INTRO

[voidedman]

A graveyard. To be honest? He's not quite sure what to make of it. Monsters don't really have graveyards. Not when their dust is sprinkled over items, or carried with someone. He'd not even know what it was, if it wasn't for his... condition.

It was oddly fitting though, from what he'd learned from humans, during the war, after his sundering into a million parts, scattered through space and time. It almost hurt, to be yanked back together again, and the entity sways a bit, unsteady on his feet. Did he even have feet again, or was that just his imagination? He'd not been solid in so long, he rested a spindly, bony hand on a stone to assure himself-

This was real.

He was real.

He was real.

The entity wavers again, his edges glitching violently and hazing as he tries to focus on that. On being, and staying, real. Where was this? Where had he gone now? This was not the underground, oh no. Not anymore.

Anyone could find the strange, ghost like void creature wandering through the castle throne room later on, or perhaps still wandering the graveyard, like he was so sure he belonged there, confused and alone, unaware of anyone else being present in this world because...

Well...

He was so used to being everywhere and no where, and always knowing when there was someone else. Not feeling anything at all in that respect must mean he was alone... right?

Comments

[dustless]

Within the castle walls encircling the graveyard, a demon clatters past on cloven hooves. The top of their head might be visible through the glassless windows, if he looks.

Frisk's not paying attention. They normally would, with all the children that appeared in the graveyard before--the Grey Kid not too long ago, even--but they're frustrated by all the changes that've hurt their friends and frayed their temper, and now they're just pacing the castle hallways like an irritable specter.

[voidedman]

He's certainly paying attention. The entity's single operational eye darted to the windows, and he couldn't help but approach, peering out for a moment to try and see who was outside.

Another monster?

He couldn't quite recognize them as they were now, but if he could, he'd actually be happy to see them.

As it was, a thin, bony finger tapped against the window's sides, attempting to get the creature's attention.

[dustless]

White hair, white fuzzy legs, black horns and whiptail, looking bitter--it's not surprising they're unrecognized.

It's a miracle they hear him over the sound of their own stomping, but they do, pausing to eye whoever's interrupting them. They're expecting an emergency of some kind, and seeing an oddly familiar face gives them pause.

"...hello?"

[voidedman]

Oh! Clearly a monster. The entity smiles faintly, raising his hand-

And signing.

Hello.

Not a single sound otherwise, the being trying to beckon them back towards him. Was this... real? Were they really seeing him? Was there perhaps someone else behind him they saw?

He'd become so very lonely, the idea of someone seeing him... Really seeing him, was too good a chance to pass up.

[dustless]

The Gaster they already know signs, they'd gotten a bit from their own studies a long time ago, and even the Boogeyman gave them a few hints. They're not great at it, but good enough that they can lift their hands and spell out greetings.

Hello. Why are you there?

[voidedman]

'Why are you here' was a new question. A relevant one. Why was he anywhere? Why here specifically? But he figured that wasn't the point.

Rather-

I just arrived.

Clearly, then... they were used to seeing him somewhere else.

[dustless]

...Oh. New Gaster.

Frisk can't help suspicion flickering over their face--even with the current changes to their body and brain, there's be a bit. They know there are lots of kinds of Gasters out there--brothers, fathers, and creators. Creators that made their brothers family as weapons instead of children, leaving S-4 Papyrus and Sans Serif with...problems. Lots of them.

So. New Gasters might be one of those. New Gasters aren't trustworthy at all.

They hop up, tiny wings somehow giving them enough lift to land on the windowsill, and try their best to loom. "Where an' when're you from, then?" they ask, forgetting to sign.

[voidedman]

Another odd reaction. It's hard to loom over Gaster, the skeleton was always a tall one, and even if the existence of legs were questionable, he was still very tall.

But the window was above his head, so they did, at least, have some feet over him. The one light in his socket brightened a bit, but the negligence to sign wasn't commented on. After all, there was nothing wrong with his hearing.

