Boned

[Kagami]

"Yeah, yeah, I'm on it."

While going into the cavern tunnel of the mysterious mountain, Kagami reached over and grabbed Sans' hand, holding on tight as instructed. However, as she did, something else had grabbed onto her hoodie, unbeknownst to her as she was already distracted enough with her motions of finding out about this strange place.

"Alright, gotcha."

They also would grab on tight as well and it would seem that these two aren't the only ones around after all. In fact, even if they wouldn't see it, they were still around but hidden from sight as a whole.

 

[Sans]

They moved slowly as the duo slithered their way through the gulf and into the mountain. Sans grunted every so often, the claustrophobic tunnel scraping against his back and outstretched arm that he used to keep hold of Kagami at all times. He didn’t want to risk letting go of her for fear he’d turn back and not see her or, even worse, something else grabbing her out of the darkness. The tall, dark figure at the end of the tunnel flashed in his mind. Was it still here with them?

The walls surrounding them pulsated, flashing black and white at random times. They felt different this time, being less leathery and more glass-like, with cracks occasionally adorning the inside. He traced one long crack with a finger as he continued forward, frowning as he saw what, to him, looked like a strange blur forming where his bony finger traced.

His grip on her hand tightened as his mind returned back to the planet of gears. Would she know what it was? It certainly couldn’t hurt to ask.

* hey, kagami. strange question, but do you know of any gear planets in the Crossroads? i’ve been tryin to remember and it’s really been grinding my gears, if you will, heh.

 

[Kagami]

Gear planet, gear planet.. She thought over it for a while before she perked up on realization. However, for as much as she wanted to purposely hold back that information to bribe Sans with, she decided to not do that as she would rather wait out for an opportunity to do so in the future.

"That sounds an awfully like Govermorne as it was known as the only gear planet known around here in these parts. Why?"

She was wondering what was going on despite the fact that the group are inside the hollow claustrophobic tunnels of the cavern to which she noticed that they were pulsating odd black and white colorations. How strange but regardless, she was intrigued to what they could run into here.

While traversing deeper into the mountain, Kagami would feel something akin to static electricity to an extent but the thing is that she was wondering in silence as there would only be their voices and the sounds of their footsteps.

Something about this feels oddly familiar but she can't put her finger on it just yet. She wasn't so sure but if this place is truly like a video game or something like that, then she may need to watch her thoughts in case a sudden textbox or something pops in on her.

 

[Sans]

Soon, the Beanish and the Skeleton reached the end of the long, pulsating tunnel. For a moment, he had been worried that the small light that emanated from the end was just like the light he had poked his head through in the Code Dimension, but as they got closer and saw more of what lied outside of the hole, he visibly relaxed. The gray, stone walls were just as gray as they were when he left, and the strong light that he had seen was nothing more than the bright light bulbs of a massive, golden chandelier hanging from the ceiling of the massive barrier room that the tunnel led out into. He could see the hallway out of the room just a few feet forward.

He was about to head out when Kagami spoke up. Govermore! That was the name of that planet! No wonder it had sounded so familiar to him! He remembered Mettaton paying a visit to that place on his Crossroads Tour, hoping to promote his music to every single planet in the Crossroads all at once since he was also streaming it at the same time. Papyrus had informed him of when Mettaton touched down and saw all the gears for the first time. He had never heard Papyrus so excited before, and Papyrus got excited over a lot of things. He wondered how his little brother would have reacted to seeing such a place getting destroyed in the way that he had seen.

He was just about to crawl out of the hole and help Kagami through when she answered his question. His eyes widened, finally remembering the name for the massive gear planet. No wonder it had seemed so familiar to him! He remembered Papyrus telling him about Mettaton’s Crossroads Tour soon after they had all left the Underground. Mettaton had always been interested in the worlds outside Erde Nona, and this had been his chance to promote himself and become an intergalactic star. Govermore was his first stop, and when he got there, he had never seen Papyrus so excited, and his brother was never not excited about something. He couldn’t help but wonder how his brother would have reacted to seeing such a place fall to such terrible darkness, to see such a world be swarmed by alien bugs and bombarded with massive ships. If there was a way to prevent that future, if only for his little brother, he would take it.

Then, however, he processed what she just said. He completely stopped in his tracks, his body blocking the way out of the tunnel. His voice, still as cartoonish as it ever was, carried a tension in it.

* uh… pardon, you said ‘was’ known?

