Monotony - Monochroma - Undertale (Video Game) [Archive of Our Own] (2024)

Chapter 1: Alone in the Dark

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Nothing.

It was everything here.

There was no light. There was no sound.

It was…. a place? It was nowhere.

Without emotion. Without thoughts.

...

But it was where everything began.

It was a long time before there was something. But there was, and it was strange.

A faint glow from somewhere. Unnatural, it was, but something. That was enough.

It was silent, in the place without sound, the little light was not ready, but it will be, soon.

It will be okay.

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It’s dark.

It’s silent.

And everything

Is scattered.

Everything makes no sense. What….?

What

Is

this

place

…?

I don’t know why, but I am here.

...waiting.

Waiting for… something?

The thoughts are everywhere, disappearing as soon as they appear, replacing themselves with silence. But the darkness does not change.

Or maybe it does?

I don’t know. I know nothing but here.

That’s okay. I am okay with knowing nothing. All of the other thoughts are okay too, with knowing nothing. Knowing here is enough, for now.

...

I am waiting.

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If it wasn’t so dark and so silent I do not know if I would have noticed, but it was there.

What….is that? The thoughts echo.

A sound. It was a sound. (sound?)

Something new.

It’s getting louder.

The sound repeats itself over and over(and overandoverandover) again. It’s getting faster, but only slightly.

But I am okay, this new thing doesn’t bother me.

It’s no longer silent here. But that’s okay.

The sounds and the everywhere thoughts make me not alone.

Alone? Is that what this is? Is it what I am?

Alive.

I am alive?

Or alone?

Both of those things?

Maybe.

The thoughts don’t make too much sense.

Maybe I’m

just

okay.

I’m fine with being okay. And all the other things. In the dark it doesn’t matter.

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I’ve been here.

For how long? (how long howlonghowlong)

I don’t know.

The thoughts aren’t as scattered anymore. Bits that seemed to float off into nothing before melded together.

The sounds have been here too.

Some of them have been different, but they always go away eventually.

The first sound never left.

I call it The Noise. It was right, somehow.(somehow?)

I don’t know if I could go back to silence again. What would happen then? Would I be alone?

Maybe I’d be okay, my thoughts would still be here.

...would they?

…

Something is happening.

The sounds are getting louder. And faster.

It’s the only thing I can hear.

what’s going on?

The thoughts are gone.

The sounds are gone.

….Too much. (Toomuchtoomuchtooomuc-)

The Noise is gone. (nonononononono)

…..

And

I

can’t

think.

I am not okay.

And everything was gone.

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But then, all of a sudden it was back.

And there were other sounds. Different.

Louder.

But quieter than before. I think. Maybe.

And there was this strange gurgling….whatever it was it was very close.

The nothing was different. I don’t know how but it was not the same as before.

There were just dark and broken thoughts and Noise before.

But now?

It’s new.

Suddenly, there was something else. It wasn’t sound, it wasn’t anything I knew. What is it?

Whatever it was, it was everywhere. Everywhere at once. I couldn’t focus on anything but the feeling that was everywhere.

Feeling. Is that what this is? (Ooooh.)

I think it would stay, like the noise, but I don't really know.

Sometimes it gets stronger in one spot. It was odd.

But it was okay.

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I can do something.

I don’t know what this something is. I don’t know how I know this.

But I can do something.

I know this.

I know a thing now. I like knowing things.

I know another thing, too.

Everything will change again if I do this “something”.

I don’t know how.

But everything will change.

My thoughts have questions.

Too many to understand.

But I think change will be….good? Somehow.

…

I feel something moving…

And everything changes.

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Chapter 2: The Dark

Chapter Text

It was just me.

Chapter 3: The Light

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Heavy.

I feel heavy, like something is pulling me down.

The sounds were louder... were they closer? I could tell the difference between them more easily, to the slightest change. I hung onto every word, every shift in feeling.

I felt so much more than before, everything was so much more than before.

But I did something.

And now I know more things!

Like how being able to do something is nice. And there is somethings other than nothing. And how I am alive, along with other things.

The darkness was different again too. It was heavier, but I felt that I could make it move. I think I could do more things.

The thoughts and feeling remained.

I decided I wanted to do something again.

So I did, somehow.

Feeling shifts around me, it felt floaty and some other things I don’t know how to make sense of.

What was that?

I did it again. The same thing happened. The same strange feelings.

Somehow I think whatever this is is the reason I can do and feel things. Maybe the thoughts know something. Sometimes they did.

It was much harder to hear them, but they were still there. They all whispered the same thing.

Body.

I have a body.

I could do something with this body thing. But I don’t know what. The thoughts didn’t seem to know either. But the darkness felt moveable. Like I could make it go away somehow.

I recalled the thing I did before, moving, that made the feelings rush over some parts of my body. Maybe I could do it here?

It was a matter of want….I think. I wanted to move, and so I did. So If I wanted to make the darkness go away, I had to want to move this too.

I forced all of the want to move to the darkness, and I felt it moving. It was slow, like something was pulling it back down. But I managed to get it to go away.

What was behind the darkness made everything stop. Everything was blinded for a sudden moment, and then it all just...came back.

There was a new thing. It was pretty. It was everywhere!

So many new feelings rushed into me as I took a bit to properly understand what was happening. The thoughts were louder than ever, speaking over each other and repeating the same thing over and over, yet they were still quiet compared to all the other sounds.

‘ light’ the thoughts whispered as I stared unendingly in awe into the brightness that was everywhere I could see. (I can see things!)

It made me feel a lot of things, but mostly…

I felt awake.

Being awake was a good thing. A very pretty, wonderful thing. I like feeling awake.

I also like being able to see.

I moved again. It wasn’t as hard as before, I didn’t have to think about moving as much. That was a good thing. Thinking too much is confusing. The movement makes me feel heavy. A thing floated upwards, blocking out some of the light, but I didn’t mind. It was a different light though.

Some of the feeling was coming from this strange thing. Was it my body? It moved when I moved, so it probably was.

I moved so that I was looking elsewhere… down? I was looking down, and saw more of the light that was my body. There was something else there, it was bright and it was shiny. I instinctively knew that this was me but… how could it be me if I’m right here? Maybe it was just how things worked. That made sense.

There was a thing attached that didn’t look like it belonged there. It pulsed to the Noise and gave out brighter flashes of light sometimes. I want to touch it.

I moved the part of my body that was blocking me down so that it brushed it slightly-

And immediately pulled back.

I felt terrible, everywhere.

It felt like being torn apart, piece by piece. I couldn’t move, the thoughts were screaming.

...

And then it was over.

What...was that?

The thoughts only sent the barest of whispers. But I heard it as clearly as possible.

It was pain.

…

I don’t like it.

No more touching pain shinies. Never again.

Looking away from the pain light in my chest (It just feels right to call it that for some reason), I look around at the bright light that surrounded me. This was better. I reach out with two arms, waving them around slowly and enjoying the not painful feeling. Loud noises are coming from whatever was beyond the pretty light.

I stopped, feeling something hard brush across the very tips of my fingers.

What’s this?

Something is there. I press down a little on it, reveling in the feeling of something against brand new hands.

This thingy feels really nice...whatever it is.

I left my hands there for a little while longer. Listening to the sounds quickly get louder from somewhere. Just touching this thing is okay, but what else do I do with it? I pull back my hands slightly and put them back again.

-Thump-

I pause, staring at the thing my hands were touching. I did it again.

-Thump-

-Thump-

I can make my own sounds!

I immediately focus all my attention to the thing in front of me, poking and prodding at it. I still noticed the sounds from the other side were getting louder….they sounded almost excited even.

…..Is the noise...getting….slower?

Everything was getting dimmer and there was nothing I could do and I felt things. I felt many, many things and they were everywhere. What’s touching me what’s somethingtouchingme? There’s too littlespaceforthinking-

….

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…

..

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And there were no thoughts.

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Everything came back in the barest of trickles.

The first thing to come back...was the Noise. It’s steady pulse helped to bring back everything else.

I began to feel a lot of things, but mostly I felt...

Cold.

It was cold.

My body felt heavy, pressed up to something hard. I don’t really feel like I could move. But I felt more awake than before. I was aware of every feeling. But it’s okay, being awake is good. I lie here, unmoving, for a little bit longer. Just a bit more so I could get used to being awake again.

I still felt everything, but it wasn’t as too much now. I peel away the darkness for the second time.

There was light, but it was different. Less bright, maybe. I was looking straight up. I felt something on my back, on my arms and hands. My hands twitch against it, reminded of the smoothness of the thing that made noise before. Moving felt harder, but easier...somehow.

I somehow manage to pull myself upward, using a bit of strength I didn’t know I had. My arms felt all shaky and weird. I use them to balance myself as I look around this new place.

It was dim, and felt empty, and the light around me was the same kind as my body, but a little darker. It was the darkest in the corners. I glance back down and pause. The pain shiny was still there and a pair of….legs. The thoughts were gone, I don’t know how I know these are legs, but they are and that’s all that really matters...I think.

I wiggle them around a bit. What are legs for anyway? The thoughts would help with this if they were still here, they seem to know a lot of things. Where did they go?

But I can worry about that later. I have to figure out what the legs are for first.

I move them individually, watching them wriggle around, then move the pointed looking things at the ends...toes? Close to something like that, probably. Before I knew it I found myself trying to push myself up. I found myself in a very strange, uncomfortable position, but I think I’m onto something with this...whatever I’m doing.

My legs felt strong, despite all the trembling going through them. I pushed my arms off the ground, balancing myself instinctively on the two long limbs.

Okay. I have done things with my legs...what do I do now? They felt all jittery and I waved my arms around a bit. It wasn’t long until they finally gave out from under me.

Ow.

That hurt. It wasn’t as bad as the pain from trying to touch the light in my chest however.

I landed on my face, it was very uncomfortable. I’ll have to find another thing to do with my legs I guess. I pull myself upright and lean against one of the hard cold sides of...wherever I was. I don’t know what it is, but pressing my face against it feels nice. Speaking of face, I reach a hand up to feel whatever was up there.

My face was hard and smooth against the tips of my fingers. I moved them up, and felt a shift in the air, tracing all of the odd curves and pointy bits. My face was nice to touch. My hands quickly loosened as they hooked over the holes that I figured were my eyes. It was kinda uncomfortable. The pointy bits unlatched when I made a sound and I immediately stuck my hand in there, it was slimy and warm, and if I bit down too hard I think I would hurt myself on all of the pointy things.

Eventually, I figured out how to move around. It was very awkward using both my arms and legs, but I think I could get used to it. I made myself comfortable in the dark corners, burying my head in my legs. I could hear a lot of sounds from somewhere outside this place. From here I noticed that there was a strange contrast in the wall, it stuck out a lot more. I could hear most of the sounds coming from there.

They were getting louder.

It was a repetition of sound. And it was getting louder. I only thought of making myself as small as possible, curling into myself even more. I don’t know why I was doing this, but the sounds were somehow not good.

Maybe it will go away and I don’t have to hear them anymore.

Yet they only got louder.

There was a loud creak, and I finally managed to peer over my knees.

What is...that thing?

It moved toward me, and my eyes fixated on the slightly glowing thing in its chest. That was the only thing that stood out to me. It was so different from the light in mine, but I didn’t like it. It made sounds I didn't understand and made me feel bad. Very, very bad.

I couldn’t move.

It made other sounds than the horrid things coming from it’s chest, but I couldn't hear them over the pounding of the Noise in my head.

There was a glint of something.

And then I stopped hearing anything.

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Chapter 4: The Good

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How long has it been?

Sometimes, it’s dark, sometimes it isn’t.

Nothing really stays the same anymore.

Except for pain, and most times The Noise.

But

They’ve taken that away from me too.

So now, it just hurts.

Most of the time, I sit there, trying to find comfort in the little corner of my room, staring.

Waiting for their sounds when they eventually come back.

The Noise pounded in my mind and I hung on to every resounding pulse. It was a good thing.

There were still good things.

Like how I’m alive. And awake. And...okay. Those were all good things.

My legs were no longer smooth anymore. But it was okay.

...

Other times, I was somewhere else.

I don’t always remember being here. Maybe that was a good thing.

But I remember the silence. And I remember the pain.

If I thought about it long enough, I always remembered the first time. It was so much worse than all the other times.

Yet it was the same.

They did something.

They did something and it made the Noise go away.

Yet it wasn’t dark.

And the Noise stayed gone.

Long enough to hurt. Long enough to itch.

I remember the pain from my sharp claws raking against any piece of me I could find. It was such a maddening feeling all squished up in one place.

And I wanted it to stop.

No matter how many times I scratched at it, at everything, it only ever seemed to get worse. I couldn’t do anything else. I don’t remember thinking of anything else other than maketheitchgoaway-

And then I couldn’t stay awake anymore, then silence. It was dark again.

Afterwards, I was back here. And there was only pain. I couldn’t move, I was just….there. It hurt enough to not think of anything else.

It always ended the same...for all the other times.

But, I’m still here.

Alive.

Awake.

Those are all good things.

…

I can hear them coming back.

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Pain.

Pain...and...something...snapping.

This time, that’s all I remember. But I had the Noise again.

It’s a bit before I could move again.

My face….feels...weird.

Pushing away the remnants of cold pain, I raise a hand and touch my face. A few fingers run across something….cold?

That wasn’t there before.

I press down the slightest bit and almost violently twitch with pain.

Owww.

I’m not doing that again. Ever.

I rest my slightly shaking hand back down and press the top of my head to the wall. The cold feels good.

…

I hear something coming.

Were They coming back?

Yet, It was strange. It didn't sound like Them, They always sounded bad, like pain, and I didn’t like it at all.

This...this was different.

There was...nothing else.

I shifted my back against the wall to feel a little bit more of the cold. I could hear the sound getting louder.

Was this a new thing?

Is it gonna...hurt me?

I felt too heavy to move. I could only sit there staring at nothing as I heard the door open. I didn’t look their way, but I saw the glow in the corner of my vision as whatever this is approached me.

Lights could make sounds, I found. If I focused hard enough, I could hear them through the walls, but they were very not- good sounds, like when I hear Them coming. I oftentimes hear them make other weird noises that I don’t really understand. They...weren’t as bad but I still didn’t like them.

But this was different. I think.

I found the strength to lift my head towards the source.

The thing in the door jumped and made a sudden noise. But I was completely fixated on the sole light in it’s chest.

It was...so pretty..

The pulsing light glowed and blinked gently as it approached me. It made me want to touch it, but I still remember what happened the last time. I was fine with just watching it… I guess. The pulse got stronger and stronger the closer it got, mixed with the strange sounds coming from the thing itself, occasionally.

Suddenly, it was touching me.

It was… so warm. I couldn’t help but lean into whatever this warm, soft thing is. The pretty light was right in front of me, blinking and pulsing. It didn’t sound like it was gonna hurt me…

So maybe… I could…

“----! y---k?”

What...what was that?

Was it the Thoughts again? It sounded like thoughts, but louder… less… broken? Maybe?

No, this wasn’t thoughts… there was….something…. Voice.

It was a voice. And it came from the light in front of me.

“--at -----do-----you?”

It is a nice voice. I will add this to my list of good sounds.

It sounded...worried...concerned? I think.

The particularly bright light pulled it’s warm thing away from me. I would prefer for it to put the warm thing back on my head. It felt very nice.

“-on---orry---will--elp--u”

elp….Help?

It wants to….help me? The light glowed just a bit brighter with a feeling I couldn't understand. My hands twitched with held back pain. I don’t think I have much of a choice but to let the thing do this “help” thing to me.

“-t--st--e---ld-n----re”, there was a pause “--is--ill-----oba--ly----lp”

...Will it hurt?

It doesn’t really seem like it will hurt. I don’t really like pain.

...

I’m okay with this.

The bright light pulls out a thing from another thing and holds it in front of me like...like something. What is it doing? Is this a help thing?

“-an--you--ut--is-n?”

I feel the urge to do something back, but I can’t really do anything right now so I don’t understand. I feel I don’t understand a lot of things. Too many things.

There is silence for a bit, then the telltale shifting around and a sudden warmth that is pressed against the back of my head.

I’m pretty sure I heard it’s voice again, but the warm things were very nice, so I didn’t pay attention. The light was very close now, as the thing bent over me and gently moved my head forward. It hurt a bit, but the thing was doing a “help” so I pushed it back down, with all the other pains. It was very nice of it to not touch the cold painful things. Very, very nice of it.

I watched in vague confusion as it held back up the strange thing from before and pulled it over my head. Then it lifts my arms one by one and pushes them through some pieces of the thing and pulled it down so that it covered my chest and the tops of my legs. The warm things on me were light and gentle, like it was afraid of hurting me. They also strangely reminded me of my hands, but so much softer. Maybe they were hands too? I’ll just call them hands now.

...afraid?

This thing it put on me feels nice on my arms.

As soon as she was done, it pulled its hands right back to its chest. I look up at….i think that was its face? Maybe I could convince it to put its hands back on my head.

“--ink---at-s--ld-b-good”

Is the help done yet? I tilted my head a bit in what I thought was question. The voice was nice, but... what was good? The glowing thing was quiet for a bit.

“c-n--ou---en-un--er--and-me?” it nearly whispers in a nervous tone, glancing at some part of my face “-od--f--es.”

I don’t do anything other than stare at it. I don’t know what it’s saying most of the time, but it’s voice is nice.

There is more quiet before it speaks again.

“-h--ear” It sounds...worried? Something like that. “-hat--m-I---ppos-d--o-do--bo-t--h-t?”

I watch it pull its hands to its chest for a bit. Then, it’s glow pulses and it seems to get an idea… of some sort? It turns around and heads toward the door. What’s it doing? Turning its head around, it says something, only a little louder than a whisper.

“B---ig-t-ba-k”

And left, closing the door right behind it.

…

That was weird.

But nice.

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I hear the sound of it coming again.

I have not moved from my spot in the corner. I like this spot. It’s comfortable. I didn’t do much of anything other than stare from across the barren room at the door, and listen.

I sometimes hear other things, maybe more voices? But that wasn’t as important. I think the good light will come back.

…

I think that the light coming back will be a good thing. I could listen to all the pretty sounds again.

Keeping my sight locked on to the door in the corner, I heard the loud creak as it swung open and the shiny thing from last time came in. The thingy in its chest was even glowier than last time.

Ooooh pretty.

It’s right in front of me, a thing tucked in its hands. It’s doing something weird and there’s some shuffling sounds. I could hear it breathe, the sound constant, calm and slow. It was nice.

“-ay--ets-see--f-t-is-w--ks…”

It stops talking after that, but that’s fine, cause it’s making a lot of other pretty sounds. I still haven't moved even a little bit. I was very comfortable.

…

Hello.

I flinch. The light in front of me is...is..?

The light is talking. I glanced up at the thing’s face looming slightly over my head, and felt it looking at me. It moved back a bit when I did, which was odd. But looking at the light seemed to be better, so I quickly looked back down.

Can you hear me?

I looked at it in question. Was I not supposed to hear it? Do lights usually have voices? It was like its other voice...but not? A not-voice? All the other lights that come in here don’t do that. Maybe it’s because they are bad not good lights.

The light voice sounded like the thing’s voice, but I could understand what it was saying. It was blinking and glowing and pulsing like it was before. Its hands moved and played with each other. But it stopped talking and a strange quiet went over the both of us.

The thing started making small whispery noises and I could only wonder what was going on.

But I felt as if I should do something.

So I did.

Lifting up a dented hand, slightly shaky from not moving, I pressed it to where I knew it’s face was.

Warm.

It was...odd, there were bumpy things and other stuff, but it was so soft, so fragile. I kept it there for a single moment, getting used to the feeling, and then it stepped back, just out of my reach.

“-h--m-so-so--y!” The light shivered as the strange...thing..(?) pulled it’s arms into itself. It looked kinda uncomfortable.

“Um--ll-t-ke-th-t--s-a--es” The glow was a little stronger now… self assurance? Confidence? I don’t know what it means, but I feel it’s something close to that. It seemed to be more relaxed, taking out the thing in its hand and doing something with it. I could hear it breathe out slowly.

“--ky” A sudden snap as it tucks the thing back at its side. “....I--ave-n---de--w--t--m--oin-”The strange not-voice ghosted through my head again and there was fidgeting and ruffling as the thing bends down.

Can you speak?

What’s a speak? I can do that? I look at where its face was across from me in question. It was looking slightly down, and I lifted a hand to brush against the weird things attached to my mouth. I could feel it looking at my hand.

Ow.

I put my fingers back down, over my lap. There was still pain, but it didn’t...hurt as much. I don’t think I can open my mouth yet. I'm keeping it closed. My face does not move.

I look back up, and hear the worry coming from the light. Did it not like the pain either? The sound remained as its hands twitched, but it got quieter quickly.

I’m going to help you, okay?

I was suddenly even more aware of the soft thing wrapped around me, brushing against my arms. I thumb at where it pooled around my legs. The It standing in front of me seems a little bit more sure of itself.

Helping is a good thing.

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I like a lot of things.

The things I like are good things. Like soft and warm things. And things that make sounds. And soft, warm hands.

The weird not- them light that visits me is all of the good things. They were a strange, moving blob of bright light and pretty sound. I don’t really understand why they are here with all these bad things.

I know the They that visits me is not the same as the bad, very bad not good things that come to cause me pain, but they seem similar. The same flat light under all the glow.

...

It didn’t matter.

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Chapter 5: Colors

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I understand more things about the strange glowing light. I know I can ask it things, and it seems to understand. I don’t really know how. This light is very strange in what it does.

I was sitting alone in my usual corner when a strange thought came to me. I have no way to make sense of it.

What is a Light anyway?

I resolve to ask it when it comes back.

I wait, pressing my arms against my legs and half focusing on the rough feeling. My legs loll to the sides. I don’t hear it coming yet. The question buzzes in the back of my mind. I have to wait.

I stare at the door, at the strangeness of the slight indent in the wall. Things come in from there all the time, like the light and them. I wonder if I could…

I hear something coming.

It’s not the light.

...oh.

I curl all of myself inwards, waiting.

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The hurt is sometimes too much to ignore. So I wallow in it, letting it drown me and not thinking of anything else.

I only move to drag myself to my corner. It does not make it hurt any less, but some small part of me thought it might help. And I was left in this strange state, being aware and unthinking at the same time.

It was in this state that I heard (them?It?she?) coming. I twitched weakly, moving my hand just a little bit.

The sound of the steps are rushed, and I hear the door open.

“--!”

The air starts to buzz with a feeling I recognise as panic.

“--d! Oh--od!” the voice trembles, choked to the brim with emotion “-e--ight--back-I--be-ri----ack--kay!”

The light’s presence quickly slips out of the room.

Wait….come….back!

Come...back…

...

I was drifting away.

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I woke up to something touching my leg.

The light is blinking at the edges of my vision.

...oh, it’s..its…

who?

Oh, I remember….I need to ask (she/her/it/thing?) a question.

I think it is an important question. (what was i doing?)

Slowly, my jaw opened and I was able to (finally, finally) pull the string of thoughts into the open air.

“Who...ar....you?”

The movement of heat on my leg stills, and the Light stutters.

“M…..me?” The voice is hesitant.

I nodded my head, unsure of what I was doing. My lids felt heavy, but I forced them open, even just a little bit. This was important.

The light fidgeted with their hands. A voice hitches before answering, actually speaking out into the air this time.

“I’m…….. no wait…..uh...a human, and…..um.” Broken, strange noises, but one word seems to make sense.

…

Human?

I can feel it, this is my answer.

(does that mean-)

No. That isn’t right. Her light glows, it is a good light. It’s similar to them, but not the same. Their lights are bad, bad, terrible lights.

(her?)

Nothing about them should be the same as her.

The human’s hands stop moving, and I become aware of….something being wrapped around my leg. It felt like what it had wrapped around me the first time, but different.

I pulled my eyelids open all the way, and tried to pull myself up. Gentle, warm hands push me back down.

Please don't do that, I'm helping.

Oh, ok.

I let the top of my head press against the hard ground. The human's hands start wrapping the strange thing around my leg again. It was cold and weird. But it was okay. I went back to sleep.

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The She-human comes back….a lot. And she brings things with her.

New things.

I like new things.

Sometimes, she brings things she calls “Books”.

...

“....bookss?” I lean forward over She-human’s small glowing body to look at the strange thing she has in her hands.

“Uh, yeah, books” she holds it up to my face, and I touch it with a hand. It was smooth.

I am getting better at understanding her voice, the one that comes from her face and makes her chest vibrate. This is a good thing...i think. I have one of those too, but hers is better.

“You don’t have a lot of things in here” she starts “and-and I don’t think those people would let you keep it here but I thought maybe...”

She puts the books thing on her leg and fidgets with her hands.

nervous?

“I-I could bring s-some here when they aren’t paying attention, a-and show them to you I- I guess.” The human looks up at me “i-is that okay?”

I nodded. This books thing must be very important.

Gripping the edge, she pulled it open until it was fully covering her lap. I like the sound.

“Do...do you know how to read?”

….read? What’s a read?

There is quiet for a bit. Slowly, I tilt my head.

“I thought so…” she mumbles to herself, strange sounds and almost-words that don’t make enough sense.

A soft pang of sadness. It’s gone as soon as it came.

“So...um..this was one of m-my favorite books w-when I was younger…” She pulls at the corners of the book again, making the same sound as before, but a bit sharper… “It’s...it’s a story about a...a bear”

...and revealed something new.

My sight was glued onto the Story-About-A-Bear. There were so many things in it! Bright, but not glowing things. Good things.

“You-you probably haven’t seen t-things like this before, s-so I c-can describe them f-or you” the human spoke in her face voice as I looked at the page.

Her hands that I found so interesting hesitantly started to press at a spot on the very corner of the book. The brightest, but not shiny thing there. “T-this is the sun… um...it’s in the sky most of the t-time”

Sun.

I like the sun.

“....ssSky?”

“-Uh y-yeah, the sky! Um…. there’s a lot of it outside of here...and…” The sound of thoughts come from her light. “...And it’s blue!”

…

“...bllllllue?” I think I am not as good at the face- voice as Human is. That is fine though. I like hers better.

“Blue.” she says again. “It-s u-um, a color” My gaze follows her pointed hand across the book of bright but not shiny things. “This is the sky...this is blue”

I fixate on the thing that was blue and a color on the page. Blue!

I put my finger next to hers. “Blue.” I need to keep this in my head. This is a better than good thing.

“I-it’s a light b-blue though...” A light up of recognition “Oh!...This is also blue” She poked at a darker color that looked similar. “The regular blue”

I look at more of the book and notice a patch of color that looked like her, but not shiny. It’s Human! Is this a “blue” too?

I eagerly poke at the color and look at her in what I think was a question. “...Blue?”

She looks at where I’m pointing. A spark of a good feeling as the light made a noise I have never heard before. A good noise “hehehe...no, that’s not blue…that’s green! It’s a tree!”

Green….

Green! Tree! Green!

I learn so many new things!

Good Human! Green Human! The Best Human!

I feel really, really good! I stare at the light that was green in her chest and poke at it, telling her of my wonderful findings. “....Grrrrrrreeeenn!”

The word stung and didn’t sound like how the Human said it, but it was a little bad in front of a very good feeling. Even the pain light was glowing~

“...W-well I am wearing a green s-shirt…” the green light glows (in confusion) “Y-you s-seem to like green a lot.”

I need more of the colors. All of them. I poke at the Story About A Bear some more.

“W-we did get a bit o-off track there d-didn’t w-we...d-do you w-want m-me to r-read the story n-now?” She twirls a bit of her long head fluff in her finger.

I nod.

“A-alright.”

. . .

Chapter 6: A Box of Crayons

Chapter Text

The Human brings along the Story About A Bear a lot of the time.

I like the Story About A Bear. It knows about many things. Like dogs are fluffy and other humans (Human?) like them a lot, bears are also fluffy but they aren’t liked as much as dogs are and people eat at tables, and say hi and hello to each other when meeting and a lot of Outside things. A lot of things.

But the best things are that Trees are green, and water is blue, and Human has a green light and I have a purple light and the sun is yellow. And there is a rainbow out there that has all the colors.

These are all good things. And I will keep them forever. And go see a rainbow somewhere.

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I’m here again in my favorite corner, after they came and dragged me out and did their terrible not good things to me and cause me to hurt a lot. But I don’t really care about the hurt, because I am thinking.

This happens sometimes. I don’t know if it is a good or a bad thing, because sometimes thinking like this makes bad things happen, i don’t know exactly what kind of bad things, but they are bad. But this was not one of those “sometimes”. Hopefully.

Thinking can get very strange.

...

I knew it all along, that I am not like the She-Human. The painful light in my chest is way too different. She-Human has a light like them, the ones who come here and do only bad things. They glow like the She-human, but not as brightly. They are also human, but different. The bad kind of different. I know this now, but I don’t like it. They should not be similar at all.

Why is the She-Human here with them? She should be outside with all the other good things. There are too many bad things here. Maybe I can go out there with her.

But I’m fine here, for now, there are good things here too.

I look down at the light in my chest. The She-human touches it all the time so maybe...

I put my hand over the light in my chest.

…No pain. Only grey thing.

Ok. That is good.

My body is not like She-human’s either. She is tiny and soft and squishy. I am not. Is it because she’s human and I am a… what am I anyways?

Hmm.

I will ask She-human when she comes back.

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She-Human has taught me a lot of things. Like I am a skeleton. And she is also a skeleton, but covered with squishy human things on top. She let me touch her arm. There is a hard thing under there. A skeleton? That is really weird. I was confused.

...

“N-no, you’re not a human sk-skeleton at all, you’re too big t-to be a h-human skeleton. Y-you’re m-made of bones but you’re not a hu-human.” She pokes at a smooth patch on my arm “Plus, h-humans c-can’t sur-survive with only their skeleton”

Oh.

“Y-you’re m-most likely a monster skeleton. Like-like the one who w-works at the h-hotdog stand.”

What’s a monster?

And what is a “hotdog stand”?

…

I forgot to ask her what a hotdog stand was. But I know I’m a monster skeleton now. And I’m made of bones. Bones aren’t squishy.

I touch my cheeks.

Some bones are squishy. Like whatever this face bone is called.

Does She-human have squishy face bones? Probably.

