Boned

[Sans]

The door had shut. Steam billowed out of the bottom, flowing through the vents. A sharp whine filled the air. His sweat stuck fiercely to his skull. The radio squeaked in his hand, bursting out a countdown.

* 5.

He swung open the container. Two syringes, both glowing red, carbonated. He grabbed one.

* 4.

He grit his teeth, the needle shining in his eyes. He thought of a good needle joke.

* 3!

A sharp twinge inside of him. False blood flowed through false veins. His SOUL hammered in his chest. He felt DETERMINED. He lost the joke, though.

* 2!!

* Someone get him out of there!

* NO! We must continue!!

The wires outside roared. The shouting overlapped. He tried not to focus on it. The lights flickered, then glowed. Static filled his vision. Sparks shot out from the walls, from his bony fingers. The electricity rang inside of his head. What was a good spark joke?

* 1!!

A bolt plummeted down.

It was so, so bright.

---

He saw the light. It was faint, a mere glimmer within the vast expanse of darkness surrounding him. He chuckled. Everything was just like Gaster had predicted it would be. He tried to move his arms to touch it, but he couldn’t. He felt constricted, like he was cocooned, but he couldn’t see anything except the light. Yet, somehow, he knew he was heading towards it, slithering through something smooth and leathery, the light growing a little bit closer and a little bit bigger with each passing moment. He didn’t know if he could go back, but he did know it was all out of his hands now. Thus, he didn’t resist as he swiftly slid through the void, propelling his way through the small, imperceptible corridor.

Then, the light widened like an expanding star. It seemed to open up, inviting him in. He poked his head through.

His eye holes turned black with fear.

Smoke surged over the horizon like a grasping, inky hand. Red flashes–laser fire, he realized–erupted and zoomed through the clouds. Winged creatures blotted out the sky, chittering and chattering; no star could possibly poke through the advancing, mutated morass. Jagged metal ships of red bombarded the planet: a world of melting gears fading into shadow. Screaming, there was so much screaming.

Then, something tugged him back from the horrible sight and he fell down into nothingness.

---

He did not stay within the infinite black for very long, however.

After only a couple of moments, it all seemed to chunk away, first in small grains and then in increasingly larger squares, as if the entire thing were made out of pixels on a computer and everything was slowly being rebooted. Soon, the void was gone, and in its place he saw thick and slimy rock expanding and forming walls around him.

Twisting his body, he managed to adjust himself so that he could look down to where he was plummeting into, hoping it would not be something that would smash his poor, delicate bones into pieces. To his relief and mild amusement, he noticed, and subsequently careened into, a conveniently-placed flower bed, stopping his descent with a soft, flowery cushion and a puff of pollen dust. Thankfully, skeletons couldn’t sneeze; no one really nose why, though.

That said, the softness of the petals wasn't enough to keep his bones from aching from the collision. Groaning, he tried to stand, but with his noggin feeling a little too throbby for his liking, he decided to just flatten himself face first against the floor instead.

* ah… ow… guess i’ll just… plant myself here. heh.

Unlike his humerus, his humor remained unbruised.

Sans the Skeleton was not having a good day. As he laid there, arms and legs splayed out like he was going to make an angel in the snow while lying on his face, his mind worked over the various events that he had bore witness to within such a short period of time. It was as if, one moment, he was back in the machine, awaiting the teleportation and, in a blink of an eye, maybe two blinks, he was here, on the ground, his memories blanking out almost everything that connected the two events together. That planet, though, was not one of those missing thoughts. How could it be? The massive ships, their metal as red as blood, and the ocean of aliens converging on the withering clockwork that comprised the planet’s surface had stamped themselves into his brain the moment he had the misfortune of perceiving them. Somehow, that planet felt familiar. It matched the description of something he remembered reading about at some point but couldn’t place the name of. It was right on the tip of his tongue, or, as Dr. Gaster would’ve said, he was experiencing mild CDF– Code Dimensional Familiarity, or Crap Down Food for Sans, as he could never bother himself with remembering the whole damn term.

With his mentor on his mind, he reached for his radio and inspected it, hoping to possibly contact the rest of the team. Unfortunately, the whole thing looked corroded, like it had been dumped in a vat of rust. He saw blue sparks shoot through the tiny holes of its speaker. The volume knobs and most of the buttons had popped off at some point, and when he turned it around, he saw that the batteries had melted through the back. In short, the radio was fried, but at least it was not corrupted by the very dimension he had journeyed through. Maybe he should be writing that down…?

He sighed. From what he had heard, something had… happened. Precisely what was impossible to know now, but considering the yelling and the sudden flare-ups in the equipment, it had been completely outside of anybody’s attempts to control it. It was probably only through immense luck that they had managed to complete the experiment at all. That, or it was the immense skill, ingenuity, and the hard-boned determination of Gaster that saw it all through. He just hoped they were all okay.

