"alphys I need-" Sans had quickly taken a shortcut to Alphys' new tec den. He was going to need her help on this one, she had done way more research on DT then he had. However he was not expecting for her to already be tied up with someone.
"whoa, undyne i-"
"SANS GET THE FU***-" he quickly teleported away right as a spear was headed to his face.
He appeared safely at home just as Papyrus opened the door from the kitchen.
"SANS, THERE YOU ARE…ARE YOU OKAY?"
"err…" Okay, that was something he was going to have to bleach out of his skull.
"give me a minute bro." Flopping back on the couch Sans let out a huge sigh. He needed to make a note to apologise later…and to not touch any of the cables in the Tec den again. Well Alphys was going to be out of bounds for a little while.
"I THOUGHT YOU WERE WORKING? DON'T TELL ME YOU HAVE ALREADY GIVEN UP TO TAKE A NAP. MAYBE I SHOULD CALL UNDYNE TO WHIP YOU INTO SHAPE." Sans quickly stood back up.
"no, nope! no undyne, no whips. i'm working, just needed to get…" Sans quickly looks around the room and grabs the closest book.
"this. " Before once again taking a shortcut.
"ok, i should have stayed in bed, today is out to kill me." He was back in his Lab. This is why he didn't make snap decisions. Pulling out his phone he sends a quick message to Alphys apologising but also asking her to let him know as soon as she was free to talk, with a couple of extra 'sorrys' on the end.
"Sans? Is that you?" Right, the human was still connected. Well he didn't have Alphys but he still had some lab notes on human souls around here so maybe he could see what else they knew. He looks down at the book he had picked up. 'Fluffy bunny goes to market', he didn't think this particular book was going to be much help.
"i'm here. sorry, looks like it's just going to be the two of us for a bit longer" Sitting down he noticed the video links had been turned off. Seemed the human was less keen on the idea of speaking face to face then they thought.
"Do you know what this is? I can't get it to shut down." The mouse on screen circled around a pop up window with a few other diagnostic applications open behind it.
Warning
This Application cannot be closed
F̸̨̩̥̋̒͒r̵̤̠̳̥͋͆̀̈́a̶͖̜̯̭̘̐̏͊̿͝c̶̹͓̪̄̈́̅͝ţ̷͎̃́̐̓ạ̴̃̋͆͒̔l̸̘̄̅̔͝ ̴̠̻̊̒̊̄̌ͅṶ̸̽̉̎͘n̷͍͗̚ị̷̌̈́͊ẗ̶̙́y̷̜̼̰͂͠ ̴̳̦̙͈̗͐̏̂N̶͇͙̗̄̈́̄e̷̠͎̭̤̭̿̔̿̏t̵̙̿͒͂̊͠w̵̉̀͆̔͜o̴̲̙͇̙̍r̷̳͔͗͂̓̅͗͜ǩ̸͎̘̞̹͆͌…paused
Searching for Connection…
"hu? don't think it's anything from my side." Why was the text glitched out? That wasn't a good sign.
"Oh…It looked like it was going to burn out my PC if I left it running. Thought it was the video links at first but I think I've got it to stop now I've turned off my router" Well explained the lack of videos. At least his good looks hadn't scared them away.
"so it's waiting till you're reconnected to the internet?" Well that put a damper on watching the rest of the video. He'd only seen a couple of minutes and it had already opened up a ton of new information and threads to follow.
"I think so, it must have started up when I turned my router on for the lets play. I didn't notice it before that. So it's not something you put on?" They didn't sound accusatory, more disappointed that he wasn't the answer.
"nope, no idea what a 'fractal unity network' is. heh, sounds 'fun' though" Interesting name…a mathematical fractal would mean-
"What?"
"fun. see, F. U.N. monsters love their acronyms." Things go very quiet for a moment, long enough that Sans' was unsure if the connection had dropped.
"Oh no. Oh okay, okay. Is this good or bad? This is either really good or really bad" Now he had even more questions, still, at least it looked like they might have put some pieces together.
"you going to leave me in the dark here?"