 

[Kagami]

"The 411 is that their Arbiter fell to the Unmaking and there's people from there that had to been evacuated to other worlds, well the survivors that is." she explained to the skeleton as she was about to head on before she was stopped because Sans had stopped before her before she could fully exit out of the tunnel. "It's because of some schmuck named Darkseid appeared and made a mess of things so yeah."

A textbox appeared around Kagami as she was wondering while she crossed her arms a bit as she was thinking as it said:

[ * Kagami didn't seemed all too concerned even though she feels like she is. However, she stopped and noticed the textbox as she is now glaring at it with hostility before she looked back to Sans. ]

"Hey Sans, are we in some sort of game simulation down here or is it just me seeing things in front of me?"

The textbox refreshed itself and with a new message:

[ * Kagami is still glaring at the textbox with hostility...and she's blushing! Her thoughts are not safe down here as everyone could see them! Now she understands how the people from 8-Bitain feel! ]

"..ahh, this might take awhile to get used to.."

Another text box popped in:

[ * Kagami wonders if there's a turn off switch somewhere because of how annoying these boxes are! She just wants to venture further in and not have to deal with something like this interrupting her constantly. ]

"Agh! There's got to be an off switch on these dumb things or something!"

 

[Sans]

Sans didn’t move, racking his brain over what Kagami said. Unmade. The planet was unmade. That was what he had witnessed, wasn’t it? The jagged ships, the screeching aliens, the shadows melting the gears and twisting them into something else? Unmaking. It sounded like such a vile term to him, worse than EXP and LOVE. At least EXP and LOVE referenced exactly what it was doing: execution points and levels of violence. They didn’t sugarcoat their terms, which is why they were so useful for what they were designed to measure. Unmaking, though, held a clinical tone to it that chilled him to the very depths of his SOUL. People were not dying, they were being unmade like how you take apart a machine.

And it had already happened. The very thing he had been trying to warn people about, and it had already happened. He was too late.

This Darkseid… he was the leader of all of it, wasn’t he? He must have led those forces, assaulted that planet, and unmade its Arbiter. How many other planets had fallen since then? Was he… even back at his original home? Maybe this Mount Ebbott is truly different but if so…

[ * sans doesn’t want it to be true, but the evidence is stacking up. ]

* huh?

Sans looked around, listening to Kagami’s words as he, too, noticed the same textboxes formed over the top of his head, still visible even within the narrow tunnel they sat in. Weirdly enough, they also contained his face, mimicking the same expressions he was making down to the microexpression.

* okay, this is… i gotta admit, this is new. i’ve never seen this before in my life.

[ * sans wonders if gaster ever dealt with this before. ]

* oh god…

[ * sans tries to stop thinking about things entirely. ]

[ * sans realizes that the strange boxes are written in comic sans font. He chuckles. ]

* hehehe. alright, this is… odd. anyways, uh… tell me. when did this unmaking happen? when did darkseid come?

Sans stepped out of Kagami’s way, allowing her to exit the tunnel. He kept facing away from her, racking his brain.

[ * sans is trying to calculate what day it is. ]

 

[Kagami]

After Sans stepped out of the way, Kagami fell over as she would exit out the tunnel as she would get up right away, shaking her head off. As a result, her hood fell off only to reveal her mess of short, dark green hair from underneath. The one way to hide her identity from the other but it wasn't going to be any use anymore because they both know each other.. somewhat.. that is.

Fortunately, there were no textboxes that occurred that time because of what happened which was strange, but a relief regardless. Maybe it was the entrance of this strange place that caused them to appear? She wasn't sure as she was puzzled however, she got back up as she would dust herself off after the brief fall.

When looking up, Kagami noticed some things that Sans was thinking about due to his textbox, she instead kept quiet as Sans had asked her questions.

"I don't really know but some say that it has been a time ago, but the good news is that there are active pushback attempts going on." she answered. "After what happened to Govermorne, Cevanti got badly hit but there had been a massive counterstrike against the Fade and there's been murmurs of another in the works to finish the job off that planet."

[ * Kagami was wondering about the fate of Inverxe, Kraw and several others.. ]

With a sigh, she continued, "However, this is affecting the Arbiters, so even if I'm not here, they'll still gonna give ya the massive info drop that would echo in your skull for awhile. I mean, I practically had to listen to a kid telling me to get myself out there and stop what's going on, joining the effort to stop this Darkseid."

[ * Kagami grumbled a bit, remembering the experience. ]

"Seriously, that was the worst headache ever sometime after feeling absolutely sick to my stomach!"