He lifted his head up from the garden of butterscotch-smelling golden flowers underneath him and took a look around. He felt warmth rolling over his back and, gazing up, he saw a shaft of sunlight rushing down from a large hole up in the ceiling and illuminating the chamber he rested in. Grass grew around the edges of the hole, stubborn roots trying to dig deep into the chasm, and dirt occasionally streamed down through it thanks to an errant, whistling wind or the scattering of some small animal just out of view. He could vaguely hear birds chirping in the springlight above. The chiseled walls, well-worn and indigo, glinted, slick from the dampness of whatever precipitation had entered at some point before his arrival. Moss grew through the cracks of the stone and along the various pillars that rose to the rock above, slowly displacing the carved rock and replacing them with its green fuzz. He couldn’t quite recognize it, but at the same time, something within his SOUL flashed bright at the sight of the aged, ancient place before him.

Unfortunately, the room lacked another, quite important thing: the time machine.

The time machine– round and bulbous, with sleek, steel walls tall enough to house any monster, with wide grates on its bottom to breathe out any excess steam, and almost looking like an elevator from the future if it weren’t for the massive, ridged lightbulb sitting on its top and the many wires and tubes that connected to various sockets on the outside of the machine’s frame– was an invention unlike anything monsterkind had ever seen before. While Sans did work on it, it was almost entirely through the realm of taking notes and organizing folders. Most everything, from blueprint to construction, was overseen by Dr. W.D Gaster. It was, in many ways, that old bones’ baby. If it was supposed to come with him on his journey through time and space… oops.

* sorry, wing-ding. maybe if we’re lucky it’ll zap back into being soon?

Then again… where was he? Like the planet of machinery, the cave felt familiar, but in a more profound, more personal way. He had not read about this place. He had seen no pictures. No. It was like he had lived here, and he could sense the past prints of his hands in the stone.

* wait…

He lowered his bony hand and took hold of one of the flowers, his fingers rubbing its healthy, green stem before massaging its delicate, radiant petals. He narrowed his eye holes as a name formed in his head: buttercup flowers. They were part of a legend that all monsters knew of the first time that a human had visited them after the war. They had fallen down and the rulers, the Dreemurrs, took them in. Their child, Asriel, found them in a field of buttercups. They were in Mount Ebbott. They fell… here.

His white, dot-like eyes widened a little. If he was back home, then that meant that Gaster and the others would also be here and he could report what he saw to them! In fact, the more he processed it, the more he couldn’t shake the feeling that Gaster needed to know, if only because he would be the only one in the room who could understand its possible significance and follow up on it. To Sans, it just felt all too much like a premonition of something to come.

Maybe Gaster could also remind him of that gear-planet’s name. Maybe he should’ve paid more attention in class? Gaster would have encouraged him to keep up with the studies, but maybe he was just in a bad mood that particular day and he never bothered to pick up the pieces from there. Whatever. He made a mental note to promise to rectify the problem to Gaster once he informed him and the others about what he had experienced.

Thus, he slowly picked himself off of the flower bed and started strolling out, his hands in his pockets. If he remembered correctly, the station they had set up would not be far away at all.

 

[Sans]

There was no station. In fact, there was no one here at all.

The more that Sans walked around the various halls of this underground cavern, the more he recognized the paths, the etched stairs with prints in their stone from the many monsters that had stepped on them, some of which might have even been his own at one point or another. But these were not his paths nor his footprints. Things were supposed to be here and they were not. The walls, smooth despite the cracks, all looked as they should, but there were supposed to be scanners in the corners of the corridors, with wires strewn along the floor, covered in black tape and connected to endlessly clicking computers and fax machines printing out readings every second that went by. The leaves that fell from the underground trees were as auburn as they always were, but there were supposed to be X-Rays and massive machines at specific checkpoints. There was supposed to be conversation in these empty halls, discussions in the dark echoing around. If you followed the sounds, you were supposed to come upon a camp of white tents pitched up within the ruins filled with stray lab coats tossed over tables holding blueprints stained with coffee rings. There was even supposed to be a makeshift containment room to check for corruption, for arbiter’s sake!

But there wasn’t. Instead, he wandered through an abandoned “Home,” the giant city under the mountain and the first home that monsters ever made in Mount Ebbott.

For some reason, he was still searching around for the scientists despite all of the evidence surrounding him. A lot of theories popped into his mind. Maybe they were all going to the bathroom…? At the same time? And they took the equipment with them for company? Perhaps it was all an elaborate prank. If so, he had to say, as pranks go, this one wasn’t tickling his funny bone.