I will ask her. And maybe touch her face.

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I was standing up and touching all the walls with one hand when I heard her come in.

Turning around, I slowly walk up to her and lean down. A small jolt of surprise.

“H-hello!” she squeaks.

“Hi” I say, because when people say hello you say hi back. It’s important.

“Y-you know, you are r-really tall! Kinda s-scared m-me a bit there,” She rubs the back of her head and I see a bit of red on her face. She does that sometimes.

I notice she is holding many things, including a brightly colored box, and some strange flat white things that made crinkly sounds as she moved her arms.

“So, so I got some things for y-you” she holds them out in front of her in each hand “I-it was hard to sneak th-them in b-but y-yeah”

For me?

I don’t think I have been given anything like this before. My eyes are glued to the strange little box. Mine?

“Wait sit-sit down I’ve got to sh-show you something” I sit down, and she sits down in front of me, legs crossed.

“You seem to l-like the c-colorful pictures in that-that book a lot so…” She-human spreads the flat white things on the floor in front of her. Then she takes the weird box and opens it, taking out a color. It was brown. “See, see, look, they’re crayons! Now you have your own and I got some p-paper to m-make pictures and stuff...do you l-like them?”

I very much, extremely like crayon things. “Yes.”

“I-I thought so! I-I saw them in the d-dollar s-store. T-They h-have e-everything there!”

Ooooooh.

Then she did a thing with the crayon and it made more color. I didn’t know that color made more color? I wanna do that!

I watched intently as she carefully put it back and took out another crayon thing, it was green this time, and I noticed it was the exact color that was her chest light. The best color. She kept scribbling until there was a big green blob on top of the brown. It looked like a tree from the Book About A Bear.

“Here l-look, a tree. I don’t draw a lot so h-how does it look?” She angled the page towards me and I picked it up, holding it close to my face.

“is a good trrrree” I say as I give it back to her.

“Really?”

I nod.

“T-thanks!”

…

“Would you l-like to draw too? It’s y-your crayons after all.”

I nod again.

She hands over the brightly colored box and the green crayon. “Do w-whatever you want”

I hold the green crayon in my hand.

Hmmm.

I look at the She-human’s glowing chest light. She has color, so maybe…

Yes, I will do that then.

I squint very hard at her, and take out all the crayons from the box, carefully. Choosing a crayon, and, just like she did, I drag the crayon across the white. Then, when I’m done, I choose another crayon and gently color in where there should be colors. My fingers were a little shaky and kept dropping them, but that was fine.

It was quiet, save for the ever present Noise, and the general sound making and crinkling of paper that was She-Human doing She-Human things. And then, I was finished.

She-Human was folding and unfolding a piece of paper, quiet eagerness mostly blocked out by all the other human good sounds.

I drop the paper in her lap.

“Oh! Uh, y-you finished!” she says, picking the piece of paper up in delicate hands and peering at it. “Let me s-see here...”

I look at her intently in the brief silence.

Does she like it? I did good?

“Is- is this me?” She smiles and I hear it and It’s the best sound ever. “Thank you! I love it!”

I did very good.

“When I get outside, I’ll p-put this on- on my fridge w-where everyone can see it-”

“.....side?”

“Yeah, up there, outside, with the sky and all the trees and stuff.” She points upwards, a sound coming from her chest light that I’ve heard before. I don’t know if it is good or bad. “Don’t worry, you’ll be up there too, I’ll- I’ll find a way…”

Outside? I can go there? With Human?

I feel warm.

We talked for a little while, but eventually she had to leave, but she let me keep the drawing of the tree she did and everything. Like always, she gave me a hug, and left, quietly closing the door behind her.

But, for some reason, I wanted her to stay here a little bit longer.

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Chapter 7: The Wrong [!]

Chapter Text

I heard them, sitting in my usual corner of the room, faintly. They were moving, getting closer to here. But slowly, slower than all the other times. But like all the other times, The Noise steadily pumped louder in my head.

(Something was different.)

I stare at the door, waiting. The walls were grey. The ceiling was grey. The box of crayons I hid in the corner (I hope, I hope they never find it) was yellow, and green. I had no more of the white paper, but-

They’re. Getting. Closer.

-and the She-Human will come back when this is all over and we will go outside and see the sun and the sky and rainbows and dollar stores that have everything and draw trees and-

The Noise is deafening.

Stay calm, please.

Everything is fine.

You’ve done this before, this won’t be any different.

It will hurt, it will be bad, but...but

…

The door opens.

Everything will be f-

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I’m….here….again.

Where everything bad happens.

I don’t like it here. It smells weird.

(everything is not fine, something’s wrongsomethingswrongsomething’swrong-)

But everything is wrong here, everything. I’ve done this before why is my light threatening to rip out of my chest-

And then I pull myself up in a swirling, awful world with shaky, painful legs, and see green.

No.

No, no, no.

…

...why is she here?

“Sorry...sorry…’msorry...sor-ry” The words are mumbled and full of bitter, ugly sadness.

She’s just...sitting there.

I have to hold myself up with one arm as I look up at the most horrible things in the world. I trembled with something strange that I don’t remember feeling. No time, no time… Noise is still here…..do somethingdosomethingdosomething-

I force myself to walk forward, not to look up at the horrible, bad things that peered down at me. I put a shaky hand on her shoulder.

The sounds coming from her light were awful as she grabbed at my arm weakly. “It’s not your fault, It’s not your f-fault, I’m sorry!”

...I hear laughing, and look up. They were up there, one of those awful human-things holding something shiny in a hand.

And everything stops.

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…

I feel just as horrible as all the other times, sharp fingers gouged deep into my arms. It’s dark.

(See? I told you, you’ll be fine you’ll be fine you’ll be f-)

I peel open my eyes and-

I’m...still here.

Why?

Why...is there so much red?

The red. It’s everywhere. On the walls. On the floor. It was soaking into my shirt. I unhooked my fingers from my arms. The red clung to them, warm and sticky and dripping everywhere.

Why. Why does it feel so awful?

My sight flicks rapidly across the room and catches a glint of green. Green.

I pull myself up from the sticky pool of red and stumble toward where the Human was.

She-

She was red. She was leaking red.

There was no sound but the quiet, quiet cracking coming from her light. She isn’t moving.

Something’s wrong with She-human.

It was breaking. Her light was breaking.

I...I need to fix it.

How do I fix it?

I scoop up some of the red on the floor and press it to where She-Human’s dimming chest light was. It made an odd squelching noise.

Is it working?

-CRACK-

It’s not working!

The red was warm.

I have to...do something. Something!

Not knowing what else to do, I continue to try to fix the Human, uselessly scraping bits of the red to put back in the green Human’s body. But her light continued to break.

And then it was gone, with one last horrible, awful sound. Gone.

I….I broke She-Human.

I stare blankly at the lightless silent thing in front of me, not daring to move, her red dripping into the bits between my fingers.

This isn’t her anymore.

And I look up to see them, watching me from up there, and everything is even more awful. For the first time in a long, long while, the thoughts speak.

Their fault.

Always (always) their fault.

They did (did) something. They are bad(very bad,badbadbad).

They made you do it. Don’t you remember the (screams?)

…

I feel strange.

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Somewhere below the ground, a human man was hiding underneath an office table.

His breaths were short, winded from running away from that….thing. But he kept as quiet as he could. His legs shook as he squatted, and he was hunched in what was quite an embarrassing position to be honest.

There was a trail of bloody footprints leading to his hiding spot, but he didn’t think it mattered. The countless amounts of assorted furniture haphazardly piled in front of the sole entrance to the room held testament to that. The thick smell of blood was almost suffocating.

Heh, those idiots were disposable anyways…

An unsteady, bordering on hysteric grin grew on his face.

He clutched the metallic thing in his hand just a little tighter. He’s used it on that waste of a human skeleton well enough. He has no qualms in it working this time. Though if it doesn’t....

The man eyes the fire extinguisher on the wall. No, it will work, no point in f*cking up our Excecutioner any more than necessary. We’ve wasted too much on it already. Eugh.

Oh, he’s seen it in action, and he couldn’t say it didn’t do its job correctly. There was practically nothing left of the test subjects in the autopsy! Or the armed guards and team of bio-engineers smeared into the hallways.

He had to stop himself from giggling.

Creeaaaaak~

f*ck, f*ck f*ck! The man swore in his head. That abomination is right above me.

Why did the previous ones in charge give it super hearing anyways! The thing’s already murderous enough as it is! If he didn’t decide to let it kill that monster sympathising bitch-

Crack-

f*ck, he could hear it crawling up there. Like a f*cking oversized centipede.

He clenched the silvery remote like thing in his hands a little tighter, thumb twitching over one of the buttons.

God, I clawed my way up to the top of this organization for what? Having to hide like a f*cking coward from some psuedo-skeletal monster wannabe?

Crack- Crack- CRACK-

There was a hole in the ceiling, a large piece of shrapnel sticking through it. Over and over again, it bore into the plaster, enough force to crush a school bus behind it. The hole was getting bigger.

You know what, f*ck IT. I’m buzzing the sh*t outta this thing until that f*cking basterd dies! And then, when I’m done, I’ll just kill all the other f*cking monsters out there that caused me so much GOD DAMN trouble.

He smiled at the thought of the well deserved violence, a murderous grimace laced with pettiness and cowardice.

CRACK-

CRACK-

BOOM!

All of a sudden, a large part of the ceiling collapses, pieces of plaster and shrapnel dust floating everywhere, getting into the man’s eyes, pieces crashing into the floor.

“AGH f*ck!” he hoarsely screamed.

And then, it appeared.

Crawling through the hole like a spider and dropping down was a horrifically large gore covered skeleton wearing a ragged grey shirt. It towered over the man, it’s cracked bony claws digging into the ground like it was butter, swirling with a strange pale purple energy. A similar purple, misshapen eye light looked out of a disturbingly wide eye.

And it looked at him with unbridled hate.

Paralyzed from fear, the adrenaline pumping through him like a hydraulic press, the man dropped the silvery remote on the floor, watching it skid toward the corner. f*ck, you idiot!

A beat.

It lunged at him, threatening to rip his head from his body and he scrambled to get to the corner. He didn’t get far. A large hand grabbed onto his ankle, digging in far enough to scar the bone. He let out a hoarse scream. He shouldn’t have barricaded the door.

It was a mix of ugly hatred and a chance for self preservation that fueled his next words

“You disgusting creature, It was your fault that monster-loving bitch is dead, you know! Abominations like you that kill everything they touch, f*cker! I bet she was whoring herself out to you for a chance of self preservation! Suits an ugly bitch like her anyways!”

He felt the monster stiffen. In a swift move, he pulled himself off of the thing and ran towards the fire extinguisher. The thing stood still, not moving at all. Good. He took the heavy object in his hands, making his way toward the catatonic bastard, balanced uncannily on the wall, like a co*ckroach.

“Heheh”

In a fit of hysterical strength, he lifted it up over his head and brought it down over the monster’s beaten skull.

CRACK-

Shocked from it’s stillness, the skeleton let out a warbled scream and dropped to the floor, knocking over the already halfway shattered office table. Rivulets of dust cascaded through it’s clutching fingers from the brand new crater in it’s head. The extinguisher broke open, the contents spilling out rapidly and irritating the scientist’s eyes even more.

But he was far beyond caring. A purely hateful psychopathic grin pulled at his face muscles.

“HaHHAHAHAHAH! Abominations like you deserve to stuff-”

And all of a sudden, searing pain as his back was launched against the wall.

“AUGH!”

He struggled, screaming in pain, but it was fruitless, the skeletal abomination already had a hold on his pathetic excuse for a soul. (rotten, sickly blue, the color of a LIAR-)

Said skeleton picked itself up from it’s hunched position of agony, pale purple eyelight in a now drooping socket bubbling under the strange viel of magic. And the skeleton opened it’s half bolted jaw, the metal plates long fused with it over years of healing.

“D O Y O U ?” it started, both a whisper and a scream, dripping with animalistic hatred, “L I KE P A I N?”

The man only looked at it in fear and disgust. It didn’t want to hear the human’s disgusting voice. After all, it knew the answer already.

“...”

“D I S G U S T I N G.”

The room was silent as it flicked it’s rapidly contracting eyelight in search of something. The man could only watch as it picked up a relatively jagged piece of thin metal that once belonged to a chair. The man started screaming again, yelling out every slur, lie, insult he could think of.

The man’s rage only turned to sniveling begs for mercy once it approached him, moving jerkily, like a wind up doll. It heard, but didn’t listen, only pressing the shrapnel against his right arm.

“H U M A N SSSS…. H A V E SKKEL I TO NS'' It stated, with a strange curiosity, teeth slurring underneath the ill placed bars, barely able to open.

The man stifled a scream as the sharp metal tore through his arm, leaving a large, bleeding gash all the way down to his middle finger. The monster watched, transfixed, as the dripping blood made a puddle on the floor.

The man’s mind was already warped with panic and agony when two long fingers pushed the seeping wound open, exposing the thin muscle underneath. Another claw tore the layer open, the man’s screams becoming a pitch higher.

If one were to see the man’s arm, they would witness a sliver of white peeking through the strings of vein and muscle barely clinging together. The skeleton’s one glowing eye seemed to vibrate at seeing this, and steadily wrapped a claw around the radius, making a horrid squelching sound only one of the two seemed to be bothered by.

And ripped.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” The man’s face was permanently contorted in pain, unable to make words anymore, internally begging and pleading for the pain to stop. The skeleton only smiled, bits of dust falling off around the edges of the small grin, a thin curved bone in two long blood soaked claws.

It wanted more.

And so, the man was reduced to a mutilated corpse. The hands limp and swollen with still dripping blood , a small pile of red-stained bones lay neatly by its feet. A piece of jagged metal carefully lodged between his ribs.

(The skeleton’s warped sight caught the silver thing in the corner, and all of it’s scattered hatred suddenly converged into one point. It’s gone now, reduced to dust, nothing can control it anymore)

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Chapter 8: The Color Green

Chapter Text

Pain.

Lots of pain.

Horrible, horrible pain.

That’s what forced me awake.

It was quiet. The Noise pulsed away calmly, like nothing was wrong. But I felt awful. My light flickered painfully in my chest. I didn’t want to move.

And then, everything that happened came rushing back.

...oh

I peeled my eyelids open, slowly.

Red, like before. Red everywhere. I could smell red, I could taste red. I could feel it stick to my teeth and in the cracks of my fingers.

I pushed myself up from sitting against a red soaked wall and forced my legs to keep me up. There was only the sound of dripping.

This room was...new. It had many doors instead of one, but it was still so, so red. Broken human red.

I don’t like this color.

...

I have to find her.

I stumble forward, not sure of where to go. There are too many doors.

Where…?

I will go some way, and I will find her, and I will not stay here any longer. This place is bad.

I continue to trudge on through the shallow pools of red, looking around for...something. And then, there was a hole.

...hole?

I think the hole will help me find her. I like this hole. Peering in, there were wall-bits on the floor below, pieces still crumbling off and mixing with the sticky red that was also below. The room where she is in is probably do-

-CRUMBLE-

I fell in the red puddle with a heavy splat. The pain that was just beginning to dull flared up, making me want to curl in.

I don’t like holes anymore.

But I have to find her, so I pull myself off, red dripping off of the no-longer-grey shirt. (I’m so sorry She-Hu-)

I keep walking.

Eventually, I came to a door that seemed...familiar. It was open, and I caught a glimpse of something that glowed a faint green-

It’s her!

I staggered through the door quickly and made my way inside.

It’s...my….room?

The walls I knew forever were so, so grey.

I like this color better.

But where…?

The green from before catches my eye. I looked behind the open door, where I knew the box of crayons were.

The brightly colored box, my brightly colored box, was glowing.

Such a pretty green….

I don’t understand. Is she in the box?

I peel the lid open to see only the bright color sticks she had given me before….

(before?)

Before she broke.

But I don't think she can just be in there...can she?

So why? Why was it…

It’s fine. It’s fine.

Something of hers is in here, this box. I know it.

(I can always understand later)

…

I look up at the ceiling and the one white light. It flickered and dimmed lifelessly with each passing moment. I clutch the glowing green box of crayons to my chest, my light pulsing steadily.

I need

(You need)

To leave this place.

(must leave, there is nothing good here left)

Everything good here is “outside”, now.

(all gone...all gone…)

Everything is better outside.

And the Noise led me away, to somewhere.

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Somewhere in the middle of a redwood forest, a heavy hatch was bent out of place. A few native birds fled, chased off into the blue sky by the noise.

A tall, red stained figure pulled itself out of it. They pulled themself out and did not bother to wipe the red off of it’s person. Their eyes were devoid of light, staring at nothing in particular, but never seeming to really see anything.

And slowly, they walked forward from where they emerged, steps monotonous and robotic, like a wind up doll, following their own strange rhythm. The unnatural entity traveled through the silent wood like a ghost, the drying blood caked on their skeletal figure seemed just an afterthought. An unimportant detail.

The forest’s creatures only watched from their hiding places, kept away by the thick scent of blood and strange, vaguely threatening aura. A bit of yellow and green could be seen between the gaps in their fingers.

The figure stayed in their barely conscious state, walking endlessly. It did not stop, tripping and stumbling over bits of foliage and rocks, but always somehow keeping it’s steady, janky pace.

After some time, it started raining, washing some of the sticky blood off of their body, but they didn’t seem to notice. Mud covered the blood still caked on their feet. The box in their hand was somehow kept relatively dry.

They kept walking, even as eventually the pain in each step was evident, legs buckling over their own weight, barely staggering on.

They walked until they were unable to go on anymore, dropping down on the forest floor against a nearby tree. The ragged skeleton didn’t move, still staring at something far, far away. The animals continued to watch, but only one was brave enough to approach.

A large, fluffy white dog bounded over to the dirty, tired figure, plopping down on their lap. It panted on it’s new favorite resting place, a floppy pointed ear knocking against the dull metal collar wrapped snugly around their neck.

A shock and something vaguely purple, but only for a moment. But the empty eyes finally seem to see again, and they wake up as if it was from a dream.

In a house not too far from there, an angry skeleton monster drops a plate.

Chapter 9: Red

Chapter Text

(Sans)Red the Skeleton was having a moderately pleasant nap, having face planted onto the nearest piece of relatively soft furniture he could find. He was beginning to merge with the living room couch….

“RED!”

He launched himself off at the sound of his brother’s loud voice. “aah f*ck!-”

...ugh.

He just. Got home. From that sh*tty job his brother demanded he bust his bony ass to get in the first place. He did not have the stamina to deal with his bullsh*t. A large part of him wanted to ignore the loud bastar-

“RED WAKE THE f*ck UP RIGHT NOW OR I’LL COME FIND YOU AND DRAG YOUR LAZY COXXYX DOWN MYSELF!”

Goddamnit.

Sighing heavily, he pulls himself up from his rather uncomfortable position on the floor and prepared to teleport down to the kitchen where he knew his brother was.

“RED-”

“sup, boss”

His brother looked up from a shattered plate on the floor to glare at him.

“DO NOT ‘SUP’, BOSS’ ME! DID YOU NOT FEEL THAT JUST NOW?”

And suddenly all traces of annoyance were gone.

“whaddya mean, boss, i didn’t feel anything.”

“THEN YOU MUST BE LAZIER THAN I THOUGHT!” the taller skeleton huffed, crossing his arms. “I FELT A SURGE OF MAGIC THAT WAS NOT ANY ONE OF OUR “HOUSE MATES’. GO FIND WHO IT IS AND TAKE CARE OF IT.”

Red’s shoulders hunched. This was gonna be a headache to deal with.

“ok, boss.” he murmured, teleporting away and leaving an exasperated younger brother to pick up the pieces of porcelain he dropped.

The cool air of the forest blasted into his face as his feet touched the dirt ground. Putting his hands in the pockets of his black parka, he trudged through the wilderness.

It was completely silent.

well that’s f*ckin’ weird.

The suspicion buzzed under the thick layer of aggravation at having to search the whole f*cking forest. But luckily it wasn’t long until the metallic scent of human blood stained the forest air.

Red narrowed his eye sockets at the familiar odor. Looks like he’s found his headache for today. His footsteps barely made any sound as he followed the gradually strengthening smell to it’s source.

ok, so either an injured human mage or some monster who just offed some human over some sh*t or other.

Only one of those was plausible. Human mages are practically f*cking extinct and Red found it better if they stayed that way. Hell, even the Ambassadors had little to no magic prowess themselves-

(except for-)

yeah, none of that sh*t.

He dragged a hand down his face, suppressing any sort of unwanted flashback.

so, murder-happy monster it is. ugh. What? Did some sh*t for brain assholes harass a random Fell again?

A heavy blanket of LV started to buzz in the air, and made every bone in his body lock in place. His own flared up uncontrollably in reaction, making his eyes glow just a little brighter and a fist form in his jacket pocket.

Don’t let it get to you, sansy~ shut the f*ck up!

Despite this, it doesn’t bother him as much as it probably should. He’s dealt with things like this before anyways. This should be easy.

(bicolor orbs and a red scarf-)

Smashing the unpleasant memory under his metaphorical shoe, he continued to follow the feeling of freshly gained LV to its source.

It led him to a small clearing.

what…..in the f*cking hell?

It took him a while just to process what he was seeing.

Slumped against a large tree a few feet away was another skeleton. Ragged, covered in nasty looking scratches and half dried blood, and that f*cking dog draped over it’s lap.

Yeahhhhh….no.

Already deciding he wasn’t in a good enough mood to get himself involved with yet another murderous bag of bones, Red turns around and prepares to teleport back to his beloved couch.

He made the mistake of looking back.

The skeleton had tilted it’s head up to look at him, revealing more of their face. Empty sockets peered at him from across the shrubbery. The dark, voidlike pits made him shudder the tiniest bit in discomfort.

Reminded him too much of another headache.

“th’ f*ck are you looking at?” He broke the silence after several long seconds.

They didn’t respond back.

He had to force himself to look at something that wasn’t those empty holes, dimmed red eyelights flicking away.

A large, diamond shaped crack crested the emaciated skeleton’s skull. A giant addition to the f*cked up motley of scars lacerating this monster’s body (what the f*ck did that to them-). It still had bits of dust flaking from the edges.

Ah f*ck.

Shrugging off the trance and, not knowing why he didn’t before , Red CHECKed them.

??? LV 17

HP 5/15

ATK 380

DEF 60

*This...Monster? Has traveled a long way to get here.

*Moves to their own beat.

This bitch had almost as much LV as the dust rag himself. He would have been more worried were it not for the fact that they were missing two thirds of their meager HP and losing more by the second. He wouldn’t have given less of a sh*t if this skeleton dusted, but it was only more migraines and having to explain a random dust pile on his shared property would be even more of a pain in the spine.

He let out a deep, quiet sigh.

Speaking of Dusty f*cker, that creep’s probably skulking (heh-)in the woods right now, and he did not want to deal with that. Which means he should get going. Right now.

The skeleton was still staring at him.

He could leave and pretend he never saw anything. It was the “lesser of the two evils” and whatever.

The easier option

...

The oversized nilla cookie was rubbing off on him, wasn’t he.

Stars damnit.

He made himself walk forward through the lingering remnants of LV stink until he was standing directly in front of them. Even when sitting, they were only a little bit shorter than his standing form.

The lightless sockets followed his every movement. His face twitched in discomfort.

“ heya. “

….

“ ya...ya don’t look too hot, bud.”

….

Come on, respond already, this is getting annoying.

… His eyes finally scanned and locked on to the pieces of metal stapled to the sides of their jaw, faint cracks dotted around it. What he thought were flecks of blood were actually bruises.

“the f*ck happened to your face?”

A single, barely audible exhale. But that wasn’t what Red was paying attention to anymore.

A cloud of dust puffed out from behind their fanglike lips, billowing out into the air.

He guessed being on the surface for this long he forgot what dust smelled like.

yeah the rag gaining more lv would be more of a f*cking problem-

…

Before he knew it, he had their arm in his hand and was taking them through the void.

He didn’t falter in tossing the skeleton onto the old living room couch before leaving the way he came, blipping to his unmade bed and collapsing. The others could deal with it, he’s done enough.

...

sh*t i forgot about my bro-

Chapter 10: The Great Pa-Py-Russ and Lazy Slobness Sans

Chapter Text

…...

Where….?

I was sitting on something vaguely soft. Everything hurts, but it’s a weird sort of hurt. The kind of pain that sinks in and stays there. I think I’ve felt like this before.

I’m tired.

I don’t think I can or want to move.

But where am I?

Oh. Oh I remember now.

I wanted to leave. The thoughts came back and told me I wanted to leave.

I was outside now.

Outside.

How did I get here? I only remember green and brown things. Many, many green and brown things. And one, white fluffy thing that made...alive noises. And then…

A red thing took me here...somehow. And then it left. An alive, glowing red thing. That also had white, and yellow, and more red.

It had one of those glowing things in it’s chest, maybe another Human thing? But it didn’t look like a human light. It was all white and all the color was everywhere else. The shape didn’t look right either.

This is all so strange. Where are all the bears and dollar stores Green Human told me about?

I miss her. Where did she go?

I remember I still have the box of colors in my hand.

Oh... Right here.

I relax more into whatever this soft thing was. I’m no longer back in that place, and some of Green is still with me and everything is good.

(I can still smell red)

Everything is mostly good.

I enjoy the calm and the quiet of wherever here is for a little bit longer while I sort out my sinking, melted together thoughts.

What do I do now?

I know the answer.

I am going to find a rainbow. Somehow. Eventually.

I will do it.

Then I'm going to do outside things. I don't know what kind of things, but I will think of something. And then do a lot of it.

And then…

I’m tired.

I’m going to sleep first though. I can’t see the rainbow if my eyelids are barely keeping themselves open.

I give in to the heaviness of my eyelids and start to sink into sleep.

SLAM!

"GREETINGS HOUSEMATES! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS! HAVE RETURNED!"

...who?

" i'm here too bro"

"AND ALSO MY NOT AS GREAT BUT STILL OKAY BROTHER IS HERE TOO"

"heh, thanks for noticing"

"I KNOW, IT'S LIKE I DON'T EVEN HAVE TO TRY TO NOTICE YOUR LAZY SLOBNESS SANS"

"oof, right in the non-existent heart there bro"

The sounds of loud talking got louder as they got closer. If I listened just a little bit harder, I could hear the quiet shuffling under the loud stomping.

“ANYWAYS WHO’S TURN IS IT TO MAKE LUNCH TODAY-OH MY STARS!!!!”

It was another thing! But taller, and louder, and more orange than red. And shiny! And there was a blue thingy too.

For some strange reason I liked the orange one better. Was it because it was so much shiner and louder than the blue thingy?

“ARE YOU OKAY STRANGE SKELETON ON OUR COUCH?-SANS WHY IS THERE A STRANGE SKELETON ON OUR COUCH??!!!”

“beats me”

“SANS YOU BETTER NOT BE LYING! LAST TIME YOU DID YOU RIPPED A HOLE IN THE MULTIVERSE!!”

What did the orange one call itself again? The Great Pa-py-russ? And it called the blue one a Sans. And a ….lazy slobness? What’s a slobness?

Must be an Outside thing.

Great Pa-py-russ’s feelings were very loud, but the good kind of loud. It felt concern, and a lot of it. I remember concern, I used to hear it a lot around Green. But it was different.

Something was different about it.

I don’t know what, though. I think I'll find out eventually.

I felt the Lazy Slobness Sans looking at me weirdly. It gave me a weird feeling, a weird, pressing feeling. I think I remember feeling it when the Red thing found me.

Where did the Red thing go, anyway?

Suddenly, the Great Pa-py-russ was much closer and louder than before.

“HELLO STRANGE SKELETON! ARE YOU IN NEED OF ASSISTANCE?”

I didn’t think I had anything to say, if I could have spoken at that moment. So I blinked at the figure looming over me a bit slowly. I was still really tired.

“I’M GOING TO TAKE THAT AND THE FACT THAT YOU ARE LEAVING DUST AND SUSPICIOUS RED LIQUIDS ON OUR COUCH AS A YES.”

The Great Pa-py-russ turned over to Lazy Slobness Sans “SANS!”

“hm?”

“BE A RESPONSIBLE HOST AND LEAD OUR GUEST TO THE BATHROOM WHILE I GO MAKE THEM A DELICIOUS MEAL, WILL YOU?”

“i dunno paps, sounds like a lotta work to m-”

“SANS.”

“okay.”

The Lazy Slobness Sans walks up to me and holds out a white hand. “alright come on, new pal”

What’s that weird pink thing on it?

“what? don’t want to hold my hand?”

I gathered whatever lingering amount of strength I had left into placing my hand in theirs.

Pbbbbbbbbbbfffffffftttttttt~

…

What?

The pink thing in their hand made a noise. And now the Slobness Sans is laughing.

“REALLY, SANS? REALLY?”

“what? i thought i could help our new pal here by adding some more cushioning.”

…

“ALRIGHT I’M LEAVING. BYE.”

The Great Pa-py-russ marches out through another door.

…

“Tough crowd amiright?

The Slobness Sans is looking at me weirdly again. It’s making me somewhat uncomfortable.

“let’s getcha cleaned up, yeah?”

They’re still holding my hand. I hear a bit of discomfort, but it’s too quiet, like they're trying to hide it from me.

I try to pull myself up, but my legs are all numb, throbbing and prickly. But it’s better than the sharp pain from before.

I somehow manage to balance on my own two feet without tripping.

“come on, the bathroom’s just down the hall” The Lazy Slobness Sans talks up to me.

They start walking, and I stumble on slightly behind them. And then they stop and let go of my hand, and I end up tripping. Face first. Onto the floor.

Ow.

My head hurts even more.

“yanno, i wouldn’t have expected someone who just got to LV 17 to be so docile”

The Slobness Sans wipes off his hand with a white thingy from their blue jacket thing while I sluggishly pick myself up from the floor. There’s red stuff on the floor now.

Oh, that’s why they were so uncomfortable. I still have red stuff on me. Ah.

“maybe it’s because of that head injury ya got there.” ,they point to the top of their head “but, well, i guess this is way better than those other weirdos”

I reach toward the top of my skull, but put my hand back down.

“i guess this just makes things easier”

They turn their stare back to me. “don’t murder and/or maim anyone inside or outside this house and we’re cool.”

