MagiStream

//Alphys' Lab

Gaster could tell that Mira seemed unhappy as he approached, and he understood that this wasn't easy for her, so he decided to make sure he fixed her Soul as quickly as he could so she wouldn't have to deal with him being around for too long, though he would of course make sure he was careful while doing so. Even without what had happened in the Void, he knew he was rather tall and intimidating-looking. Noticing that she seemed grateful to Sans for staying nearby while she was healed, he was glad that she had a friend to help make this situation less uncomfortable.

As Mira spoke, Gaster nodded apologetically. "Yes... I was stuck there for quite a long time. Still, that does not excuse me going to such an extreme to try to return. I truly am sorry." Seeing she seemed apprehensive, Gaster did his best to seem less intimidating, and to show he really did just want to help. It was a surprise to hear Mira say she wasn't upset with him. Really, Gaster wouldn't have expected her to forgive him so easily, even before he healed her in fact. "Certainly. I will do everything I can to fix this."

When Mira managed a small smile and held out her hand, Gaster was astounded by the kindness she was showing, even though he had no doubt she was still intimidated by him. "You are incredibly kind," he said, shaking Mira's hand gently. Smiling reassuringly at her, Sans, and Alphys, Gaster immediately got to work on healing Mira's Soul.

While it was a complex process, Gaster was very careful and clearly knew what he was doing. It took a bit longer than he had hoped, but he didn't want to rush anything and end up hurting her more, so he avoided trying to rush the process. Sans stayed where he was the whole time, alternating between smiling reassuringly at Mira and watching Gaster work. Eventually, Gaster took a step back and announced he was finished. Mira's Soul was completely healed.

"I would still recommend taking it easy for the rest of the day, but this was a complete success and you should have no lasting issues because of it." Gaster explained, smiling. It was a relief to have been able to fix what he had done. Unfortunately, there were other things he had done in the past that could not be so easily fixed... The whole thing with the Determination Extraction Machine for one thing; Gaster very much regretted even creating the thing, considering what he had ended up doing... Well, he would not be repeating that, ever again.

Science and experiments weren't the most important thing, and Gaster understood that now, even if it had taken him far too long to reach this conclusion.

.......

Sans was extremely relieved when Gaster announced he was finished healing Mira's Soul, and he looked at Mira hopefully. "how do you feel?" Of course, he was sure Gaster had used the utmost care in healing Mira, but he still wanted to hear from her how she was feeling.


...........
//Snowdin

As Alia and Chara continued exploring, the two soon began a pun war. At some point, a monster approached them, grinning. "Are you practicing puns as well? I have some ice jokes if you'd like to hear them."

Alia nodded curiously. "Sure!"

Soon the two were exchanging puns and snow-related jokes, with Chara chiming in occasionally as well, though the monster, named Snowdrake, obviously couldn't hear them. Nonetheless, it was quite fun, until eventually Snowdrake had to leave.

The two continued on again, with Alia in high spirits. "The monsters are all so nice!" she said happily.

Chara nodded in agreement, smiling. "Yes, they are."

"Even Flowey, kind of." Alia added. She thought for a bit, before saying, "I wonder why he was asking so much about whether I was trying to go back to the surface."

Chara shrugged, looking just as confused. "I have no idea. Unless..." They trailed off, looking uncertain.

"What is it?" Alia asked, looking curious as well as a bit concerned.

Chara hesitated slightly. "You are sure you do not want to return to the surface?"

"Positive. I'd much rather stay with the monsters than the humans." Alia replied, before grinning cheekily. "Present company excluded, of course."

Chara laughed, before their expression went back to neutral. "Alright. Well, in order to cross the barrier, someone would need both a human Soul and a monster Soul. Maybe Flowey was trying to find out if you were going to..." They trailed off, seemingly unable to finish the sentence.

"Never." Alia replied with certainty. Seeing Chara relax, she smiled. "Anyway, let's keep exploring!"

"Yeah," Chara agreed, smiling back.

Mira may have been a usually happy and cheery type, even to the point of being naive sometimes, but her current melancholy state was well founded as she knew that she was in grave danger and that she didn’t have much of a choice but to let Gaster attempt to heal her Soul, her truly just wanting things to go back to normal so that she could just get on with life and -not- wander into mysterious doorways in the future again.

With Sans being by her side Mira was feeling a whole lot more confident than she would have otherwise, her having been through quite a bit with her skeletal friend down here as it was and her knowing that he could be trusted. Without him there was a high chance that Mira would have given up back in the forest with her broken ankle, the pair whether they knew it or not having a bright future on the surface someday to look forward towards with everyone else.