Decades after I fell into the CORE... The Underground. Where else would he be? The confusion was obvious, the glitching entity taking a few steps back from the window.

[dustless]

Frisk knew something bad had happened to him, that they'd never got a chance to meet him when they were Underground, that lots of people forgot him.

In all their time here, this is the first time they've heard any of the specifics.

"...the CORE," they blankly repeat, stomach knotting with the sight of him glitching. They don't like it; somehow, it reminds them of fighting Flowey and meeting the Amalgamates (and the entire world is ending) all at once.

They move to lean against the window's side. "...Okay. You know Sans and Papyrus?" they ask cautiously.

[voidedman]

Today was full of surprises. The instability, caused by the growing nervousness, faded as the apparent feeling of animosity lessened. Well, at least there wasn't going to be a fight, hopefully.

Sans and Papyrus? A smile slowly came back, but it was different than the cheerful, pleasant one from before. Small.

Sad.

Broken.

They are my children. A beat-

I cannot feel or see them here. But then, he'd not felt or seen Frisk either, had he?

... Are they here? Hard to miss the slowly growing look of hopefulness on his face, a slight tremor coming to and fading from his hands. If he was real-

the best or the worst timing for him to show up rly

[dustless]

They aren't sure what he might mean by 'see or feel', but they make a guess of sensing SOULs. "Yeah. There's...a few Sans-es here. But they're different. Couple of them are human right now, just like I'm a demon when I'm usually human." They lift a hoof in demonstration.

Frisk opens their mouth, lifts their hands, but neither words nor signs make themselves known. Hopefully he was a good dad--they're not going to put all of their faith in him just yet--but if he was, describing things that've happened to some of them won't be all that nice to hear.

"You're in a really weird place," they say-sign finally. "A 'hub'. There's people from lots of...different timelines an' worlds here."

his life is going to be confusion

[voidedman]

Well, being everywhere and nowhere added a lot of interesting new senses to the first five. So yes, there was a Sans, nay, several Sans-es here... But some were human, and this being was a human once but wasn't a human now and-

He looks... completely and totally lost.

Just utterly confused, blankly staring at them before trying to wrap his brain around this. Well no, he knew about alternate dimensions. He knew there must be others but... Well they weren't supposed to be able to exist in the same time and place.

I.... see. Or he was trying to. Who are you?

pats him

[dustless]

Restlessly, they drop into a seat on the windowsill. They've got a green scarf wrapped around their neck, and they start playing with the ends of it before remembering they've still got to practice their signing.

F-r-i-s-k.

[voidedman]

Frisk?

Oh!

And he... brightened.

You visited me once. I am sorry, I didn't expect anyone to see me. I vanished before we could speak.

[dustless]

They tilt their head. That's OK? "Don't think that was me. I never met a Gaster in my timeline. ...My two, I guess," they add, trying to study his expression. They did RESET once, after Asgore died--they're a little more interested in if he knows what they're hinting at.

The creator-Gaster of their younger family--the brother-Gaster of one of the Sans-es they thought of as family too had let himself be experimented on--both of them knew about 'the Anomaly'. But that doesn't mean all of them do.

[voidedman]

Oh, that was a shame. A faint deflation, but he took it well. I see. That hint of a RESET? The only indication that he'd processed it was a flicker, for a moment, of color in the non-collapsed socket. They had said they were Frisk.

No RESET would happen because Frisk killed someone... He hoped. He had been paying attention.

Are there more of you here?

[dustless]

If they were asked, they'd hesitate in saying they didn't. Asgore died, and Flowey killed him, but the guilt that they fought him to the point Flowey could even do that...it feels more or less the same.

"Yeah. They're usually human, too, but one's a weird deer person an' another's a ghost." (Frisk doesn't sign for 'deer', since they don't know that one.)

[voidedman]

That he had known. He couldn't entirely blame them, though in the end there had been some bitterness, irrational or not. He had... cared for Asgore deeply. Seeing him killed where the scientist had been helpless to step in and intervene had been a pain he'd slowly become all too sadly familiar with.

