CHAPTER NINE: The Other World

The Riverperson has been unscrambling their words for an hour now, and the short skeleton has not appeared…. At least when he does, they will be prepared. But, as they sit on the bank, they feel it again. A…tightness, coiled in darkness…it is time to check on how light and shadow fare. They look left and right, up and down, and listen intently for any breath of another monster, sending out a small pulse of magic to detect any nearby soul. There is nobody anywhere near.

And so, they pull down their hood.

They breathe in the air, the smell of the water, the heat of hotland only a flight of stairs away. They take a long, deep breath, and drink the world in. hmm… Some things have changed. The shadows and light both whisper, the world and currents slightly different as they breathe in the changes. New riddles to tell…the pieces of advice and nonsense and reality form in their mind, and they run them over, silent.

They let themselves just…exist for a moment. Sometimes they lose themselves in that hood…

Then, they feel-

A PRESENCE, FAST APPROACHING-

Sans shortcuts to the Riverpersons bank, and just barely sees a flash of…something, shadows changing shape, as the Riverperson tugs their hood back up with a yelp of surprise, breathing heavily as Sans stares for a moment. He didn't even know that the Riverperson could take down their hood, or if they could, he didn't think they ever actually did. Then, they speak.

"...do not do that, if you come in kindness…"

Sans chuckles.

"So, there is something under tha-"

But he doesn't get far before the Riverperson is suddenly up, staring him down from the shadows of the cloak, seeming to radiate hostility as they practically growl at him in a voice like ice-

"DONT."

The river is whipped into a frenzy behind them, and their boat rocks as they stand threateningly, daring sans to continue, an unseen soul pulsing out a shadowed warning as the currents roil. Sans is taken aback by the sudden hostility, but he quickly holds up his hands in surrender and shrugs.

"sorry, sorry, didn't mean to offend ya. It was kinda rude of me."

The Riverperson visibly relaxes, and the river calms. The shadows that had seemed to grow by their feet recede, and the Riverperson falls silent, their cloak still hanging in uneven edges. Sans takes this pause as an opportunity to get the conversation rolling. He wants this to be over quick, so he can get home and sleep…and maybe take a shower. Or five.

"So. where'd ya hear that name?"

The Riverperson starts, just a little. It's almost unnoticeable if you don't look closely, but sans sees the shadowed hood twitch. Whatever face is under there, it's surprised…or at least, that's his best bet.

"Ah, yes. The answer is simple, and…not. Do you wish for it long, or short."

Sans's answer is almost immediate.

"short."

The riverpersons answer is almost faster.

"Alphys."

Sans…is not in the mood for this. Sitting down on a nearby boulder, he sighs and relents with a wave of his hand;

"...long version then."

The Riverperson sits down immediately, exactly where they are, crossing their legs and beginning to speak with little hesitation.

"It started when Alphys told me she had found strange files."

The Riverperson, using a fair but puzzling mix of cryptic and clear speech, tells Sans that alphys had been looking into the past royal scientist, and has found "files in most the most cryptic cranaculums" buried in cabinets and spread all over the lab, all of them burnt and torn as if they had only barely survived some catastrophe. It had perplexed her, and so she had tried to gather as many as she could, but try as she might, she could not read them. The only thing she could make out was the name "GASTER" in a long forgotten code, but this was in a barely salvageable audio log she had dug up from the depths of the true lab itself.

Sans had asked how she knew what the audio log meant, but the Riverperson only told him that she had found 'other such references' to this name. There apparently were not many, but enough could be understood for her to uncover the strange word, which was most certainly tied to the code of the files. Sans had then asked what exactly the code was, and the Riverperson told him only that it was 'familiar gibberish' and refused to give him more information on that particular subject. Apparently, alphys was able to find schematics for, and even build, a machine to translate the speech of someone speaking in such a cipher.

It appears someone had been working on it for a long time… but Alphys did not question it, and intended to find a skeleton to read the files to her so she might translate it, wrongly assuming all skeletons can speak in all fonts. here sans made the skeleton equivalent of raised eyebrows, since few monsters know that about skeletons, but the Riverperson waved him off, continuing even as they did so. But then, one day, she found a burnt file that was not in code. This file apparently spoke about determination, the effects it could have, the good it could do…and so, Alphys was inspired. But, of course, this resulted in the amalgams, and alphys came to the river less and less…

"And the last time she came,"

the river person said, slightly out of breath,

"I asked her if i could keep the device for her, since i was…curious, what it could translate."

Sans takes a moment to sort out the story in his head, checking it fits in with what Alphys told him…then looks up, placing his gaze to where he assumes the river person's eyes are, and once he feels his gaze meet anothers, he asks a final question.

"what were you hopin' to translate?"

The river person is silent for a moment. technically, they do not actually lie.

"...for a start, sansational sans, the back of a nice cream packet."

