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

[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.