 

[Sans]

[ * sans doesn’t know how it was possible for govermore to be in the past, given the nature of their experiment. ]

It took all of his effort not to curse or say something off-color as the textbox above him continued relaying his private thoughts out of his skull and out into the world.

[ * sans grits his teeth and tries to think about something else, like ponies. ponies are kinda funny. ]

[ * sans thinks this is much better, if taking more concentration than he’s used to using. ]

* inverxe, huh? that’s the snow planet, right? is darkseid attacking that place too?

[ * sans thinks of Snowdin, which was snowed in. sans thinks about time, and how things can go forwards and backwards. sans wonders where he’s at. ]

* also… this is it. the underground.

Sans waved his hand about, gesturing at the grandeur of the grand walls and stain-glassed windows. * you ever hear the story of this place? of monsters and men?

 

[Kagami]

[ * Kagami tilted her head before she nodded. ]

"I don't doubt it. Nobody's really safe in the Crossroads as long as that guy is around. Planets getting corrupted and that are especially something to look out for or else we're going to have issues with weird Parademons or whatever those creatures are called."

Even though a normal person would be scared, Kagami didn't seem to care too much about oddities like that unless they become killjoys and only then she'll have issues with them before Sans shifted the topic to the likes of the Underground and spoke about this place.

"All I had been hearing was the murmurs of mysterious disappearances from travelers unless that's something purposely made up to make sure some sorry sap doesn't come up this way. People are kinda like that if especially there's something they cannot explain. Y'know, something akin to the fear of the unknown or something like that but hey, that's just an opportunity for me to check it out."

As she was walking along with the skeleton, she would looked to the stained glass, placing her gloved hands in her center pocket, trying to avoid the constant need of thinking about something and just talk to Sans as much she can.

"Anyways, no, not really, but shoot, tell me all about it ya silly bones. I'm listening."

[ * Kagami was smiling at Sans, giggling a bit after calling him that. ]

 

[Sans]

[ * sans thinks about the corruption. he seems troubled. ]

* i see…

[ * sans wonders if any of his favorite hot dog places were affected. ]

He chuckled right with Kagami as she hit him with that pun.

* heheh, good one. well, it’s a long story, but basically, there was a war all the way back in the past. humans routed monsters into this mountain and then made a magical barrier over it, so monsters made a civilization down here until we were set free again. pretty cool, right?

[ * sans thinks of the human child. his smile grows. ]

 

[Kagami]

"Yeah, I'd say! However, the thing is that what caused the humans to do that exactly in the first place? What was their drive to pull off a drastic measure like that? Was it out of fear or something else completely? I mean, actions has consequences after all so there must had been some sort of trigger pulled behind the scenes or else none of it would make for any sense whatsoever." she spoke before she asked, "What I'm getting at is I want to know the downright facts."

[ * Kagami was trying to add up the things that Sans told her so far. By the looks of things, the very mention of magic and the likes has caught her interest. ]

"Additionally, how were they were set free if there was a magical barrier around? Care to explain that as well?"

It was enough that she was getting some hint of information with exploring the Underground as the thing was that it looks like they're inside a tall building and the sorts for now that is. Though, the silence of the hallowed halls and the likes amongst the ruins, it almost felt surreal..

[ * Kagami is reminded of something.. ]

 

[Sans]

Sans shrugged. * i dunno. i didn’t exactly pay much attention in class.

[ * sans remembers the history plates that told much of the story of how the monsters came into the underground. ]

[ * sans seems annoyed. ]

* well, a human kid came down into the underground at a certain point. we monsters had been working on our own method of getting out, but that kid showed us a better way. we broke the barrier and rejoined with the humans back on the surface.

Sans glanced up at Kagami’s textbox for a moment, noting how it told him that she was “reminded of something.” He looked back down at her, noting how she gazed wistfully at the windows, the massive, golden pillars of the castle they sauntered through, at the light rays shining through.

* you thinkin’ of some place specific, little bean?

 

[Kagami]

"Oh! Um! Right! Sorry!"

Upon hearing Sans calling her little bean, she nervously chuckled a bit as she would look away from the stain-glassed windows and back to Sans as she asked, "Yeah, where are those history plates at? I'd like to see those if ya don't mind and besides, we still got several places to go from here in the Underground before nightfall comes, so yeah."

[ * Kagami was distracted by her own thoughts even as she would be looking back to Sans currently. ]

"Better hurry up if we're going to get out on time." she added with a nod before she looked around again, "Actually, how can you tell time down here anyways? Is it the same as the surface or is there something different about it as a whole?"

