Authors Note:
The start of how events unfolded, from a few perspectives.
This point in time has a few more perspectives to come later. (- ‿◦ )
Everyone was panicking long before the machine started to quake and smoke as the humming became almost deafening for those in the insulated shed. In fact it was a pleasant sort of blinging that had them all diving to stop the test as the machine began to ramp up inexorably with every happy little 'bling!'.
'Bling', along with the notification on the screen was announcing impending target retrieval. 'Bling' was meant to be target world located. But, no, according to the screen it was definitely doing whatever it wanted again, in spite of how carefully the four of them had set the programming to only search and identify monster/multi-world links.
Sans was starting to genuinely consider, unironically asking the machine nicely to do what they wanted as part of operating procedure, since it was more and more convincingly sentient. It happened sometimes with monster technology.
He was the only one of them all who had experienced this previously, but had recounted more precisely what happened in the days after the three sets of brothers had first arrived. So all present at the machine test were at least familiar with when to panic, in the chaos where a few specific actions meant the difference between magical individual signatures being processed, or not quite leaving the memory banks…
At the start of the year with one 'bling' he had been very briefly hopeful his modifications had actually succeeded in bringing back his and Papyrus's errant scientist brother Wing Dings Gaster, through the machine. Then more than the one Target Retrieval window started to appear along with an irate pile of skeletons in the transfer section. Wing Dings was not among them, and the machine finally obeyed the shutdown command at six successes.
One of the few reasons there wasn't an immediate fight from the group who couldn't really be blamed for feeling a little defensive, was seeing Sans in all his casual dressed glory of t-shirt, shorts, bathrobe and slippers in a room full of discarded Grillby's takeout bags and an unwashed assortment of mugs.
That, along with literally being in a pile on top of each other as they had been spat out on almost the same space. Having to untangle limbs and climb off each other in an indignified, unplanned team effort quickly quelled any ideas that anyone was anything other than a fellow victim of all this.
Apart from Sans. Who looked too pathetically stunned and absurd to be hostile. And to each skeleton in the room he either looked uncannily like their own brother, or themselves accordingly. So for any spluttering threats and accusations, no-one was in a hurry to actually hurt each other.
This did not prevent a highly uncomfortable session of everyone talking at once, with it gradually being directed solely towards himself as the culprit.
"'whats going on?!"
"WHERE ARE WE?!"
"who did this?"
"YOU."
"shit…"
"LANGUAGE!" / "BROTHER!" / "MIND YOUR WORDS!"
"okay, what is all this?!"
"get off!"
"MOVE YOUR ARM AND I CAN-"
"whose leg is this? lemme unhook it, just…"
"IN TORIEL'S NAME I DEMAND Y-.." / "asgore's BALLS"
"LANGUAGE!" / "LANGUAGE!" / "LANGUAGE!"
This continued for a while, and Sans eventually abandoned weighing the option to short-cut away in a teleport to the front porch and leave them all to it, instead accepting his fate with empty eyesockets.
He managed to clumsily hash out at the time, and clarified better later, that he had set the programming based on his and his brothers magical signatures to run the quantum reconstitution when it identified the related skeleton monster.
He made what the others had to admit was an honestly very fair point arguing afterwards that it wasn't his fault if he didn't know Gaster's design went so nightmarishly, impressively above and beyond in its reach across time and space to start targeting other potential states of the brothers across universes.
Once they understood that bringing Gaster back was what Sans had been trying to do, the surprising consensus from the others was shock that he would. In the three other worlds the scientist had been either dangerous, mad, or dangerously mad, apparently.
And a couple of them hadn't even fallen into their invention at all in the incident that erased Gaster from most memory and a set existence.
Papyrus forgot himself as the shock of the situation started to die down at this point, as what had happened was muddled out, and automatically pulled a cigarette from his hoody instead of the suckers he had switched to thanks to his brothers caring chastisement of the habit.
Sans still liked to nag at his sibling over-indulging his sweet tooth but it was a different sort of, more fun, disapproval between them…
This Sans who was seeming more jarringly like himself than how his brother normally behaved had invited them all into the open space of the living room and gone to make drinks under the un-subtle watch of a few of the others, probably partly to escape the six-way mix of questioning and varying anger.
"sans, -uh my sans-," Papyrus started cautiously as they came back in with Sea Tea and he fished out his lighter.
"do you remember the boat person before bro took over that job? they used to be interested in the void research?"
He had always suspected his brother remembered a little like he did, and now seemed as good a time as any to mention it and find out for sure, and see if anything lined up with what these others had known.
Sans drew back, looking slightly surprised, "PAPY I DIDN'T KNOW YOU REMEMBERED TOO." he said, as Papyrus grimaced at the confirmation.
He didn't miss the look exchanged by two of the others. The suddenly quiet version of Sans who had been trying to give orders earlier, and the guy who looked so like himself. The one whose amber eyelights stared back from under the shadow of his hood as Papyrus had Checked them and seen it confirmed they had Level like the other pair did too. High enough Level that came from having killed, and it being no accident.