His sons.

The queen.

The king.

Dead, alive, dead again, RESET after RESET-

How strange. Helpfully, he did sign the word DEER for them, filling in the space in their sign language.

I hope I may meet them.

[dustless]

...They wouldn't be upset if he was bitter at them. Well, usually. In their current state, it's hard to keep their hackles from raising.

Deer. Deer. Deer, they repeat, trying to memorize it.

"You probably will. You're in a castle in the sky. It's kind of big, and the rooms move around." Like the CORE, they decide not to say. "It's usually hard to miss somebody forever unless they're trying to hide, and the deer Frisk's not."

[voidedman]

Very good. In reference to how they had picked up the word. He signed it again. Deer. Just to make sure they remembered it, before he moved on.

A castle in the sky? A pause, and he made a sound. It was soft, difficult to make out, almost a soft series of faint whispers. He was laughing.

I suppose then I am on the surface, aren't I?

[dustless]

For a moment they're discomfited. Choking? Trying to talk? But then he keeps signing, and they get it.

"Yeah! Sort of. And!" All the bemusement and hints of animosity are wiped away, and they leap into the graveyard with a fanged grin. "There's outside! Well, a better outside than here." They jerk their head up at the clouds above and surrounding them, deflecting the sunlight.

They'd recently shown another Gaster the way--but they don't think they'd get tired of it. "C'mon! I can show you the gardens!"

[voidedman]

Any attempt to talk would be more of a pathetic thing. Gaster's... 'accent' was almost completely beyond understanding, and trying to speak in anything but wing dings resulted in heavy stuttering, slurring, mumbling and garbled language. Best not to try.

Now he seemed fully at ease as they leaped from the window into the graveyard, smiling happily as they suggested he follow them to see the garden. Of course, now he'd finally get to tilt his head down instead of up. He really was a very, very tall creature.

I can't wait. As long as he'd been in the Underground, the only garden he'd ever seen that really struck him (that even seemed to be a real garden) was Asgore's throne room, filled with golden flowers.

Would this put that to shame? He wasn't sure.

[dustless]

They hold out a hand for him to take, if he wants. They kind of want to just grab him, but the way he--glitched--curbs their enthusiasm.

"C'mon! It's...it won't take long for us to get there!"

The graveyard's closer to the outer walls than the inner gardens, but that's fine, they can still go fast with their wings and all that. Normally they'd think more of Gaster, and think about if he couldn't keep up--but not everything's normal in their head. Hopefully he'll be fast enough.

[voidedman]

He did take their hand, gently, curling his skinny fingers around theirs. He could move quickly enough, as next to intangible as he actually was.

No worry about legs getting in the way and slowing him down, he was rather worried he wouldn't remember how to put one foot in front of the other anyway.

No signing while he was holding hands of course, but there was a patient and happy chirp from him.

[dustless]

He feels almost like a ghost. Good thing he's not. though, 'cause hand-holding's nice--for Frisk, anyway. Their hand's...warm. Far too warm than would usually be healthy for a human.

The fog swirls around them with every step and beat of their wings, fading to clarity the deeper they go. Faint shafts of light pour from the windows and onto the floor, slowly brightening.

The doors to the garden are already open, fortunately, or else they would've outright kicked it. With their hooves. That might've broke stuff and sent splinters everywhere.

And then they're in the garden. In the sun, among a thousand different kinds of colorful flowers and trees, the latter of which are a mix of the usual greens and some swipes of orange and yellow and red; Frisk lets go to whirl and see what Gaster's face looks like.

[voidedman]

He likes hand holding, it reminds him of... happier, more solid times.

The specter keeps up easily enough after just a moment, simply phasing through things that get into his path. There is a great deal of curiosity about this garden, honestly. All this eagerness over it! It must be quite the sight.