 

[Sans]

* sure. i know just where to go. we just gotta pass through New Home and Hotland. king asgore was not exactly the best with names.

[ * sans realizes he isn’t sure who named the locations. oops. ]

Sans motioned for her to follow him. He walked through the castle, eventually finding the golden hall that he had used to enter the castle in the first place. He ignored most every other room, especially the office room full of books and the picture he had taken on the way there.

He had to admit, he had forgotten what nightfall was like in the Hinterlands outside of Mount Ebbott. It wasn’t like the monsters had to worry much about it before they broke free, and after they got out, monsters went all over Erde Nona. He himself had moved into Arcadia with Papyrus during the migration, so he had never had much reason to worry about any misadventures when the sun went down and the moon came up.

[ *sans feels casual and unconcerned. ]

* well, we had cell phones that’d occasionally fall down here, so we just based it off of that. that, and New Home has little holes up in the ceiling that light shines through whenever it’s daytime. you could say we had a holed on time down here.

 

[Kagami]

Kagami hurried up with Sans as she was taking in the new information and nodding. Regardless of what is going on, she was invested about this place though the fact that how they somehow share the same time as the surface, well, so much for it being a weird place as described in some books she read.

However, the static that she felt was weird enough for when they got here especially with how she picked up that they could be in a simulation.

"Hey Sans, I gotta wonder. Remember about the whole mysterious force ordeal I was talking about earlier?" she asked. "Do you really think there's something like that really down here or is that just some little fib that's not true? I mean, rumors go around, people talk and react, and boom, an urban myth or something like that is created."

[ * For some reason, Kagami can't help but to feel watched but the fact is that she's unsure on why. To be honest, she sighed in annoyance as she really hopes it isn't Booker. ]

 

[Sans]

* the mysterious force?

[ * sans remembers. ]

[ * sans is making sure he doesn’t say too much. ]

[ * sans feels like shaking his fist up at the annoying textbox above him. ]

* don’t think i can say.

Glancing up at the textbox again, he noticed the name: Booker. He narrowed his eyes.

* who is this booker fella?

 

[Kagami]

"Oh, just someone that's a librarian, that's all." she mused as to the fact that she didn't want to reveal that Booker was her Boo 'not-friend' from Uncanny Valley. Added that annoyance is the least thing that she wants to know and when she looked up to the Sans' textbox, she became even more eager.

"Wait.. you actually remember them? No fair!" she sighed before she crossed her arms. "So I guess that means that you had been holding out on me all this time and the rumors are true!"

[ * Kagami didn't like that but in a way, she is regardless intrigued, if not also jealous. ]

"What are they like? How are they? Are they short or tall? Anything like that? Any and all details are welcomed!" she paused as she calmed herself a bit, "Hey, am I going too fast for you?"

 

[Sans]

* don’t listen to the textbox above me. it’s a liar.

[ * sans is wishing he was literally anywhere else right now. ]

* see? liar.

Sans turned around, deciding to stop just outside the castle in order to address whatever it was Kagami wanted to know. As she asked him the questions, he simply stared at her, quiet.

* uh…

[ * sans is flabbergastered. ]

* okay, what are you talkin’ about. what are these ‘they’ things?

 

[Kagami]

"Don't play the stupid card. You got something and I want to know." she grumbled before she continued. "Though, the thing is that even if I didn't know, I'm going to find out eventually because nobody's gonna act like a killjoy around me and expect me to be sitting in the dark about it!"

[ * Kagami is glaring at Sans sharply. ]

"I'm sure you would feel the same about things that you would care about yourself. I mean, it's practically in every single one of us with that drive to want to pursue things and I ain't any different even though you don't want to admit it. It would be easier to just..!"

[ * Kagami paused as she was about to spill a bean-related pun in the middle of her being upset of Sans and questions why. Even when she's trying to be serious, something else pops along. ]

"..daggone it, why am I thinking about jokes right now when that's clearly not the point of this?"

 

[Sans]

* so you’re saying you want me to…

He winked at her.

* spill the beans?

He chuckled a little bit before glancing off to the side, still keeping his stance fairly casual even as Kagami glared at him.

* anyways, i just live here, dude. i don’t have special knowledge on these things you’re talking about. that’s a lot of work to have and, heh, i do more work trying not to do it.

[ * sans is thinking about what could possibly be living underneath mount ebbott. ]

[ * sans is thinking about… quantum physics. ]