleader, didn't you."

Sans grinned and looked away. "What can I say, bro? I got 'pumped' to tell it."

What words to describe Papyrus' face. To put it simply the teenager pushed off of the chair and stomped over to one of the garbage piles, leaving Sans to snicker in his seat.

When Papyrus had calmed down and Sans was able to carrel him over, the two left the deep water for dry land.

Their shoes squeaked and squished from being completely soaked, and both boys had to take off their socks from how much water they retained. Sans decided to sit on a rock elevated from the ground while Papyrus merely leaned against it, wringing out their socks and trying to dry them by flapping them up and down.

"Water, why did it have to be water we fell in." Papyrus grumbled, flapping his socks the hardest while Sans barely moved his.

"You wanted it to be rocks?" Sans cocked an eyebrow at his brother, who merely looked away. "I fell in the water but I'm not complaining."

"Do you ever complain?" Papyrus stopped moving his socks, his face puzzled as if he was having to seriously think over his own question.

Sans smiled. "That's ok, you do enough complaining for the both of us."

"Oh haha. You're hilarious, Sans." Papyrus shot Sans a light glare, but he only smiled back.

"Thanks for noticing."

When Sans gazed out in front of him something new had appeared from all the water falling and rocks. A figure was poorly hiding itself behind one of the smaller rocks, its head turned away and dark, scaly body hunched, but Sans felt it was looking at them.

"Hey, Papyrus." Sans whispered, getting his brother's attention.

Papyrus angled his head down before looking over to where Sans was pointing, easily spotting the monster that was hiding from them. Sans felt himself regret pointing the monster out though as he watched the color drain from Papyrus' face, hand going for his pocket but remembering that Undyne had chucked his stick.

He watched Papyrus in what he might do, but he just stood there. Finally his head turned wearily to look at him, as if expecting Sans to take the lead. "You uh… want to go talk to them?"

"Talk?" Sans was a little baffled to what Papyrus was asking, cocking an eyebrow. "Since when are you willing to interact with monsters?"

Papyrus' eyes darted away, a light blush coming to his cheeks. "Well, I've been starting to notice that uh…"

His voice grew soft and quick. "These monsters are sort of friendly."

Sans' could feel his eyebrow go higher on his head, sprouting a smile. He opened his mouth to retaliate.

Papyrus soon held up a hand to cut Sans off. "I know, brother, you must be asking yourself, 'why is my awesome older brother, the Great Papyrus, even suggesting such a thing? Monsters are scary!' Well settle down, my chubby brother; for I have been observing the monsters and can safely say that only half of them want us dead! That's like, 50%!"

Sans' smile deepened, getting more comfortable on the rock. "Is that so, Papyrus."

"Hm, yes, I know this must be challenging for you to wrap your head around." Papyrus held a hand to his chest, pressing a wet sock onto his shirt. "I know it took me awhile to guess that 100 minus 50… is another 50! But facts are facts Sans, so there's a 50% chance of that monster attacking us!

"But I, of course, know that it won't."

"Well then, why don't you go and demonstrate?"

Papyrus' body grew stiff, his eyes wide as they darted over to Sans. "Excuse me."

Sans by now was thoroughly enjoying this, having gotten out his journal to finally put down some logs and sketches. "You heard me, go and talk to that monster. I know the Great Papyrus is never wrong, but I'm too scared to go and talk to them, like you said."

"Er, yes. Like I said." Papyrus let his hand drop with his wet sock, looking to where it stained his shirt before over to the hiding monster.

Sans could practically smell the fear smoking off his still brother, but he encouraged him with a wave of his hand. "Go on. Teach me to not be scared of monsters."

Papyrus, his ego too big for him to back down straightened his back and proclaimed. "Alright, I will!"

He got a few strides in before basically coming to a halt again, body stiffening and legs unable to work.

Timidly Papyrus looked back to Sans, who was more concerned with his journal at the moment than actually watching. Sans knew Papyrus practicing getting friendly with the monsters would help them on their journey, but Papyrus on the other hand knew he had made a grave mistake.

What if this monster attacked him? Even with his awesome muscles there would be no way for him to fend for himself with just his walkman. And really he would rather not destroy his precious machine.

Still, he didn't want to disappoint Sans, and Papyrus never failed at anything! Except math, that was an exception.

Taking a deep breath, Papyrus slowly walked himself over to where the monster hid. He could tell it knew he was coming the more it hunched to try and hide its body.

With only a few feet between them, Papyrus cleared his throat, only to speak with a squeaky, stuttering voice. "E-excuse m-me…"

The monster didn't turn to look at him, but it did suppress a soft gasp. Scaly arms were raised above their head in an attempt to become even more invisible to Papyrus, lightly humming a tune to ease its mind.

Papyrus flinched back as if he had anticipated an attack from the monster, but merely it was just trying to hide itself even more. He then straightened back up, nervously looking over to Sans who had looked up from his journal.