“if you do, then you’re b o n e d. got it?”

I don’t think I got whatever that was, but I nodded anyway.

“cool, we’re here now.”

The Slobness Sans opened a door right beside us and gestured for me to enter. This must be the bathroom.

It had a lot of white in it, kinda like the Lazy Slobness Sans, but they were more blue. And glowing.

“towels are in that cupboard over there” said the sans, pointing to a weird box with doors next to the door “,soap is on the bathtub shelf, and turn the knob for water but wait a bit if you want it warm. paps will be back probably to give you some clean clothes”

“i think that’s everything...wait. don’t make too much of a mess, will ya? edge would definitely kill me if you did.”

“i'll see you in a bit, got a nap to catch up on, later pal.”

The Slobness Sans is gone. Not knowing what else to do, I close the door and look at all the stuff. I think I've seen things like this in one of the books Green read to me.

Um.

What did the Sans say again? Um. Cupboard thingy? Towels? A….bathtub.

I spin around on the cold floor, looking for any clue on what to do next. And then I remember I’m still covered in red stuff. It’s sticky and dry, and now that I’m paying attention, very uncomfortable.

Maybe get all this stuff off of me first?

Hmmm.

Water. Water gets people clean right? I think. The Sans said to turn the knob for water. What knob? What even is a knob?

I turn my eyes to a patch of color in the room.

Oooh, green! It was a nice color, so I touched it. And it moved, so I pulled it. And there was a bathtub there.

I think.

It looked like a bathtub.

So...this knob thingy has to be here somewhere.

….

Oh! Shiny!

There was a shiny thing on this wall, so I also touched it. It was a bit cold, and it moved a bit. This must be the knob the Sans was talking about.

I turned it a little bit more and heard a sudden gurgling noise.

And then something sprayed out from another weird shiny thing. I watched in stunned silence as the bathtub filled up with a weird shiny...thing?

Is...

Is this water?

The weird shiny stuff is spilling over the side.

Uh...uh, um, what do I do now?

I try turning the knob again.

...

Uh okay, it stopped now.

Okay, everything is fine, I think.

So I got the water, so now I have to...get...clean?

How do I do that again?

I narrow my sockets at the tub of water. The shininess of it makes me want to touch it, so I put my whole hand in. The floor is all slippery under my feet, and then-

SPLASH!

Suddenly, I fell in completely.

The stuff bubbled as it filled my skull and somehow turned a strange brownish red. I struggled a bit to get my head a bit above the stuff, sitting up. All of the water was turned a weird shade of red.

How did this happen?

This is super weird, and cold. But nice? I think?

Yes.

I picked off bits of red stuck to my skull as I sat in the tub, accidentally knocking over one of those strange square things sitting on the edge into the water.

It made bubbles and smelled kind of weird.

The water was beginning to smell like red stuff now, so I pulled myself out of it. My shirt was sticking to my bones. But I think I'm clean now.

...I hear loud footsteps again. They stop right behind the door.

“HELLO AGAIN STRANGE SKELETON! I HOPE YOU HAD A GOOD BATH! PINE HELPED ME WITH THE SPAGHETTI SO I THOUGHT TO GIVE YOU SOME OF MY CLOTHES!”

The door opens a little bit and a single red and white arm puts a pile of colorful stuff on the weird white thing next to the box with little doors.

“THERE! THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS THE MOST CONSIDERATE OF HOSTS, AFTER ALL!”

The arm pulls out of the room and closes the door behind it.

“SPEAKING OF CONSIDERATE HOSTS, DID MY BROTHER GIVE YOU ANY TROUBLE?”

Um..

I think I'm supposed to answer that. How do I….

“I’M GOING TO TAKE THE AWKWARD SILENCE AS A YES AND GO SCOLD MY BROTHER LATER.”

… okay.

“ANYWAYS WHEN YOU’RE DONE IN THERE COME FIND ME! I’LL BE DOWN THE HALL IN THE KITCHEN WAITING FOR YOU! WE’LL GET YOU FIXED UP IN NO TIME!”

The Great Pa-py-russ left, taking it’s brightness with it.

I stared at the pile. Then I remembered that I was still all...wet and uncomfortable. So I didn't touch it yet and stood in front of the box with doors instead.

What did the Slobness Sans call it? Cupboard?

I think they did.

I opened the little doors to find a pile of white things. I think these are the towel things.

I took one out and held it in one of my hands. It was warm. It smelled nice. So I put it on my head until I could find a way to use it. It helped my head hurt less, somehow. Then I looked back at the pile, and picked up one of the colorful things.

It looked...famillar. Like my shirt! But it also was orange, warm and smelled nice.

I put the orange shirt back and pulled at my own shirt. I like my shirt. Green gave it to me.

But it smelled like red stuff and wasn’t warm anymore. So I peeled it off, being careful not to break it. It was kind of painful, but that was fine. The shirt will be safe in the weird bowl-table thingy.

I put on the new shirt, but it was a little harder than taking the old shirt off. But I managed to do it. Somehow.

I think it looks nice.

But there were more colorful things in the pile...maybe another shirt? I picked another thing up -it was purple this time- and looked at it.

It didn’t look like a shirt at all. But it still smelled nice so I put it on my head.

It didn’t feel right on my head. The weird floppy parts draped over my face and made it hard to see anything. So I put my arms through the weird holes. But that didn’t feel right either. So I just put my legs through the holes instead.

After pulling it up a bit, I think I did it right...probably.

There’s no more pile. What do I do now?

Umm. Wait.

Find The Great Pa-py-russ. And eat spaghetti.

Whatever that is.

Okay. I think i can do that.

Chapter 11: Tastes Pointy

Chapter Text

Finding The Great Pa-py-russ should be easy. I just have to go…down the hall and in a kitchen.

A kitchen…I don’t know what that is, but it is wherever The Great Pa-py-russ is, so as long as i can find him, it should be fine….i think.

Oh, I can see his glowing from here.

I mess around with the shiny thing poking out of the door while I watch the pulsing speck of light behind the wall.

I pull the door open (I can open doors! I did not know I could do that! How did I-) and step out of the room.

The light is still there. It’s getting louder. Definitely The Great Pa-py-russ.

This way.

I start walking towards the orange light, trying not to fall over and also looking at all of the interesting things on the walls. So many new colors to look at. But it was mostly white.

That’s fine. I like white too.

…

A strange smell starts collecting in my nose hole thing.

What is that smell?

Smells…nice.

My sockets closed a little bit as I just stood there, enjoying the wonderful smell.

Then I heard footstep noises.

They’re getting louder.

“EXCUSE ME COMING THROUGH!!!!!!”

I opened my sockets as a blob came rushing towards me-

Whatdoidowhatdoidowhatdoido-

*CRASH!!*

…

ow.

“NOOOO~ MY MINIATURE TACOS!!!”

….Tacos?

“PAPY IS THAT YOU! WHY WERE YOU STANDING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE HALL-” The blue(?) green(??) blueish-green…person…thing turns its head to look at me “OH- YOU ARE DEFINITELY NOT PAPY.”

The blue-green person’s chest sounds changed from annoyance to happier feelings in an instant.

“YOU MUST BE A NEW FRIEND THEN!” Blue-green person picks himself off of the ground and holds one of his hands out “GREETINGS!! I AM THE SANSATIONAL SANS! ALSO KNOWN AS BLUE BY MY FELLOW HOUSEMATES!”

His hand was still out for some reason and I stared at it. It was white and blue. Was I supposed to do something? Maybe? I don’t know.

“NORMALLY THERE WOULD BE ALL THIS RACKET AND DESTRUCTION AND ALL OF THAT NONSENSE EVERYTIME ONE OF YOU CAME THROUGH!!” He shook his head “ HONESTLY, EVEN IF THEY FOUND A WAY NOT TO MAKE THAT HUNK OF METAL SPONTANEOUSLY COMBUST EVERY TIME THEY USED IT-”

He put his hand back down as I shakily stood up on my feet. Weird.

“OH WOW You’re Taller Than I Expected- ARE YOU A WEIRD ALTERNATE OF MY BROTHER? HOW WAS THE TRIP THROUGH THE MULTIVERSE? DO YOU HAVE A BROTHER?-”

This…Blue person was weird. He sounds like the Slobness Sans, and also the Great Pa-py-russ, but not at the same time? He’s loud like the Great Pa-py-russ too. He even reminded me of that Red thing person in the other place.

Is this another Outside thing? It’s probably another Outside thing. What’s all of the stuff on the floor anyways?

… My head hurts.

“-OU GET ALL THE COOL BATTLE SCARS FROM? THEY LOOK PAINFUL! WHAT’S YOUR NAME NEW FRIEND? WHY DO YOU HAVE A TOWEL ON YOUR HEAD? DO YOU LIKE PUZZLES? I, FOR ONE, LOVE PUZZLES! THE SPIKY EDGELORD AND THE VANILLA FLAVORED PAPSICLE THINK THEY ARE THE BEST AT THEM BUT I HAVE FAR MORE YEARS WORTH OF PUZZLE EXPERIENCE SO I AM CLEARLY SUPERIOR!!”

He picked up all of the stuff on the floor and put it onto a weird flat shiny thing. It…it kind of smelled really good. Not the same as the other smell though.

“ALSO I MADE MINIATURE TACOS!! I FOUND A RECIPE FOR THEM ON PIPETUBE AND THOUGHT THEY WERE ADORABLE! WANT ONE?”

He held out the flat thing full of small…colorful…slightly shiny things.

…

I took one.

Now I have a “miniature taco”. What do I do with it?

Um.

He’s watching me. It smells nice.

For some reason I want to put it in my mouth.

So I put it in my mouth, opening my aching jaw just enough to not hurt or pull too much.

…

Oh.

—-----

Papyrus was a bit worried for his newest guest. He hasn’t seen them in quite a while and it was getting a bit uncomfortable with the hulking form of his rather peculiar alternate Pine staring down the pot of spaghetti like he was going to suddenly unhinge his jaw and swallow the whole thing in one bite. He feared it was becoming more of a possibility with every passing moment.

Maybe they were in the bathroom? Although if they were, they'd have spent a while in there. It’s been about half an hour.

Were they lost? It was a possibility, even if the kitchen was just down the hall from the bathroom. This mansion he and his housemates bought and refurbished was rather large, afterall.

Still…he heard Blue talking in the hallway, maybe he knew where they were? He leaned out of the doorway to ask.

“HEY BLUE HAVE YOU SEEN A SKELETON AROUND YOUR BROTHER’S HEIGHT WITH A CONCERNING LOOKING CRACK IN THEIR SKULL ANYWHERE-”

Blue and the mentioned skeleton quickly snapped their skulls toward his direction. And…-He squinted a little-Was he hallucinating or was there one of Edge’s freshly cleaned towels precariously balanced on their head?

“HELLO PAPYRUS! I WAS JUST HONORING MY NEW FRIEND HERE WITH FIRST SAMPLES OF MY MINIATURE TACOS”

Oh dear…Papyrus can see the shimmer of glitter even from his perch at the kitchen door frame! This isn’t good at all! He can’t have his guest getting sick on top of the numerous injuries they have!

Even without those squishy human innards Pine tells him about (to his morbid interest) skeletons can’t just eat glitter like that! Imagine the mess! The mess!

Although…the guest themself (he really needs to find out their name soon) looks…uhhh…

Well. They are sitting there chewing and staring into space. The only thing that could tell him anything about how they thought of what they just put in their mouth was the small, pleased pale purple blush blooming on their cracked cheeks.

It was…kind of adorable to be honest. A look at those rapidly rotating eyelights of Blue showed he thought so too.

But HOW do they even enjoy ingesting such….horrendously inedible food? Papyrus swears there’s more glitter than actual taco! He needs to save them before Blue ends up dusting them-

Before he could think another thought, he grabbed the skeleton’s hand, stopping them from reaching for another one of those sparkling abominations, and quickly sped walked away into the safety of the kitchen.

“WELL LOOK AT THAT OUR GUEST IS STILL INJURED I’LL HAVE TO GO FEED THEM SOME EMERGENCY SPAGHETTI OKAY GOODBYEEEE! NYEHHEHEHEHEHEH!!”

And off the Great Papyrus went with his silent follower in tow.

……

“ANNNNND THERE! A PERFECTLY ARRANGED BOWL OF SPAGHETTI.” said Papyrus, punctuating his words with a careful placement of the bowl in front of the fellow skeleton.

Now they were both in the kitchen, the new skeleton wearing his old clothes and sitting on one of their many comfortable kitchen stools.

His guest stared at the bowl in silence. Papyrus had no clue as to what was going on in their skull as he stood next to them at the kitchen table. Maybe they were admiring the bowl…or something. Are they not hungry?

“FINALLY!!!” a voice very similar to Papyrus’s but raspier and high pitched broke the silence that had somehow overtook the kitchen.

“OH! PINE! I UMMMM….TEMPORARILY FORGOT YOU WERE HERE!”

The gangly fellow didn’t seem to mind though, preoccupied with piling as much spaghetti onto his plate as possible.

As soon as about a third of the spaghetti in the pot was on his plate, he started eating. Thankfully he was much more polite in his eating habits than his brother.

Papyrus shuddered at the thought.

Quickly, he turned his head back to his guest, who…somehow…already finished? The bowl was completely spotless!

Wowie…

A long purplish tongue snaked out to lick at the red stains marring their scarred cheeks, digging into the faint cracks along their mouth. Some of them were actually starting to close up! Though he might just lightly admonish them for their extremely gross eating habits…After they are fully healed, of course!

He let out a quiet sigh of relief.

Though…there was something wrong. The color of their magic was…odd. Their tongue was almost colorless and so pale it was almost translucent as it flicked back inside their mouth. Magic losing it’s opacity was usually some sort of deficiency. But this was unnatural. Magic shouldn’t look like that. Not even Axe’s magic looked like that.

His increasing worry slid into the back of his mind to make way for embarrassment as he realized that he was staring for far too long than he intended.

“OH-! SORRY!”

But the skeleton didn’t even seem to notice, which was…good? In Papyrus’s opinion. They licked the last of the sauce off of their fingers.

Wait.

Not that he isn’t absolutely elated at their reaction to his world class spaghetti (that Pine may or may not have forced him not to add ingredients that yes, were extremely necessary and crucial to the spaghetti making process-) But….

Wait just a second…were they EATING that fork?

He had to rub his sockets to see that yes, his new friend was, in fact, chewing on the kitchen utensil like it was a cinnabunny.

But just before he could say something, Pine rose to his feet, having finished his bowl.

“EXCUSE ME FOR MY MANNERS, BUT YOU MUST BE NEW HERE!” the towering skeleton leans over toward the other with as friendly a smile as he could make with his crooked, stained teeth “THE GREAT PINE IS AT YOUR SERVICE! WHAT IS YOUR NAME, IF I MAY ASK?”

The shorter of the two paused their placid chewing to look up at Pine, the handle of the fork hanging out of their teeth.

“...”

….

“Well That’s Quite Rude Of You Not to Answer, Friend” Was said with little to no emotion in his cheerful tune. But his toothy smile only widened. “BUT THE GREAT PINE IS, AS ALWAYS, A LENIENT AND GENEROUS SKELETON”

“ALSO, NAMELESS SKELETON, I’M SORRY TO BE THE ONE TO TELL YOU THIS BUT CAN YOU PLEASE STOP TRYING TO EAT THAT FORK! TINY ME LOOKS LIKE HIS SOUL IS ABOUT TO FALL OUT OF HIS RIBCAGE AND IT IS NOT A GOOD LOOK FOR HIS FACE TO HAVE”

Pine flamboyantly gestures toward Papyrus’s direction…wait he was making a face?

As quickly as it showed up, he wiped away his flabbergasted and mildly horrified look. He felt his cheeks heat up and a nervous NYEH HEH left his mouth.

“ALSO METAL AND PLASTIC IS NOT A HEALTHY NOR DELICIOUS LUNCH TO EAT AT ALL -Trust Me I Would Know-”

….

“PRETENDING I DIDN’T JUST SAY THAT…IF YOU WON’T GIVE US A NAME WE’LL HAVE TO CALL YOU “NAMELESS SKELETON” OR SOMETHING ALL THE TIME, AND THAT’S JUST TEDIOUS AND IMPOLITE!”

Papyrus deemed now as a good enough time to speak up. He glanced at the metal looking bits fixed to their mouth and came to a quick conclusion. He didn’t know why he hadn’t realized it sooner!

“ARE YOU ABLE TO TALK, NEW FRIEND?”

The skeleton turned their head to look at him. Those large, blank eyes of theirs seemed to think very hard about something. He wondered what was going on in that skull of theirs.

“....yess?” They punctuated the word with a slight nod.

Papyrus felt immense pride at the fact that he got the first word out of his guest.

Though with the way they were rubbing their jaw his previous conclusion may have some form of correctness. His moment of gloating was rudely interrupted by Pine’s voice.

“ GREAT! NOW THAT WE ESTABLISHED THAT YOU ARE CAPABLE OF SPEECH….YOU CAN GIVE US YOUR NAME AND WE WILL OFFICIALLY BE FRIENDS!”

“THAT IS…WAIT A SECOND…DO YOU EVEN HAVE A NAME?”

Wait, that's strange… What reason would anyone have for not having a name?

“No.”

…Oh dear.

“THAT IS UNFORTUNATE AND EXTREMELY TERRIBLE!”

“I COMPLETELY AGREE, PINE! HEY, NEW FRIEND, WOULD YOU LIKE A NAME?”

…

“Yes.”

“WELL AS THE GREAT PAPYRUS I’D BE HONORED TO THINK OF ONE FOR YOU!”

Papyrus performed his signature pose, hands on his hips and scarf billowing in the nonexistent wind. He bet he looked very cool.

Pine gave a slight smile through his crooked teeth and stood a little straighter for a second, then headed to the kitchen entryway, bending a little so his head would fit under the frame.

“I HAVE A FEELING MY BROTHER IS DOING SOMETHING STUPID AGAIN, LIKE ALWAYS” He narrowed his sockets at the ceiling, “GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR NAME CHOOSING OR SOME SUCH”

With that, he slinked out of the kitchen and loud thumping was heard as he marched up the stairs.

Papyrus turned back to his soon to be named friend and struck another flash pose. “BE HONORED FELLOW SKELETON! I AM IN CHARGE OF DECIDING A MONIKER WORTHY OF A FRIEND OF THE GREAT PAPYRUS!”

Hmmm…

Oh he had a genius idea!

“HEY NEW FRIEND! WHAT DO YOU THINK OF… PAPYRUS JR.?”

…

They continued to stare at him, nothing in their sockets telling him whether they liked it or not. But lack of reaction never deterred the Great Papyrus!

“NOT A FITTING ENOUGH NAME? WELL I DIDN’T THINK YOU LOOKED MUCH LIKE A “JUNIOR” ANYWAY…”

Besides, Papyrus’s name is far too awesome to burden on a poor, unfortunate and mildly unsettling monster such as his new friend. But, his brilliant mind has many ideas to spare! He knows at least one of them might be the one!

“PURPLE?”

“…”

Nyeh, too lazy. He wasn’t Sans for goodness sake!

“FRANKLIN?”

“…”

Too boring.

“...MTT BRAND FLOOR CLEANER??”

Why on earth was he thinking about- nevermind.

“PLUM!”

“…”

Aww…he kinda liked that one.

He could go on, but by the lidded look on his guest’s face he could tell they were practically dead on their feet…dead in their chair, really. Being injured so badly must have tuckered them out. He’ll let this slide, for now.

As a gracious host, it was his duty to provide his guest with proper sleeping arrangements, afterall!

He grabs the exhausted monster’s slender hand and pulls them to their feet, making sure not to pull too hard.

“YOU LOOK TIRED, ESTEEMED GUEST, LET’S GO FIND YOU A ROOM!” There were plenty of furnished spare rooms on the second floor they could use.

He pulled them along through the hallway and toward the stairs.

The…more confrontational alternates wouldn’t mind…right?

…

A lanky skeleton in an orange hoodie teleports onto the living room couch for an afternoon nap and is promptly woken up by a high pitched shriek coming from the bathroom down the hall. Over the commotion, he doesn’t hear the slight crack underneath his seat.

Chapter 12: The Five Stages of Grief

Chapter Text

Everything’s so…fuzzy.

I watched as the colors around me melted together until I couldn't tell the difference between them anymore.

The Noise buzzed from somewhere. Loud…and….slow.

I feel like curling up in a corner…gray…corner?

Huh.

I am tired. This happens sometimes. Always a strange feeling. I think I should have fallen over and hit my head by now…but I haven't. For some reason.

And then I realize something is holding my hand. I squint a little trying to focus the color into my face holes.

Red.

They feel familiar somehow.

Red hands…red hands…pa….rus…

Oh!

The Great Pa-py-russe was holding my hand for me. How nice of him.

I wiggle my fingers a little bit. Something feels odd.

“.....”

He is talking but the sounds are all melting and fading away. That’s too bad, I like the Great Pa-py-russe’s voice. It is nice, reminds me of….

CRACK-

A deafening sound.

What…was…that?

What?

Was T h a t?

And then I realized my hands were empty.

…Oh no.

My…

A flicker of green. The colors blur as I run, run, toward it. That awful, awfulawful sound that I never ever want to hear ever again.

I’m standing in front of the soft thing I was sitting on before. But now there is an orange on it. A different orange. I tilt my head.

There’s an orange thing on my crayons.

Uh.

What do I do!

I stand over the orange thing. (someone was screaming?...It doesn’t matter)

~SNOre~

It is making weird noises.

…

I need to get this thing off of my colors right now.

For a moment I just stand there, shaking on overburdened legs as I wonder what to do next.

I poke its face with a single finger. It doesn’t move. I poke it again.

Maybe I should…ask it? To move? Or something.

How do I do that again?

“Up?.....up…please?” I think that is how you do it right? Green says “please” a lot and when I asked her she said it was a polite word or something? …No, I think that was what she said.

~SNRK!~

“nyehhh~”

More of those weird noises…Was that a yes? Will the orange move now? I watch the thing intently for any moving. It has not moved at all.

Oh. It didn’t work….

I cannot wait forever, the colors need saving.

Oh!

I have an idea.

Maybe I can move the orange myself?

Yes.

Good Idea, me.

I touch the orange thing’s orange…shirt…thing. It has an odd flappy thing on the back of it. Do all the oranges have this? Maybe it is for picking them up or some other thing I have no idea about.

I grab it and lift.

The orange goes up with my arm, lifting completely off of the soft red thing. I put it down on another soft thing nearby. It was blue this time.

Okay. The orange is….moved now.

I dig into the soft red thing until I pull out my box. The green light flickered slightly as I held it to my chest.

Something still felt wrong though. I could feel it.

I laid the box on the soft thing, thinking. Then decided to open it and take my precious color sticks out one by one.

Red…orange…yellow….the flickering green…blue…

Purple… white…black….

Brown…

There’s something wrong.

I picked up the brown from where I lined them up against the soft red thing.

It was bent.

It was broken.

Snapped in half.

Broken.

Two pieces in my hand.

Brok e n-

I need to fix it. how do I fix…how do I fix it? (fixfixfixfixf i x-)

I’m shaking as I gather the colors back into the box and hold it to my chest. I look around, trying to find a way to fix brown…and I land on the orange thing.

The orange….on top of my colors…oh no. OH NO!

The Orange broke my brown color!

Ah!

AH!

I feel like screaming. This has happened before.

I have to get away, get far away from the thing!

Green never told me that the Oranges sit on crayons! No, it’s bad! I have to leave now or it will come after my precious…

…

I am already running away as fast as my legs can carry me.

I bump into something again. Orange?!!

Oh wait. That’s not the same orange.

It’s just the Great Pa-py-russe. He is nice, a nice Orange. He hasn’t broken my brown color.

(yet)

He wouldn’t would he? He is nice and sounds nice so he is nice? Yes? Y e s?

*Thump*

What was that?

…Oh. I’m on the floor now. That was probably…too much thinking.

The last thing I hear is worry, and the lull of the Noise.

….Hands?

.

.

.

.

.

Edge looks over the state of his bedroom one last time. Every surface of his red and black tinged sleeping quarters seemed to glimmer with cleanliness. The well kept figurines on his dresser drawer were perfectly arranged and primed for any future hypothetical battle scenario.

Acceptable enough, for a prompt three hour cleaning session. He’ll have to do another sweep through later if he has enough time out of his busy schedule…

He has the peace of mind to ignore the idiotic play on words that had the audacity to invade his stream of consciousness.

His brother should be back from the forest right now. He was going to tell Edge what exactly caused the disturbance and wasted his time and perfectly good dish, and he was going to tell him that he dealt with it accordingly. Or show his incompetence in such trivial situations yet again.

He’s preparing himself for disappointment as he walks down the hallway to the living room. His frown grows deeper as his superior sense of smell picks up something…odd.

UGH…WHAT IS THAT? IT’S COMING FROM…THE BATHROOM!

As he thought, the smell was much, much stronger when he was standing in front of the door.

“ALRIGHT WHAT IN THE HELL IS THAT SMELL GODDAMN IT!” he barked as he turned the handle and opened the door in one fell swoop-

…

…

…..

“NYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-”

.

.

.

.

.

One Hour Later…

Don’t get me wrong, Edge yelling at the top of his lungs was a very normal thing in this very abnormal household.

But even the most desensitized of the skeleton crew couldn’t find it in themselves to ignore his nonstop yelling for practically twenty minutes.

A small crowd formed in the hallway outside one of the first floor guest bathrooms, the one closest to the kitchen. Edge had finally stopped screaming and stood there, vibrating with unbridled rage.

“...WHO DID THIS?”

A few in the crowd fidgeted with a sudden inclination of regret and guilt. Murmurs of unaccountability rose in the uncomfortable crowd.

“WHICH ONE. OF YOU. GODDAMNED HELL FORSAKEN IMBECILES! DECIDED TO MAKE HUMAN SOUP!! IN THE BATHTUB!!!!” Edge’s words became louder and more high pitched with every second he spoke. The door was open.

The group cringed at the carnage they saw.

Dried flecks of blood clung to the fibers of the gray carpet in an oblong stain. A brownish red hand print marked the edge of the mint green shower curtain. A dirty, tattered article of clothing sat bunched up in the sink, under the fogged up mirror. It was so soaked in red that one couldn’t tell what the original color was at first glance.

But the worst of the damage had to be to the bathtub. The once pristine white porcelain was now a bowl full of a slowly draining red- brown slurry, a bar of soap floating near the rim. The dirty water seemed to be splashed over the edge, forming a similarly red brown puddle at the foot of the tub.

A skeleton similarly dressed to Sans walked down the hallway, stopping at the obvious commotion. The group temporarily parted due to his unnerving presence alone. His dark, empty, dripping sockets curled in interest at the state of the bathroom.

“...wasn’t me.”

With those few words, he left, on his original journey to the kitchen.

Edge stomped over to the first face of poorly hidden guilt he saw…which happened to be Sans the Classic himself. He picked the smaller skeleton up by the scruff of his shirt.

“YOU. PUNY LITTLE SOFT-SHOED WIMP. TELL ME WHO DID THIS. NOW.”

“see, here’s the thing edge… i have no bloody idea.”

“YOU MUST THINK YOU’RE FUNNY MESSING WITH THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE EDGE, BUT THAT IS THE FACE OF A LIAR SANS!” Edge glared down the blue sweatered skeleman, who was now sweating copiously.

“TELL!! ME!!! NOW!!!!” He punctuated every word with a violent shake of Sans’s body.

“zzz…”

“THE AUDACITY OF THIS R A T -”

Edge went to give Sans yet another violent shake, but was promptly stopped by his brother. Luckily Edge was too angry to hear the quiet sigh of relief that left Sans’s mouth as soon as he was taken from his sharp clutches.

“S-SANS IS…TELLING THE T-TRUTH! YES! TOTALLY! WE MOST DEFINITELY HAVE NO IDEA WHO DID THIS AND WE ARE TOTALLY INNOCENT-PleaseDon’tUseOurDustToMakeLasagneSheets-”

Papyrus had a tight grin on his face from the blatant lie as he slowly edged around the Very Angry Skeleton into the bathroom with Sans under his arm. As soon as he grabbed the soggy item of clothing in the sink, he dashed off down the hallway as fast as his legs could carry him.

Which was, in all honesty, very fast.

With the number one suspects escaping successfully (also successfully raising the intensity of Edge’s murderous aura) Edge turns to the next guilty offender, who seems to shrink at his gaze. GOOD.

He stood like a menacing shadow in front of his older brother.

“RED. TELL ME. WHAT EXACTLY DID YOU FIND IN THAT FOREST?”

Red gulped.

.

.

.

.

.

The assortment of skeletons sat at the dining table, discussing what to do about their…latest guest. Not everyone was here, as two of the skeletons took on the job of holding down a certain pissed off edgelord from immediately storming up to the second floor and tearing their newest skeleton to shreds.

“GET YOUR FILTHY MITTS OFF OF ME!!!! YOU FRAUDULENT DEFECTIVE SHIN EATING INVALIDS!! WHEN I’M DONE WITH THAT D I S G U S T I N G CREATURE THE WORMS WILL BE EATING THEIR DUST!! YOU CANNOT STOP M-”

Blue closes the door, muffling the enraged screaming.

“...seriously, how does someone make so much…mess…in the first place?” Stretch had to suppress another cringe at the memory. “no wonder edge is so bloody mad”

“...yeah he is quite the mess of rage…” replied an exhausted Sans…”geez…im still kind of…shaken up.

“so uh…we know that this random skeleton did kill a human recently…judging by all the…human…juices.” Stretch began again, “Uh…but like…how the hell do we deal with this?”

“‘s easy, tha same way we dealt with the other freaks.” Red rubbed his shoulder where Edge manhandled him, “keep m’ here an’ sh*t”

“but here’s the problem, red. the bugger has like 17 LV and got a big sum of it fairly recently. didn’t ya sense that when ya found em?” Stretch rubbed at his skull “they offed quite the large sum of humans…maybe even monsters too…”

The tv was on, blaring another one of those GLAMOUR-NEO podcasts. The robot stars of each respectful underground region formed a performer group shortly after the Ascension.