Oh, who was he kidding with these outlandish ideas? The city of Home was a city of silent spirits, once lively and now filled with nothing but withered buildings that towered up towards the surface of the earth, standing tall as if permanently displaced from the passage of time. Its roads carried the indents of cartwheels that had long since traveled down and away from here. Vines now strangled the foundation of various abodes, covering up signs made of now rotten, discolored wood that no doubt held the names of shops or hotels or whatever else the buildings used to be there for. Leaves now caked up the gutters and the sides of street corners, no doubt the handiwork of the various trees that stood solitary within the city’s borders and basking in the little sunlight that poked through from above as lone remnants of older legends.

This was Home, but it was not his home. Or perhaps it was. Maybe this was Home far off into the future, after monster and man had long forgotten about it. It was certainly a possibility, and if it was true, and it was not too far at all, he might still find the scientists outside of the mountain, now well-known for their efforts. He did not want to think about the possibility that he had not entered the future but, rather, entered something else entirely with no means back.

This was Home, but it was not his home.

Or perhaps it was. Maybe this was Home far off into the future, after the race of monsters and men had long forgotten everything about it. If so, and the years warped were relatively slim, he could still find the scientists somewhere outside of the mountain. It would be easy, really. Gaster and the rest of the crew would be intergalactic superstars of science, influential and supreme, higher than any other monster in existence.

Or, maybe, this was something else entirely: another Home, like a joke book sans jokes. A Home so much like his but also not, a Home that could only be possible in…

No. It couldn’t be. He was simply in the future. They were not lost. He was not lost.

Either way, he needed to leave. There was nothing here save for old memories. Luckily, he knew of the way out, one that would have been open for a long while by this point: the tunnel the magical Barrier once sealed shut, trapping the monsters inside far after the war that had caused it had faded from the collective unconscious. The human child had destroyed it; all he had to do was walk there.

---

There was a Barrier here, but there also wasn’t.

He had traveled for what felt like hours all throughout the Underground just to get to what he had assumed would be a broken Barrier. He had trudged through his hometown, Snowdin, through fluffy snow, ice sheets and thick, bushy forests, and found that his house was not where he remembered it being. He had sauntered his way through Waterfall, a massive marshland full of glowing cyan lakes and big, blue echo flowers and found that the History Plates, a set of silver signs etched into the rock, told different stories than the ones that he knew. He had slogged his way through Hotland, through the scorching sands and silent factories and bubbling lava rivers until, finally finding the hotel he had so often done stand-up comedy, he saw that, for whatever reason, Undyne’s face laid plastered on every square-inch of its surface where Mettaton’s robotic form should have been.

Then, after moving through “New Home,” the grand, gargantuan city of gray, of expertly crafted stone blocks that formed its various spires, of wide and cobbled roads, of everything that had made Home good and glorious, he felt at ease for the first time. Everything was as he had remembered it being.

Well, everything except the castle. He eventually found the castle that King Asgore had lived in all of his life, its walls gleaming with a radiance befitting its stature and size. His pace had quickened. He was going to be free.

But then he found a strange room filled with bookshelves and a desk, more than likely an office. Oddly enough, there were still books there, small and thin, not at all like the thick textbooks he sometimes read and the sizable joke books he regularly sifted through. On the desk was a picture, and it contained a strange sight: him and Papyrus, both in royal garb, with a crown on his own head. He was smiling in the photo, but it was obviously not a happy smile at all.

He had simply stared at it for a very long time, unsure of what to even make of it. What did that mean?

Eventually, desperate to not think about it, he decided to grab both the photo and one of the books with him after realizing he had found a collection of journals. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt like he had to. Perhaps it was something with the mountain itself causing these shenanigans.

His hands stuffed into his pockets, he turned a corner and found something that was a barrier, but was also not one. It was less of a magical wall and more akin to a small, pulsating gulf whose colors regularly switched between a blinding white and an ebony black, like someone had made a huge crack in a nonexistent wall. Luckily for him, despite how narrow the passway was, he was small enough to fit through it.

He didn’t know why the barrier looked like this, though. Did it reform over time, the magic slowly mending itself? It would be possible. It wasn’t like they had dispelled the spell itself so much as heavily damaged it. That didn’t explain even an ounce of what he had seen within these caves, though. No, there was an even better explanation. The time-shiftiness that they had reentered the Underground to study in the first place must be affecting things to a greater degree than he had thought. If so… shouldn’t he be writing this down?

Eh. Too much effort. Gaster probably already knew anyway.

With that done, he ducked down and proceeded into the hole. It was quite cramped and tight around his body, yet oddly smooth and leathery on the inside. The walls around him seemed to glow too, flashing with the changing colors. He couldn’t help but remember that strange tube he had entered when he was sent hurtling through the Code Dimension and towards that light.