And indeed... it is. Instead of a sea of gold and yellow, it's a cascade of rainbow. All sorts of flowers that he could only recall in his distant memories of the surface. There are trees, and he remembered how they shifted colors as the fall months came.

He'd be speechless in any regard, but he doesn't move, staring at the sight in silent wonder, almost childlike in awe.

[dustless]

They fling their arms up, teeth flashing in a huge grin. Even after the rest of the month's disasters, watching a monster see the Surface for the first time (they think) is quite refreshing. Cheering, even.

"It's sunniest here. An' my favorite place. You like it?" they sing-song.

ayy guess who's just had a Very Bad Time with another Gaster? lemme know if this is okay or not

[itstheend]

Chara wants to hide. They want to curl up in a corner and just stay there, alone, until they die of starvation (can skeletons even do that?). That would be ideal. Just. They do not want to meet anyone, at all, any more, today, or maybe ever.

So of course, they run into him again.

Their steps slow, turn into as quiet a padding towards him as much as they can manage with bare boned feet - quiet rasps they internally wince at. They slowly draw their weapon as they do - a stick that has had the tip broken off. Doesn't matter what it is. Anything can work against a monster.

Frisk won't forgive them if they kill, but they are done with that, right now. If they strike him from behind they can cut things short right now.

ooooohhhh nooooo

[voidedman]

Of course. Chara is not a person he ever really wanted to meet. Skeleton or otherwise. Sadly for Chara, if anyone would know what tiny bone feet sound like attempting to move silently, it'd be Gaster.

They would get a seconds long look over his shoulder, before a hint of panic appeared on that white face. There was a sound, like computer programs being forcibly deleted, a terrified chirp-

And he'd seem to vanish into a sea of pixels.

[itstheend]

He vanishes, before they can even get a hit in. MISS.

Chara hisses in self-directed anger through their teeth, sluicing air. Too slow, or not quiet enough.

...but at least he's gone, for now. Taken some kind of shortcut, it seems.

They spend a moment to wave the stick through the air where he was just to make sure, feeling very stupid while doing so, but having to check.

[voidedman]

He was still there.

In a sense.

A few feet away, the air condensed, the shadows coalescing into a proper form again. A bit like a dissolve sequence in a computer program. It seemed he still existed outside of reality, to an extent.

Just enough to give it the appearance of a shortcut.

And goodness did he look alarmed, resting a thin hand over his chest, over his SOUL, and drifting back a bit.

[itstheend]

Chara is also very alarmed, although their alarmed state tends to resemble a cat puffing up.

"Hold still," they hiss, thinking they're throwing his own words back at him. "This won't take long."

And then they lunge, racing forwards for a stab.

They know he has some relation to Sans, and therefore are fully expecting to MISS again. That's why the stab is a feint, and they turn it into swipe at a location they think it's likely for him to appear.

They could be entirely wrong, but they're burning within.

[voidedman]

The teleporting is more due to panic and errant destabilization, he's not enjoying this particular form of dodging. They'd MISS anyway, he had always been uncannily fast, low HP aside, but he was terrified that he'd vaporize into nothing and simply not come back again.

The wraith flickered out of existence again with a terrified, screeching, glitch like sound. He had to fight back, he couldn't let himself keep being scared out of reality.

So sadly, for Chara, when he came back, not only did they MISS again... but there was a blaster in place of the scientist.

A massive, green eyed blaster, bigger and far more advanced than the ones they might have been familiar with.

And the massive green beam charging in its fanged maw didn't look friendly.

[itstheend]

Chara manages to twist and avoid physically hitting the blaster with a curse. This is the price for throwing out the concept of turns; throwing out the concept of turns. There's the unmistakeable sound of the charge and-

gold hallway economic movement up down up side down the smell of burning hair and their own cooked flesh they say human tastes like pork

-they freeze, eyelights tiny dots.

Paralysed by two conflicting instincts that have been hammered into them by hard experience - go for green and avoid the blast, they take the full brunt of the hit, enough they're sent skidding back.