Blue watched as Mettaton and Mettafell argued on tv, but was pulled back into the conversation at Stretch’s last words.

“WAIT YOU MEAN THAT THAT WEIRD SKELETON DIDN’T COME FROM ANOTHER UNIVERSE? THEY WERE REALLLLY ODD, WEREN’T THEY? WITH THAT WEIRD SHINY COLLAR THEY WERE WEARING! THEY ACTUALLY LIKED MY TACOS THOUGH, SO THEY MUST BE A NICE ENOUGH PERSON!!”

“that’s nice, blue, but seriously, if the kid did kill so many people, shouldn’t there be some sort of…major news broadcast about a massacre happening recently?” It’s been like two days now, from how dry the blood on them looked when Sans had first met them. He doesn’t like to recall how he got that tidbit of knowledge from…eugh.

“MAYBE THE POLICE HADN’T FOUND WHERE THE BODIES WERE AT” The conversation was making Blue slightly uncomfortable.

Red flopped back to lie on the blue recliner he was previously sitting on. “but then there would be some sorta ruckus with all tha missing humans”

“...yeah you’re right”

“...well, what ‘bout that collar blue was talking ‘bout?” grumbled a new voice on the couch.

Everyone’s heads snapped to the direction of the voice, but subsequently relaxed. It was just another one of them.

“...MUTT YOU SCARED US. BUT HI!”

“should pay more ‘tention to ya surroundin’s” Mutt mumbled from his prone position on the uncomfortable red loveseat. “was here tha whole time…edge’s knocked out now…s’ in his room with tha other vanilla”

Stretch heaved a sigh of relief at the news. No more murder for today at least.

“what was that about a collar?” Sans leaned forward a bit, propping his head on his knees.

“...yeah, there was a collar on ‘em when i first found ‘em” Red recalled, rubbing the side of his face at the recent memory “blinkin’ green light and sh*t. looked pretty uncomfa’table.”

…

“...couldn’t sense any monsta magic on it tho…so they ain’t protected by no fell then”

“SHOULD WE ASK THEM WHERE THEY CAME FROM?”

“sure, why not?” Sans was a bit curious himself “but from what paps told me they ain’t too talkative cause of their eh…injuries”

“THEN WE’LL WAIT FOR THEM TO HEAL FIRST AND THEN TALK TO THEM?”

“yep”

…

“also…” stretch began “did any of you pick me up while i was napping or something? i woke up to edge’s screeching all crumpled on the recliner with no idea how i got there…”

Everyone shrugged.

“so uhhh…. put em on the second floor?”

“yep.”

Chapter 13: The Dream

Chapter Text

Oh… it’s warm…

Here.

Wherever here was.

I was…somewhere… and it was very dark.

It was a strange kind of darkness. Like I had my eyes closed but open at the same time. And If I stared outwards for long enough, I could almost see colors.

Very strange.

I think this has happened before.

Has this happened before?

…

I think I must be dreaming.

Dreaming?

Yes.

That makes sense.

There are colors here, but I don’t know what they are. Maybe Green would know?

I like Green. But Green wouldn’t be able to tell me if she knew, because she is broken, and broken things cannot tell anyone anything.

It’s fine now though. I made sure all of those other things broke too so they can’t make me do anything ever ever and ever again.

What does Green look like again?

There’s a green thing somewhere in all of this darkness…very far away.

All I know is that it’s a green thing and I really, really, really want it. I find myself moving after it.

Suddenly, it’s right in front of me. Um.

Maybe this is just how this dreaming thing works.

I stare intently at the colorful light cupped in my hands, listening. A faint pulse, and maybe the sound of breathing.

Alive?

Alive. Maybe.

I was dreaming after all.

Dream alive was not the same as awake alive.

As soon as I took my gaze off of the light in my hand I was somewhere else.

A room with pale blue walls. Something about this was comforting. It felt…what was the word…? Familiar. It was familiar.

To me? I only remember the gray room, with the single door and the light in the ceiling. But the spark of green in my hand, flickering near the pulsing light in my chest, maybe it remembered.

If this was strange, I didn’t know or care. I want to curl up on the floor that wasn’t real and not move anymore.

…

Lucidity flickers, and was gone to dreamless sleep.

.

.

.

.

.

It was the next day in the skeleton household, and Stretch was taping his earbuds onto the sides of his skull in preparation for his before- lunch nap.

Don’t ask him why, but Stretch is a weirdly light sleeper despite his characteristic laziness. The slightest noise in his vicinity would abruptly yank him from his pleasant oblivion and always leave him disgruntled and bleary-socketed for the rest of the day.

But a pair of headphones and the full-volume mindless ramble of some random old human talking about his PC upgrades and he slept like a rock…completely igneous of nearly everything around him for at least a few hours. As it should be.

He’s about to put on his playlist when suddenly his edgier counterpart inserts himself into the room. Mutt flopped down next to Stretch on his self claimed napping couch, taking up all of the space.

Sighing to himself, he unstuck one of the earbuds from his skull.

“the…guest…they’re still asleep?”

“yep.” Mutt, unsurprisingly, was a skeleton of few words. He tugged on his silver-studded collar for a few moments, making the dog tag jingle “hasn’t even moved”

Huh.

“okay then.”

He would be more worried if he wasn’t bone tired from his night job. But he had to at least muster up the effort to care.

“they’ll wake up eventually…then they can tell us where they came from and we’ll settle it from there” he flopped his head back and stuck back on the earbud, pulling his hood back over his face “now if you excuse me…this couch is occupied”

Mutt, also unsurprisingly, doesn’t move an inch.

“dude, if you don’t move i’m sleeping on your lap”

Mutt lets a smirk fall onto his face, but the narrow look in his sockets tell a different story. An “i’d like to see you try” kind of story.

Little did he know that Stretch, his literal alternate universe twin , is just as much of a stubborn bastard as he was!

“nyeh-heh, oh well, don’t say i didn’t warn ya buddy” with that, he pressed play on his phone, stuffed it in his sweater pocket and conked out, right on his edgy alternate’s lap.

…After a few moments of awkward silence, Mutt picks him up by the hoodie and drops him right in the middle of the living room floor.

At that same moment, a loud SLAM is heard as what could only be Mutt’s older brother barging into the room on his three inch work heels.

Black absentmindedly steps over the sprawled form of Stretch and looms over him in all of his five foot eight inch glory.

“WHAT’S THIS I’M HEARING ABOUT A BLOODY SKELETON IN THE WOODS?”

.

.

.

.

.

“SO…TELL ME IF I AM HEARING THIS INCORRECTLY” Black started “BUT THE MUSTARD INHALING BUFFOON INVITED A SKELETON FROM WHO KNOWS WHERE INTO OUR HOUSE THAT DEFINITELY RECENTLY SLAUGHTERED A LARGE AMOUNT OF HUMANS”

“yes m’lord”

“AND NO ONE DID ANYTHING ABOUT IT?”

“they fed them and let them use the shower m’lord”

Black gives him a side eye “NOBODY DID ANYTHING REASONABLE ABOUT IT?”

“...no m’lord”

The edgy skeleton pinches his nose bridge.“I HAVE COME TO A CONCLUSION”

“...”

“I LIVE IN A MADHOUSE FILLED WITH IDIOTS”

“yes m’lord”

“ON THE OTHER HAND” Black put on a haughty grin “THAT WALKING DISASTER THREW A TANTRUM AND YOU COULDN’T BE BOTHERED TO TEXT ME? MWAH-HAH, I WOULD HAVE PAID TO SEE THAT!”

“HONESTLY, THAT CUR…FREAKING OUT OVER A BIT OF BLOOD ON THE CARPET? HA!” he curled a gloved hand to his mandible thoughtfully “MAYBE WE SHOULD KEEP THAT THING AROUND…IF IT PISSES EDGE OFF THAT MUCH”

“IT’S NOT LIKE IT WOULD MAKE THAT MUCH OF A DIFFERENCE ANYWAYS”

“...sure m’lord”

He hummed “AND? WHERE ARE THEY?”

“still sleeping in one ‘f tha’ guest rooms m’lord” Mutt lazily points to the ceiling from his sprawled out position on the couch “been there for almost a day”

“A DAY? REALLY.” Black shook his head “NOT EVEN YOUR LAZY COCCYX SLEEPS FOR THAT LONG”

“...”

“HAVE YOU TRIED WAKING THEM UP?- ACTUALLY, I’M JUST GOING TO TAKE IT AS YOU DIDN’T, WHICH WAS DISAPPOINTINGLY EXPECTED” Mutt stayed silent, he was well used to his brother’s scathing remarks by now.

With that, the shorter of the two heads out of the room and makes his way up the stairs, Mutt trailing behind.

“HONESTLY, WHY DO I ALWAYS HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING MYSELF?” Black exclaims as they make it up the last set of stairs. The burgundy painted walls receded into a dark gray.

As they walked up into the second floor hallway toward where the new skeleton was supposedly sleeping, they come across the "first" Papyrus standing in front of the closed door. One of his tacky red gloves was holding a plate of what seemed to be spaghetti, while the other was poised to knock.

"HELLO? NEW FRIEND? ARE YOU AWAKE YET? I HAVE MORE SPAGHETTI FOR YOU!" Another knock "HELLO?"

Silence.

After a record thirty seconds of watching him repeatedly knock and call out to an unresponsive door, Black decides he’s had enough.

“AHEM.”

"HELLO, HELLO? ARE YOU STILL ALIVE IN THERE?! HE-" Papyrus starts at the sudden interruption. "OH! IT'S YOU BLACK. HEY! YOU TOO MUTT!" He waves to the stoic skeleton in Black's shadow.

"YES IT IS ME. OBVIOUSLY. NOW WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Papyrus opens his mouth to speak, but Black holds up a hand "NO NEED I ALREADY HAVE AN IDEA…"

Black knocks hard on the door himself, the sound almost a heavy slam.

…

You’d think the void itself was behind this door with how quiet it was, even when he pressed his skull against the wood for a moment for better volume.

“...THIS IS THE RIGHT DOOR, CORRECT? YOU AREN’T JUST AN IDIOT AND KNOCKING ON ONE OF THE EMPTY ROOMS?” A familiar haze of annoyance once again settled deep into his skull.

“NO, I’M PRETTY SURE I PUT THEM IN THIS ROOM” Papyrus glances at the closed door "I'VE BEEN TRYING FOR FIVE HOURS AND I'M WORRIED"

"STEP ASIDE, YOU'RE OBVIOUSLY DOING IT WRONG" he abruptly pushes the confused skeleton aside and stepped in front of the door. He lifts a heeled boot.

" WAIT WHAT ARE YOU DOING-"

*SLAM!*

Before anyone else could react, Black forces the door open with a well placed kick.

"WELL WHY DID YOU DO THAT FOR? THE DOOR WASN'T EVEN LOCKED! AND YOU OF ALL PEOPLE SHOULD-" Black tunes out Papyrus's annoying yammering on about "PROPER HOST ETIQUETTE" and "UNNECESSARY DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY!!!" as he peers into the room.

The bedroom was dark (not like it stopped him from seeing anything) and sparsely decorated. The walls and bed accessories, as well as any other furniture were either white or a pale gray.

There was nothing out of the ordinary except for a lumpy figure tucked neatly into the sheets. The aforementioned guest was the most likely suspect.

"WAKE UP YOU LAZY BUFFOON!" Black yelled near the top of his voice, causing the other residents on this floor to peek their heads out of their rooms in with murderous intent and even Papyrus to cover the sides of his skull in discomfort.

The next door neighbor turned his heavily cracked skull towards them from his spot at the door. "shut….up."

"SORRY HATCHET" Papyrus flushed a light orange in embarrassment, but managed a small wave. Hatchet just grunted and closed his door, heading back to probably sleep until lunch. He watched the closed door for a moment, then narrowed his eyes disapprovingly at Mutt.

“YOU SERIOUSLY JUST LET YOUR BROTHER DO THIS?”

From his spot leaning against the wall, Mutt shrugged, putting his hands in the pockets of his sweatpants. Papyrus sighed loudly in an overly dramatic display of disappointment.

Black was unaware of all this as he stared down at the motionless skeleton in the bed.

Not even a twitch. If they were a human one would mistake them for a dead person. He reached out and roughly poked them in the cheek. To his frustration, their head simply lolled back into place as soon as he removed his hand

“HELLO?!” He poked them again

“ARE”

*poke*

“YOU”

*poke*

“ALIVE?!”

It was at this moment that The Great Papyrus himself decided to pop his head in, still highly perturbed by Black’s lack of consideration. The appalled frown deepened when he saw what he was doing now.

“HEY! DON’T HARASS MY GUEST WHILE THEIR SLEEPING!”

“ARE YOU SURE THAT YOUR…GUEST” Black gestures sharply at the unconscious skeleton “ISN’T JUST FALLEN DOWN”

The other faltered at this “THAT IS…Quite The Insinuation…Hmm…” As if literally having a dying monster in their house was anything to sneeze at. “WAIT I’LL JUST CHECK TO BE SURE”

Papyrus’s eyes light up and spark once he stands over the battered skeleton, giving them a once over. “NOPE, STILL ALIVE! SEE? THEY’RE JUST TAKING AN UNNATURALLY LONG NAP!”

Alright, so they don’t actually have a dying monster in their house. Black glared at the guest, who was as still as a statue.

HOW IS THIS ANY BETTER EXACTLY?

.

.

.

.

.

The dark haze of true sleep rescinded as I watched the colors merge back into a dream.

A dream.

Oh.

I’m dreaming again.

I was in the exact same place I left, curled up on the floor (which was…soft?) and surrounded by the same whitish blue colored walls. Without thinking much, I forced myself to stand back up. Maybe like this I could look at the nice wall colors better.

Oh, this is much better than being on the floor. The walls are nice. I like this dream.

I admired the wall until it stopped making any sense and hurt my eyes to look at. As the rest of this strange dream room became clearer, I could see things.

There were things everywhere. On the walls. On the floor. Small things. Bigger things. Medium sized things. Very colorful things. This dream keeps getting better. I take a few steps from my spot at the center of the room, inspecting anything that caught my interest. I spent quite a while looking at these white, hanging things that were interesting. I tried to touch it but I couldn't feel much of anything.

…

I am…disappointed.

On one of the walls, the one with the most colorful stuff on it, there was a box…thing, with a bunch of things on it. And a really, really shiny thing.

Shiny.

I can’t stop looking at it.

When I stepped closer to it, I could hear something. I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s familiar…?

!

It’s The Noise.

Huh.

I absently rub at my chest, it feels strange. I don’t think I should look down.

You really shouldn’t.

….

….

It was a voice, but not really a voice…and it was familiar.

The Thoughts are here too?

This dream is weird.

Hey.

…

Look.

Look? Look at what? Look at…

Oh.

The big, square shiny thing I was looking at before…is less shiny.

Aw.

But there was a thing in the shiny square. A few splotches of colors that the dream wouldn’t let me understand for some reason.

And it was moving…I think. It’s hard to tell. It was..alive?

I stare harder and make out a…purple…gray? Purple gray light.

Light.

Alive.

Person.

There was an alive person in there.

Of course I am alive. You are dumb.

Wait. What’s a dumb? Thoughts person???

Stupid. I am not a “Thoughts Person”

Oh. What are you then?

The purple gray moves in the big shiny square, shifting left and right.

I am You.

I….don’t understand.

What’s so hard to understand? I am You. Yourself.

Uh…wait wait I think I get it…now. Yes.

Maybe.

Good.

…

You are still dumb though.

I don’t know what a dumb is. What is a dumb?

This is why you are dumb.

This me person has still not told me what a dumb is. I am confused.

Wait.

If I am dumb and you are “me” then does that mean you are also a dumb?

No.

I am more confused!

Because you are stupid.

What.

Um. Ok.

You must know a lot of things to understand this stuff.

Yes. Yes. I know a lot of things. Everything. I think.

That is nice.

Yes.

I didn’t want to look away from the big shiny square, but I could feel the colors fading away to almost nothing around me.

Um. This dream is being weird.

That happens. Sometimes.

Oh. Ok.

What now?

I don’t know.

Don’t you know everything though?

Yes, Yes I know everything. Stupid.

Oh.

Do you know about Outside?

Yes. I know about Outside. I’ve seen it first, you know. Before you did. So there.

Really? Did you see any of those bears or dollar stores? You saw the rainbows too right?

I saw a bear once.

Aw. I didn’t see any bears when I went outside.

It’s probably because bears don’t like you.

Oh. That’s too bad. Did the bear like you?

Maybe. It tried to put me in its mouth.

Oooh. Maybe it mistook you for spaghetti. Spaghetti is very good, you know. Maybe you do, because you know everything.

Maybe.

That sounds nice I think.

…

No. It hurt a lot. And then I broke its face.

Oh.

Yes.

Did you break everyone to get outside too?

No.

They took me outside.

How? All of them are bad. Bad people don’t do things like that do they?

Maybe Green is making them do it somehow.

Maybe. Green’s nice.

…

I miss Green.

Yes.

…

I was there too. When you left.

Really? Where?

We were both there, at the same time.

Don’t you remember?

Oh…I remember hearing you, I think. Yes. You were there.

I remember breaking a lot of things. And red.

Me too.

…

They deserved it.

Yes.

For doing that to Green. For making me break Green. And making Green sad. And other things.

Especially that blue person. He was mean. I heard him before sometimes. Doing evil things.

Yeah.

You were there when I broke him too, weren’t you?

I helped, you know.

Oh. Thank you.

You’re welcome. His hand insides were interesting.

…

Hey.

Yes?

You should stop being an idiot.

Um? What? I don’t understand. I thought I was being a skeleton. Green told me I was a skeleton.

You are. Green’s always right about these things.

Oh. Ok.

Hey.

Yes?

Do you know more things?

Of course I do. I know everything. Maybe if you know more things you will stop being dumb.

Ok.

Hey.

Yes?

I actually have a question.

But I don’t know as many things as you do.

Maybe, but still.

What is the question?

Why did everything hurt whenever I woke up in that room?

What room?

You know, the one where Green broke.

I don’t know. I don’t really know

a lot of things.

Hey.

Yes?

This is strange, the person in the big shiny square is fading away. Everything in this dream is fading away. Is this normal? I think this may just be how dreams work again.

I don’t know either.

.

.

.

.

.

.

My eye sockets opened to a white room.

Chapter 14: The Killer

Chapter Text

There were other white rooms in that lab place.

But this one was different.

There was no big shiny light in the ceiling. Like the one in my old room. I liked to look at it a lot when Green wasn’t there, but it hurt sometimes, so I stopped. My old room wasn’t white…it was gray. But the white rooms had them too…I think.

Oh. My head still hurts.

That’s too bad.

Maybe I should think about something else.

As the heavy fuzziness begins to clear, I begin feeling things again. I’m lying down. And I’m covered in something soft, probably. I’m still too numb to tell. I also feel strangely heavy. It’s familiar.

With what little desire I had to move, my fingers carefully closed around a small bit of whatever this thing was that covered me.

Yes.

Soft.

…

This is nice.

I continue staring at the ceiling because I’m too comfortable to want to do anything else.

It’s white. White is a nice color. Very clean. Pretty.

Suddenly, a light shines into my eye sockets from somewhere. It kind of hurts. I blink a few times. It’s still there.

Maybe I should do something.

I blink a few more times.

Okay.

I give the clean ceiling one last long look before turning my head to look at whatever shiny thing this was. There’s a shifting sound, like putting on a shirt maybe. Or the sound that Green used to make whenever she moved. Or those other things.

Thinking about other things makes my head hurt.

There is a shiny looking square, again. On the wall. What was it doing there? Do all shiny squares belong on walls? I don’t think the last shiny square I saw was on a wall. But that was a dream, so maybe it doesn’t count.

This is probably another Outside thing again. Yes.

Peeling off this soft…white…thing…what is this thing again? Maybe “thoughts ‘me’” would know- I slowly lift myself up to stand on my legs.

Oh.

That’s weird.

I can’t feel my legs.

Everything started to tilt sideways as I swayed forward, trying to keep my balance. A sort of dull, pulsing ringing felt like it was scraping the inside of my head-

…”ow”

It’s getting worse. What do I do. Why does it hurt? Wh a t….?

My skull felt like it was being squeezed until something leaked. One of my hands reached up to touch it, to scratch at it maybe. Maybe it will go away if I…

I touch a sharp edge, just above my socket. All at once, confusion starts to sink in and mix with the strange pain.

This was not here before. What is this?

I traced more of the edge up, up, up and back until it stopped, somewhere on the back of my skull. I traced it again, with both hands, with each and every finger. It hurt, hurt but I want…..I needed to-

There is a hole in my head. I don’t think this is a good thing. This is not a good thing.

Why was there a hole in my head?

I know. I know.

It was-

…It hurts. I’m going to stop now.

The shiny square needs to be looked at. I must do something about it.

No distractions.

Can think about it later. Later.

No thinking now. Only shiny.

Okay okay okay.

I quickly tore my hands away from my head and stumbled towards the light. It’s coming from behind another…soft thing? I grabbed on to it with a few fingers. It’s gray.

No. Feels different. Not as soft as that other thing.

Maybe it was more like those green things in the…bath…room? Bathroom. From before.

What did those feel like again?

…

I don’t remember. That’s fine.

I pulled the thing away, trying to get a better look at the light behind it, and there was a hole.

Actually…what is this thing? Why is it here? My sockets widen and I puff out a bit of air as I stare into the square hole. There were many, many colors. Like green. And brown. Lots of green and brown. There was blue and white too. I could hear things. Alive things. It was pretty.

Wait.

I know this.

This is Outside.

Shiny.

I want to touch it. Just to be sure. Of something. I don’t know.

I lifted the hand that wasn’t holding back the weird gray thing to put my hand in the hole.

*Thump*

A vaguely familiar, hollow sound.

…what.

I do it again.

*Thump*

There was a wall. Somehow. But…

…what?

But why? How?

I pull back my hand and move away, to the other side of the room. As far away from the not-wall as possible. I sit in the corner, out of the glaring light.

Why was that there? Green never told me there were…not-walls out here! Uh…

Ow. Ow. Thinking about something else now. Good, non-painful head things.

Like…like spaghetti! Spaghetti is good. Yes.

I pull my legs up to my chest, trying to remember what it felt like.

…uhm something good…maybe? I remember there being a shiny thing. I like shiny things so it must have been good. I glance over at the covered not-wall suspiciously. Right? Right.

Oh. I’m not really sure.

Aww.

Wait. That Great Pa-py-russe person thing gave me the thing. Maybe if I give him something then he will give me more spaghetti.

I think this is a good idea.

But what should I give…?

There’s a word, something that feels strange and fuzzy at the back of my mind. This is familiar. But itchy. In a very weird way. It makes me want to stick a finger into my socke-

…I think of the colors.

Wait. Wait, I think I got it.

It

It was…fr…fen..? Fend…ship. Fendship. Uh….

Yes.

That sounds wrong somehow, but it’s fine. I slowly bring my hand down back to my lap.

I can make a…Fendship picture thing… with colors. I give The Great Pa-py-russe the thing. And then he gives me spaghetti. And I put it in my mouth again. A good idea.

Oh. And there was that Cyan- Green-Blue thing that gave me those little shiny…taakkko??…things that I also remember putting in my mouth. I could make him one too.

I got up from my corner and went toward a familiar green glow, and found my box of colors was on a weird little table. Actually everything kind of looked like boxes and tables. Weird outside things.

Okay. I have colors. Need paper to make colors to make a Fendship. I must go and find paper.

Where do I find paper again? Um….

Maybe there’s some in here somewhere?

I turned around in place, looking at anything in this room that looked like it had paper in or on it. I landed on some strange looking box thing. Boxes have things in them right? It doesn’t really matter that the box has doors on it instead of normal…box things. Are those doors? They look like doors. Is this really a box?

Questions. Later. Paper. Now.

I take a few steps toward it and touch one of the brown…handle…things. Definitely a door. Two, really skinny doors. The handle is cool under my fingers.

I pull the doors open and look inside.

There’s nothing in here. Just dark.

I closed it carefully. It made a squeaking noise.

Ooooh.

Okay, more places to look.

I searched the entire room, touching everything I came across and pulling out more odd box door things and not finding any paper at all. I even looked under the big squishy table thing I was on before. Nothing.

Maybe the Great Pa-py-russe would know. He looked nice. And shiny.

Those are both good things. And he is part of the Outside, so he must know. Yes. Okay. I will ask him. But I have to find him first.

Clearing my mind of all other thoughts, I focus solely on what I remember his light looked like.

It was orange….very bright orange. Okay.

My eyes were open, wide enough to be painful…but only a little bit. It was fine.

…He’s running around in the floor…somehow. With the Blue-ish person.

Wait…not in the floor. Just…down.

I carefully track the lights in the floor and the distant footsteps, wondering if I should tear a hole into the ground and crawl through it like the last time I went “down”.

…

I glance toward the covered thing on the wall.

No.

I will do something else then. Like…maybe…

If I am up here…there must be somewhere to go…down.

Right?

There’s nobody here to tell me if this is true or not. I lift a hand up to rub at the side of my face, and drop it just as fast.

Thoughts-me? Are you there?

…

You’re in there somewhere, I think.

It’s fine. Everything is fine. I can look for the way down myself. Or something. I’ll figure it out eventually.

I turn and pull on the door, my hearing sharpened at the sound it made as it did.

Crrrreeeaaak~

(don’t let them hear you.)

…

Okay.

The door stayed open when I looked outside. The walls were a strange sort of red, both dark and pale at the same time. I decided not to stare at the walls for too long. I can do that later.

After everything else.

Stepping outside the door I found myself in a very long room. Many doors lined the red walls.

Maybe one of them led down?

A familiar suspicious light glared from the far end of the room. The Outside light…what is it with these people and their holes in the walls?

I quickly turn away.

There was an alive thing nearby. More than one. Two alive things. I can hear their lights through the walls. . Maybe I could ask one of them if they knew where the way down was?

They both looked a bit strange to me. Alive? Definitely alive. But strange. The closer light was red…but I felt it was supposed to be blue. Something was wrong with it, I could feel it. I could hear something, too. A rhythmic…growling noise. Like scraping. It reminded me of…of an Orange?

Not The Great Pa-py-russe. The other Orange. The one that broke my-

Ow ow ow ow ow. Ow. Pain.

…

Okay. Not this one. Hunching over further and crossing my arms, I look toward where the other light was, all the way on the other side of the room.

I made sure to stick to the other wall as I walked, as far away as possible from the noisy red light.

All of the doors were closed, except for the one at the very end. The one the Other light was in. I could hear scraping in there. But it wasn’t like the noises that the first one was making. They were different. It was similar to the sound the sticks made when I used them on paper. But just…sharper.

Wait. There was paper in there? Maybe. I should go in and ask them, probably.

Inside the open door was dark, a lone sliver of light shone through a crack between two more gray things.

Oh no, there’s more of them.

But there’s probably paper in there so I can ignore it…probably. And it’s covered, so I guess…? That makes things better? Yes. Everything should be fine.

I reach over to push the door open, before suddenly feeling…cold.

(Don’t let them hear you. Don’t let them hear you.)

Okay okay okay.

I glance at the gap in the door, sticking a single finger in. It was probably big enough. I straightened up as much as possible before slowly stepping in through the gap in the door.

This room had…stuff.

Everywhere.

I stepped around a piece of something and closer to the alive thing in the corner.

It was…very strange. Definitely.

The light was….different from what I saw before. I could see it, where it stood out clear as day in the middle of its chest, but something was wrong with it. Even more wrong than that other person.

It wasn’t shiny at all, It was just…there. A flat, red color that reminded me of broken things. There were no other noises like I was used to, either, but a fuzzy, hollow something that sounded far away.

But it was nice…I think. Quiet.

It sat there, moving nothing but one hand with a skinny-looking red stick in it, scraping away at a book.

Whatever it’s doing looks important. I must not disturb it.

Maybe I should wait until it’s done. Or something.

Mind made up, I crouch down in front of the strange red thing, listening.

…

Eventually, the rhythmic scraping on paper slowed. Then stopped. I watched on as it put the red stick down, and slowly, slowly, turned to look at me.

“Well.” It said, its voice just as hollow as the sound coming from itself “This is new.”

.

.

.

.

.

Sleep, as always, came easily to Killer.

He was never really that much of a restless sleeper anyway, even when he did have the guilt of his sins to keep him awake at night. As always, sleep was as easy as closing his eyes and simply…sinking. As always, he woke up feeling like a piece of whatever was left of him decided to jump out of his second story window overnight and splatter onto the lawn outside. Why did he ever bother to close the curtains again?

Whenever he bothered to have dreams, that unpleasantness always felt (-And was that just a funny word to use-) like it was multiplied tenfold. Dragging whatever facsimile of a personality he had left together afterward always took agonizingly longer on those sorts of days.

Today, regrettably, was one of those days.

He woke up in the self imposed carnage of his room with the last dregs of an image floating in the forefront of his mind.

A face.

A smile.

A feeling.

No…it wasn’t really a feeling. Killer didn’t see any point in lying to himself here. It was only a memory of one. A feeling of unbridled, red-hot hatred.

But somehow, to his vague annoyance, his body still didn’t get the damn point. The LV bubbled hotly under his bones as he laid unmoving, urging him on to find anything alive- and he knew there were plenty of options in this godforsaken house- and tear it limb from limb in a fit of bloody vindication.

But, He thought, as he always thought , What would be the point?

Killing isn’t as fun as his shell always told everyone it was. It wasn’t much of anything, really.

He would be just as empty as he was before.

There was nothing he would gain from it, except EXP (but what was the point in getting stronger anyway?)

He was bored. Killing was boring.

He’d rather live with these alternate universe idiots than have to deal with boredom.

So he did what he always did in this situation.

Killer lazily dragged himself out of bed and blindly dug around for a discarded notebook he’d snatched from Idiot Papyrus Clone #4 without him knowing sometime last week, and a random red pen from his jacket pocket he didn’t know or care about the origin of, flipped past all of the pages until he found a blank one, and started scribbling out, repeatedly, the face in his dreams. He’d learned a long time ago that things become useless and obsolete once you repeat them enough.

Before long, page after page of nearly identical little smiley faces took up another good third of the notebook already. Killer lost himself in the monotonous task, the irritation caused by the LV dissipating with each face he drew.