This surprises sans, and he barks a laugh before sliding off the boulder. Maybe this odd ferry-person isn't so bad, if they have the capacity for jokes…He thanks the Riverperson, who only gives a small bow, then tiredly shortcuts home directly, not caring that it doesn't make him anymore tired- wondering to himself as he falls with a thump onto his mattress;

So that's what happened to those old blueprints I made…shame I never got to give it to- …Uhg. Those days are over sans, stop thinkin bout' it…Jeeze….How'd I get stuck in the middle of all this? Alphys, that poor kid…The weird Riverperson…Heh, my own HP…And whatever bullcrap thing happens next. Things have gotten a lot more interesting around here, haven't they…?

And then, with that last thought…Sans is asleep.

Good. It's only just beginning.


And, somewhere else, somewhen else, a single voice pipes up. A single voice that plays a very, very important role. A role that changes the timeline it belongs to forever- and a lot of other timelines too. Because this voice is a voice you would find familiar, if you have been here long…The voice of a small, pun loving skeleton with a blue color scheme, who-

Who wants to be a royal guard.

Its a familiar voice, yes, but who it belongs to… well, that is something you will find out very, very soon. He will change everything, he will make a slow story run wild. who knows what will happen when he comes into play. Who knows what will occur, when this voice pierces the multiverses din…

Who knows what changes will be made?

"HEY PAPYRUS?"

The small skeleton asks, poking his older sibling awake in his chair.

"Mhm? yeah, blue? wassup?"

The other skeleton replies, blinking his eye sockets in confusion at his younger brother, who is staring intently over his shoulder at…something.

"SOMETHING FEELS… OFF?"

His brother mutters nervously, still squinting at something behind him, but the older skeleton does not turn.

"Eh, I wouldn't worry. Just go to sleep, that's what stories are for, right?"

The older brother responds, shrugging and picking the book back up from where it fell from his hands, but his brother speaks again.

"BUT, PAPYRUS, THERE'S A GLOWING HOLE IN MY WALL? I THINK I AM ALLOWED TO WORRY ABOUT A GLOWING HOLE IN MY WALL? IS THAT NORMAL?"

The older skeleton tilts his head in confusion. What? A glowing what? the skeleton in the chair reaches out a hand to his brother, concerned as his younger sibling stares in horror at something right behind him.

"blue, what are you talkin about-"

But his concern is interrupted, by a voice…a narrator, but not- not his narrator, it's a voice he should not be hearing- but what it says, is nonetheless true.

*you feel dread crawling up your spine.

"PAPYRUS, WHAT IS HAPPE-"

His brother cries, just as cracks of light race through the walls of the room- and with a terrible crack that echoes through the multiverse, a chasm opens and swallows the younger brother with a crash of realities colliding, the skeleton leaping up from his chair and trying to follow after his brother with a shout of alarm, but the cracks close with a snap and-

Everything, goes dark as the void.


When a timeline is messed with, cracked…

It can become weak.

And if two timelines are weak at the exact right time…

They can intersect with one another.

And who knows what will happen then?


The riverperson paddles their boat calmly down the side streams, the blue rocks drifting by them as they pass from the deep blue of waterfall to the colder waters of snowdin, the stone turning a cold gray as they paddle. They are content this way, their boat navigating roads of water, twining tales of twisted lives, when suddenly, someone speaks.

*you see a strange shape in the water…

And, they do. Deep in the waters of the river, there is a skeletal shape, unmoving, hand caught between two sharp rocks as the current attempts to claim them with its roiling mass. And as the Riverperson watches in curiosity, they see the shape begin to slip slightly, their snag weakening. The Riverperson peers down curiously, stopping their boat, and mutters to themselves.

"Tra la la…Why is there a spelunking skeleton in snowy snare? This does not seem the right time for time to wind, tra la la…"

They reach down into the water with the hooked end of their oar, catching the skeleton by their bandanna just as they break loose from the rocks, and draws them up, a clatter of bones echoing out as the skeleton shakes with freezing cold from snow-melt water. Their eye sockets drift open slightly, and they mutter in a chatter of their jaw, clicks breaking their words as the riverperson sets them down in the boat;

"W-WHAT H-H-HAPPENED…"

They shudder with cold, dripping icey water as their bones clatter, the Riverperson responding in their calm and twisting way;

"salutations of beginnings, tra la…you were in water most deep, simply-sans…"

The skeleton looks up, and attempts a smile through the cold, his blue-tinted eyelights gleaming as he manages to stutter out through clattering teeth;

"OH, H-HELLO H-HOODED…F-F-FIGURE! I AM T-THE ~S-SANSATIONAL SANS!~"

He exclaims in shivering pride, and the universe shivers with discomfort, for it has an unexpected guest...

*you hear distant, maniacal laughter.

*Far away, someone is tearing a script to shreds…


(AUTHOR NOTE: underswap, anyone?