Suddenly, he thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye hole.

The gulf around him seemed to constrict, like it was breathin. The white soon seemed to be filled with pressing hands pushing into him. He could see the light up ahead, and it felt warm to his bones. As he went there, though, he also saw a figure, tall and shadowy, and it was reaching towards him with long arms. He scrambled his way through and shot past him, popping out of the light and landing on his face.

He rested on a small space at the top of Mount Ebbott, overlooking the Hinterlands of Erde Nona. He could probably have kept moving, but…

Nah.

Instead, he laid there, settling his head against a rock like it was a pillow. It rocked.

 

[Kagami]

Things were silent as there was a gentle breeze passing through the area.

The shifting leaves of nearby flora and fauna were evident as there was an opening in the clouds, displaying the cerulean skies that were once curtained behind them.

However, that wouldn’t be the only thing as the sun’s gentle light would finally be unveiled on what was a cloudy day in the Hinterlands, moreso around the very area of Mt. Ebbott itself.

Even if said tired skeleton monster would be alone resting at the top of the mountain, it wouldn’t be long before there would be an unexpected visitor about.

A little down in the surrounding forest of the mountain, the light filtered down from the canopy above as the sun’s positioning was a little past afternoon time, early afternoon at the best estimate. It was going to be hours before the sun’s trek westward would be completed before nightfall came and the dangers of the night would make themselves known to all those ill-prepared.

Traversing the natural path was an individual, not human but something else. Judging by height, they were the equal to something mistaken as a little child, one that is in their school years, but the thing was, this was how they were. A small fry or rather in this case, a literal small bean of an individual but then again, that was the thing about this individual.

They are a bean, moreso a Beanish if anything.

Before long, Kagami would stop and look around for a bit as she would sigh. Now, which way should she go next? The truth was that she wasn’t sure but as someone that traversed beyond the dark bounds of the Uncanny Valley and into the calmness that is this area, the atmosphere was clear as both night and day.

“Shoot, this is the thing about not having a map.” she grumbled to herself as she would check around her surroundings for a bit before she would adjust her glasses briefly. She wasn’t hooded or anything because her mess of what would be a hairstyle has already been out in the open so her hair could breathe after being under the hood for awhile.

Yes, she does have standards even though they would be questionable to outsiders, such as stealing and other things. She’s not all that, well, there’s a word for that but she had forgotten on which word, whoops. Of course, the fact was that since she had arrived here, she felt like she was traversing in circles and while she wanted to depend on her navigation on the ground instead of simply flying around.

She would more or so prefer to be hidden instead of being detected in the air as she would easily be detected by onlookers.

However, her reason to investigate this place? Curiosity. In fact, she had heard the rumors from travelers of those that go to Mt. Ebbott never returned back but she was the one that would dismiss it as some sort of scare story. Besides, what’s so scary about the mountain anyways? Was the place under a curse, has a mysterious force abound or something like that? That’s what she wanted to know.

After all, what’s not fun about investigating something like this and actually getting to see stuff for herself.

Besides, finding out the truth of a situation would probably shed some light to what really is playing out behind the scenes and she’s going to find out regardless. Call her stubborn or crazy, she was motivated if not also determined.

The more that she went along, the more she felt watched for some reason, however, that feeling wasn’t going to stop her from progressing onwards as this isn’t the time to be paranoid. Fortunately for this time, it wouldn’t be long before she would eventually leave the sea of trees and come into an opening, panting.

After what felt like almost an hour or so, she sighed and the temptation with her finally collapsing to embrace the grass was held off as she was around the cliffside facing what was the Hinterlands in the distance.

“Wow, what a view! I’ve never really thought I’m this far up either.” she sighed before she added, ”Not bad for someone like me to accomplish, hehe.”

She never felt so accomplished as she would eventually stretch her arms and legs with her arms folded behind her head before she would lower her arms down to the sides of her hoodie. A brief rest was in session for her as she would wonder, however, she worried a bit as nothing here seems to be unusual but surely something was going to pop in for her? Right? Right.

However, even so, maybe it was meant to keep people away from the mountain because it can be dangerous?

She really hopes not because she believed the mysterious route and not some normal claim because that would kill the fun of this investigation in a moment of seconds. Call it her idealism at work but the more something is mysterious and unexplained, the more valuable it is to her.

Yeah, maybe she should look more but she’s just going to take the way that she refused to for the longest time as far as she has arrived here and that was by flying. Of course, she would eventually be enveloped by purple-magenta aura as she would fly up towards the top of this mountain, landing a couple of feet away as it would soon fade out.

She’ll come back down the mountain without flying if she could just investigate the top.

However, as she would approach the top, she would pull up her hood over her head, hiding her hair once more, doing a check until she would see something or someone within the distance.