Her until now sad looking eyes brightening up quite a bit when the scientist accepted her hand shake of forgiveness, Mira wasted no time in allowing him to get to work on his mysterious method of mending a shattered Soul like her own, the sensation being...well, odd...but not the most painful thing she had ever dealt with luckily.

It was even odder still to see her Soul bared before her, the shattered and glassy looking pink heart struggling to keep itself together as Gaster worked his magic on it. Mira remained quiet for most of the experience, her trying to keep positive thoughts in her mind as she sensed it might help ease things along.

God, how had she ended up here of all places? It felt like some kind of trip to be honest still...she had truly fallen into a world of monsters that had taken her in desire her being a mere human and had treated her well, and here she was being healed once again by a scientist who would have otherwise likely been forgotten to history if not for her unexpected find in Waterfall.

Well, there would be more surprises to come sooner than later, Alia as well as Chara being out and about and exploring the Underground and having yet to meet Mira, the three sure to become friends in no time due to their similar circumstances.

Eventually, even thought it felt like a eternity, Mira finally heard those words that she so wanted to hear from Gaster when her Soul dissipated back into her body, the terrible aches and pains that she had been coping with being a mere bad thought in her memories now as she looked up at the skeleton hopefully.

“I can stand now, right?~”, Eager as always to be able to get up and do as she wished, Mira hated how her muscles had
basically became jelly when her Soul had not been fully healed, her having been confined to this damned table for her own sake, “Also, Thank you so much, sir! I don’t know what I-I would have done without your help!”.

The girl not even waiting for a answer as she slid off the table and hugged Sans tightly when he asked how she was feeling, Mira blushed happily and nodded as she was truly thankful for...everything that all of her monsters friends were doing for her sake, “I was so scared, Sans...t-that no one would be able to help...”.

...............

Meanwhile, it didn’t seem as if the oddly behaving Papyrus was doing any better then he had been earlier, the disgruntled looking skeleton just feeling incredibly ‘off’ for some reason that he couldn’t quite explain. Meeting that odd ‘other’ skeleton earlier hadn’t helped very much, him not understanding how another skeleton could have existed down here without him even vaguely knowing about it.

That, and he had known his -name-...Stars, that just made this whole issue even more unnerving....

The for once hoodie wearing skeleton returning to Snowdin to clear his mind, he had never been particularly fond of Hotland and lately had only been traveling to it to check up on Mira, him figuring that Alia was likely out and about and exploring her new home as he trudged through the snow while trying to get his active mind sorted out.

He would just ask Sans later since apparently the two seemed to know each other! Yeah, that would be best, his brother knowing basically every monster in the Underground and probably knowing how this mysterious skeleton had managed to stay ‘hidden’ all this time.

It didn’t take Papyrus to long to come across young Alia as he walked along, him still unaware that the child had a protector in the ghostly Chara as he assumed she was adventuring by herself through this expansive area of the Underground.

“Alia! Have you managed to stay out of trouble while I was gone?”, Hid permanent grin making it hard to tell what his current emotional state may have been, Papyrus, just as Sans with Mira, felt compelled to keep their respective human safe from harm and had a offer to make the likely cold child that he truly should have offered earlier, “If you like, me and my brothers house is a welcome place for you to stay at if you wish! I can’t imagine you want to live in the snow and ice like some kind of snow poof!”.

//Alphys' lab

Gaster nodded as Mira asked if she could stand up again; though he did think she should take it easy for awhile, he saw no problems that could arise from simply standing. It was a relief to see her in brighter spirits now that her Soul had been healed, and he smiled at her when she thanked him for healing her. "It was truly the least I could do."

Watching as Mira didn't even wait for his response before leaving the table, Gaster smiled at her eagerness to move around again. Clearly, spending an afternoon sitting around wasn't her idea of fun. Not that he could blame her; Gaster had never really been one to like sitting around for long periods of time, either. At least he'd been able to help, and she could move around again now.

The smile faded slightly as he heard how scared Mira had been; again he felt horrible, as it had been his fault her Soul had been damaged. Looking down, he silently moved away, towards Alphys, figuring he should let Mira and Sans talk now. Honestly, Gaster wasn't really sure what to do now; after all, healing Mira had been his main focus since he'd returned. Gaster had thought that he would talk with Papyrus and Sans, perhaps, but Papyrus didn't seem to recognize him at all, and had even seemed a bit uncomfortable...