That didn’t mean he didn’t know he was being watched, however.

That familiar feeling of eyes glued to the side of his skull was hard to ignore for too long. Nevertheless, he didn’t bother to move from his slumped over position, continuing to idly scribble away in the notebook.

It might offer a bit of entertainment to see how whoever it was would react, anyways. But he mostly didn’t really give a damn. They were going to leave eventually, and in this state he wasn’t bothered to put on his face and follow them either. Though…he had to hand it to them, they were oddly good at being quiet. If he wasn’t Killer then he probably wouldn’t have noticed.

Maybe it was Axe or something, hell knows that oversized bag of bones made it his past-time to attempt to scare him by frequently attempting to sneak up on him. Something that almost made Killer laugh out loud every time, but he wasn’t going to go on telling him how useless his efforts were when they were so goddamn funny. Something like this was definitely up his alley.

Okay, this little game of guess who is getting a bit old. Time to uh…pull back the curtains. Heh.

Leaving the page he was working on half finished, he snapped the book closed in one hand and turned to look at his little guest.

…Only to be met with two wide, empty sockets staring at him blankly from only a few inches away.

Well, well well. Look at what we have here! It’s that nameless new guest that’s been making such a mess in the past week of their existence in this little circus attraction. He knew even Axe wasn’t this persistent.

“Well” he said, not bothering to put on a face for this skeleton “This is new.”

They didn’t move, didn’t even blink as they crouched over him, the oddly shaped pieces of metal stuck to their mouth glinting in the light of the open door.

…

“Aren’t ya gonna do anything?” he asked "anyyyything?"

“...”

They tilted their head slightly, reminiscent of a dog begging for food. It made it easier to see the edges of a large, diamond shaped crack lining the top of their skull.

This thing wants something from me then. Interesting.

“So, pal.” He started, poking one of their fingers with the tip of his pen “What can someone like me give someone like you, hmm?”

Finally, they blinked, twitching the hand that was being poked. It felt like they weren’t actually looking at his face before. Rude.

He’ll let it slide…for now.

Their unwavering gaze sharpened before they stepped back, straightening their posture. He wondered what was going on in that banged up skull of theirs.

There was a brief moment of awkward silence before the other gestured to him in what was half what looked like pointing and half the floppy hesitation of someone who didn’t know what to do with their hands.

“...you havvve…?” It was a quiet voice, bland and slow, like the river near Snowdin. “Thhhat.”

Another floppy hand gesture thrown his way, this time at the notebook laying next to him.

“So?” his sight flicked to the notebook behind the black tar dripping from his sockets “What about it? Ya gotta be clearer here staples, I can’t exactly read your mind”

Ehhhh…what he could do was close enough, but he didn’t feel like doing anything with his magic like this. Could just ruin the fun again.

They blink uncomprehendingly at him a few times, looking at their lifted hand for a second then flicking it towards the notebook again.

“Thisss. Thhhing.” They paused, but Killer could practically hear the gears turning in their mind. “Book? Hhasss…” Their hand mimed a flat surface. “...Yesss? Want. It. For Thissss.”

They held out their other hand, which was tucked into the space between their ribcage and knees, unfolding it to reveal a small faded box of…were those crayons? Wow. Killer leaned in to get a closer look, but those impossibly long fingers snapped closed, the skeleton bringing their hand back to just below the ribcage.

…interesting.

Well…he’d be damned if he didn’t know what they wanted by now. Seriously. All of that just to ask for some notebook paper? Although…why ask him? Of all of the people in this house. They must be some sort of idiot or something.

Eh…least I don’t have to work for the entertainment to come my way.

“So…you want this then?” He held up the notebook in two phalanges.

A single, short nod.

He opened the book and tore out a single blank page. He looked at it for a split second, before deciding to just stick it in the crack on their skull. “There. Knock yourself out, pal.”

The other…yeah this was getting annoying. He was going to call them staples. Those things on their mouth kind of looked like em, so it was good enough. Staples quickly pulled out the paper and looked at it blankly.

“What? Not what you wanted, Staples?” He crooned. “Too bad”

Staples didn’t seem to hear what he said, suddenly standing up to their full height. Huh. They were…bigger than he expected them to be. They weren’t as gangly as Papyrus Clone #5, but they were a close second. Even if he was slouching all of the time.

He expected them to leave as soon as they got what they wanted, like when Axe often comes in to pilfer from his snack stash. He’s made his room as unwelcoming as possible for a reason. Idiots who stay around for too long always end up having his knife for lunch some way or another.

However, Staples took only the few short steps it usually did to get to the far corner of his room, and sat back down, gingerly setting the multicolored box of crayons by their leg.

Welp.

He went back to what he was doing before his little interruption, ignoring the infrequent stare and occasional crinkle of paper. He didn’t notice, in his distraction, the brief moment of silence and subtle yet distressed huff of air that came from the corner. And he gave as much of a sh*t as he usually did. Which was none.

About…maybe ten pages later, he felt a light almost intangible weight being placed on his head. He swatted at it in reflex, but whatever hand that was there was gone now. They were still here, for some incomprehensible reason. Crouching only a few feet away. His hand came back with a slightly crumpled sheet of paper.

He leaned forward, holding it up to the scant amount of light streaming from the window.

It was…him? At least what you would call a mishmash of multicolored blobs, him. Somehow, even if it didn’t look like it, Killer knew it was him.

Well…this gets more and more interesting by the second.

He released his fingers from where they dented the page. The paper fluttered down onto the uncovered mattress. Pulling on his jacket, he turned back to the figure in his room.

“Well? Whaddya want now, Staples?”

“...”

“I mean~ I could give you more of my notebook, buuuuut like…I don’t really wanna.”

“...”

“You wanna know where I got it though? Go ask…mmmwhat’shisname..? Mutt. Go ask him. I’m sure he has plenty to go around.” His smile widened from the blank grin it’s been for hours, finally getting comfortable in his face for today.

Stapleface blinked again, drawing their hand to their ribcage. They turned their back, heading towards the door. Stupid, really, but he’ll let it slide. Idiots are always the best source of sh*ts and giggles.

“Oh, and before I forget…” He watches as they turn back around to look at him in question. Or whatever that look on their face is. “Heya, I’m Killer. Killer the Skeleton”

He summoned his knife with a flick of his wrist, holding it out for his new friend to shake.

“Knife to meet-cha.”

Chapter 15: The Window

Chapter Text

The point of the knife held its spot in the empty air for a few silent seconds as the visitor’s wide eye sockets stared uncomprehendingly between it and its holder.

Killer chuckled, his similarly abyss-black pits curling up into crescents in amusem*nt. “well~? whatcha waiting for, buddy? ya not getting the point?” He flicked the blade, offering it again.

“shake it.”

He couldn’t see it for obvious reasons, but he could feel their gaze shift between his favorite weapon and his face.

“Shhhaaake?” The light of the open door only emphasized the way their dull fangs grinded against those gnarly metal interlocking bits, a few stray specks of dust falling like powdered snow. Not like the other acted or seemed to notice…, however.

Interesting.

“yep.”

With that, Staples fluidly raised a large hand, glanced at it for a split second before curling it into two fingers…

…and firmly poked the knife, making it shift slightly in his grip.

“...Shake.” They glance at their hand for a moment before dropping it back limply to their side.

…

…..

“...pfft..heheheh” Killer’s shoulders shook slightly as he tucked the knife back into his inventory “well, that’s one way to greet a new pal.”

Killer could practically hear the gears turning in that banged up skull before they simply blinked and nodded at him, fidgeting anxiously. Seems to be signaling the end of this fun little…could this be called a chat? Felt more like talking to a stuffed animal at some stupid kid's tea party. Whatever the f*ck this is, then.

He let his grin relax, feeling the familiar coldness of black goo run from his sockets and drip around the divots of his mouth.

“Ya look like you have places to be and…” He shrugged halfheartedly. “well, s’not like i’m gonna hold ya back for any longer. go on ahead.”

They said nothing, only giving him one last indecipherable glance before ducking out of the room, careful not to hit what remained of their head on the door frame. The door didn’t so much as creak.

Already Killer’s mind was abuzz with the schemes he could draw up with the addition of this newcomer.

Finally alone in this room, Killer lets his sight wander back to the piece of paper on his bed. For a split second he considers what to do with it. He finds himself just shoving it into his pocket, right next to his knife.

Alright…The target on his chest pulses brightly, as if taunting whoever looked toward it.

Playtime.

With that, he disappeared, a single wisp of corrupt red magic in his wake.

.

.

.

.

.

That strange, red thing…killer. Killer. He was nice. I’m still not really sure of what just happened. I’m not sure of anything, really.

Am I?

“Maybe” tends to show up in my thoughts a bit too much.

(What’s a “maybe”? How much is Too Much? W-)

No. That is enough. My skull buzzes under my fingertips as I stare down at the floor. The Noise…does something. I don’t know what it is but it’s unpleasant. Enough. Stop.

I. Have to. Think about something else.

Ok.

The important things first. The buzzing inside my head starts to dull as I force my focus onto the familiar soft-worn texture of the color box. This is it. This is what I’m supposed to be doing.

Paper. I have to find paper.

That, and then I have to do all the other things. Like Fendship. But paper is first, which means it is the most important. For now.

Right. No more of that…awful…whatever that was. Everything is perfectly fine now.

Finally letting myself relax, I feel the dull scrape as the fingers on my unoccupied hand unhook themselves from the cracks in my arm. Warm air slowly seeped through my teeth. I’ve seen Green do it before. Breathing. It helps I think.

I was only vaguely aware I was walking back the way I came until I stopped in front of an open door.

A slight glance inside showed it was the room I was in before. That…thing…on the wall is still covered up, thankfully. I found myself lightly shuddering at the thought of finding it open.

Giving the covered thing one last weary glance, I close the door.

If there were a Mutt in there I’m sure I would have found one already.

Ummm. Where. Next?

I look around at the walls again, feeling a bit cold. Even if I tried to ignore it, I could still hear that…sound. The reddish light pulses in place on the other side of the wall. It’s gotten louder and I don’t like it.

Maybe that was the Mutt.

I tried to figure out how to go about asking something like that for paper…maybe going to ask it mysel-

*Snrrrk*

I froze midstep, clutching the crayon box closer to my chest cavity. A familiar sense of anxiety keeps me still for a few silent moments before my legs loosen up enough to take a step…in the other direction. Nevermind.

…

I decided to never go in that direction ever again.

The light of the not wall shines into my sockets as I turn around. I still do not like it.

But the Mutt is most likely in that direction. So…despite a small part of me wanting to just sit down on the floor and not go anywhere…I walk towards it.

I could just…not look at it. I tell myself.

If I don’t look at it, it doesn’t exist. And If it doesn’t exist then it cannot bother me. And if it cannot bother me then everything is perfectly fine.

I’m not sure if most of that is true (is it true?Where the light shines on my face it is warmwarmwarm) But the decision has already been made. My empty hand moves to cover my eyes.

It is strange. I’ve never done this…awake with eyes closed…before now. I can see the lights down there moving around and making noise as all lights probably do…but louder. Everything is so much louder like this. The darkness in front of me only highlights their bright existence. But it's fine, because the light of that…thing in front of me will not taunt me.

I don’t think I'd like to stay like this for much longer, it's too weird. Far too weird.

My knees hit something hard, and I peel away the hand from my eye-sockets. Color immediately comes back into my vision.

Hmm. This is much better.

The bright light in front of me is so much closer, and I want to touch it. I feel the strong need to stick my hand in it, feel the warmness, maybe stick my head out-

But it's a lie. There’s something there I cannot see, and I don’t like it.

….Resolutely keeping my head down, I examine what I had just bumped into. It was a brown…thing. I don’t know what this is. I grab onto it and it feels kind of nice in my hands. It covered a large, square hole in the floor, keeping me from falling in…

There's…something…

Oh.

Stairs. These are stairs.

…

(The Other scream desperately for what they thought was their saving grace at the end of the dim, wet hallway. Your chest hurts. Your neck burns. Remember their fear as they slip on the savaged remains of their colleagues and you drop from above to rip them limb fr o m l i m-)

I have found it. The way down.

I’m sure I’ll find a Mutt down there somewhere.

I step over the brown…bar…wall thing and drop into the hole, landing in a crouch. This feels…have I done this befor- nope. Paper now. Finding the Mutt now.

Everything else comes later. I come to the end of the stairs, looking around the room and keeping my unoccupied hand wrapped around my sleeve.

Later.

I look around, and the walls seem familiar. This was the place I was in before I was…asleep? The color was the same, at least. I don’t really remember everything. But this was kind of different.

The Great Pa-py-russe was not here. I could not see or hear him at all. This is not good. I was going to ask him if he knew where to find a Mutt first.

But I did see him through the floor before this. So maybe he went somewhere else? Like Outside. With all the other things. Because he isn't here.

I should go and find him, but I would have to find a way back outside first. Decision made, I walk around the place, making sure I don’t touch anything. I won’t let myself get distracted this time, finding the Mutt is far too important.

…I felt something stick to the bottom of my foot. I lift it up and pick off a green…thing. Holding it out in front of my face, it reminds me of those tall brown and green things outside. The trees.

I must be close. I just have to find…

There.

A few steps ahead I see a door. Various green things…leafees? Lifs? Something like that I think- littered the floor in front of it. This door definitely lead Outside.

My hand went to turn the handle, but stopped as I realized I was still holding that thing I found on the floor. Tracing the odd raised pattern with my thumb, I decided I wanted to take it with me.

Maybe after I was done I could put it somewhere where I could look at it for a while. That sounds…nice.

I didn’t catch myself absentmindedly reaching towards my head before I felt the sudden twinge of my finger scraping a jagged edge.

Oh.

That’s right.

There was a hole.

I think I did a pretty good job of ignoring it until now, but…maybe…

I held the green…lif…thing over where I knew the hole was, and dropped it inside. I could still feel it…somewhere in there.

Well…that was…weird. But I think it’s fine to do this. Yes.

Feeling more confident in this idea, I carefully fit the yellow box into the hole in my head. The feeling was a little stronger, but still barely there under the stronger feeling…like being exposed.

My fingers linger around the open space inside my head, spreading out underneath the cracks, but not touching anything. It was cold. I don’t think this is normal.

I really don’t think this is normal. But my things are safe now, so I'm sure it will be fine.

…

Pulling my hand out of my head, I put my hand back on the handle and opened the door.

The door creaked as it was pulled inward, and a rush of warm air hit my face as I looked at Outside again. It was…so big…and pretty. It looked even brighter than the first time, all the colors so vibrant…though maybe it's because of what happened.

I slip out of the door and sigh as my feet touch soft ground. Huh. That feels nice.

Maybe I could just…stand here and look at things. But later. I have to find that Mutt somewhere out here first. I turn in a circle, looking around at the giant…thing I just left out of, and the green and brown trees. This is all very big. How was I supposed to find a Mutt in all these other things?

Just then, a small, glowing thing caught my sight from the trees.

Hmmm. Maybe it is…

I took a step toward it, pausing for a moment at the new sound -like soft…and crunchy-, before moving a bit faster toward the yellow thing. The Maybe-Mutt thing starts to move making similar ruffling sounds as I got closer. Finally, I stalked close enough to observe it from behind one of the trees.

It was…long. And yellow. I watched in awe as it squirmed and wiggled around on the floor. Like a…

Wait.

I saw this before. In Green’s Story. There were things like this in there. Long, pink squiggly things that had no legs. Green called them…wormies? Wormses. Wormie worms.

This is probably one of them. Except it was yellow, and not pink, like in the story. And it hissed. Were wormies supposed to make that sound?

I wish Green was here to answer this question. Or the Me person.

I continued to hide behind the tree, looking at the glowing yellow worm-thing sticking out its tongue again and hissing. Very odd. Though, if this shiny thing is a worm, maybe it isn’t a Mutt. Or maybe not? Maybe it was one of the things that were both. Like how the Me person told me I was a Stupid and an Idiot. I still feel very strange about that.

I bit on my finger as I looked through these thoughts, watching as it started to…slide up a tree?

It was wrapping its yellow body around it and somehow going up. Maybe it was sticky, like my fingers are sometimes.

Sticky…yellow…worm…Mutt...thing?

Whatever it is, I’m going to ask it for paper.

Somehow.

I step out from behind the tree, leaning up towards the one the worm thing was wrapped around. It doesn’t seem to have noticed me.

I look at my hand, and then back up at the worm. Maybe if I…

I reached out and carefully held my hand out in front of it. The worm still didn’t move much as I curled my hand into a finger, and poked its head.

It was smooth. And kind of cold. But nice. But then, it slowly crawled up my arm.

There is a worm wrapped around my arm. I haven’t moved at all since it loosely coiled around my fingers. It has started to stick its head under my shirt, getting dangerously close to my neck.

What now?

I need to…use my face voice and ask if it was a Mutt…or it knew where I could find one?

I think I used it pretty well the last time, so It must be fine this time too.Though the Killer thing was much different than the worm. The worm didn’t have as much shiny.

Ok. I will do it. I open my mouth, ignoring the discomfort.

“Hi. Worm.”

Its head moved under my shirt with a muffled hiss. This is probably fine.

“Worm isss Mutt? Mutt hasss. Paper. Wherrre?”

*Hiss.*I watch confused as the orange of my shirt ruffles as it moves under my shoulders and loops around my back.

Uh. I don’t know what to do next, and the smooth, cold feeling is starting to squirm into my ribs. It feels really weird. But it is not too bad. Though, I don’t think the Worm knows where the paper is. Definitely not a Mutt.

That’s too bad. But I’m sure I’ll find a Mutt eventually. The Outside is very big after all.

I began to walk further into the trees, occasionally stopping to listen to new sounds, and picking up random green and brown things from the ground and sticking them into the hole in my head. I am going to have so many nice things to look at when I am done. I could feel the worm breathing under my shirt. It was nice.

I look up at the sky after a while. There was Orange and Blue and Yellow and Purple, wasn’t it supposed to be just blue? I remember it being blue before. Is this a Rainbow? Maybe not. Maybe it was all these colors, and I was too tired to-

Ooooh. What is that?

I stopped at the small bit of color I saw. A small patch of things were sticking out from underneath a tree. It was white and green. They smelled nice, like Green sometimes.

(flowers.)

Flowers.

…I want all of them.

Crouching down beneath the tree, I began to pull them out from the ground, getting brown grit into the cracks of my fingers. The Flowers were small, all of them could fit into the center of my hand. I lifted them slightly toward the top of my head, then stopped. What if it got lost in all the other things? What do I even do with them?

(eye.)

Uh.

(Eye socket. Put it in. in.)

…What?

(Do. It.)

Okay.

The Me person must know about this stuff, so I listen. Holding a flower by its green floppy stick thing, I put it in one of my widened eye sockets. The white part of the flower stuck down in one of the many odd cracks around the socket, feeling soft. If I looked down enough, I could see it. Though it didn’t impair my vision in any way.

Ooooh. This is weird.

I feel pretty.

Attached to this wonderful new feeling, I stuck all of the flowers I had into my eye holes, and walked on, searching for more of them. While still looking for a Mutt, of course.

I scan the ground, finding lots more of the pretty, colorful things. There were red ones, and yellow ones, and- oh I found a pink one! I plucked it from the ground and stuck it into a small crack in my cheek, next to the small blue one I found earlier.

I am feeling very colorful.

I look up at the sky again. It still had all those colors, but they were changing. There was purple, and a darker blue. And many, many little shiny things in the sky.

Oh… Shiny.

I needed to have a closer look.

…Up.

… need to go Up.

Stepping up to a very, very tall tree, I recall what the Worm was doing before it crawled into my shirt and decided to stay wrapped there. It wasn’t moving as much, but I could still see it glowing in there. I still have no idea how to deal with that. But, I could do what I did before, and what the worm did, kind of.

Making the purple that made me stick to things, is like moving. I could do it again.

Yes, like moving.

I gripped onto the rough brown of the tree, and simply, went up. Like moving. The purpleness covered my fingers up to where they bent, and I stuck, weaving around in the brown and green.

I quickly came to the top, crouching down on a…stick? Tree stick big enough to sit on. It was a new kind of strange among many new kinds of strange feelings, having my legs off of the ground. It was so far away now, the brown and green merging together.

But the sky was so much more Interesting from up here. I was right. The sky shinies were very nice.

I began to follow the trail of reds and yellows and pinks, looking up and behind me to the shiniest thing I have ever seen.

It was big. And shiny. It was shiny. It burns.

Ow.

Ow ow ow.

Looking away now. That was not good at all. I covered my eyes, careful of the flowers, and turned back around.

Not good at all. I’m never doing that again.

Uncovering my sockets, I stare forward in awe of the darkening colors and the presence of more, less painful to look at shinies in the sky. I feel myself slump forward slightly. I close my eyes around the flowers.

Much better. This is ni-

…There is something on my head.

I reach up to touch it.

It is soft. It flutters and ruffles against my skull.

*Chirp!*

And it chirps.

There is some flapping, and behind my closed sockets I see and hear white, glowing alive things fly around and land next to or on me. I feel their hard feet…things crawling up on my arms. I hear ruffling and something soft and alive settles on my leg. The Worm stirs at the sounds of the others, coiling around my chest light. Strangely, there is no pain at all.

I open my eyes. A flower falls out. Aw.

There is a thing on my lap. Everywhere around me, there were things, light brown, small and fluffy things that chirped and cooed and ruffled and seemed to get even fluffier as I looked at them. I feel as if I have seen these things before. Maybe in a book? I would think more, but I must become still.

I breathe out. I do not move. I stare unblinking at the neverending color of the sky as it changes. I do not look away.

...I am happy.

Chapter 16: Christmas Thing

Chapter Text

Chapter 17: The Woods

Chapter Text

Red came back from his day job to the house in a flurry of panicked energy.

Half the house seemed to be frantically lifting furniture….looking for something.

“WELL THEY COULDN’T HAVE JUST DISAPPEARED OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH…PROBABLY!!!!”

“I’M SURE WE’LL FIND THEM EVENTUALLY!” Blue lifted a corner of the old red couch over his skull, still slightly…stained from when their dead-eyed twig of a guest sat on it, looked underneath it, and oh-so-carefully placed it back down where it was. Predictably, Classic was nowhere to be seen.

…eh.

Probably loafing off somewhere.

He stared impassively at the scene in front of him, wondering if he should just continue on his little journey to mattress-land and pretend everything that’s happening was some sort of fever-dream or some sh*t.

That was, until his brother’s head popped out from the cabinet under the sink, a few random bones falling out with it. He looked pissed, but that was nothing new to him. But years of living with the asshole gave him a solid handle on the other’s emotions. And the older brother could tell that he was going to need a hard drink when he was done with whatever this is.

‘what in the tyrant’s name is going on now?’

He went to sit down near the odd carroty version of his brother, knowing he probably wouldn’t like the answer to his question. The ash-smelling f*ck himself peeled a bone-lid open and peered at him from his spot on the couch, not even bothering to pull off his headphones.

“Sup dude.” A lazy, two fingered wave in his general direction. But Red had neither the patience or the presence of mind required for pleasantries.

“yeah f*ckin’ whatever. tell me what’s going on so i can go take a nap.”

“Geez. Well, you sure have quite the stick up your coccyx buddy.” Stretch threw him a lopsided grin “think a nap really would actually chair you up?” he chuckled to himself as Black lifted his corner of the couch.

“THEY’RE NOT HERE EITHER! HOW FAR COULD THEY HAVE GONE RIGHT UNDER OUR NOSES!”

“ Ain’t no noses here to sneak under, m’lord” the damn dog grumbles from halfway inside one of the closets. Red couldn’t tell if he was actually taking this whole thing seriously or not.

“SHUT UP.”

“S’rry m’lord.”

“COME ON, THEN, MAYBE YOU MISSED SOMETHING UPSTAIRS”

Now he was really curious.

“heh. funny.” Red tapped his phalanges on his jacket- tap-taptap “so what’s with all the ruckus? one of the pet rocks gone awol again ?”

Stretch chuckled, dry as sandpaper. “Woulda thought ya would’ve already known, since ya are the one who brought them here.”

Was he talkin’ ‘bout…

“Yep.” was the answer to the dawning look of realization on Red’s face.

“...f*ck.”

Stars be damned he hated being right.

“Mmmmhm.” Stretch hummed in detached amusem*nt, dull white eyes sleepily regarding him. “Seems you’re in a bit of trouble there, buddy.”

“no sh*t you f*ckin ash-tray. not like your lazy ass is going to do anything about it.” he pointed at him accusingly. God why can’t this damn universe just swallow him up whole…

“Nyeh heh. Hey looook pot, meet kettle and yadda yadda. All that.” he sighed, making himself comfortable- or at least, more so than before- on his side of the sofa. “Look. I have an idea, but I’m pretty sure you’re not gonna like it…likeeee…ninety three percent sure.”

…

“...what? ”

Stretch shrugged. “Ok. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya.” He lifted a hand to inspect the frayed sleeve of his sweater. “So.”

“so…?”

“With what’s been goin’ on here…your best bet would be to talk to ‘im” the Papyrus’s lifted hand formed into a gesturing thumb, pointing in a direction through the wall…outside the house….into the forest…

….he’s joking, he’s gotta be.

“...you've gotta be kiddin’ me.” let him sit in the pot of sweet sweet denial for a little longer…

But unfortunately for him, the universe decided this was the time to exact its revenge on him…probably for tearing a hole in it that one time.

“Yep, him.” like he was talking about getting f*cking groceries instead of the idea of interacting in any way with a psycho mass murderer, he shrugged “If our lil’ sleepin beauty here went gallivanting into the wood, asking Dust is your best bet, to be honest.”

The clatter and banging of things being moved around suddenly stop as everyone nearby turns to look at him as if he’d grown a second head, Red included.

Blue raised a hand in concern “UH- PARDON THE INTERRUPTION….BUT UMMM…I don’t Know How To Say This-”

“IT’S AN ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE IDEA THAT WILL MOST CERTAINLY END HORRIBLY?” The not-so terrible Papyrus adds on helpfully. Or not. Who f*ckin’ cares at this point.

“Yeah, what he said. Those cigarettes makin’ ya stupid or somethin’?” But he felt the sickening pit of anxiety, closed for much too short a time, really, starting to reopen, in the place maybe just under his ribcage.

“...Eh. Probably.” though he didn’t look too concerned, even pulling out another cigarette from his pocket.

“I dunno about that, seems like a good idea to me.” his scowl starts to deepen as a particularly annoying voice pipes up from behind him. A feeling of familiar, viceral discomfort starting to fill the air like a thick fog.

And there it is, strike number f*cking three on things he did not wanna deal with today! Teleporting away, holing up in his room, and dealing with all of his brother’s bitching later is looking better by the second. The thing is, however, the Universe hasn’t had its sh*ts and giggles as of yet, so as Red is gathering enough of his magic to catapult himself through the void, he feels the weight of two bony arms lean over the sofa and onto his f*cking skull, cause this f*cking mascara disaster just had to make life harder for him-

“f*ckin- get off me ya freak!” He lurched forward and out from under the blue jacket clad arms and started pushing blindly at what probably was the other’s face. His hands only met air, of course. He curses under his breath. “nobody gives a damn about what you think!”

Killer smiles cruelly at his growing rage. “Ouch. Anyways~ Ya wanna know why this wannabe dust puddle’s idea is so darn great?”

From what Red could see, his… cousins…alternates…whatever they were’s…faces beginning to twist in aversion, Edge probably ready to loudly object, but the maniac doesn’t wait for anyone to answer.

“See, I’ve met your little stray…yanno…if you’re lookin’ for tall…kinda skinny, freakishly large hands andddd staples in the face?” he tapped at his rounded mandible (tap-taptap-tap).

“YOU’VE MET THEM TOO? ARE THEY OKAY? DO YOU KNOW WHERE THEY WENT?” Blue stood at a relatively safe distance (probably), but leaned toward him, hopeful stars in his eyes gleaming.

“CUT THE CRAP AND TELL US WHERE THEY ARE BEFORE I BAKE YOU INTO MY NEXT LASAGNA.” If looks could dust, Killer would probably be six feet deep into hell. Too bad, Red thought. Edge hadn’t said a single word from the crybaby f*cker’s appearance until now, but his claws sunk deep into the door frame in his vice-like grip, sending little flakes of dried paint and drywall onto the floor.

“Aw. Cute.” His pitch black, viscous sockets curled into perfect crescents, an uncanny spectacle that made Red want to vomit. “Lemme guesssss…you still not over that little mess? Are you gonna exact your wittle wevenge when you finally get your wittle edgy mitts on them? Hmm?”

“...I AM GOING TO KILL YOU AND MAKE IT AS PAINFUL AS POSSIBLE.” the wall creaks as Edge’s eyelights flash bright red. (burningburningmaybescarletmaybecrimsonthengone-)

“HEY THAT'S NOT VERY NICE!” Blue or Popsicle, maybe even that creep with the f*cked up teeth. He didn’t care anymore.

“Get in line, buddy.” He chuckled, like he was just told a pun instead of a serious threat, “Now stop i n t e r r u p t i n g m e.”

…

“Anyways, where was I? Oh, yeah, Staples! Your little…lost thing. Yeah, I met them and all that. Not sure how they’re here, but they’re entertaining enough. Cute lil necklace too.” As Red had quickly moved away from the…splash zone…, Killer sat himself on the arm of the red sofa, folding his legs criss-cross applesauce and resting his mandible on his hand playfully. “And it’s only been, what, a few hours at most? They’re not gonna be getting very far…i mean, given their current state and all”

“You see…I don’t know if it’s the result of that little accident” he rapped his knuckles against his head (taptaptap) “but i don’t think they’re doin too hot in the mental department…if ya know what i mean. Couldn’t even shake my…hand…properly. So unless you all want to spend more of your precious hours combing the entire f*cking forest…who do ya think you’re gonna be asking?”

“BUT-”

“Oh, and don’t think about getting that mutt or chomp chomps up there,” he points lazily at the ceiling “to go sniffing them out for ya either. It seems~ like your lil friend doesn't have a natural smell. They’ll be blending right in, how fortunately unfortunate.”