"PAPY, REALLY?"
He had flicked the lighter and bought up the cigarette, then stopped like a Gyftrott caught in string lights. Even the edgy looking monsters were looking at him like he was drunk at a children's tea party.
He took the offending item from between his teeth, considered it and the lighter in his hand like he didn't know where they came from, then swapped them back to his pocket to fish out a sucker to bite down on instead.
(His rougher 'twin's' eyelights followed the item from pocket upwards with muted interest, so Papyrus considered for a moment then pulled out a second one and passed it tactfully. It was intercepted from an equally smooth reach with no eye contact, by the dark 'twin' of his brother walking past, confiscating the illicit candy junk food mid-stride, as if it never happened.)
Papyrus turned to the bathrobe Sans, who looked at him with the chastened expression of a guy who was just glad at not being shouted at right now, and continued. "-yeah, uh, our wing dings used to work on the royal lab before and on a machine like you got… but it was riverperson who fell, well, fell in. our bro wasn't the same after, but no-one remembers riverperson in our underground, not exactly. we wouldnt be able to bring them back like you were trying for your bro"
Inclining his skull to the other two, he noted; "something similar for you guys am i right?"
His alternate had a stony look, but nodded. The smaller brother looked introspective, and Papyrus almost thought he wasn't going to add anything, before those purple eyelights looked round at those present, then at his own brother where he was sat on the couch arm next to him.
"RIVERPERSON IN OUR UNDERGROUND WAS PERHAPS LITTLE DIFFERENT FROM YOURS. IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T YET GATHERED; OUR WORLD IS… FAIRLY HOSTILE." He glanced between Papyrus, the red and black clad pair, and this world's Sans. "BUT ONE OF THE SAFEST PLACES TO BE WAS ON THEIR BOAT. EVEN WEAKER MONSTERS WHO MIGHT BE AT THEIR MERCY ON SUCH A CONFINED SPACE WOULD ALWAYS BE FERRIED SAFELY, WITHOUT FAIL."
His expression darkened as he propped his chin on long leather gloves. "THE ONLY ONES WHO DIDN'T ARRIVE SAFELY WERE THOSE WHO TRIED TO CAUSE TROUBLE BY ATTACKING RIVERPERSON OR OTHER PASSENGERS.
THEY NEVER COMPLETED A TRIP." He brightened with an upbeat smirking grin, "ALSO WITHOUT FAIL.
The red and black armored skeleton stood by the window folded his arms and laughed a knowing "HMPH!" at that, as his red eyed Sans shrugged and muttered beside him, into the furred hood on his shoulders; "sounds like our riverperson, boss."
He grinned sharp teeth at in amusement at the seated pair, "did yours deliver the dust too?"
Papyrus balked at that, and Sans beside him tensed, "THAT'S TERRIBLE."
"THAT WAS KINDNESS." said the dark armored brother.
"our riverperson just sang", said their host.
Still leaning on his laced hands, the other Sans had one more thing to add. "OH OURS DID THAT TOO. BUT THERE WAS ONE TIME… AFTER THEY WERE GONE AND OUR BROTHER TOOK OVER THE BOAT LIKE IT HAD ALWAYS BEEN HIS. I BOARDED AND AS SOON AS WE SET OFF EVERYTHING TURNED GRAY, AND THERE RIVERPERSON WAS IN PLACE OF MY BROTHER. THEY WERE SINGING THAT THEY WERE ALWAYS THERE, AND EVERYWHERE. WHEN I ARRIVED I TURNED ROUND AND THERE WAS GASTER AGAIN."
The shorter red eyed skeleton by the window sweated slightly but didn't add anything. But the funny thing was, last time he used the boat, Riverperson's latest nonsense song was singing say hi to Sans… and Sans and Sans.
"HAH!" Barked his sibling. "OUR GASTER WOULD HAVE MADE EVERYONE SWIM BEHIND THE BOAT!" He didn't elaborate whether that was said dismissively or as a boast. It seemed a mix of both.
Was this things getting better, or worse with this less conflicting turn of conversation? Sans couldn't tell. He really had been about to text his brother to warn him at a few points that something had happened, but each time there was another question or confrontational argument about the situation. So time flew and Papyrus arrived home from work before Sans expected.
The front door clicked and swung open as one final skeleton walked in and got part-way through taking his jacket off to hang it by the door before becoming aware of seven sets of eyelights greeting him.
"I'M HOME BROTHER, HOW WAS YOUR DAY? WHAT DID YOU-
-DO-?
OH WOWIE."
Authors Notes:
Fell Gaster? He was actually a big secret sweetheart like most Fell monsters in their universes. He was just really good at the scary act. Too good. OG Gaster may have fallen into his creation, Fell was probably given a nudge, with a boot. He's fine though, as far as Wing Dings go.
More Bitties coming up. And I have a Tumblr link in my profile for questions, requests, and anything. Ugh AO3 is much easier to post to. But FFN's traffic stat thing is fun...
Throw me a comment or whatever here if you like, doesn't have to be an actual review, idm.