Without hesitation, she would carefully walk over and would see a skeleton with clothes on, hoodie and all, just laying there on the ground while head on the rock.

She didn’t know what to say at first as her eyes were widened, momentarily blink twice until she felt a frustration overcome her. In fact, her anger was rising before she would throw her arms up before they lowered down to the sides.

”Are you serious? No really! Are you serious?! I thought there was some sort of curse or mysterious force around here!” she exclaimed before she stomped her foot against the ground in frustration. ”Not some random skeleton with clothes that could be some dead person or whatever!”

She continued as she looked up as she angrily raised her left arm and pointed up to the skies. “I demand an explanation for this!”

Of course, there would be not a single noise as there would only be a slight breeze that would blow by her before she tossed her arm down and grumbled in an annoyed tone. “Aggh, of course, I get no answer! That’s how lame this is!”

Before long, she sighed, turning around to face away from the skeleton as crossing her arms in defeat. ”Why can’t I have something exciting for once? Is this what I get for traversing around this place and I get absolutely nothing in return? All that time and effort wasted!”

Maybe for her that is but the biggest mistake was the fact was that she was skipping to conclusions a little too fast for her own good.

"..well, I could get my time back but I would have to have some sort of spell or something dealing with time-space stuff, but anyways! I might as well just going have to deal with it..for now that is."

After her rant, she sighed before she would eventually sit down on a nearby log. She needed to calm down after her brief episode of being overdramatic as it drained some of her energy away as she would think on what to do next while kicking her legs and being in a grumpy mood for awhile.

 

[Sans]

The last thing Sans had expected to happen when he got out of Mount Ebbott was to immediately plant himself outside of its entrance and take a nap on it.

Seeing some random human? That was something he actually wanted, but conking out and THEN finding a human was not. In all fairness, this was not his fault. His pillow really, you could say, rocked.

He wasn’t quite sure how long he had been out by the time he woke back up. The sun was still high in the sky, if perhaps tilting a bit, and the breeze carried the smell of spring with it everywhere it went as the sun rays washed over him with warm brightness. Whatever pain that had followed him through the underground from the odd teleportation collision had long since faded. With the wind blowing through his bones, he had simply felt too tired and relaxed to do anything except go to sleep on some rock somewhere along the top of Mount Ebbott. Not exactly his finest moment, but he had slept in worse places before.

He wasn’t sure how long he had been out by the time he opened his eyes again. The sun shined high in the sky, illuminating the small outcrop that he laid on and washing over him with warm brightness. Grass, real grass, tickled his fingers as the breeze brushed through them, carrying the smell of spring with it everywhere it went. Whatever pain that had plagued him in the underground from the teleportation misadventure had long since faded away. The wind flowing through his bones and the gentle sunlight had lulled him to sleep on some rock somewhere along the top of Mount Ebbott like a big, skeletal lizard, except lizards were cold-blooded whereas monsters didn’t have blood.

It wasn’t exactly his finest moment, he knew, but he had slept in worse places before. At least it wasn’t a dumpster this time…

He had been just about ready to actually get off of his keister and get moving again when a figure promptly flew up from out of nowhere and landed right in front of him. He didn’t quite know what to make of them at first. To him, they looked about the size of a human child, one in a large, orange hoodie that hid their hair from view and with eyes as purple as the indigo stone of the Underground behind thin glasses that only a nerd could unironically wear. The magenta aura that glowed around them, though, caught his attention quite quickly. He had never seen a human child do that before.

He awkwardly “turned off” his eyes, leaving them as only vacant, black pools, like he was playing dead. They stared at each other longer than he cared to admit as he racked his brain trying to think of a way to introduce himself in a funny manner.

Then, of course, they started to rant, and rant, and rant.

He had to stop himself from laughing a little at the tantrum he had unintentionally bore witness to. They seemed so disappointed that all their efforts were “just” for some random skeleton on a big hill. To be fair, this was the Crossroads, so there were undoubtedly more impressive sights, but how dare they insult him by saying completely accurate things about him! He was so caught off guard by the display that he completely forgot to actually respond with a fart noise when the child asked the wind for an answer to her conundrum. He was slipping! That was what these events had done to him! Truth be told, it was a little hard to respond to anything she was saying. It was as if she was connecting dots that didn’t exist except in her head and just shooting her mouth from there.

Still, various things caught his attention. The child had talked about a mysterious curse in the mountains. Were people still being taught that old legend about humans never returning when they fell down into the mountain? If so, they must have also forgotten that monsters had long since abandoned the caverns inside and thus couldn’t do any more “disappearing,” so either they were on a fool’s quest or something else had been happening with this mountain, and if the strangeness that he had found in its chasms indicated anything, they might truly be onto something more than they could ever have hoped for.