The perched skeleton’s curling cheshire smile returned, the liquified hatred in his sockets dripping like tar through a sieve. Tendrils of violent energy began wrapping around Red’s very soul, goading him, practically inviting him to lash out at the highly invasive presence(threat) daring to be in the same room as his brother-

“So~” Killer drawled “Whatcha gonna do?”

Before he could in any way stop himself, a sharp bone flicks from his hand, embedding itself into the wall mere centimeters next to Killer’s now tilted skull.

“...what i’m gonna do, pal, is tell you ta f*ck. o f f.”

“Like I said. Cute.” He stepped off of his perch on the couch arm and dusted (heh-) himself off. “Buuuuut luckily for you I know when I’m not welcome.”

As if.

“Have fun with Dusty out there, Lol. Bye.”

And, with a sharp pop, Killer was (thereandthen-) gone. There was something like a sigh as everyone let out a breath they didn’t know they were holding.

…

“...So.”

Stretch, who had, sometime during the…conversation…managed to move himself to drape over the lone armchair in the corner, was the first to break the tentative silence.

“Who’s going to do it?”

Slowly, everyone’s skulls turn to face Red. He feels his hackles rising.

“wh- the f*ck are you looking at me for? can’t the creamsicle do it? Dust “likes” him.” he sends a pointed glare his way, but he stutters, rubbing the back of his skull nervously.

“WELL UMMM….THE GREAT PAPYRUS WOULD LOVE TO BUT UHHHH.” He pauses for a moment, beads of magical sweat forming on his skull as a comically alarmed expression appears on his face. “I!!! HAVE THINGS TO DO!!! YEP. ABSOLUTELY VERY BUSY INDEEDY! NO TIME AT ALL! NYEH–HEh-heh.”

…

“…OKAY BYE!”

He beelines toward the nearest window, thankfully opening it first before leaping out of it.

“OH- WAIT FOR ME!!” The blueberry f*ck follows after him.

His hopes of taking a break only further plummeted when Black and his dumbass brother came back downstairs, took one look at him, and ignored him as they left the house.

“Wh-”

His own brother sent a piercing glare from across the room. “OH DON'T GIVE ME THAT LOOK YOU DEGENERATE SLOB. YOU BROUGHT THIS UPON YOURSELF FOR DECIDING TO BRING THAT THING HERE!” Edge gave him an attempt at a pleasant smile that only looked more and more deranged at each passing second. “YOU SEE, SANS, I HAVE TO GO BUY MORE CLEANING SUPPLIES SO THAT I CAN WIPE UP THE REST OF THE BLOOD SPLATTERED ONTO THE SHOWER CURTAINS.” With that, he marched out through the front door.

Well f*ck ya too then, considering you’re the one who told me to find ‘em in the firs’ place!

Clinging on to one last strand of denial, he turns around to try to convince Stretch to do it instead…only to find the armchair empty. He sighed, finally giving up and putting his hands in his pockets.

f*ck. Guess we’re doing this then.

He took a deep breath, -and it worked, at least marginally, to steel his nonexistent nerves- and teleported away.

.

.

.

.

.

His feet landed with a soft thump on the forest floor.

Red looked around carefully. Tall, thin evergreens dominated this part of the forest, with a smattering of birch or oak trees in between. There wasn’t anything strange or out of the ordinary from the rest of the woods but with the occasional annoying LV spike alerts coming from here, this is definitely where that damned psycho hangs out when he’s not holed up in his room.

But…

Where in the f*ck is he.

wait. don’t f*ckin’ tell me…

Piercing red eyelights scan everything in the area yet again, the excess ambient magic around him billowing out in search of any hostile magic. Honestly we really shoulda’ just handed both of them to the f*cking guard while we had the chance-

*CRUNCH*

A sharp red bone juts out of a tree, exactly where his neck would be if he hadn’t instinctively teleported in time.

This piece of-

His whole body twisted around to meet his assailant, only to-

*CRACK*

Only to launch himself away from a dagger like bone erupting at his feet.

“hey!”

Multicolored eye-lights burned from under the shadow of a dusty gray hood. Though, the alternate wasn’t even looking at him, but off to the side, muttering unintelligibly to himself as he summoned yet another bone to throw at him from his perch on a high tree branch. Even with his experience surviving what was basically an unending warzone, the feeling of certain death that burst from Dust’s very being seemed to coil around his spine like a snake and s q u e e z e. It was different from Killer’s. In every way.

Pushing down the suffocating feeling, he dodged another set of bones and gave a swift kick to the tree. It shook violently. And it worked. Because now…

Those burning

murderous

f*cking eye-lights.

Were right on him. Just like he wanted. yep!

(he could feel them inches deep into his bones, pulsing, ready to eat him from the inside out-)

…now’s not the time for this bullsh*t.

“Oi! enough wit’ the god-damned bone attacks!” he snarled at him despite the awful feeling “ya seen any skeletons aroun’ that ain’t alternates or are ya too busy f*cking around in tha’ woods Dustrag?”

Dust’s laughter buzzed into his skull.

“ Heh. Maybe.” His voice sounded like Killer’s, like that c*nt in the rabbit slippers Classic, but it had a strain to it, like a wound up spring. Like everything else about this motherf*cker, he f*cking hated it.

*CRACK*

He teleported a few feet to the side, dodging a bone that would have carved into his forehead.

“Hey look Paps, he dodges exactly like me!” he tilted his head, his expression unreadable “it’s kind of annoying.”

He summons a gaster blaster, then another, then another, the noise of the lasers decimating the forest floor no doubt able to be heard from all the way back in the mansion.

“Can ya just stop f*cking attacking me?!!! Fer one second!!!!?” he’s starting to reach his limit, the fatigue building up and making his teleports slower than before. The bone attacks he had to throw up as shields from the other’s onslaught also weren't doing him any favors. Cursing his single HP, he hoped to high hell that the other didn’t catch on. But by the look on the stab-happy maniac’s face, he wasn’t so lucky.

Dust just laughs, the ends of his grin poking out sharply from behind his bright red scarf.

“I have a better question. Do you value your legs or your arms more, friend?”

And so, the two continued, so absorbed in fighting the other that they didn’t even notice the soft crunch of footsteps coming toward them.

…

Red exhaled, a stream of thin red smoke billowing out from his teeth. Rivulets of red tinted sweat dripped down his skull and into his eye sockets. His hands were in his pockets, standing defensively a few feet away from the f*cker trying to kill him. Just when he was getting used to “peace” on the surface too.

Said f*cker didn’t even look the least bit winded, but what could be expected from someone who absorbed basically all of the power in the damned underground. The thought filled Red with spite. He didn’t even have the energy left to throw a few bullets back.

pathetic.

“So. I’m gonna turn ya into a pincushion now. ” Dust said, raising a hand to send a final barrage of bone attacks his way “nothin’ personal, really-”

Red shot himself out of the way before he could be hit, but…didn’t hear the sound of any attacks hitting the floor like they should. When he popped into position behind a large tree, the sight in front of him confused the ever loving sh*t out of him.

….welp. found ‘em.

Looming behind Dust, with one large hand gripping the back of his neck, was the guest. From where he was standing, Red could see Dust’s hands twitch violently, as if he was straining against something. Like he wanted to attack, but just couldn’t.

“Wh-” those burning lights finally stopped boring into him to look up at his captor incredulously. That wall of suffocating killing intent stuttered.

“No.” Their voice was quiet as they squinted at…something, pinching the back of Dust’s spine tighter and batting at the air with their other hand. “ No. NonoNonono. That is not. Very good. Do not.”

"...Who the fuc-"

"NO."

Eventually, though (it was only a few minutes) Dust stopped moving, and his eye sockets drooped closed. The other skeleton carefully laid him face down into the ground, patted his head in the dirt a few times, and co*cked their head in Red’s direction.

It took only a few strides with those long, thin legs for them to stand right in front of him. They were tall, maybe even as tall as his brother (but without that demanding, violent presence) as they bent down to look at him. Something was different from their first meeting. Those large, blank eye sockets seemed much more aware.

“hey! do ya even have a clue about the sh*t i had put up with to find ya, huh? ya freak! Ya almost got me duste-”

Whatever grievances he had about the situation he was in quickly vanished from his mind as he was grabbed by the sides of his skull.

“what’re ya doin!? Lemme go!”

“You are…okay?” their face got uncomfortably close to his, likely scanning him. From here, Red could see the various weeds and random wildflowers sticking out of the cracks around their eyes. “okay? Yesss?”

“…wha-”

“Look okay. Okay maybe?” he squinted, only marginally uncomfortable from the violation of his personal space, for some reason. “Okay, maybe.”

With that, they released their grip on his face and took a few steps back. Something squirmed underneath that dirty orange t-shirt.

…huh.

Red watched this creature flap their arms weakly at their sides for a few moments. He had half a mind to drag this idiot back to the house and be done with it all.

“Got something to say, buddy?” He noticed that his words didn’t have as much bite to them as they should, but didn’t pay much attention to it. God he was f*cking tired of this sh*t. “I don’t have all day.”

…

“You know…mutt?” they gesture wildly “need to find. A mutt.”

Wait “...why the f*ck do you wanna find the Mutt for?” That guy? Out of everyone in that house.

Then, in a display that made Red want to gag, they shoved their entire f*cking hand into the crack in their skull. He could hear the scraping noises their thin phalanges made as they brushed against the inside. The f*ck are they doing?

Finally, they pull out that box of crayons he saw them with before.

“For this. Yes.” the box was cradled gingerly in their fingers, like glass “find a mutttt. Get paperrr. For this.”

Red sighed. This would be easier than he thought it would, but honestly he didn’t know what he was even expecting.

“...So.”

Their head co*cks to the side again, like a confused puppy. If he wasn’t so goddamned exhausted, he’d probably find it cute, in a stupid sort of way.

“if i tell ya where to find ‘im, you’ll come back with me to tha’ house then?”

Their head nodded aggressively, some of the weeds in their eye-sockets falling out with the force. Red cringed when they just picked them up and shoved them back in. “Yes.”

“Good. Come on then.” He wonders if he could teleport without overdrawing his magic and passing out. Though maybe he would pass out either way.

“Okay”

He was about to grab their hand, when they, yet again, reached into the giant hole in their skull. Pulling out something in a closed fist, they grabbed his hand and placed it there carefully.

It squirmed in his palm as they closed his fingers around it with theirs.

“Have it.”

He opened his hand. A large, black beetle waggled its legs at him.

He looked at his hand, then at the other skeleton, then back again. They looked at him-in a way he thought was- expectantly.

….

…yanno what? whatever.

Chapter 18: The Things That Happen

Chapter Text

I liked being outside. I wish I could have been outside longer.

Because…

Because I know. I am so, very close to finding it. The Rainbow. And it will be exactly how the Green told me it would.

That thing that happened to the sky…was it the Rainbow?

(No, no. It is Something else.)

It’s not what I am looking for, but it’s close. Many colors in the sky, and many colors in the sky. But not the same. What’s different? It made me want to go back outside and look at it for just a little longer. If I could tell what it was, would it make me feel that way again?

I think about it for some time, idly picking at the grooves in my bones. But it started not making sense after a while, so I stopped. Besides, there are more important things right now.

I look up from my spot on the soft, green thing I'm sitting on. The Red person was making face noises for a while, but I wasn’t paying much attention. He flickered tiredly as he talked to someone that wasn’t me. He held something to the side of his head. A little, gray box. Why was the Red person speaking to a box? Why did it speak back? I consider asking the yellow worm currently wrapped around my spine, but remember that yellow does not talk. That’s too bad.

…I kind of want it. Maybe things would make more sense if I had it. This Red person is very nice, I think. Maybe if I asked he would tell me how it worked. Still, still there are more important things. Things like fendship need to be done. It comes first. Everything else is after.

“Yes, you pompous prick, tell your stupid mutt to pick up his damn phone already-”

Immediately, I gave the talking my full attention. Why does the box sound angry?

“whaddya mean, ‘why?’ it’s none of your business!”

…The box…pompous prick thing? Is that what it is? Says something back. Something about a…cama? Camarara-something. Something about that doesn't sound right.

“...you know what? fine. i can do that.” The Red stops for a bit, pressing something on the pompous-box before putting it back up to his head. “oi, shepard, you piece of sh*t, stop whatever you’re doing and get your ass over here.”

…it’s a different voice this time. Weird.

“yes it's exactly what you think it is” … “well they aren’t going to-”

…..

“ugh, fine”

The red person groaned before putting that weird box thing away.

“yeah we’re gonna be here for a bit” and the Red is talking to me, now. Looking at me strangely. It makes me shiver a little.

“Okay “ I responded.

He sits down on the soft thing with me, a little bit away. He seemed to sink into his clothing. I look at the orange thing I'm wearing and wonder if I could do that.

…Maybe not.

I am not sure what else to do, so I begin to run my fingers on my seat. The feeling of softness is stronger, more…there, on my fingers, than it is on my legs or my arms or anywhere else. It is nicer, like this.

I looked back at the Red Person. Looking at this person is also very nice. He was small, but not as small as Green Person was. His light was a lot sharper than Green Person’s, less vibrant, but still very shiny. It sounded tired, like a broken wall.

He also does a lot of strange things. Like bringing me to places without walking. Or doors. But maybe it isn’t strange, and everyone does that Outside except for me. Maybe.

Suddenly, his head tilted up and over towards me.

“...th’ hell are you looking at?” Something about his voice always sounds itchy. But it's fine.

I blink in confusion.

Uh, how do I…?

Not really sure what else to do, I reach out and poke his face.

“ack!-” one of his hands reaches up to slap his face. Why was he doing that-

I twitch violently at the sudden burst of sound. That was loud.

“w-!” he pauses “-th’ f*ck was that for?!”

I stare down at my finger. This red-person’s feelings are very loud. And there was this…thing. That happened. The red made more red! And I could feel it on my face. It was warm. And pointy. And it was shiny. And then it was gone.

He’s looking at me weirdly. I, faintly, hear him speak again. But I’m looking at my finger again, the one that touched his face.

…

…I should do it again, just to make sure.

Before my finger could poke at his face again, my hand was grabbed in his.

“no getting handsy without takin’ me out to dinner first, pal"

He’s touching me. With his hands.

I look down at the hand he grabbed. It twitches slightly. Sometimes, things like this happen. I feel fuzzy.

I want to….

I run the tip of finger down his hand. As quickly as he grabbed, he let go. He is saying something. I am not listening. I am looking at my finger.

Slowly, carefully, I drag my finger down my own hand.

….

It's the same.

Green's hands don't feel like this. Hers were very soft. I remember one time before feeling my claws almost dig into her soft bits and tiny bones before she pulled away. There was always the urge to be careful, careful. I've never touched any of the other humans like that except for that one time. But I think it might be the same.

But this Red person is not. He was warm, but not soft. Not as squishy. He has cracked places. They feel so similar to mine. For some reason. Maybe I could ask him why. He seems to know things. He lives out here after all.

Maybe later. Now is for waiting.

The Red person has stopped making noise. I look at him, and he is still. Slumped over and not moving, or doing things. People are usually doing things. Always making lots of noise. Always moving. I’ve never seen anyone just do this before. I can still hear him, but it’s so quiet, so quiet.

Like with many other things, I am confused. Talking was nice. Why did he stop doing it? I don’t understand.

Though, something tells me this is supposed to happen.

This is just a thing that happens. Everything is fine.

…Ok.

I dedicate some of my waiting-for-The-Mutt-time to looking at the wall. Just the walls, this time. Not the alive things I sometimes see behind them. I could do that later.

…

I have looked at this wall before. Such a nice wall. Such a nice, yellow, decorated thing. Maybe if I looked at it for long enough, I could keep it in my head. With all of the squirming, shiny things I found outside.

Why would I want to do that? Walls are too big. I wouldn’t have space for all the other things. Or, I could put it in the place with that blue wall, and look at both of them at the same time. That sounds nice. I’m sure I could figure out how to do that.

I consider it for a few more moments.

…

Maybe later.

I look at the Red Person next to me. He is not moving. It’s like that terrible orange thing I saw before, but with no terrible noises and sitting on my sticks. This is so much better. I wonder for a moment, where he put that thing I gave him, and then stop wondering. I want to touch him again. My hands twitch with longing.

I remember…before, when I was outside. This Red Person was also outside. And another person. And he had a light with mixing colors. It was so strange, but very pretty. Was it supposed to do that? And he was throwing sharp things.That should not happen. It was not good. I’m glad it stopped. And…

Wait.

There were two.

I give in to the urge to touch his face again. Just a little bit.

It’s smooth. It feels nice. I pull my hand away.

Yes, there were two. Not just the Red Person, or the Sharp Things Throwing Person. There was another one. Where was it again?

(Wrapped around his neck.)

…oh.

My head snaps to the creak of an opening door.

.

.

.

.

.

Shepherd opens the front door to the person the entire damn house busted their asses trying to find for the better part of two days sitting on their beat-up couch staring at him.

So this is why m’lord called me over here? Damn.

Right next to them, Red lay passed out on the couch. He leaned down to take a closer look. He and his brother weren’t really there for most of the chaos, but it didn’t mean that he wasn’t privy to the constantly annoyed and tired look on the latter’s face. No amount of coffee could fix that mug.

Eh. Too bad. I missed my smoke break for this.

“Yo. Wake up.” He flicks the side of Red’s skull. He didn’t budge. Well, he’s no good…

So that leaves…

This guy was still staring at him. Now that he’s seen them awake, he notices the wide, empty sockets. And the decorations.

Freaky.

Not like he wasn’t used to it though.

“So….you.” Shepherd pulls out one of the suckers Stretch gave him, popping it between his teeth. It's lemon flavored. Not really his favorite. “whaddya want?”

They just stare at him.

Wait. Hold on.

Under the dirt stained orange shirt was something that could easily be mistaken for a crease. Only, it squirmed. The long thin shape wound around and under the skeleton’s rib cage until it reached their right sleeve. He watched, mildly confused as the scaled, butter-yellow head of a snake peeked out from its hiding place before receding.

What the f*ck-

He decided it wasn’t any of his business.

After gawking at him like he was some sort of bug in a jar, they stood up. They closed the few-foot distance between them in one large step. Those pitch black holes were eye-level with his, and they seemed to stare right through him.

Somehow, he couldn’t muster up the effort to feel more than only slightly uncomfortable. He stared back, violet lights regarding them drowsily. “Well? Ya not deaf are ya?”

After what felt like forever, they finally responded. There was an audible click as their mandible opened.

“You.” The skeleton leaned forward. “You, youuu. Are thhh-” He watched impassively as the stranger stumbled over their words, the “th” sound dragging on for an uncomfortably long time, and deflating into a sharp hiss before they stopped and rubbed at their mouth in irritation.

“You.” They say again, tilting their head. Their hands twitched and spasmed by their sides as if playing “immovable statue" for two days took all the willpower they had. “Are Mutttt? No? Yesss?”

“S’ not my name, but i guess.” He takes a step back. “Why’re ya askin’?”

“Okay. Okkkay.” They mumble, and blink around the random weeds pushed into the cracks around their eye sockets. “You hhhhave…paper?”

Why are you asking me for?- The alarm building in his skull is stifled. Yanno what? f*ck it. It’s whatever. S’not like I kept that sh*t secret for a reason or anything.

“...who told ya I had paper?”

They blink slowly again. “Person. Had thhhhisss” They slowly trailed their fingers down the space underneath their sockets. “Ssss-said you have. Can I? Have?”

Shepherd briefly entertained the idea of just how f*cked up a monster’s magic had to be for someone to struggle to speak like this. Even with the f*cked up mouth, even Pine was at least understandable. The dragged out, clipped up way they spoke barely made any sort of sense.

He’ll have to tell his brother about this.

Despite this, he made out enough of it to figure out Killer was the one who told them. Because of f*cking course he did. The bastard always left just enough evidence that it was him going into his room and stealing his sh*t. The sucker broke in his teeth.

“...why should i?”

They stared at him expectantly.

He gets the feeling they won’t leave him alone until they get what they want.

“...fine”

He checks his inventory and finds some printer paper he swiped from Black’s office the other day. Pulling the pages out, he unceremoniously drops them at the other skeleton’s feet.

Alright, problem’s solved, time to go-

Abruptly, they grab his sleeve. His eyes narrow in annoyance as he tries to pull away before stopping at the sound of fabric tearing. His mouth opens, possibly to retort, but snaps shut in surprise when they reach into one of their eye sockets and starts digging.

Forget Axe’s whole deal, this is somehow worse. What in the actual f*ck.

They pulled out something and placed it in his hand.

“Have it.” They say quietly, curling his hand closed. They pat his face a few times as Shepherd wonders why he’s just standing here and taking all this, picking up the scattered papers from the floor and leaving walking briskly around him and up the stairs.

For a moment, Shepherd just stands there in silence. He unfolds his outstretched hand to reveal a small tangle of dandelions…and a bottle cap. He stuffs it into his pocket.

All of a sudden, it's like he’s snapping out of a trance. The LV that was calm before came surging back like electricity. They touched him. He let them touch him.

…What did that skeleton just do to him?

“the f*ck ‘r ya lookin at?” Red was awake now, and he looked the same way Shepherd felt.

“...shut up.”

.

.

.

.

.

They didn’t see the strange skeleton the next day, as they had seemingly stayed in their room.

However, many in the household have been finding strange drawings of themselves in increasingly random places. Pieces of paper with their likeness on them were found in cupboards, shoved underneath the cracks of their bedroom doors. They were always in places where they would find them, and they always found their own pictures, and not anyone else’s.

Papyrus, having found yet another drawing of himself, ran into the living room.

“I FOUND ANOTHER ONE!”

“OOOH! ME TOO!” Blue waved the drawing of himself in the air, skipping down the hall to meet his friend-slash-roommate.

“WHERE’D YOU FIND YOURS?” The excitement was infectious.

“I WAS GOING TO GO RUN THE LAUNDRY AND,” He paused to chuckle behind his hand “I SAW IT STUCK TO THE FREAKIN CEILING! YOU?”

“OH MY STARS YOU WOULDN’T BELIEVE THIS” He leaned down as if sharing particularly juicy gossip “SO I , THE GREAT PAPYRUS WAS ABOUT TO MAKE LUNCH, AND I THOUGHT ‘HEY! WHY NOT TRY THAT CHICKEN ALFREDO RECIPE MY TORIEL TOLD ME ABOUT’ SO I LOOKED AROUND FOR THAT POT I USUALLY MAKE MY SPAGHETTI IN-”

“IT WAS IN THE POT WAS IT-”

“IT WAS IN THE POT!”

Under the sound of the duo’s laughter, the others conversed quietly. Mostly.

“You’re joking. They seriously keep bugs in their-”

“Yes they absolutely f*ckin’ do! I’m dead serious. I watched them literally reach into that pothole of a skull and give me a f*cking…what is this a roach or somethin’”

“IT’S A BEETLE, YOU f*ckING IDIOT, PUT IT BACK OUTSIDE”

“...nah, don’t feel like it.”

“AND WHY DON’T YOU?”

“Dunno, boss”

“YOU KNOW WHAT? I DON’T CARE. AS YOUR SUPERIOR I DEMAND YOU KILL THAT THING AND THROW IT OUT IMMEDIATELY. I WILL NOT HAVE PESTS IN MY HOUSE. THROW THAT CHILDISH DRAWING OUT TOO.”

“HEY! DON’T DO THAT! THEY’RE PRETTY COOL!” Blue holds the crayon drawing of himself to his face. “LOOK! DOESN'T IT LOOK EXACTLY LIKE ME?” He squinted his eyes at it “WELL KINDA. BUT IT DOES!”

“AWWW EDGE, ARE YOU JEALOUS YOU DIDN’T GET ONE?” Black, as always, smiles wickedly at Edge’s unhappiness.

“Uh actually it's our house-”

“SHUT UP YOU OVERGROWN BLACKBERRY! YOU DIDN’T GET ONE EITHER”

“But seriously, there is something really off about that guy”

“Something’s off about literally everyone on the second floor, c’mon, give me somethin’ with more…sustenance” Stretch waves his hand flippantly.

“Yeah but this is no joke man. Look at what they did to that f*cking featherduster out there.” Red jabs stiffly toward the forest-facing window.

“Wait, what did they do to dust?”

…

“Lemme get this straight. They just. Grabbed him”

“Yup.”

“By the back of his f*cking neck.”

“Yup”

“And he just passed out? Complete shut down? No fighting or anything?”

“Not even a bone attack”

“...what the f*ck.”

“Exactly.”

“Hey” Shepherd, after staying virtually invisible for the entire discussion, decides now is the time to speak up. “Did any of you ever feel…tired when yar around ‘em? Not all there?”

…

“The f*ck are you talking about, I’m always f*cking tired.”

“YOUR FAULT YOU’RE A LAZY DEGENERATE”

“...nevermind.” He leaves, digging around in his pocket for something, presumably a cigarette.

“From what you all are tellin’ me, we gotta get to the bottom of this, right?” prime Sans rubs at his skull tiredly.

“OBVIOUSLY”

Red and Stretch give a noncommittal grunt.

“So how’re we gonna do that, eh?”

“Simple.” Stretch peels open the wrapper of a lollypop “ We ask.”

“Fat chance, what they say barely makes ‘nough sense as it is.”

“THEY WOULDN’T NEED TO TALK TO SHOW US WHERE THEY CAME FROM”

“True. We could just ask them to show us.”

“HELLO!”

Everyone goes quiet as Pine makes his presence known.

“Oh uh” Sans somehow looks even more uncomfortable. “Pine. How long have you been there?”

“OH…JUST LONG ENOUGH TO TELL YOU THAT IS A BAD IDEA”

“AND WHY, PRAY TELL, IS THAT?”

“LISTEN” Pine’s sunken eye sockets narrow into thin slits behind his glasses. “SOMEONE SHOWS UP IN YOUR BACKYARD BATTERED, BLOODY AND IN NOTHING BUT A STARS DAMNED OVERSIZED T-SHIRT AND YOU WANT THEM TO JUST CASUALLY WALK YOU TO THE PLACE THAT MADE THEM THAT WAY? ARE YOU AN IDIOT?!”

“M’ pretty sure the blood ain’t theirs dude”

“EVEN. WORSE.”

…

“LOOK, AT LEAST LET THEM GET USED TO THE PLACE. THEY DON’T EVEN HAVE THEIR OWN CLOTHES YET! OR LITERALLY ANYTHING! TAKE THEM OUT TO THE TOWN OR SOMETHING!”

“See, that’s fine n’ all” Red stuffs his hands back into his pockets “but there’s just one problem-”

“OH NOW YOU’RE GONNA TALK ABOUT LV OF ALL THINGS? TRUST ME, IT’LL BE FINE. DON’T YOU REMEMBER MY BROTHER ON HIS FIRST DAY HERE? OR KILLER, OR DUST? THE POOR THING IS LITERALLY AN ANGEL COMPARED TO THEM. REALLY. WHAT’S THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN?”

…

“OKAY A LOT OF THINGS COULD HAPPEN, BUT YOU’LL HAVE TO DO THIS EVENTUALLY. THOUGH THAT “EVENTUALLY” BETTER BE SOON” His crooked smile seemed to widen “OR I’LL HAVE TO OPT OUT OF KITCHEN DUTY FOR A WHILE. MAKES NO DIFFERENCE TO ME, REALLY.”

Every lazy skeleton in that room was suddenly drenched in utter dread.

The behemoth stepped up to Papyrus and Blue, long since lost in their own conversation “HELLO THERE TINY ME! MUNCHKIN! WE HAVE A LUNCH TO MAKE! CHICKEN ALFREDO, WAS IT?” With that, he dragged the two out by their scarves into the kitchen.

“Well that was…weird.” Stretch mumbled. “So who’s gonna do it?”

“Aw hell no-Not it!”

He blinked, and suddenly the living room was empty, and he was the only one left.

“...”

“Welp. I guess I deserve this.”

Chapter 19: The Closet (A dark, quiet place part 1)

Chapter Text

Accepting his fate, Stretch rolled off the couch, popping out of existence a mere second before hitting the ground.

Landing on his slippered feet in the second floor hallway, he trudges toward the once-empty room right next to Axe’s, giving it a single knock.

“Hello? You in there, buddy?”

…

There’s no answer.

Did they go off into the woods again through the window or something? Does this room even have a window? Probably.

He knocks again, just to be sure. “Helloooooo? Sorry to bother you, you’re not, like, sleeping are you?”

Still nothing. A full minute of knocking and calling out later, he gives up.

Maybe they really are just sleeping again, Stretch thinks. From what his bro had told him, it was impossible to even move them in that state, let alone wake them up. He’s kind of jealous.

He hoped that was the case. He wouldn’t mind procrastinating for another two and a half days. But then again, they could have escaped outside through the window without anyone knowing.

He sighs. Better safe than sorry.

Stretch gives the door a light kick. It squeaks open, letting the light from inside illuminate the dim hallway.

Well that’s weird.

“Hey I’m coming in so don’t attack me or whatever”

Pushing the door all the way open, he walks into the room, giving it a once over as he does.

It was empty.

To the left, the window was covered completely by its curtain, not even a sliver of natural light escaping inside.

Don’t tell me…

The thought only lasted for a moment as he was overcome with a sudden gut feeling.

They were still here. In this room, with him. It was a strange feeling, only just unpleasant enough to not be completely ignored. But, looking at the bright side, at least they didn’t jump him as soon as he stepped in.

He rubs at his neck and sighs “Making this much harder than it needs to be, buddy”

“Now, where would you be hiding…” He mumbles to himself as he turns on the light and begins searching through the room.

Surprisingly….or unsurprisingly, there aren’t many places to hide in this place. This bedroom was furnished sparsely, and what little furniture there was is white, plain and undecorated. (You could say it was pretty…barebones.)There were even fewer places a monster of the guest’s stature could have possibly fit themself into. But one could never be too careful with magic.

He walks over to the bed. It’s completely bare of any blankets and pillows. He knows his brother and this universe’s native Papyrus always made sure every room had blankets and stuff for possible situations like this.

Eh…they probably just took em’ somewhere.

Stretch unceremoniously flops face first onto it, shimmying forward enough to take a peek underneath.

Nope, not here.

He checked the empty laundry hamper, behind the dresser, and came up completely empty.The only other place he could think of is inside the closet.