He gave Papyrus a big grin and nodded his head for him to continue. Papyrus took a gulp, took a deep breath, and tried again. "Uh, hello… monster. I don't wish to harm you but-"

His voice was quickly drowned out when the monster, who was shaking now, starting to hum even louder. Papyrus grew a little irritated. "Hey, I'm just trying to talk to you. You don't-"

But the humming got louder, so loud in fact that Sans stopped writing in his journal to watch the scene unsuccessfully fold out. Oh dear.

Sans felt an itch on his cheek that he scratched, hoping he wouldn't have to step in and solve this. He focused himself back to his journal, telling himself that if he heard Papyrus shriek he would rush over.

Papyrus on the other hand was getting very annoyed with this monster, trying to make his voice heard through all the humming but every time he spoke louder the monster would match it with its hum. Soon the only noise in the area was Papyrus screaming, a monster humming so loud it could break glass, and rushing water.

"Oh… this is very loud…"

Papyrus almost didn't hear the soft-spoken voice if he hadn't needed to breathe through all his yelling. The humming died down too when the air before them started to take shape, a pale white blossoming into existence.

A ghost the height of a child made itself known to the two, its eyes sullen and sunken while its mouth seemed to be cast in an eternal frown. Papyrus flinched once more when the spirit showed itself, but the scaly monster seemed rather pleased.

It cooed something before slithering over and behind the spirit, still keeping its face angled away from Papyrus. The ghost looked to the monster than over to Papyrus. "Oh… now you guys stopped… I'm sorry… you two were probably having so much fun yelling until I came along…"

The monster soon spoke, though its voice was more of singing than speaking. Papyrus decided that through the high-pitched wail that it was a female, and its voice was rather pretty. Though the body could be said otherwise.

The ghost paid more attention to the female monster for the moment. "Really…Ok… I will try…"

Eyes then drifting back to Papyrus, the ghost floated over to where he stood. Papyrus backed up a bit, wondering if the ghost was perhaps one of the fallen humans come back for revenge. "Excuse me-"

"St-stay away from me!" Papyrus yelled, though upon tripping over his feet he fell backwards and at the mercy of the ghost.

The ghost however didn't seemed fazed, its eyes having no need to blink. "Sorry… I'm a nuisance, aren't I..."

"You're a ghost!"

"I am..."

Papyrus expected this unholy spirit to do something, like they usually did in all those horror movies he watched. You know, drag him through a wall, turn the lights on and off, wail with the normal 'ooooo'.

Apparently this ghost hadn't got the memo on what it was supposed to do, Papyrus surmised as he looked the ghost up and down. Or perhaps… it was friendly? Like that old ghost movie he used to watch with a friendly ghost and his uncles?

Papyrus now wondered if the ghost had uncles.

Knowing that he wasn't in danger anymore Papyrus sat himself up, eyebrow cocked and mouth slightly open. "You're not going to hurt me?"

"No..." The ghost turned its body back to the monster for a second and then to Papyrus. "Shyren says that you and your friend are sitting on her rock… She likes to sit there so… could you please move…"

"The rock?" Papyrus gazed back over to where Sans sat, who was busying himself with writing in his journal. Papyrus frowned, he was supposed to be learning from him!

His eyes then shifted back over to the ghost, giving him an awkward shrug. "Isn't there another rock she can sit on? We're sort of…airing our laundry."

"Oh…" The ghost didn't look fazed, but its voice got softer. "Sorry for interrupting then…"

Shyren brought her fins up to her face, and it took Papyrus almost half a minute of just staring at them awkwardly before what they meant finally reached his brain. "What? No! We're literally airing our laundry!"

He held up his wet socks as proof to his words. "You two are gross!"

"Oh…" Was the ghost starting to cry? "I'm so bad at reading people... I should just leave…"

The ghost then started to fade away, though its eyes caught Papyrus' walkman. "What's that…"

"What's what?" For such large eyes Papyrus couldn't see what the ghost was referring to, nor did the ghost have any arms to point at it.

In seeing the problem Shyren slowly slithered out from behind the ghost, keeping her back to Papyrus still and using her fin to point at his walkman.

Papyrus eyed his walkman for a second, unclipping it from his pocket. "This? It's my walkman."

"Walkman…" The ghost felt as though it were speaking in a foreign tongue. "Is it your pet…"

"What? No." Without noticing Papyrus stood back up, one of his hands slipping his headphones on while the other held his walkman so that he could press the play button easily. "It's a music player. You put tapes of music inside and the music plays through these headphones."

"Really…" The ghost, who voice was like tissue paper blowing in the wind seemed more eager to stick around and talk, inching closer to Papyrus. "Is it like a record player…"

"Kind of?" Papyrus eyed the ghost playfully. "Are you telling me all you have is a record player?"

"Is that bad…" The ghost glanced to Papyrus, then back down at the fascination in his hands.

Papyrus scoffed, then with a teasing smile took off his headphones and held them out for the ghost. "Here, listen to this."

"Ok..." The ghost moved itself over to where the headphones were, phasing himself into them so that they rested on either side of his body.