Alongside that, they mentioned spells, specifically things related to the time-space continuum. Sans couldn’t brag, for he was far too humble for that, but he had learned more than a thing or two underneath his mentor, Gaster, about the nature of the time-space continuum. If even some random child with mystical magenta powers talked so casually about it, then it might be a more common element. Perhaps Gaster had gotten his fame after all?

Maybe he should talk to them, then. But not like this. He wanted to have a bit of fun first, if only for his own amusement.

Resisting the urge to snicker, he kept himself perfectly still. His mouth never moved, but his voice came out of him nonetheless; he didn’t try very hard to hide the fact that his voice was coming from him and that it was also ridiculously low and audibly cartoonish.

* S o… Y o u h a v e c o m e t o h e a r a b o u t t h e c u r s e…?

 

[Kagami]

Kagami froze up, stopping her kicking as she would turn her head as the skeleton talked from nearby. Oh, so they could talk? Okay, that’s good atleast because that meant the this would be easy to communicate for her.

If where she comes from is anything, she’s aware that some of the skeletons could talk, after all, the Dry Bones could and they’re essentially dead Koopas in skeletal form but that's just how things went.

After walking around and being grumpy, the fact was that she wasn’t thinking that well since she was tired and while she might have gotten her rant in, that was something she needs to work better on even though she didn't want to admit it. In fact, while at times that she's used to monologuing to herself, sometimes she does view it as somewhat embarrassing as some secrets from her had slipped because of it.

Additionally, isolation for years hasn’t exactly done her that well in terms of outside socialization with other people and has made her socially awkward.

Her magenta hues shifted over to the skeleton as he talked about the curse that had gotten her attention. While knitting a brow as she answered, “Yeah and? I thought you were dead unless you’re not and you’re just messing with me all this time which if that is the case, that was actually well played."

A pause before she continued, “Anyways, enough on that. Care to spill the marbles, ya bonehead? After all, I don't usually intend to have an audience with just anyone so consider this as me giving you the front stage to speak."

She took a moment to briefly chuckle to herself before calming down and for now, she’ll allow for the skeleton to explain as she would eventually sit up, crossing her leg over the other while her arms folded.

 

[Sans]

Bonehead! Perhaps he could work with them after all! And he had the perfect response to them asking if he was dead, and he delivered it with the utmost deadpan tone:

* i mean, i am a skeleton, so…

Sans completely dropped the affectation in his voice as he, too, sat up. The lights in his eye holes returned as he looked at the child with a smile painted on his skull-face.

* im sans. sans the skeleton. you’re a human, aren’tcha? what brings you to mount ebbott?

He tilted his head, waiting for her to respond. Her intense posturing almost reminded him of his brother, Papyrus. Somehow, that put him at ease.

 

[Kagami]

Wait, he wasn't insulted by- oh, wait, she sees what's going on here. He's a skeleton so he is a bonehead and him taking to that well, it did caught her off-guard but then again, he's probably used to that. However, if that's the case, that's a compliment?

Actually, with her saying that he played well, wait, did she just complimented him..twice?!

Kagami felt a little awkward at the realization of what she did and she didn't like it. She was supposed to be spiteful and mean but the fact was that she was being nice? This won't do! Maybe Booker's- no, no!

She wasn't going to fall for that and she refused to!

She stopped after Sans introduced himself to her and called her a Human? What? She undoubtedly knitted a brow on that and felt the need to explain.

"Excuse ya Sans but I ain't a Human. I'm a Beanish. There's a difference." she explained with a slightly annoyed undertone. "Reason why is because Humans do not have green skin as the normal unless I dunno, they did something to themselves that I won't describe with potentially gruesome details and secondly, how often do you see a Human that is the size of well, this, unless they are a little kid, are just born short, or whatever?"

Closing her eyes, she continued, "Additionally, on why I'm here is because well, you already know from my rant from earlier if you were actually paying attention somehow."

If she has to repeat herself to him, so help her.

 

[Sans]

A Beanish? So she’s like a little beanie baby? He had to admit, the Beanish were not a familiar entity to him. From what he could gather from her little self-analysis, they were quite short and, evidently, had green skin. He forced himself not to call her a “green bean” for the time beaning as he winked at her, continuing to peer at her with his right eye.

* i mean, i assumed you were just a human child, what with the way you were actin’ earlier. what was that all about, anyway?

Of course, he completely knew what it was all about, but he just had to rub her like sansdpaper, and he would not apologize for that or for that incredibly forced pun. Both simply amused him too much to be let go.

 

[Kagami]

"Traveling up here isn't just some hop, skip and a jump unless you can somehow do that." Kagami shrugged casually before she uncrossed her arms and lowered them on the log. "I mean, I come up here because I've been tired of the usual and would want to explore the unknown. After all, don't you kinda get sick of it? Running on the same trek, going nowhere, everything repeats and the cycle of insanity continues until the last breath or whatever? For me, I refuse to be like that because that is how I go."