Of course, Gaster really should have known that it might startle Papyrus to see another skeleton after spending so long thinking the only skeletons around were himself and Sans. Unfortunately, he'd been so excited to see Papyrus again that he hadn't really been thinking things through as much as he should have. Well, he'd have to explain everything next time he saw Papyrus... Gaster just hoped that he hadn't ruined things already.

Regardless, he managed a smile at Alphys, and asked, "How have you been, Doctor Alphys?" Truthfully, Gaster was quite curious to hear about what she had been working on while he was gone.

.....

Sans was glad to see Mira was able to stand without falling, though he'd of course believed Gaster when he said Mira's Soul was healed. A bit surprised by the sudden hug, Sans hugged her back a moment later. Hearing how scared Mira had been, he felt bad again, for not having found her sooner. Even though everything had worked out... Sans still felt horrible that he hadn't been able to find her before Gaster nearly took her Soul.

"we would have found a way. none of us would have given up until you were healed," Sans replied, sounding determined. There was no way he would have let Mira die. Surely between him and Alphys they could have come up with something, right? Well, at least they hadn't had to find out. Gaster had been able to heal Mira's Soul, and now everything could go back to normal, or what passed for normal over the past few days, at any rate.

Deciding to change the subject to something happier in hopes of driving those fears out of Mira's mind completely, Sans added, "i'm sure papyrus will be very glad to hear about your recovery. as well as the fact he'll finally be able to learn how to make lasagna." Sans chuckled a bit, hoping that humor would help her relax as it had a few times in the past.


.............
//Snowdin

Alia and Chara were walking in silence, just enjoying the peaceful aura of Snowdin, when Papyrus arrived. This was fortunate, since Alia had no idea how she would have explained herself if Papyrus had shown up while they were in the middle of a conversation. While Alia couldn't help but feel slightly sad that she couldn't speak to Chara for now, she was glad to see another friend, and smiled at Papyrus.

"Hi, Papyrus!" She nodded cheerfully when Papyrus asked if she had stayed out of trouble; hopefully, he would tell Sans, and then she could ask Sans if she could explore on her own some more later. Sans seemed very chill, so Alia doubted it would be an issue.

Alia was a bit surprised by Papyrus's offer that she could stay with the skelebros, especially on such short notice, but was certainly appreciative of it. She was sure she would feel comfortable staying there. She had become very close to Sans since meeting him, and was becoming good friends with Papyrus, too. Though, she also felt a bit guilty accepting the offer rather than staying with Toriel, particularly considering how much Chara probably missed her already...

Chara seemed to guess how she was feeling, and smiled at her. "Go for it. Really, I do not mind. You are still going to visit her, that is enough for me."

Alia very much wanted to hug Chara, and thank them for being so understanding, but knew that would only cause Papyrus to ask a bunch of questions she wasn't sure how to answer, and besides Chara was incorporeal, so she couldn't actually hug them anyway. For now, she just smiled, and nodded at Papyrus. "I would appreciate that, thank you."

She grinned at the comment about the snow poffs, recalling Chara's narrations about them earlier. Chara was grinning as well.

Mira truly feeling happy both inside and out as she was now a entire, very much full souled human again thanks to the help of Gaster, the numbing drug that Alphys had given her had only been able to do so much as her damaged Soul had been on its way to disappearing entirely until now and her pain had been returning slowly over the past hour or so in bouts, her having hid it from Sans so that he wouldn’t feel a need to worry about her more than he already did.

Mira was...good at masking pain when needed, her knowing how to put on a bright smile even when things seemed hopeless. In a way, she and Sans were more similar than they realized, the both of them hiding their pain behind laughs and smiles to avoid ever having to let it be known that they weren’t know to others.

Perhaps she was going to need to learn to be more careful with her word choices though. The last thing the girl wanted was for the monster that had just healed her to think that she thought he was some terrible demon from the void that was still going to try and hurt her for his own sake. She knew now that Gaster had no intention of hurting her and had...just been desperate to escape the Void he had been stuck God knows how long in.

“Yeah! A-and I can learn more cooking skills from him in the meantime”, Smiling brightly at Sans as the skeleton suggested that she could still teach Papyrus how to cook some new dishes, Mira was unaware of how on edge and off the usually happy monster had been acting as of late, “Speaking of Papyrus, has...uh, he been doing okay? I know he was pretty worried about everything earlier a-and I just hope he knows things will be okay now”.

