"Oh, come on luv! Retelling us that info won't hurt!" An androgynous voice is heard calling through the dark clearing.
"They're right dearest." A lilting, feminine voice says, "it's fun when you tell it."
"I've told you two that information several times now. Honestly, how much more do I need to repeat it," a soft masculine voice with a faint British accent says, the question very much rhetorical.
"Pleeeaaassseee," the two others plead.
"Fine, fine. But we have to do it in the right lighting."
"YES!" A glowing ring of purple with orange specks is made, quickly followed by a ring of light blue with golden flecks. Several small fireballs light up the clearing in an ominous purple and blue, revealing the three figures.
"You know the drill," the masculine voice says, coming from a tall skeletal monster wearing a dark grey blouse and black slacks, a crack going down his face from his left eye to his mouth. "You two will not speak while I speak and then you will repeat the main points back."
"Of course Dings!" The feminine voice replies, coming from a female skeleton wearing a silver gypsy shirt, black stirrup leggings, and a light grey asymmetrical skirt. Draped over her shoulders is a dark blue cloak with a cyan trim, a golden heart shaped brooch holding it together.
"Why wouldn't we follow the usual rules." The last figure is an androgynous human wearing a grey tunic, long black breeches with wrapping at the bottoms, and a similar cloak to the female skeleton, the blue and cyan being swapped.
"It's always a tossup with you two, Ai. And I told you not to call me Dings, Arial! It's Gaster!" Gaster has a deep purple blush on his maxilla.
"Alright, alright. SOUL talk now." Arial's cyan and gold star shaped eyelights glitter in excitement as Gaster sighs, his eyelights becoming purple and orange.
"The seven core SOUL TRAITS have three variations," as he speaks, Gaster twirls a finger in the air, orange speckled magic becoming a circle and causing the illusion of three heart shaped SOULs. "The Virtue-" A white SOUL, "-the Vice-" A grey SOUL, "-and the Invert." A black SOUL. "All SOUL TRAITS have Inverts but only the core seven have Vices." The three SOULs split into seven variants, each group having one of each main colour. "Starting from one of the most common, the Orange SOUL of BRAVERY." The orange illusion breaks off from the others. "The Vice of BRAVERY is AUDACITY," a dull orange SOUL circles next to the vibrant orange one, "and the Invert is COWARDICE." A SOUL coloured burnt umber floats forward and joins the burnt orange SOUL circling the vivid orange heart. Gaster gently floats the three SOUL illusions to the side, allowing the next set to begin floating forward.
"After BRAVERY comes JUSTICE." A lemon yellow heart drifts forward. "Viced with VENGEANCE-" a saffron yellow heart twirls forward, "-and Inverts to INJUSTICE." The dark yellow heart comes forward before the trio move next to the orange hearts. "Then KINDNESS to COMPLIANCE to CRUELTY." A spring green SOUL comes forward, quickly followed by a moss green heart and juniper green SOUL.
"PATIENCE Vices to IDLENESS and Inverts to STAGNATION." Cyan to verdigris to peacock. "INTEGRITY, CONCEIT, DECEIT," a deep, ocean blue to dull blue to faded blue. "PERSEVERANCE-" vibrant purple "-to INFLEXIBILITY-" a duller purple "-to INDIFFERENCE." A dark, faded purple.
Ai grins before twirling their finger, a dark blue ring of magic coming from it as they chirp, "Then DETERMINATION, SPITE, and FEAR!" A blood red SOUL appears before shifting to a duller shade and then fading in colour.
"Ai," Gaster sighs. "How many times have I told you-"
"C'mon G! I can't help it." Ai grins as they flip upside down on a branch, "you're so good at storytelling but hate talking about Red Magic."
"Because it makes no sense!" Gaster's shoulders raise slightly as he starts pacing. "The other primary magic types have some sort of grounding that makes sense and then you have Red Magic! Everyone thinks that it's Time based but it isn't!"
Arial snorts as she flicks her ecto braid back, "luv, it does have a slight basis in Time Magic."
"But not enough to pull the stunts it does."
"Oh calm down Wingdings." Ai flips off the branch, their choppy hair getting even messier. "Human magic is weird as it is. Just don't think too hard about it."
Gaster sighs, "I know. It just… confuses me how different human magic is compared to monster magic. We both draw from the surroundings to strengthen it and use more than we naturally would be able to so why does it function so oddly."
"Because humans draw from internal reserves just as much as external ones." Ai shrugs, "Ari and I did a test on it a while back. I drew about half the mana from my surroundings and half from myself."
"You did tests without me?" Gaster half pouts.
"You-" Ai laughs as they adjust their cloak. "You were busy helping Lord Dreemurr with figuring out a good back up base and Arial was curious."
"I can see why you like testing out your hypothesis so much," Arial grins as she summons a list, "it was fun to figure out the logistics." Gaster continues to playfully pout, turning away from the other skeleton and human as the candles shift to soft oranges and yellows. "Gaster. Please." Arial hides laughter behind her hand, "I took notes for you~."
"You did?!" Gaster swiftly shifts to face Arial, his white eyelights sparkling as the tailed skeleton hands him the papers.
"Of course I did. I know how much you hate missing out on small experiments like this," Arial laughs as Gaster swiftly takes the pages from her and starts going through them.
Everything freezes.
"How curious. Looking at memories that don't belong to you? How rude." A shadowed figure appears, two shades of blue glowing from them, "but then, you asked to learn more." The figure holds up their hand, a light teal SOUL glowing above it. "You seem to be quite… EMPATHETIC." The SOUL disappears. "Very well. Eventually, you will learn everything but for now. This is where this tale will end. A happier memory than what you might encounter in the future."
Everything shifts to black, a dark chuckle being the last thing you hear.