While she was looking at him, for some odd reason, she had a feeling that since he would be a jokester type, he's probably loaded with puns ready to be on the fly in her direction.

"Anyways, somebody like you wouldn't have an issue fitting in with a Beanish setting if you have a strong funny bone. Comedy, humor and all that sort of stuff is more than welcomed because it's practically everywhere." she continued. "Though, just because they're jokesters, I've seen a couple of'em that are actually very clever, dabbling into the usual science or two and the likes, so yeah, but you know, each to their own."

She wasn't going to be the type to judge them for their interests even though a couple of those other nerds did bully her before because she was different, however, it was better off that she would be quiet instead of explaining her story.

Not that she wanted to anyways because it was something that she didn't want to talk about.

 

[Sans]

* comedy, huh? sounds like my kind of people, heh.

So she was some kind of explorer, then, hoping for big adventures in a mysterious mountain in the Hinterlands? It was certainly a noble motivation, but he couldn’t help but feel skeptical over it.

He did have to agree, though, that things endlessly repeating sounded like hell. It also sounded exactly like one of those timey-wimey things that Gaster always warned about being a possibility, which certainly didn’t put his mind at ease at all.

* in any case, what’s your name, miss beanie? unless you’d like me to call you ‘miss beanie,’ i mean.

 

[Kagami]

"Haha, real funny there. No seriously." she remarked sarcastically as she rolled her eyes for a bit before she smirked, "Anyways, the name's Kagami. Don't wear it out, alright?"

Of course, she would be wondering what sort of skeletons that Sans was hiding. A pause, okay, daggone it, she had to admit that the whole skeleton joke thing was getting to her but there seems to be something of a mysterious ordeal with him and she can't help to want to know more. Maybe he could be a lead?

She wonders.

"Say Sans, I gotta ask. You from here by any chance or what? It's not everyday I'd see some random jokin' skeleton just lying on the ground or anything."

A genuine question. Well, they got to start from somewhere and since she was 'nice' enough to give him information, he should let her in on knowing his side of the story.

 

[Sans]

A wave of nostalgia flowed through him at Kagami’s irritation. He couldn’t resist the next thing that came out of his mouth; the opportunity just presented itself.

* okay, gami, i won’t wear it out too much.

He hadn’t had a chance to have an audience like this in a long while. If he remembered correctly, he had to stop doing stand-up to focus on Gaster and his experiments, which also meant he couldn’t see Papyrus nearly as much, who nearly always responded in such a hilariously exaggerated manner to his incessant jokes. Kamagi seemed like much the same, albeit not nearly as loud which was itself a feat considering how lively the little bean girl seemed to be.

Then, of course, they were back to business exchanging questions. He shrugged at her, vaguely gesturing at the small hole next to him that he had exited out of some time ago.

* yeah. this is my home. you like it?

 

[Kagami]

"It's Kagami. KA-GA-MI. Not Gami. Unless you want me to call ya.." A pause.

She literally doesn't know what to call Sans other than bonehead or something but the thing is that when she tries to be insulting, she's just adding fuel to the fire.

How frustrating.

"Actually, you know what? Nevermind. Atleast it's better than calling me Little Miss Beanie or whatever silly or dumb name you got there in your skull of yours but anyways.."

A change of topic help her out for a brief moment as she needed the switch so she would look about for some format of opportunity to get at. She's definitely going to take advantage of where that hole leads to as she would want to explore it for herself to see what laid underneath as it could possibly provide more information.

"How long have you lived here and do you have any magical powers or something like that?"

 

[Sans]

He could definitely keep calling her Little Miss Beanie, but he only had so many bean jokes to throw at her and he wanted to save them for later. For one, he needed to get a beanie hat for her. He wouldn’t even tell her what it was. He’d just give it to her and tell her to put it on and then start cracking up. He forced himself not to chuckle at the mental image of Kagami unknowingly setting herself up for yet another pun.

* it’s alright, you can just call me sans, heh.

He winked at her. * and i’ve lived here most of my life. as for magical powers, i’ve been told my talent for japes is pretty magical.

Of course, he did have magic beyond that. It wasn’t all that powerful, but Papyrus’ own attempts at improving his own magic had rubbed off on Sans before, and Gaster had made a point on getting Sans up to speed when it came to basic survival skills while traversing the Code Dimension. The last thing his mentor wanted was to have his assistant die out in the field because he was too lazy to practice things. As a result, he did have a few tricks up his sleeve, so to speak.