Alphys meanwhile seeming to finally be able to relax a little now that Mira was actually healed and back to normal, the scientist had been gripping her mind for ways to ward off the girls injury until...better help could come along until now.

Truly, she hadn’t been fully sure if Sans would even be able to bring back Gaster from whatever Void he had been trapped in, the fact that her one time mentor was not standing beside her feeling like some weird fever dream that she was surely having due to stressing over Mira.

“Oh! Uh, t-things have been going alright Sir. O-of course, this is all...Ah, kinda a shock with you being here and all”, Shuffling a bit as she tried to find the right words rambling through her mind, Alphys had so much she wanted to show the now revived former Royal scientist and the progress she had made in terms of accelerating the DT extractor still located in the sub lab beneath them, “I guess what I mean to s-say is...welcome back, Dr. Gaster”.

.........................

The uneasiness that he had been feeling
lately only slightly beginning to subside as he reached the familiar grounds of Snowdin, Papyrus wasn’t sure if what he was feeling was connected to Mira or that mysterious skeleton he had encountered earlier as he just settled on it being a mix of both for now, him -truly- just wanting to feel normal again and now get off on the foot with Alia anymore.

What better way would there be to do that than giving the lost child a place to stay? After all, surely Sans wouldn’t mind seeing as they had plenty of room to spare and Alia was clearly in need of shelter. Besides, in a way the skeleton kind of wanted to make up for his unnerving behavior earlier as he assumed he must have gone a bit rusty on how to treat fallen human children properly.

“Excellent! We will take good care of you, Alia! My brother and I have experience with humans, you see”, His happy, constant grin seeming to widen a bit as Alia easily accepted his offer of living with him and Sans, Papyrus had kind of figured that the child would put up a fuss and want to stay on her own out of some strange, human sense of independence, “Our other human, Mira, resides in the garage but she is, well, just a bit ill right now so she is out in Hotland being treated. Of course, you will meet sooner or later and I’m sure you both will be excellent friends!”.

His one time cheery disposition seeming to return as he claimed that Mira and Alia would surely be friends, Papyrus was never the type to brood at all, something about Mira being healed, whether he knew it or not, seeming to have a positive effect on his worried Soul.

//Alphys' Lab

Sans was relieved to see Mira smiling brightly again and seeming more happy now that she was healed. Seeing that bringing up the subject of cooking with Papyrus seemed to cheer Mira up, Sans smiled genuinely back. Though at her comment about whether Papyrus was doing okay, Sans felt somewhat worried. Mira was right; Papyrus had been quite concerned about her earlier, and there was also the fact he'd been wearing a hoodie when Sans saw him last, which was highly unusual for him...

Maybe he should call Papyrus now, and let him know Mira was healed. It would probably help him feel better, if he had indeed been more affected by Mira's injury than he had been letting on. Either way, he'd probably want to know about it as soon as possible. "i'll call him and let him know you're healed. he'll probably run over here immediately and demand we make lasagna now." Sans chuckled to hide that he was a bit concerned about his brother.

After all, Papyrus had been acting rather unlike himself today... First how he'd acted around Alia, and then wearing a hoodie instead of his favorite outfit that he almost never took off... Hopefully, hearing Mira was healed now would help him feel better. If that was what had been causing Papyrus to act differently, he should be back to normal soon, right?

Still smiling at Mira, Sans took out his phone and called Papyrus. "heya bro. good news, mira is healed now!" Sans hoped that the news would be met by his brother's usual cheerfulness and demands to start cooking pasta together.

....

Gaster noticed Alphys relax and smiled, glad she wasn't stressed out about Mira's injury anymore, though he immediately felt bad again for being the cause of someone's unhappiness. Gaster sighed inwardly, though he was careful not to let his inner turmoil show on his face. From now on, he definitely needed to be more careful. No more making choices that would cause people pain. Even for science.

Gaster listened as Alphys began speaking, smiling encouragingly as she tried to find the words she wanted to say. Supposing it was only natural that his sudden reappearance would be a shock for most, Gaster wondered if perhaps he should lay low for a bit to avoid shocking anyone else; it was bad enough he seemed to have made Papyrus uncomfortable, he didn't want to bother anyone else.

"Thank you, Doctor Alphys. I am quite happy to be back, although I feel bad about the circumstances. Would you mind if I looked around the lab? I am quite curious to see what all has changed, if you don't mind." Gaster replied, glancing around the lab with a small smile. It was truly nice to be back here in the lab again.