They get up.

They've. They've beaten tougher. They think. But not at this LV. They've lost the element of surprise. Their resolve wavers. They growl at Gaster, and lunge forward anyway. They can't let him get away with this.

[companiontor]

Gaster has the honor of being the first person to see Idlei like this, though it's not a big one.

She's small--a snake swimming in the air, made of wisps and rings of light, almost a simple multicellular creature. Little pings and short notes ring out as bits of music, an odd thing from such a simple-looking being, and yet, she shines in the shadows of the graveyard. Circles around Gaster once, twice, and sings.

[voidedman]

Oh! What a strange little creature. He'd not seen anything like this in the Underground before, and he couldn't help but stare in wonder for a moment, before smiling. Oh how lovely she was though. Simple, but pretty.

It reminded him of the symmetrical, glass like single celled creatures he'd found in water once. Delicate and fascinating.

There didn't seem to be a need for words, though he did try to reach out to gently touch the snake.

[companiontor]

Hard white light seems to have a feeling, which is to say a cold feeling of soft metal. A hard and solid surface bendable under one's hand, though the individual parts of her body dip somewhat to suit his touch, same as space-time bends under the force of gravity.

Idlei hums a greeting, if Gaster is able to understand the nuances of simple sound.

[voidedman]

He could understand... she made a sound! He was no master of other languages, simply his own and the general monster language. It sounded pleasant however, how he'd imagine a greeting from a creature like this would sound.

So there was a pleasant, if digital sounding chirp from his part. A bit like a watch going off for a second.

What a pretty sound you made, light snake.

[companiontor]

Her next sounds like if a bird's chirp was tossed into a shallow, warbly metal drum. She dashes towards the end of the graveyard towards the castle, slowing quickly to a stop near the edge. Idlei turns back to face Gaster, her rings flipping. She calls beckons him with another song. ~ ♪

[voidedman]

Well clearly, the snake wanted him to follow. Seeing no reason not to trust the serpent, he tags along behind her, softly chirping back. Still digital, maybe it was a computer program sending an error message. That's what it sounded like.

[companiontor]

She doesn't reply until the castle comes jnto sight through the trees and fog. She hums, looking back towards Gaster, before drifting to a nearby entrance. She's glad that someone else can communicate like she does--everyone else uses that singular strange language. (The paper one does not count.)

[shadowsangel]

The graveyard shouldn't be the place that draws him to the most, even after wandering about the rest of the castle halls, and yet once more Ryou finds himself aimlessly passing by nameless tombstones, occasionally running a hand over one to feel the aged stone. For a moment, he was too distracted by wondering if he should start collecting the bones of the birds littering the path before he realizes once more, he's not alone.

At first, he has to wonder if it's a wraith of some sort haunting the graves, perhaps his own, but that's silly nonsense. Especially when the poor man seems as confused as he still feels. And... was that... glitching? Can a living creature actually do such a thing?

"Pardon me, but are you alright?"

[voidedman]

He'd look like a wraith, wouldn't he? White face, black body and thin, skeletal hands. He seemed close to a skeleton, a bit smoother and less jointed than one.

And he seemed deeply alarmed to catch sight of a human, drifting away from Ryou a few feet as he leveled that single working socket on him.

A concerned chirp or two, before he raised his hands and began to speak.

I am lost.

In sign language.

Please do not be concerned.

[shadowsangel]

Ryou's hands immediately come up in a gesture to show he means no harm when the other backs away from him, a small smile he hopes is somewhat polite coming to his face even as he sees the other attempting to communicate.

"I'm sorry but... I don't quite know very much sign language. I didn't mean to startle you. Is there anything I can do to help?"

[voidedman]

Great. Well this got complicated. Everyone at home understood the scientist just fine... When... he'd been real, at least. But then, he supposed not all humans would have a grasp of MSL.

... Monster Sign Language. Of course.

Well now he just looked at a lost, wringing his skinny hands and looking helpless. How is he to answer?