However, he wouldn’t reveal them. Not unless he had to, anyway. It was like playing cards. It was best to keep your hand hidden, or at least stash away one of the cards into your pocket so that you could pull it out when the time was right.

 

[Kagami]

He's teasing her so much but at the same time, as much as she's trying to bear with this situation, she had to be patient even if it's not her best trait. Impatience is a major thing she deals with when she feels excited among other things and that's probably why Booker would call her reckless..well, sometimes.

But less about that Boo, more about the mountain and such.

"As much as you're a punny skeleton Sans, I dunno." she answered even though she narrowed her eyes before she would get up and dust herself off before she would walk over to the hole to see for herself, only to encounter the long hall of darkness ahead. "Oooh, how ominous."

"Hello! Anyone in there?"

Her echo would bounce off the walls of the hole, traversing down the caverns and all she would do is listen for some sort of reply.

 

[Sans]

* ooooo… spooky ghost in the tunneeeeeelllll

Sans chuckled as he watched Kagami look into the hole. He stood up, hands in his pockets.

* im kidding. no one’s there. well, except me, but i’m out here, so…

 

[Kagami]

"I'd wished! You don't know how much I enjoy haunted places." Kagami mused before she would return to Sans, grabbing on and tugging his blue hoodie's sleeve. "If no one is there, then there's no problem with investigating it personally. C'mon! Since you've lived here for awhile, I'm gonna need someone to show me around!"

She paused before she would briefly look up to the sky and saw that the sun's still in a high position before she looked back to Sans. "The sun's still high so we have time here before it turns to night. Quickly now!"

Kagami was eager to see what this place has in store especially to the fact that she was being pushy to Sans. If he refuses, well, that's not going to stop her from exploring the place herself because she's not going to let some stupid obstacle stand in her way.

She was clearly being stubborn.

 

[Sans]

* uh…

He dug his feet into the dirt a little bit, managing to keep Kagami from dragging him by the arm to the very hole he had spent the better part of his day trying to find and leave through. His smile never dropped, but his dotted eyes scanned the surrounding area, trying to look anywhere except where the Beanish girl wanted him to go. He thought of the various, subtle changes that he had seen within the Underground, of the picture and journal that sagged in the pockets of his jacket. He wasn’t sure he was ready to start asking questions about that yet, not with the image of the melting gears in his mind. Besides, could he really be all that good of a guide if the Underground had been changed the way it was? Sure, the shifts looked little, but there was no guarantee it had not been altered in more significant ways nor was there any guarantee that trying to leave again would be as easy as the first time.

Eventually, though, he gazed back at Kagami, her magenta aura flaring up around them both as she gazed back with a naive intensity that only reminded him of one other person in his life: his own brother. It was the look he gave him when he wanted to join the Royal Guard, when he went out to train every morning of every day. He knew, looking at her face, that she would be going in there, with or without his help.

Could he really just let her stumble about in there? Who knew what she would find? Who knew if she would ever get out?

After a few moments, he sighed.

* sure, kagami, i’ll lead.

He politely dislodged her arm from his blue sleeve before stepping towards the hole. * i do need to warn you, though. things might get weird in there. i know you’re into that, but there’s no shame in backing out now while you still can.

 

[Kagami]

"Ah, don't worry, everything will work out in the end. Relax Sans."

She really doesn't know what she's getting herself into but the thing is that what she asked for. Besides, she sees this as an opportunity to jump at, well, unlike earlier that is, she had jumped the gun at that and felt a bit embarrassed but surely this can make it up here.

"Another thing, it's just only the two of us. What could go wrong? I mean, as long as we stay together, we'll do absolutely fine."

The fact is that she doesn't know of the Underground nor any of the oddities that lingered beneath or the shifting maze-like qualities it has. However, even if Sans wouldn't be any good as a guide, she's not going to give up.

She might as well improvise if it comes to it.

"Alright, enough talk. Let's get going! We're burning too much daylight."

She was ready to go!

 

[Sans]

None of what Kagami said felt true to him. After all, he still wasn’t entirely sure that the experiment he participated in, led by the finest minds of monster and mankind, hadn’t gone completely off the rails and failed miserably himself. As such, even with the inherent comedy in annoying a little green bean girl, it was hard to actually keep the joints in his bones from tensing up for very long.

Despite that, though, he shrugged, trying not to give away any bit of his anxiety to Kagami. * alright. don’t say i didn’t warn ya.

He cracked his knuckles, letting them pop before shaking his hands, readying himself. Then, he moved to crawl back up into the gulf again; to Kagami, it looked like it was swallowing him whole. * it will be just through this passage here. it will be a tight squeeze, but we should be able to keep moving so long as you don’t stop for anything.

He held his hand out behind him, waving it towards her. * you should probably hold on tight. oh, and don’t mind if you see anything inside.