He looked to Papyrus questionably. "…Like this…"

"Yeah!" Papyrus, not thinking that perhaps the ghost might not have ears, gave a thumbs up before pressing the play button on his walkman.

For a few seconds all three of them just stood there, with Papyrus holding the walkman. He had forgotten what song he stopped on when Sans had woken up forever ago, but the ghost didn't seem to notice.

Its eyes grew a bit bigger, its mouth opening into a small o. "Oh…"

"Awesome, right?" Papyrus smiled, as if he was waiting for the approval of the ghost.

The ghost nodded with his body. "It's so…amazing…."

Shyren looked from Papyrus to the ghost with the back of her head, slightly confused and feeling a bit left out. Papyrus expected the song was over, for the ghost soon took off the headphones. They floated back over to where Papyrus stood, who plucked them out of thin air. "Thank you for showing me that… I have never heard music like that before..."

"Well, you just so happened to hear only the best songs." Papyrus stood a little more proudly, hand with his wet sock finding itself back to his chest. "I only listen to the best music."

"I hope something like that floats down the river…"

Papyrus let his hand fall, eyes going back over to the ghost. "Wait, they don't sell walkmans down here?"

"No… all we get is the trash from the humans..." The ghost moved slightly to the right, as if to point with his body where the two came from. "My cousins and I sort through it daily but never have I found anything like that…. I hope to one day though…"

Hearing how hopeful the ghost's voice was, Papyrus soon found himself looking grimly down at his walkman, then back to the ghost. He took a deep breath, smiled and then held the walkman out. "Well then, today is your lucky day! For I, the Great Papyrus, will let you have my walkman and headphones!"

"Really…" The ghost's eyes got wide again, turning their body away. "Oh, I couldn't… I would hate to take that away from you…"

"Nonsense! I insist!" Papyrus eagerly ran over to where the ghost had turned its body, holding the walkman and headphones out again. "I can always buy another, but you can't. So please, take it."

"…" The ghost looked as though it would cry again, and suddenly the walkman floated from Papyrus' hands. The yellow headphones fit snug around the ghost's body, as the walkman floated nearby.

It was his small smile though that got Papyrus. "Thank you… I don't know how I could repay your kindness…"

"Well…" Papyrus lightly blushed back, feeling the need to tug on his shirt as if to ventilate the hot air. "I really don't need anything."

"I doubt anything I could give you would be just as great…"

It was Shyren who then moved back over to the ghost, and Papyrus had noticed that she was now turning towards him. She looked to have a floating fish for a head and a scaly body underneath, with swamp green hair and closed slits for eyes. She smiled when looking at Papyrus.

"Oh… that's nice…" The ghost listened to her quiet voice, then gazed over at Papyrus. "Shyren wants to sing for you… if that's ok…"

"A song? For me?" Papyrus felt a warm sensation blossom in his heart, his blush getting darker. "Nyeh, I suppose a song would be nice."

Finding a nice spot to sit, Papyrus brought his knees to his chest and rested his head on said knees. Shyren brought a fin to what Papyrus thought was her chest, jagged mouth opening to showing empty darkness.

The ghost floated over to where Papyrus sat, deciding to lay on the floor with the walkman near his side. They waited for Shyren to start, who seemed hesitant now to do so. Papyrus gestured lightly with his fingers as if to encourage her, and with a light blush Shyren started to sing.

Papyrus wasn't expecting to see the visible notes waft up from her throat and out of her mouth, but somehow it made the scene before him even gentler. Her voice was a little high-pitched for his liking, but when tuning that part out the song itself was a pretty tune. He nodded his head in accordance to the tocks he set in his mind that went with the song, eyes closed.

This feeling… how long had it been since he hung out with other beings beside his brother? It was… nice.

The warmth in Papyrus' heart seemed to swell in accordance to his thoughts, his eyes fiery but in a nice, comforting way.

Sans, who had taken to biting his lip and staring hungrily at his journal was snapped from his deep thinking when he heard singing. He turned his head up and over to where Papyrus sat, noticing the little scene and how serene his brother looked.

Sans felt a small chuckle bubble up from his chest and out into the room, shaking his head lightly. He was glad one of them wasn't worrying anymore.

But that simple light-hearted laugh soon dissipated when Sans could feel his muscles tightening, his eyes attached to his left arm. His bones felt like they were growing again; constricting against his skin. He absentmindedly scratched his arm and went back to his journal, wondering what was in store for them next.

Aka, the exposition chapter.

I hope you guys have been enjoying this story; I know I have been having fun writing it. However it's time for finals at my school so there won't be any more updates for at least a week. The earliest I'll come back is Dec 9th, but I'm not putting anything to stone as I don't know when I'll have the time to edit the next chapter.

Just be patient with me and the story will be back soon enough. Until then, good luck to all of you who also have tests you need to study for!

P.S, The base concept for monster reproduction was taken from Retaya on Deviantart. I extended it and fleshed it out a bit more to also explain how they could cross-breed with humans.