Actually, this is pretty obvious, why didn’t he just check here first and spare himself the effort?

(the more he thinks about it, the more a voice in the back of his head whispers into his skull, why not give up? Why not just go away? It’d be fine if he just got someone else to do it inst-)

…Stretch knocks on the door. The dull sound is almost deafening in the silence.

Predictably, there’s no answer.

“‘Supposed to say ‘who’s there’…”

…

“Yanno bud, when the realtor said the house had a few skeletons in its closets, I didn’t really expect this.”

….

“...Tough crowd”

After standing awkwardly for what felt like forever, but was actually only about a minute, Stretch decides to try opening the door.

…He opens it enough to barely get a glimpse of pale white bone and wide, round sockets before a large hand slowly pulls the door back shut. Trying to open it again is impossible with his strength, and he felt like his brother and the more excitable of his roommates would probably eviscerate him on the spot if he accidentally broke it using magic. Especially Edge. The sourpuss is strangely protective of this dump. He doesn’t know how Killer gets away with it.

Actually he does… but yeah.

Welp…I have no idea what to do now.

…

Imma go get Sans and just let him deal with it. He’s better at this stuff than me anyways.

Making up his mind, he walks back out the door, teleporting into Blue’s room.

He finds himself staring at Blue’s back as he’s…wait what is he doing-?

Before he could see what he was doing, Blue sharply turned around, blocking whatever was on his desk from view.

“OH! HI PAPY!”

He’s a bit curious, but there’s kind of more pressing things to deal with at the moment.

“I uh…kinda need your help…with something”

“OF COURSE! ANYTHING FOR YOU!” The shorter of the two beams at him, leaning back against the table slightly to further push the mystery object(s?) out of sight “WHAT CAN I HELP YOU WITH?”

Already feeling mentally drained from his encounter, Stretch flops onto Blue’s incredibly soft spaceship bed, dragging some of the throw pillows toward himself.

“So like, you know that uh…guy I have to take out to buy stuff?” his voice is muffled by the comforter.

“YEAH? I’VE NEVER SEEN PINE THAT ANGRY SINCE HIS FIRST DAY HERE!”

“Yeah…they’re in the closet”

“AND?”

“No really, they’re hiding in the guest room closet.” He lifts his head to look at Blue, his eyes narrowed in mild irritation “Been trying to get them out for like…30 minutes now?”

“OH! I Uh…Thought You Mean Something Differ-” he stops himself, “...WHATEVER! HAVE YOU TRIED ASKING NICELY?”

“Yep. Didn’t work.” Stretch plops his face back onto the bed.

“WELL MAYBE YOU AREN’T ASKING NICELY ENOUGH”

“Dunno bro…I asked as nicely as I could. That’s why I asked you to help me in the first place ”

…

“Well I Am The Nicest Person I Know…” he strokes his mandible thoughtfully “WELL OKAY! I’LL HELP YOU! COME ON.” He springs up, grabbing Stretch by his sandaled foot and dragging him out of the room, up the stairs and toward the second to last door on the right.

The door’s still as wide open as it was when Stretch was here, enough for the two to barely catch a glimpse of the top of the nameless monster’s skull and part of their large eye sockets as they peer at them from the safety of the closet.

“HELLO NEW FRIEND-” Blue leans inside to wave at them, but stutters as the other quickly ducks back into their shelter. “-OH, UM. GOODBYE THEN.”

…

“WOWIE! YOU WERE RIGHT…THEY REALLY WERE “IN” THE CLOSET.”

“Uh, yeah…did you think I was joking?”

“...MAYBE?”

“...you’re kidding”

“ABSOLUTELY”

They step completely into the room. Nothing seems to have changed from when Stretch left it. At Blue’s direction, Stretch knocks on the closet door yet again.

“Hey so like…I brought my bro to help. You can come out now” Blue’s stern frown causes him to add “...please?”

…Nothing happened.

“Maybe they just don’t like me…”

“NONSENSE! YOU PROBABLY AREN’T DOING IT RIGHT.” He ushers Stretch out of the door “JUST SIT BACK (LIKE YOU ALWAYS DO) AND LET THE MAGNIFICENT BLUE WORK HIS MAGIC” he winks at him and closes the door.

After a few awkward minutes of leaning against the wall and hearing his brother’s loud voice, Blue comes out with the guest in tow behind him.

“SEE? TOLD YOU.”

Lifting his line of sight from his bro, he glanced at the…other one. They were watching him. Or staring into space in his general direction. Stretch couldn’t really tell.

Uh….

Stretch is snapped out of his reverie by Blue’s shocked gasp. His face is twisted in concern as he regards the dirt stained, scarred hand in his. He frowns deeper as flecks of dust fall off when inspecting it closer.

“WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME YOU WERE STILL INJURED FRIEND? I THOUGHT SOMEONE WOULD’VE- AND- OH! YOU CAN’T GO OUTSIDE LIKE-” he gestures wildly to the skeleton’s borrowed shirt and shorts, still covered in grass and dirt stains from the woods. “WE’RE GONNA HAVE TO MAKE A PIT STOP! ABSOLUTELY! NON-NEGOTIABLE! COME ON! COME ON!”

They haven't said a word the entire time, and they stay quiet as they are (gently) dragged off to Blue’s room. Stretch sweats inwardly as their head turns and those bottomless pits burn into him as they go by.

…Yep. Definitely staring.

.

.

.

.

.

As soon as they returned to his room, Blue dashed into the closet and started to quickly rummage through it.

“I Know I Put It In…” he mumbles to himself, half of his body submerged in colorful clothing. After a few seconds, he pulls out a small first aid kit. “AHA! FOUND IT!”

He chucks the box onto the bed. “YOU CAN SIT ON MY TOTALLY AWESOME BED IF YOU WANT! ( I Think Laundry Day’s Tomorrow Anyway-) JUST WAIT A BIT WHILE I GET THIS SORTED” He turns back to the closet and starts rearranging things back into their proper place. The speed in which he does so is astounding.

The guest perks up at Blue’s voice and obeys, walking over to sit next to the b

Stretch sighs in relief as he is released from being the subject of his charge’s scrutiny. It was like a physical weight he wasn’t aware of till now lifted off of his ribcage. Is this how others feel when I do that whole judge thing on them?

He wonders also, If he would have felt this kind of pressure had he been there during the machine incident some months earlier. But that’s besides the point.

“Hey…uh…” and ...there goes the staring at him again. Great. “Does this mean I can leave now?”

Blue finishes hanging up the last of his clothes and turns to him. “JUST WHAT DO YOU TAKE ME FOR?”

“Uh-”

“ABSOLUTELY NOT.”

“But-”

“NOPE!” His voice had an air of finality to it. “SIT DOWN UNTIL I’M FINISHED.”

“Fine…” Stretch sulks over to Blue’s desk and flops back into his expensive gaming chair.

“GOOD! AND NOW FOR-OH STARS THAT LOOKS PAINFUL!” He does a double-take at the state of his new friend’s arms. “SOMEHOW IT LOOKS EVEN WORSE FROM THIS ANGLE! HOW DID THIS EVEN HAPPEN???”

The heavily scarred skeleton sitting on his bed stares at their mauled hand, then flexes it. Flecks of dust and foliage fall off from the movement.

Stretch has never seen his brother look this physically ill before.

“Yeah…uh…DO NOT WORRY, NEW FRIEND, THE MAGNIFICENT BLUE WILL FIX THIS!” it takes a moment, but his face regains its usual cheer “YEP!”

.

.

.

Blue frantically unzips the medkit and dumps its contents onto his bed. Sorting out some unnecessary items, he grabs a pair of tweezers and some gauze.

“I’m Gonna Start With Your Arms First If That’s Okay With You” His softer tone startles his “patient” from gazing at their torn and splintered arms to look at him instead. Something in their face made him want to comfort them. Or maybe it was the subtle fidgeting. He wondered why they chose to follow him out of the room, but not his brother. Was it something that Papy did wrong?

He glances toward his recording station to see stretch dead asleep at the table, (or just pretending), snoring with his head in his arms. Whatever it was, he’ll find out eventually.

…

“Don’t Worry, New Friend! I’ll Be As Gentle As I Possibly Can.” He reached for their arm, but left his hand hovering just slightly above theirs, asking for permission. “Can I Do This For You?”

They tilt their head, probably considering his words, and nudge at his hand. They nod hesitantly. Blue sighs in relief.

“THANK YOU” he smiles brightly. “NOW…I THINK I’LL START WITH THIS ONE FIRST”

He glances between the arms before picking the left one. Adjusting the tweezers in his grip, he carefully lifts their hand and closely examines the cracks. As he thought, bits of rock, twigs and bone splinters were lodged into many of them. “...OH BOY”

Starting from the odd, pin-like holes on the tips of their fingers, Blue slowly works at pulling the splinters and debris out from the wounded arm, dropping them onto a napkin. He winces as he tugs at a particularly stubborn piece in their palm, finally yanking it out with a firm tug. Translucent purplish magic beads up from underneath. “OOH...SORRY…”

They watched him impassively, their face not giving away if they even felt any of what he was doing to them. But he made sure to be extra careful around the fingers. They seemed to be sensitive spots.

Strangely, all of the scars seemed to end or thin out just above the hem of their shirt sleeves and shorts, giving way to smoother bone. He put any theories he had on the backburner as he switched arms.

A pile of splinters, wipes and apologies later, he was finished and their arms (and legs) were clean and splinter free. He checks them over one more time. They were lucky (or careful) enough not to get any in their skull…besides the horrible shrapnel things in their mandible and that he could do absolutely nothing to fix himself…and the giant hole.

“OKAY I’M FINISHED…NOW TIME FOR BANDAGING!” He holds up a roll of gauze. Carefully, he begins to wrap-up their arms and legs. It’s not as effective as the Monster Food, but it should do a good enough job in keeping any new splinters from getting in. As he winds the bandages up his arms, he begins to conduct some healing magic. Not too much, though. He’d learned well from last time.

“OKAY, THAT SHOULD DO IT!” He says as he sticks the last bit of gauze in place on their leg. “IS IT OKAY? NOT TOO TIGHT OR ANYTHIN- OH NO PLEASE DON’T DO THAT!”

Blue squawks as they start to pick at the bandages. At his voice, they stop to stare into his eyes. It’s a few awkwardly silent moments before they turn their gaze down to the abomination of colorful band-aids and white bandages neatly wrapped around their arms and legs, covering what was really more scar than bone. Then they looked back up at him, and, for the first time since bringing them out of that closet, they spoke.

“Thisss. Is good. Feelsss…” they bend their fingers, and luckily Blue wrapped them in a way that allowed for comfortable movement. “Nice….Pretty.” They said something else, but it was hard to make out underneath the heavy slurring. They give up, looking…frustrated?

He had a feeling that they were trying to say “thank you”. He didn’t question how. Sometimes intent just worked that way. Plus, it wouldn’t be very nice not to respond to their attempts.

“DON’T MENTION IT NEW FRIEND! I’M HAPPY TO HELP! A LITTLE MORE OF MY DIVINE SIGNATURE TACOS AND YOU’LL BE GOOD AS NEW! THOUGH I AM A BIT OUT OF STOCK AT THIS TIME.” oh, right he almost forgot “IS THERE ANYWHERE ELSE YOU WANT ME TO BANDAGE UP FOR YOU?” he’d refrained from asking about their skull and ribcage before, for privacy reasons, although he could probably work something out. But he really didn’t want another Axe situation. Seriously.

The skeleton goes completely still for a moment.

Maybe they were just…thinking? Blue is slightly concerned.

Suddenly, quicker than Blue chose to react, they snatch up the last box of band-aids from his hand. Oh, they just wanted to do the rest themself he guesses. Kind of rude, though.

He guessed right, as always, when they emptied the case onto the bed and started to peel and stick them on some of the diverging cracks around the giant hole in their skull. They dumped the rest…inside. He cringes inwardly, hoping it didn’t show on his face.

He cringes harder when they start…digging around, pulling out something. Their hand was slightly bigger than the hole so it caught on the edges and made dust flake off like bits of sand no matter how gentle they were probably being.

Axe pulling on his dead eye socket sometimes was nothing compared to this. He could almost feel the phantom pains of long fingers scraping on the inside of his skull. It was awful. Why are they doing this to themself?

In his struggle to keep a straight face in front of this agonizing display, he almost didn’t notice them maneuvering his hand to place the thing they took out in it. He is thankfully jolted from his spiral.

He opens his palm to look at it.

….It’s a nail. The shiny kind, used for hammering. He’d found some in the dump back home once. Great for holding things together.

It’s a sharp nail. And it was in their skull.

They’re looking at him expectantly.

They gave you a gift. Be polite STARS DAMN IT! YOU’RE THE MAGNIFICENT f*ckING SANS! FRIENDSHIP TIME COME ON!

“Uhhhhhh….THANK YOU?” Keeping the signature smile on his skull was hard, but he did it. Way to f*cking go! “YEAH! THANK YOU! I’VE ALWAYS WANTED SOMETHING LIke This…”

He’s an absolutely terrible friend for being like this.

They seem…pleased? But the way the meager change in expression warps the healing crater just slightly is the absolute last straw.

“WELL THIS WAS NICE, BUT…I NEED TO GO…Somewhere…”The bathroom, specifically, “DON’T GO ANYWHERE! EITHER OF YOU! I’LL BE BACK!!”

With that, he books it out of the room and down the hallway. He is barely able to keep himself from throwing up violently before he reaches the toilet.

.

.

.

.

That orange thing.

…..It's making the noises again.

I watch it closely, hand laid over the hole in my head. Just to be sure.

I don’t like it. I want it as far away from me as possible.

(Maybe you could make it go away?)

That sounds like a….good? Idea? How do I do that?

(Take a piece off. Worked last time.)

…What last time?

(Nevermind. Put yourself away instead maybe?)

I consider that option. Yes. I will just put myself somewhere else. Maybe I will go back to that place I put soft things in. There are no oranges in there. Except for maybe that Great Pa-py-russe. He didn’t count because he was nice. I should put him in there too once I find him-

Wait.

No.

I can’t do that. The “putting myself somewhere else” thing.

(why not?? I want to be somewhere else? You want to be somewhere else. It's a good idea!)

Yes it is. A very good idea.

(Then why??)

The one who is “the magnificent blue” said to “not go anywhere”.

(...oh. Okay then.)

He is nice. He gives me pretty things and makes me feel smooth again. I have to do what he says.

And so I sit here on this soft, colorful thing, cover my head and watch the horrible orange thing make horrible sounds. I don’t really like it. But this is how it works.

….did he just get louder?

I stop looking at it. Maybe it would stop if I pretended it was not there. I will look at this pretty, colorful room instead–

…

…Oooh. What is this?

Chapter 20: The Gathering of Things (A dark, quiet place part 2)

Chapter Text

Blue comes back to his new friend exactly where he left them.

“HEY I'M BACK!”

They perk up at his voice, but don’t turn to meet him. They’re distracted by something. It only takes a moment for Blue to realize just what they were staring at.

…WAIT.

Those were-

He knew he was forgetting something. Mortification courses through his bones as he quickly marches over to his work desk–Stretch was still asleep, thank the stars– And scooped up the offending items. They disappear as he tucks them into his cheerful blue bandanna, now safely in his inventory…where they should have been. He’ll have to add them to the scrapbook later.

He glances over to his bed to the skeleton patiently watching him the whole time. If he didn’t look like a blueberry before, he sure does now!

“...YOU UH….SAW NOTHING!”

Silence.

“ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!! RIGHT?”

…

“SSaw?” they narrow their eyes at him. “Did see. Many. Very shiny. Many colors. Not a no…no-uh” The rest of their sentence was an unintelligible mishmash of hisses and slurring. Forgetting his embarrassment at his secret almost being found out, he winced in phantom pain as their mandible clicks and attempts to open and stretch around the shrapnel.

Deep pangs of sympathy hit his very soul with the force of a rocket when they hissed in frustration once again, finally giving up on what they wanted to say.

He quickly interrupts their attempt to try again “NOPE! NOPE! NONE OF THAT PLEASE! THAT…That Looks Like It Hurts.”

They stop rubbing anxiously at their poor jaw and stare at him. He smiles reassuringly.

“YOU DON’T HAVE TO FORCE YOURSELF TO SPEAK FOR I, THE MAGNIFICENT BLUE TO UNDERSTAND YOU” he steps toward them to give them a careful pat on the shoulder.

“...OKAY?”

…

They open their mouth, but decide to nod instead.

“GREAT!”

This and…everything else about this poor monster only further solidified his decision. He was going to have to get one of his counterparts to help get them some serious medical help. He wasn’t sure how much more of this he could take.

But well, that would have to come a bit later. For now though…

He looks around for a possible redirection before landing on the borrowed, grass stained clothing they were wearing.

Oh. He almost forgot about that. Ew.

“HOW ABOUT…” He glances at them before stepping toward his sticker-covered wardrobe “WE GET YOU SOMETHING TO WEAR FOR OUR LITTLE ADVENTURE, HMM? DO YOU HAVE ANY PREFERENCES?”

They tilt their head at him. Blue decides to move on.

Blue inspects his rather large collection, taking out a few hangars of his larger clothing. It was mostly GLAMOUR-NEO band tees he ordered a size or two too big and a couple pairs of baggy jeans. Although, there are some other options…

He holds up a flashy sequined top at arms length, considering for a moment that the guest was more than twice his size.

“HMMMM…THIS MIGHT WORK…IF YOU’RE INTO CROP TOPS” His starry eye-lights spin at the thought of making friendly–if one-sided– conversation. Talking like this was easy, at least. “DO YOU LIKE CROP TOPS?”

…

“I’LL TAKE THAT AS A ‘MAYBE’! LETS JUST PUT THAT TO THE SIDE FOR NOW, THEN.”

They quickly go through the rest of the clothing, finding all of them still too small to fit the skeleton’s large frame. There isn’t even indication from said skeleton at all if they like the clothing or not.

“WELL…” He rubs at his mandible thoughtfully “THIS IS QUITE THE PREDICAMENT”

This, Blue remembers, was almost as bad as when he (and the others) tried to find something for Pine to wear when he arrived with his brother. Almost.

Huh…that gives him a wonderful idea!

“WAIT A SECOND! I HAVE JUST THE THING!” he shouts triumphantly, diving back into his closet and rummaging through the sea of cloth. “AHA! FOUND IT!”

From the wreckage of the closet he just reorganized, Blue pulls out a large crate, piled with fabric so high that it towered over his head.

“BEHOLD, MY FRIEND…” he drops the crate with a flourish. It hits the ground with a loud, heavy thump. “THE SCRAP-BOX!”

The sound distracts the other from what they were doing…which was trying to stuff the sequin shirt…into their skull…through their eye sockets.

Well. Good thing this tall pile of clothes was blocking his view and he couldn’t see any of that happening! Yep!

The crate of scraps is a relic of his days of gathering clothes and other bits of fabric for his old patch-making hobby. But it, like many of his other old hobbies, spent its days abandoned in the back of his closet in favor of new, more interesting things to do. But…was it really less interesting? It was always fun to make new things from old, abandoned stuff. He remembers the rewarding feeling of finishing a project fondly. Maybe he should pick it up again….

He’s absolutely sure that he’ll at least find them something in this pile. So he begins its deconstruction, separating what has already been repurposed from the amalgamation of vibrant, still-wearable garments he had scavenged from various places. Blue is momentarily swept away by nostalgia as he remembers bits and pieces he’s even pulled out of the Dump in Waterfall. He finds himself talking out loud, explaining the origins of every piece he’s collected as he does.

“AND THIS DRESS I FOUND CAME FROM THE LOCAL THRIFT SHOP! I TRIED IT ON AND IT WAS TOO BIG FOR ME SO I WAS GOING TO….AND THIS ONE I FOUND IN A DEPARTMENT STORE BARGAIN BIN…”

The other doesn’t seem to mind his rambling.

He almost doesn’t notice the looming shadow over him nor the second pair of hands picking through the clothes with him. Out of the corner of his “eye”,the other’s long, bandaged fingers carefully felt through the pile before pulling out something.

It was a long, flower printed skirt in a shade of soft pink. He remembers getting it from that Riverperson’s shop.

“OH! DO YOU LIKE THAT ONE?”

They lightly poke at one of the flowers–he thinks they might be daisies–and nod. “Soft.”

He almost said something about their mouth problem, but they didn’t really seem to be in pain or anything. So maybe it’s just speaking too much at once? Or just certain words? Hmm. He’ll put that aside for later. On the other hand…

“SO! DO YOU PREFER SOFTER CLOTHING?” He continues to sort through the clothing as he talks.

They nod, again. That’s good. It wouldn’t chafe against the bandages and at least he has something to work with in terms of…preference.

Suddenly, a distant memory fills him with an idea. Quickly digging through the rest of the assorted patterned clothes until he reaches the very bottom, he finds what he’s looking for. A large, off-white, cable-knit sweater. He put it in here long ago fearing the stains that wouldn’t come off if he decided to wear it around his then extremely messy kid-brother. And then he forgot about it. For years.

“OH THIS IS PRACTICALLY FATE!” he exclaims, pulling it out completely to show to his friend “WOULD YOU LIKE TO WEAR IT?” a large grin broke out on his face as they again reached out to touch the fabric and nodded. Finally, he was getting somewhere!

It wasn’t long until the two agreed on the rest of the clothing they would wear. Eventually they came up with a decent outfit for going outside in. Blue piled the items into the skeleton’s hands, letting them know they could clean themself up and change in the bathroom near his lazier clone’s room at the far end of the hall.

“LAST TIME WAS KIND OF FUNNY, BUT TRY NOT TO MAKE TOO MUCH OF A MESS THIS TIME AROUND-” He abruptly stops as they put the clothes right back down and start…taking off their shirt?

Why were they doing that here? He did say there was a bathroom they could change in—anddd the shirt’s on the floor now. Wowie. This is weird.

They discarded the dirty thing right at his feet and subsequently now stood before him in nothing but their grass stained, egg patterned pajama shorts. Surprisingly, their ribcage was distinctly un-mauled looking, with only a few cracks and scratches here and there. The contrast between that and the state of their arms and legs was jarring, not to mention downright strange. But that wasn’t what was bothering him at the moment.

“I MEAN NO DISRESPECT OR ANYTHING WHEN I SAY THIS” He began “BUT WHAT IN THE STARS IS THAT?!” He frantically pointed at their chest, making them look down…

…At the long, thin tube(?) wire(??) snaking in and out of their ribs, fusing to the bone in places and twisting up to connect to that dull metal collar. They look at it blankly, like they just remembered it existed (HOW IN THE QUEEN’S NAME DO YOU JUST FORGET SOMETHING IS FUSED TO YOUR RIBCAGE. WHAT THE f*ck-), almost reaching up to touch it before hesitating and putting it down. The barrage of concerned questions afterward only seems to deepen that blank stare. He gets the vague feeling that he shouldn’t push anymore for now.

Quicker than he could say or do anything else, they gather the pieces of the outfit and leave.

“WELL.”

Blue eyed the abandoned shirt on the floor, nudging it with a boot. Just as he considers picking it up to return to Best Friend/Not Brother Papyrus, he hears movement from behind him. He turns to Stretch, who, while still slumped over Blue’s desk, has now inclined his head slightly towards him, one vibrant orange eyelight peering at him from behind his crossed arms.

“‘r they gone yet?”

“OF COURSE THEY ARE! DIDN'T WE JUST SEE THEM LEAVE?” He pointed to the door, which was closed and distinctly skeleton-less.

…

A beat before Stretch sits up and spins the chair around to face him. “Well…you never know with…those types…”

“...THOSE TYPES? WHAT?!” Blue narrows his eye sockets suspiciously “IS THAT WHY YOU WERE JUST SITTING THERE PRETENDING TO SLEEP THAT WHOLE TIME? I THOUGHT YOU WERE JUST BEING LAZY!” He crosses his arms in indignance. “PAPY, IF THIS IS ABOUT WHAT I THINK IT IS, I CAN HANDLE MYSELF THANK YOU VERY MUCH”

“Well…it was that and uh…something else.”

“WHAT?”

“I…don’t you get a kind of…uncomfortable feeling around them? Like…I don’t know…a vague pressure, but on the SOUL…kind of. It’s not the LV or anything, it’s uhh…” he looks away “it’s different.”

“PAPY?”

“Hm?”

“WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? SERIOUSLY.” He looks at Stretch like he’s grown a second head.

“You don’t feel it?”

“UHH…NO?”

“Okay, weird. Nevermind then…” he grumbles something too low to make out completely, but blue could pick up something about…Shepherd? What did he have to do with this?

“YOU’RE HIDING SOMETHING, ARE YOU.”

“Not anymore than you are”

Stretch looks away as he says this, his eyelights landing lazily on the spot where he’d attempted to hide his totally-not-secret items before stuffing them in his scarf. Blue starts to sweat nervously.

“WHAT??? NOOOOO! NO I'M NOT! HIDING ANYTHING!!! ABSOLUTELY NOT!!! THE MAGNIFICENT BLUE DOES NOT HIDE THINGS!”

The way his brother looks at him reminds him how bad he is at lying to Stretch in particular. Blue turns away to start putting things back, or just to avoid that gaze. He didn’t want to make things too easy for Stretch.

“Eh…I’ll find out eventually”

“...NoYouWon’t-”

“...What was that?”

The door opening again saves him from having to answer. “OH LOOK THEY’RE BACK!”

The still nameless skeleton steps back inside, now dressed in the outfit Blue gave them. The flowery skirt swishes as they turn around to close the door carefully.

“WOW THAT REALLY LOOKS NICE ON YOU NEW FRIEND! I KNEW MY FASHION SENSE WAS UNPARALLELED! MWEH HEH!” Blue smiles in accomplishment as he inspects them, circling around to see the results of his handiwork. “THOUGH…IS IT JUST ME OR IS THE SKIRT A LITTLE SHORTER THAN I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE? HMM…”

Instead of brushing the ankles like it did when Blue was holding it up against their body, the hem only hung down to the tops of their fibulas. That sweater did look slightly bulkier in places than it should be too. Maybe it’s just a tall person thing. He wouldn’t know.

Looking at their bandaged feet made Blue realize he had forgotten to get them some shoes. Luckily he had a solution. Going back to his closet he pulled out a pair of large bedazzled sandals. They were an old project of his. They were like clown shoes on him but he bet they’d fit the other appropriately enough.

Handing them over to them, Blue watches as they hold the pair of sandals for an uncomfortably long time…it looked kind of like they were trying to figure something out. Eventually they must have because they slip the shoes onto their feet pretty quickly after that. They look at him again, and he gets the feeling they want…approval?

Which he’s all too willing to give. He throws a smile and a thumbs up their way. “THEY LOOK GREAT ON YOU! GOOD JOB!”

They look like they appreciated it.

“Yeah uh…what he said”

Blue watches in confusion as Stretch seems to slightly deflate under the other’s ten-thousand yard stare. He’d thought Stretch would be used to this by now, with the type of people living here.

“WELL” The moment of tension is snapped at his voice “NOW THAT YOU’RE READY NEW FRIEND, I THINK IT’S TIME TO GO! WE’LL HAVE A GREAT ADVENTURE-”

Blue goes on and on as he leads the two out of the room, through the house and out of the front door.

As he and the other too stood on the front porch, he took in the lovely woodland scenery of early autumn. The trees were just beginning to change color, keeping their trademarked green but showing small speckles of yellows and oranges mixed in, and the sun was still bright and warm. He always loved the surface’s seasons, but…you could say he’d really…fallen in love with Fall. There were just so many colors!

He looked back at the two, one of which was still staring deeply at his brother, who looked like he was doing his best impression of one of the trees in the woods. They must really, really like him or something.

“SINCE THE WEATHER’S SO NICE TODAY, WOULDN’T IT BE NICE TO WALK TO TOWN THIS TIME? WE’RE NOT IN A RUSH OR ANYTHING ARE WE?”

“No…but do we have to? We could just telepor…” Stretch falls silent, looking very uncomfortable under the weight of both of their stares.

“SINCE YOU ASKED, WE ABSOLUTELY DO! COME ALONG THEN, WE’LL TAKE THE SCENIC ROUTE”

They step off of the porch and onto the packed dirt road, beginning their walk. As they did, Blue grabbed his new friend’s hand, almost absentmindedly. Or rather…just grabbed their fingers. Regrettably, the size difference gets in the way of some proper hand holding. It’s a little awkward, but they probably don’t mind!

He continued with the others down the mile-long trek to town, chatting away and pointing out anything he found particularly interesting, which was pretty much everything he saw. He didn’t really notice the way Stretch loosened up a bit, seemed more alive as the other’s gaze swerved from him to their joined hands.

.

.

.

.

.

The walk was not long. Around 15 minutes later, the forest began thinning out, and the dirt road gave way to the asphalt and various buildings of Ebbot County in the distance. The two vastly different habitats were thinly separated by a chain-link fence.

“AND WE’RE HERE! KINDA.” Blue lets go of their hand and walks up to the fence “LET ME JUST TAKE CARE OF THIS FIRST.”

He pushes open the gate and they walk into town. Over time, sections of the once drab and uniform city have been splattered with the colorful abstractness of monster homes and establishments. Despite some of the protests, it even seemed to make the humans more vibrant in contrast to before. He looked around, glancing at the few pedestrians walking past. Many of them walked with a bit of pep in their step, as if the color Monsters added to the city was practically absorbed into their very souls. A wonderful thing to see.

Blue stops after a moment.

“PAPY?”

“Hm?”

“DID YOU BRING A LIST?”

“A what?”

“A LIST, PAPY.”

“Wait what? What would I need a list for?”

“FOR THE THINGS WE NEED TO BUY, OBVIOUSLY”

“...oh.”

“WELL?”

“I uh…forgot.”

“...REALLY?”

“Yep. Sorry.”

…Stretch did not at all sound sorry.

A soft clack as a bony, gloved hand came to meet a bony forehead. “I SHOULD HAVE EXPECTED THIS WOULD HAPPEN”

“Yep.”

A sigh.

“IT’S WHATEVER!” He grabs the guest’s hand again “I, THE MAGNIFICENT BLUE, CAN IMPROVISE. COME ON, FRIEND!” He drags them to the shopping district nearby, Stretch reluctantly following.