"Okay, Sans. Who was the Royal Scientist before Alphys? The person who designed the core" That was not a question he was expecting, how could this be related to someone so far in the past?
"not sure off the top of my skull, probably some records about them somewhere. king would know." Torial as well. If he had time there was properly some plaque or something on the machine with the name.
"Their name was W. D. Gaster." Another pause, like they were expecting a response from the name.
"you going to keep dancing round this or are you going to get to the point any time soon?"
"Sorry, this, this is a lot, and there is a lot that's just speculation. Okay, what I know for sure is that Gaster was the Royal scientist before Alphys, he designed the core and is likely the one who designed the DT extracted." Well that couldn't be right.
"you sure? I helped Alphys put the extractor together myself"
"She found the blueprints, she didn't design it herself." Well that bit of information felt like a smack in the face.
"uh, that's going to be a conversation. still not seeing the connection with what's happening here."
"What little information we have is that Gaster fell into his creation…and was scattered across time and space, he was erased from your world, but it doesn't say he is dead."
"if he was erased then how do you know about him?" Come on human just spit it out.
"He's in the game…sort of. There is something called a FUN value that is generated when you start the game, it makes unusual things happen during a playthrough. Like Alphys call your phone to order pizza, but most of the time its events that somehow tie back to him. Like grey monsters who aren't really there. They are the ones who talk about him. There is speculation that they were scientists that worked for Gaster."
"so these 'fun' values are small inconsistencies between resets"
"No, not resets, not unless it was a complete reset, a full fresh start. Though I've heard people can manipulate the code to trigger events. There is one event, FUN value of 66, that has a 10% chance of you finding a grey door in Waterfall. Inside is a monster that most people think is Gaster and if you interact with them they smile before vanishing."
"okay, so you think this gaster guy has somehow transcended the normal laws of physics to embed himself into the world?" Those were some pretty big claims but at the same time he was talking to a human that could apparently play his world like a video game so who was he to say what was outside the laws of physics at the moment.
"That's what it looks like, and if this FUN value is linked to this application, then maybe he is the key to understanding how and why any of this is happening"
"i've got some of my own thoughts on that. you said there are a lot of humans invested in this world."
"Millions"
"and what do the majority want?"
"I'm pretty sure just a happy ending. For everyone to be free and living a good life." Bingo
"'cause that's a whole lot of determination focused on one thing." He might have seen it sooner if he hadn't been so focused on how to stop the anomaly, but instead looked at why the anomaly was doing all of this. Though admittedly up until recently he had thought it was just one god like creature who was bored.
"But don't you already have that? You have your happy ending. Why would Gaster, or whatever is doing this, need to have access to my internet, and that sort of influence, if you already have your happy ending?" Now that's the real question.
"maybe he's bored and is looking for cat videos?"
"Very comical Sans"
"i thought it was purrfect to lighten the mood."
"A little off topic, but why are you and Papyrus named after fonts? Your in game text even appears in those fonts." That was certainly news to him. He knew what he was named after, just not that it had an effect on his in game dialogue.
"really? that's odd. It's nothing special really. the whole font thing is just a hangover from the past. skeleton monsters were seen as 'keepers of knowledge and language' or something like that." He shrugged to himself.
"just a cultural thing really. most monsters don't have a lot of past to hold onto what traditions they can."
"It's just, its not just you and Papyrus that have a font name and use a font as ỳ̸̳̹̍̄̈́̏̂͊̆̋̊̐̌͝o̷̼̍̓̏̿̎̀͘u̷͎̼̺̳̤̱͎̞̿̽r̶̨̺̦͖̖̠̪̙͖͖͂̿͂̉͂-̸̢̩̖̜̱̘̟̩̟̱̙̭̖̄̅̇̆̄͌́͆̐͝͝ͅ-̶̖̩͙̲̗̰͛̋̉̾̎͘-̵̡͎͓̲̼̥͓̝̝̰̾̉̐̾̈́̓̀͛̽̒̎̏͠͝͠
The screen went blank leaving Sans looking at only himself reflected on the PC screen. The red light from the notebook connection flashing to one side.