“HMM…” He looks around at the various stores before landing on one that advertised monster clothing. “OH, LET’S GO TO THAT ONE FIRST!”

The smell of clean, unused fabric hit Blue all at once as the door opened. It brought back such good memories. Looking over at his friend he found they looked a bit distracted. Their head swiveled around constantly from one thing to another as if they had no clue where to look.

“ARE YOU EXCITED?” He asks them. They don’t respond, but the odd…buzzing feeling…he’s getting from them seemed close enough. Right? “I AM TOO FRIEND! THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS I THINK YOU’LL JUST LOVE” he excitedly pulls them into the store and from there he’s a whirlwind, pulling the guest (whom he’d taken to just calling “Friend” until further notice–they seem to respond to it well enough) from aisle to aisle and showing them clothing of all types and shapes and sizes. Friend seemed to like everything he showed them, and by the end of it Blue’s despondent brother was sitting half buried in a shopping cart full of clothes piled so high it could give Mt. Ebbot a run for its money.

Unperturbed by the towering monolith they had created, the department store cashier human efficiently rang and bagged all of the items, shooting Blue a wink as he did. Blue winked back, discreetly putting his finger on his teeth in a silencing motion. He seemed to get the gist.

“Alright, that will be 225 Gold for you” their hands brush briefly as Blue hands over the money. The pile of shopping bags is then put into Blue’s inventory.

“THANKS KYLE!”

“No problem! Please come again!”

—

Stretch gave his brother a sidelong glance as they all left the store. “You know that guy?”

“NO?”

“Then how did you know his name was Kyle?”

“HMMM?” Blue looked back at him with a smile that felt just a little condescending, still holding onto Friend’s fingers. “IT WAS ON HIS NAMETAG, SILLY!”

“...Huh. Was it? Well okay then.”

They start walking past the assorted shops to their next stop. Stretch digs into the pockets of his beat-up orange hoodie for some candy. He comes up with nothing.

Nada.

Empty.

And there’s no way Blue wouldn’t notice him sneaking off to refill his stash.

Damn it.

He groans quietly under his breath as they head into the tell-tale gaudy, bedazzled entrance of one of Mettaton’s stores. The sound pulls their attention from everything else…just to end up right back on him. He can feel his very SOUL start to shrivel up in his body from the awkwardness. He wants to be anywhere but here.

…This can’t just be his normal social anxiety. It can’t be. He can’t remember doing anything that would warrant this.

Stretch decides to pull up his hood and ignore it. It doesn’t work. A sucker would have been really nice right now. Yep.

Dear god please let this end. Please. Let this end.

The mantra repeats in his head throughout the entire store as he watches Blue chatter happily to the largely unresponsive monster and pile a growing assortment of products into their arms. Stretch pulls out his phone to distract himself from their occasional glance over at him.

This continues, even after they’ve checked out and he follows them into the next store. Looking up from his phone, he realizes that it was the General Store. For General Things.

…No seriously, it says it right on the sign.

Damn. Whoever owns this store is worse at naming things than Queen Toriel. Or…what was her nickname again? I think it was…Amber. Or something. Yeahh.

He’s desperate for any sort of distraction at this point. He hopes it isn’t showing on his face.

So, after considering how weird it is to have multiple versions of the Monster Queen running around, and then considering how doubly weird it is to have multiple versions of himself, his brother, and all of his friends also running around and also being roommates with some of them for some reason, he gets bored. To be honest, he’s pretty much already come to terms with this strange situation the universe is in a while ago. He’s just dragging it on at this point-oh thank god they looked away again.

Now that he doesn’t feel like an ant under a magnifying glass, he lets himself look up from his phone. Blue seems to have successfully distracted them. That’s fair. He’s really good at that.

Wait…what were they even doing?

…Are they playing fetch or something?

.

.

.

Blue was looking at an embroidered pair of gloves when he felt a tap on his shoulder blade.

He turned around to Friend’s shadowed figure looming over him.

“HM? OH! WHAT IS IT, FRIEND?”

They scratch at a bandaged arm. “...have. Question.”

“ASK AWAY!”

He watches curiously as they offer something to him in their other hand.

“What is…?”

“THE MAGNIFICENT SANS CAN EASILY ANSWER THAT ONE. IT’S A SNOW GLOBE… WELL IT'S FILLED WITH GLITTER INSTEAD OF SNOW…” He took it out of their hand and examined it. The movement made the pink glitter shift inside the glass “Would It Be More Like A Glitter Globe Then? Hmmmmm…”

“WELL NEVER MIND! IT'S DEFINITELY A SNOW GLOBE” He shook it and watched as the “snow” stirred up and fell onto the adorably teeny tiny plastic human inside. “SEE?”

They gave a long, slow nod.

He went to give it back to them, but found that friend had already disappeared from his side. Blue figured Friend wanted it, so he put it into the cart with the other items.

“WAIT? FRIEND? WHERE’D YOU GO?”

He sighed in relief as the top of their head made an appearance over by the crafts aisle.

Actually…maybe I should go over there next. I need new material for my food projects. Maybe without Pine knowing this time though…

In the midst of a brief moment of silence for his last glitter bottle, he feels a tap on his shoulder…again.

“HELLO AGAIN! WHAT CAN THE MAGNIFICENT SANS DO FOR YOU?”

“Have…question.” They hold out another item insistently “What is?”

“OH THAT’S JUST SOME YARN” Is not knowing what yarn is weird? Maybe?

They look down at the ball of red yarn in their hand and nod. “Ok.” Then they’re gone…again.

This whole thing happens multiple times, but with different, random items. Next it was a cat plushie, then a paintbrush… then a bucket. The part with the bucket perplexed him. Did they not have buckets where they came from?

Scratch that, every time they brought something he only got more and more confused. Most of the things they asked him about already had labels on them, printed in big, bold letters explaining what they were. Were they…not able to read?

He muttered to himself worriedly. Well if it was true, it's better to ask them directly.

—------

By the time they were done, it was a little past noon. Blue and Stretch exit the store to the once sparse streets suddenly crowded with people, both humans and monsters who were most likely on lunch break and heading for a bite to eat in the food court.

“ACCORDING TO THE LIST I HAD TO PUT TOGETHER AT THE LAST MINUTE THANKS TO A CERTAIN SOMEONE” Blue pointedly glares at his brother disapprovingly. “I THINK WE’RE FINISHED FOR NOW! IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU WANT, FRIEND?”

He looks back to see absolutely nothing.

“...FRIEND?”

…

Stretch looked around as well. The gaze that had been digging into him was gone, nowhere in sight.

“well...sh*t.”

.

.

.

.

.

There are things. Lights. Lights. Everywhere.

*Huff*

There are too many. Too many things. Too many things. Things that are shiny. Things that are not shiny. Things that make noise. It was fine before. Everything was fine before. It was more things…but It was fine. It was fine and I could pretend most of it didn’t exist because everything else was good…

And fine…

And nice….and there was…

…Thinking is painful.

*Huff*...*Huff*

What’s going on? What…is this?

I…can’t…Green didn’t tell me Outside was going to be like this. So bright. So Loud. It Hurts.

(C-)

I don’t understand. I don’t understand. Why does it hurt so much? What am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to look at? There’s too much to look at and listen to and-What do I do?

(C-lm.)

Everything is pain. It burns and burns and burns. I can’t feel anything but the insides of myself melting and burning into liquid pain and the everything around me making it so much worse-

Outside is good. It should be good. Not this. Not this. Bad and…and…Did she lie to me?

Nononononono. No she did not. She did not. Lying is bad and she did not. I know this. I don’t know anything.

I can hear. I can hear everything and it hurtshurtshurts-

(Calm.)

…What?

(Calm. Down.)

How? Howhowhow do I do that? Everything…hurts

(I know. Can feel. Everything hurts. Calm. Down.)

I try. To be calm. Trying hurts.

It’s not working. I don’t know how to do it. I don’t. I don’t know. What to do.

(Everything hurts. Put yourself away from Everything.)

I can’t. I’m trying. It hurts. Can’t move. I can’t do anything.

(...)

(I. Will do It. You stay in. I will take us away from here.)

….Okay.

.

.

.

.

In a still figure, a consciousness is gently guided away from everything into the quiet corner of a mind. Another takes its place.

It is familiar.

One is relieved, and falls asleep in the safety of pale blue walls. The Other twitches, wide awake. The body is still unfamiliar to them after all this time. When it was last here, and every single moment of being out, there was pain. Of others. In itself.

There is still pain here. But it’s a different kind. It is used to it, can handle it far better than its headmate. It knows where to look. It knows what it must do.

The still figure twitches, reorienting itself. Unseen and unnoticed, it wanders away from everything, searching for a dark, quiet place.

Chapter 21: The Art of Standing Completely Still

Chapter Text

In some place unknown to most of the world, a dim room exists.

A harsh, blue light bleeds from a monitor, spilling out onto a sparse desk, a chrome phone case, a sheaf of papers. It laps up against the soles of a pair of oxfords, attached to a pair of lifted feet. Muted beeping mingles with soft breathing.

….The phone rings.

Shifting, a pale hand reaches to pick it up.

“...Yes? What is it?”

Someone responds from the other side, faint and unintelligible.

“Ahem.” the human roughly clears their throat.Their voice takes on a twinge of irritation “Yes. I was informed about the breach. As were the associates. Really. I told the higher ups they should have seen this coming. How did someone as obviously incompetent as Wilkes get put in charge of the experimental branch anyways?-”

They stop to listen to the other’s response.

“He was one of the casualties? Of course he was. I would even say he deserved it. His stupidity has set us back by months…” They sigh, pulling their legs off of their desk and reaching over to turn off their computer. “Me and the others aren’t exactly happy about all this work he left us with you know”

More muffled speech could be heard. “Yes, I’ve already sent out some people to take care of any potential damages, they should be responding shortly”

…

“No, no need, I’ll call them myself.”

The call ends, and the human takes a moment to start another one.

“Hello? Yes this is-”

…

“Yes, we found one of 'em for you.”

…They chuckle. “Yes, yes I know. Good news, good news indeed. We’re already making plans for recapture-” …”what? They want us to- “

“I don’t see how this is in any way advisable, but you know what? Fine. Okay.” They sigh. “I’ll get some people to keep an eye on it for now. I’ll send you updates later. See you.” They ended the call, taking a moment to sigh deeply and pinch their brow.

“Honestly, what is wrong with the bosses these days? ‘Ve been a lot more reckless since they started working with that ambassador kid…”

But that wasn’t any of their business, as long as they got their check in the mail. The moment passes, and the human makes their final call.

“Hey, yes it’s me.” Their voice is stern and barely heard above the beeping of machinery. “Gather some troops and have them do some reconnaissance on Bunker Alpha. I have a feeling those idiots were hiding things from us…”

They paused for a second considering something.

“Make sure they’re armed. Who knows what managed to get out in that bloodbath.”

…The conversation ends.

.

.

.

.

.

“ALRIGHT! I THINK WE’VE GOT EVERYTHING WE NEEDED!” Blue looks over his inventory and nods. “ARE YOU TWO READY TO HEAD BACK?”

Blue looks back at Stretch, who is leaning against a sign post, looking uncomfortable and a bit pale…which says a lot considering that he is completely made of bones which are, in fact, white. “Um…normally I would say yeah…but”

“WHAT? WHAT’S WRONG?”

“They’re gone.”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN “THEY’RE GONE”! FRIEND IS STANDING RIGHT-”

…

“NEXT TO….Oh. Oh Stars. They’re Gone.” Blue’s voice is unusually calm, “How Long Have They Been Gone, Papy?”

“‘bout two minutes by now”

After staring blankly at his hand, which is decidedly very empty, Blue looks around again, trying to catch any sight of their admittedly very conspicuous charge, and ultimately failing. It was rush hour, for one. Humans and monsters walked beside and around them, most on their commute home, and not a single one was the monster they were supposed to be looking after.

“Well.”

“...well.” Stretch repeated, helplessly.

…

……

“OH NO! THEY’RE GONE?!! WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME BEFORE? THIS IS TERRIBLE!!! WHAT IF THEY GOT LOST????!!! WE CAN’T JUST- WHAT DO WE DO??!!!” All of a sudden, while saying this, Blue begins to pace in front of him, wringing his gloved hands in worry. It was then that Stretch felt the need to add his two-G.

“Maybe we should tell the others and have them help?”

“NO.” Blue does not stop pacing as he speaks “ABSOLUTELY NOT! WE CAN’T JUST TELL THEM! WHO KNOWS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF WE DID! WE’RE BETTER OFF FINDING THEM OURSELVES”

“But if we told them, maybe they would help us find them like they did with Red in the woods.”

“THAT’S STILL A NO. THE MAGNIFICENT BLUE WOULD RATHER DO LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE.” Stretch swore that if he squinted, he’d be able to see the steam rising off of Blue’s skull.

“But-”

“OH! I KNOW! I- I COULD ASK UND- MIU IF SHE COULD HELP! SHE HAS TIES TO THE SECURITY DEPARTMENT–MAYBE…” Blue’s eyelights darted to and fro as he thought.

“Um-”

“ALRIGHT! OKAY!” He said as he quickly fixed his gloves back into place. “I WILL GO AND ASK SOME PEOPLE FOR HELP! YOU CAN…WELL. YOU CAN SEARCH AROUND FOR THEM. I DON’T KNOW IF YOU’D ACTUALLY FIND THEM THAT WAY, BUT IT”S WORTH A TRY-”

“Wait-”

“CALL ME IF YOU FIND ANYTHING! BYE!”

Blue runs off into the bustling square before Stretch could properly respond. For a short while, he stands there, awkwardly, as he processes that, yet again, he’s been left behind to do whatever.

“...huh.”

He sighs quietly. Well…guess I’ll start looking. He reaches into his pocket to find yet another empty candy wrapper, …After a visit to Muffets first.

About twenty minutes later, he’s strolling out of Muffets with a Spider Cake-pop in each hand. As he enjoyed the honeyed creamy goodness characteristic of Tuffet’s work, he wondered where a skeleton such as “Friend” would choose to hide themself. It got him thinking about just this morning. Out of all of the spaces to hide in that bedroom, they chose the closet. Which, in all honesty, was kind of expected.

Should probably start with the alleyways, then…

Stretch sighed. There were a lot more alleyways in Ebbot City than there were in New Home. Who knows how far that weirdo had gotten if they left without any of them noticing. He was no Shepherd, there was no way he could track them down by scent. The only reason he realized they were gone was because he wasn’t feeling like he was being observed under a microscope. Seriously, what was that? Wait a sec.

That makes things easier, if not more unpleasant. If he could track down that feeling of general dread and f*ck-off-ness that “Friend” radiates around him for some reason, then maybe finding them would be more “Hot-Cold” than whatever time consuming thing he would be doing otherwise. It sounded like a long shot…but it was better than nothing.

Stretch began his search, teleporting from alleyway to alleyway and walking down side streets, trying to pinpoint that discomforting aura that almost felt like the passive killing intent the guys upstairs would radiate almost constantly. He bit down on one of the legs on his cake pop as he considered.

…Nah. Felt different. Less…murdery.

A shiver runs down his spine. Kinda like that, actually-oh wait.

He straightens his posture, looking at his surroundings with more awareness. Found it.

With slight difficulty, he started to walk towards the feeling. As he headed down the street, it became increasingly harder to put one foot in front of the other. He found himself wondering if he should just go home and let Blue or someone else look for them instead. Red didn’t seem to have any problems. Blue would probably only be mad at him for a day at the very most. He’s practically found them already! All he needs to do now is call his brother, tell him roughly where he thinks “Friend” is, and leave.

Go home, back to that stuffy mansion, and take a well deserved nap.

Go. Away.

…

…

Stretch finds himself standing outside of a restaurant. It was a large, wooden, two story building with a familiar, homey atmosphere, lit up by a flickering neon orange sign. Grillbys.

The smell of freshly prepared food and drink, while usually not to his preference, was inviting. But that wasn’t what he was here for. He turned toward the alleyway.

It was a normal run of the mill alleyway, if not a bit grimy from neglect. Dim, and a bit cramped, with a few bits of crumpled trash, some cardboard boxes and a lone dumpster leaning against one wall. He took a step forward- or rather, attempted to take a step, because at that exact moment, he caught a glimpse of something that made everything below his neck turn frozen solid.

A set of two flickering eyelights watched him from the far corner. But it felt like looking at hundreds. A staggering, mind numbing amount of piercing, misshapen eyes, staring at him like he was an ant and they were the human child with a magnifying glass, threatening to cave his ribs in, snap his head off and do much, much worse than just killing him-

(He thought he could hear a noise in the back of his head. A…ticking? A buzzing? What was-)

Oh no. Oh HELL no.

“Nope. Nope. Nope.” He took a few (large) steps back, until the back of his grass- stained crocs met the curb. “Nah. Not today, thank you.”

The skeleton, the thing said nothing, crouched over and watched him from the darkness with warped, flickering faded-purple eyelights. One of its disproportionately large hands picked at a discarded bag of chips absently, the tips of those needle thin fingers glowing slightly with pale magic.

Stretch had to physically resist rattling like a babybones as he opened his mouth. “Uh…i dunno why you ran off but um…do you mind, like…coming outta there? Blue—my uh…brother, I mean. He’s worried.”

“...please?” He added, as an afterthought.

The other sat and stared, tilting their head like they were some kind of demented bird of prey. At that moment, the atmosphere around them felt so thick Stretch could almost bite down on it. Those eyelights, still locked on to him, warped and shrunk like a predator about to pounce as the silence dragged on.

…

“N o.”

…

……..

“Uh…ok…then…”

Welp. I did my part. Time for literally anyone else to handle this. Drops of sweat trailed down the back of his hoodie as he surreptitiously tried to edge out of the other’s line of sight. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see their head turn as they tracked his movements. But they did nothing else, and Stretch somewhat miraculously succeeded in his escape.

As soon as a decent amount of walls were between him and the abomination against nature in the alley, he sagged in partial relief. He says partial relief because he can somehow still feel them watching him. Fumbling inside his pocket, he found his phone and quickly called his brother. It picked up.

“HELLO-”

“s-Blue.” Stretch takes an unneeded breath “Blue. I found them. They’re in the alleyway near Grillbys. Can you come over here and deal with it please because I really don’t think they like me and-”

“WAIT HOLD ON- REALLY? LET ME-” there’s some indistinguishable background noise and chatter “WHAT’S THAT ABOUT FRIEND NOT LIKING YOU? THEY SEEMED QUITE FRIENDLY TO ME! ARE YOU SURE YOU’RE NOT OVERREACTING?”

“Oh no. Nah, you don’t get it. You didn’t see the way they were looking at me.” he hissed urgently through his teeth.

“...LOOKING AT- IS THIS WHY YOU WERE ACTING WEIRDER THAN USUAL?”

“Yes, exactly- look, I… they’re in the alley and they don’t want to come out. Please just throw me a bone here.”

“...UNDERSTOOD! I’LL BE THERE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!”

“Okay.” He hung up.

“...whew…”

.

.

.

.

A few minutes later, Blue also found himself standing in front of Grillbys. Exiting the yellow convertible, he instantly spotted Stretch standing in front of a nearby building. Blue power walks up to him, grinning anxiously “HI, PAPY! I’M SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG…I HAD TO CALL A FRIEND TO DRIVE ME HERE.” He smiles awkwardly, wiping at his skull and adjusting his bandanna “ARE YOU SURE THEY’RE HERE? THIS PLACE IS ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE CITY! IT’S ONLY BEEN LIKE FORTY FIVE MINUTES! UNLESS…YOU DON’T THINK THEY CAN DO THAT FUNKY SPACE-TIME MANIPULATION THING YOU AND SOME OF THE OTHERS CAN DO YOU?”

“Uh…hey.” Stretch looks one gust of wind away from falling over. “No clue.”

Blue’s initial relief over the good news turns to concern and confusion. Did something bad happen?

“YOU LOOK TERRIBLE! ARE YOU OKAY?”

“No. Not really.” The bluntness is expected, but the slight shakiness in his voice is decidedly not “I…I probably will be when this is over.”

“HM. SILVER LININGS, I GUESS? DO YOU NEED A HUG OR…?”

“...Yeah.”

Blue hugs Stretch, pulling him down to give him a few pats on the shoulder blade. “THERE, THERE PAPY, NO NEED TO BE WORRIED, THE MAGNIFICENT SANS IS HERE SO EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE!” He smiles, trying his best to convey as much confidence as he can, despite his confusion

“Okay….” Stretch sighs deeply, releasing tension. “okay. They’re uh…in that alley over there.”

Blue follows Stretch’s gaze to the alley a block away. He has some mixed feelings about this. On one hand, he’s relieved that Friend was found and (possibly) unharmed. On the other…were they really the one who did this to Papy?

He doesn’t know what he’d do if he actually knew the answer. He walks over and looks anyway.

The alley was dimly lit in the afternoon sun, highlighting a few bits of trash and the odd cardboard box. At the far end of it, almost hidden in the darkness, Friend sat against a moss covered wall, limbs bunched awkwardly underneath their clothes. Even with his above average vision, he probably wouldn’t have seen them if it weren’t for their glowing purple eyelights faintly illuminating everything.

Oh…they had eyelights now?

Huh.

Weird.

…Now that he’s mentioned it…there was something off about them. Maybe the lack of light in this area was distorting things a little, but… were their teeth always that…pointy?

The sentiment was quickly forgotten as concern and relief made themselves known.

“OH MY STARS!” he gasped, quickly stepping closer to fret over them “ THANK GOODNESS YOU’RE OKAY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THERE?” He hugged their stiff body tightly, feeling as if he’s on the verge of tears.

Letting go of Friend, he held them by the shoulders, looking for any sign of new injury. Surprisingly, despite apparently traveling halfway across the city, they seemed perfectly fine. They weren’t even that dirty despite apparently crouching in a nasty alley for who knows how long. Speaking of…

…Now that he isn’t distracted and feeling like falling apart at the joints from stress, this alleyway is filthy! This is, in retrospect, coming from someone who used to dumpster-dive in his free time, but he digresses. The Dump was in no way as bad as this—it might just be because he’s on the surface now, but he swears he could feel layers of grime accumulating on his bones, and he’s only been in here for a minute!

—-Blue barely notices he’s still talking as he instantly ushers Friend out of the dirty alley. He only stops when he realizes Stretch is no longer in the immediate vicinity.

“ OH NOT AGAIN-” He turned to Friend, who was now standing behind him. “ WHERE DO YOU SUPPOSE HE RAN OFF TO NOW?”

They say nothing, staring down at him with uncanny, warped eyelights. After a good few seconds, they turn their attention away, looking off to the side intently. Blue follows their line of sight to the bar and grill across the street.

“...DO YOU THINK HE’S IN THERE?”

They don’t respond, or move, which doesn’t give Blue a lot to really work with in terms of,well, communicating. But everyone’s gotta start somewhere!

“EH…MAKES SENSE! LET US GO THEN. ONWARDS!” He leads them briskly across the street and toward the restaurant. The smell of greasy food and alcohol hits him as soon as he opens the door. It reminded him that he, regretfully, had skipped breakfast today. Dang. I knew that all-nighter was a bad idea…

Easily enough, considering the general lack of customers at this time and open room design, they find Blue’s brother seated at the bar—mysteriously devoid of its bartender— next to another monster. From the stature similar to himself and the faded blue jacket they were wearing, it’s definitely his counterpart, Comic. Or Classic. Or whatever he feels like referring to himself at the moment. They seemed to be talking about something but from this distance Blue could not tell what it was. Either way, he thought it appropriate at this point to announce his presence.

“HI PAPY! AND COMIC! I’VE RETURNED WITH FRIEND SAFE AND SOUND!” he waves as the other two stop and turn around to greet him.

“heya blue.” Comic waves lazily “and other guy.”

“Yeah…hey.” Stretch tenses up, avoiding any eye contact. “How’d it go?”

“GOOD, ACTUALLY! THANK GOODNESS NO ONE WAS HURT!” Blue hops onto a stool next to them (Thankfully, not whoopie-cushioned) “DO YOU MIND IF WE JOIN YOU?”

“nah. knock yourself out.”

Stretch doesn’t reply, staring back at Friend, who was still standing just behind them. Again, Blue got a rather vague sense that something was a bit off. They had yet to move or speak since they were found. He swears they were more…animated…before then. And yet, from the corner of his non-existent eye, he watched as they stood, and stared. Not even twitching. Maybe they were just nervous? If so, then he should probably do as most good friends do…

He waves them over.

“HEY! NO NEED TO BE SHY! YOU CAN JOIN US!” They turn to look at him, and for a moment it feels like he was looking at a statue rather than an actual person. But eventually, thankfully, they turn to sit on the stool next to him.

*PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT—

-Which happened to be the one Comic decided to prank today.

…The stool topples over, empty. The bar is, for a moment, completely silent as everyone takes a moment to process what just happened.

“Did… did they just…?”

“well. i've never seen anyone react that way before. heh.”

Blue side eyes Comic, who is now snickering.

“HEY! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?? REALLY?”

“well now…the whoopie cushion in the seat trick–snrk–it’s a classic!” he glances up at the ceiling “tibia honest, i wasn’t really expecting them to jump so far outta their skin. ain’t something you see every day.”

Comic off of his stool and shades his eye-sockets to get a better look. “hey…you uh…you good up there?”

…….

……….

Friend stares down at him from their precarious spot on the ceiling, having just launched themself into the air at a near ninety degree angle and attached themself to the rafters as soon as their coccyx touched the seat. They say nothing.

All of this commotion seems to have alerted the restaurant owners, as the door behind the bar opens. The violet, flickering head of a fire elemental emerges.

“Any of you knuckleheads want to explain to me what the hell is going on out here?”

“Uh–” Stretch starts, but is quickly interrupted by Comic. He smiles on that usual laid back grin of his and sits back down.

“ sup chillz. so far? nothin’ to really get fired up about, just the old pranking boots still having a bit of kick to ‘em.” He gives the ceiling another cursory look. yup. still up there. “maybe a bit more than a bit.”

“RUDE!” Blue huffs, indignant, as he usually is when faced with such situations “ YOU COULD HAVE JUST WARNED US THAT WE WERE THE NEXT VICTIMS OF YOUR JAPERY! NOW LOOK WHAT YOU DID. WHAT IF YOU SCARED THEM AND THEY’RE JUST STUCK UP THERE FOREVER???”

“Eh…i think they’ll be fine.”

“BUT WHAT IF THEY’RE NOT—--!”

Chillby, the purple fire elemental, grumbles to himself–a sound similar to a spitting campfire– before deigning them with a response. “you know what? I don’t actually care. It’s a slow day. Ya gonna order or not?”

“Oh sure, sure. I’ll get my usual. Do any of you guys want anything?”

“OH UM…MAYBE A MILKSHAKE MAYBE? YOUR PAPYRUS ALWAYS SAID THOSE WERE GOOD!”

“Correction: He said they were ‘THE ONLY THING THAT’S ANY GOOD FROM THIS GREASE TRAP!’ “ Stretch said with a rather convincing Papyrus voice…which actually made perfect sense because he kind of was Papyrus. Because of whatever space-time shenanigans happened after the barrier broke. Funny how things go sometimes. “Also, I’m good. Just ate at Muffet’s” Oh good, Stretch sounds somewhat back to normal now!

“OH! FRIEND, DO YOU WANT TO ORDER ANYTHING?” Blue looked up to find Friend’s face now much, much closer to his as they loomed over him. It almost made him jump out of his seat!

They continued to be completely silent, now staring at the chef with rapidly expanding eyelights.

……

Blue waited expectantly for an answer that would probably never come.

“....hmm…make it two of the usual.”

As soon as the orders are made, Chillby ducks back into the kitchen without another word.

…..

“HEY…ISN’T THERE USUALLY A BARTENDER HERE? I HAVEN’T SEEN HIM ANYWHERE” Blue looks behind the bar as if he just realized it was uninhabited.

“oh you mean grillby?” Comic takes out a ketchup packet from his pocket and sucks it dry. “he just went to pick up his niece from school. he’ll be back later probably.”

“OH.”

“yup.” he pops the “P”, taking out another ketchup packet.

…

“SO WHAT WERE YOU TWO TALKING ABOUT BEFORE WE CAME IN?”

“hmmm. nothing much. just about installing some security measures for our backyard. i got alphys and miu to help.”

.

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The Still Figure does not understand why its Other likes these people so much. It does not like these people. Except maybe the loud blue one. It tolerates the loud blue one.

But it does not like these other people. It does not feel like talking to them. It does not like being near them.

The orange one makes it uncomfortable, and its Other, very upset. This Orange had broken something that belonged to it. That was not good. It understands many things, but it does not understand why it should be anywhere near this thing.

The…other, darker, less green-ish looking Blue, the one its Other calls a “Slobness Sans”, has done strange things.The way this Blue sounds is similar to those things it left broken in the place it left behind. This Blue one had laughed at it.

It does not like it.

It is not comfortable.

This place is weird. There is a smell. It is good, but it makes them feel empty. It makes them want to bite into things. Biting is painful, why would it want to do that? Unless it was something like what they were doing before. The “eating” thing. And something about a “tasting good.” That was also strange.

The squishy things with legs make loud noises when you sit on them. It does not trust any of this place. It wants to leave.

It wants to go back to its place on the inside and let the Other deal with everything. The Other would like this place better than it does. It was not meant for this.

But that is not how it works. The Other is not awake. It can sense many, many other beings in its radius. Its headmate would stop working in such conditions. The Other is unable to handle Everything like it can. There would be no point. It must stay out for now.

It distracts itself from the discomfort by looking at what that walking purple light was doing. This purple was, by far, the brightest thing it had ever seen. It was so blindingly bright that it almost couldn’t look away from it. It had seen it through the wall before and wondered what it was. It knows it will find out eventually. If only to share this knowledge with the one closest to itself. The Other spends so much time distracted and looking that it forgets to understand. It has taken it upon itself to understand for the Other. It wonders if the Other is comfortable in its own ignorance.

Purple optics flicker in miniscule movements as it observes the wall behind the bar. Or rather, the movement behind it.

The figure wishes it had a better view of what it was doing. The wall is in the way of most of it. The smell is getting stronger.

It decides it should return later.

It will stay here, for now. And wait.