.......
//Snowdin

Alia smiled as she saw that her agreement to stay with the skelebros seemed to have made Papyrus happy. She listened as Papyrus spoke, feeling somewhat confused about hearing that the other human lived in the garage, but decided not to question it. Maybe garages were smaller houses, rather than a place to store cars, in the Underground? She inwardly shrugged it off; she would find out eventually.

"Why does she live in the garage?" Chara asked, clearly confused. Alia wasn't sure whether they were just so surprised that they forgot Papyrus wouldn't be able to hear them, or they were hoping Alia would echo the question.

Before Alia could ask about it, Papyrus continued on, explaining that the other human was ill and apparently at the doctors' office or something. Alia hoped she was alright. She was inwardly still rather nervous about meeting another human, but she didn't tell Papyrus that. Besides, surely this human was nice, if the skeletons cared about her so much? Plus, Papyrus looked so cheerful as he said it...

Everything would be fine, Alia told herself. She was startled from her thoughts by Papyrus's phone ringing suddenly. She wondered who it was; maybe the human Papyrus had mentioned? Or possibly Sans. Alia wondered what Sans was up to, actually. Well, she figured he would show up again at some point.

(I love all the concern about him wearing a hoodie xD)

Mira being very much the type to worry a bit too much about the small things, it was only natural that she was going to see the usually ‘heroically’ clad Papyrus dressing normally for once as odd. Sure, it wasn’t exactly a big deal in the long run, but even when he had brought her books earlier he had seemed a little
absent minded and out of focus, her not having commented on it due to not wanting to put her friend on the spot.

Maybe something had happened with Undyne? No, that likely wasn’t it....perhaps he had gotten news of some kind that wasn’t particularly good? No, that didn’t really fit either seeing as Papyrus wasn’t really the type to keep things to himself m.

Well, whatever it was that was bothering him they were likely soon to find out, Mira waiting patiently as Sans decided to call up his bro to let him know that she had successfully been healed because of the work of Gaster, her not really thinking on the fact that the skeleton’s presence and who he was was going to be a major shock for Papyrus when he found out.

Her once dulling eyes now being bright and happy as she hoped to hear the excited voice of the typically cheery Papyrus on the other end, Mira had yet to meet Alia either, the day still being wide open to a whole lot of possibilities on top of meeting the mysterious Dr. Gaster.


..........................

Stars, this was so awkward....it wasn’t as if she had ever thought of seeing her old friend again like this just out of the blue, Alphys having resigned herself to seeing the disappearance of Gaster as simply another casualty of the dangerous work they had put towards attempting to destroy the barrier as much as she hated to think of it that way.

She...didn’t like to think back on how truly wrong things had gone on that day....

A-and now she wouldn’t have to anymore either, the renewed determination she felt in terms of having the intelligence of the doctor and him being back in the Underground to not just benefit studies on Souls but monsters as a whole taking a great weight off her shoulders in a way that she hadn’t felt in a long time.

“Of course, Sir! Take as much time as you need as well. I’ve been, uh, pretty busy lately and things a-are kinda scattered, but...Ah, yeah...there is probably a lot you might want to catch up on”, Alphys being more than willing to let her former mentor explore how the lab had changed ever since he had vanished, she secretly was hoping everything would be up to his exacting standards, “I do have something you might find interesting in the lower levels I would prefer to s-show you in private later....”.

.....................

Hmm...perhaps Papyrus was simply being a bit too direct with Alia seeing as she was so young and all, him not really giving much of a explanation as to why Mira was apparently living in their garage nor giving a reason as to why he wasn’t wearing his ‘battle body’ as he almost always did.

It was kind of a bad habit that Pap was trying to fix, him so often coming across as ‘odd’ due to lugging ideas or even comments onto others that tended to only make sense with a through explanation, Sans occasionally being there to do that part for him.


The last thing that the skeleton wanted though was for Alia to think of him in a even more confusing manner than he had already came across with his attempt to show her his puzzles earlier, him already trying to think of better ideas that would be more suitable for one her age that had no danger whatsoever.

There would be no more fire or saws or blades, nothing that could actually hurt Alia, and that included his ingenious balloon trap he had been working on as well.

“Excuse me, human! I must take this call”, Papyrus’s phone ringing rather unexpectedly as he was about to question Alia on if she had encountered Greater dog yet and if she had been pounced on or not if she did, the skeleton’s eye lights seemed to widen as Sans voice echoed through to him that there was very good news on Mira’s condition.

“Is she really?? That’s -wonderful-, Sans! I knew she was going to get through her illness!”, Grinning happily as he had never actually gotten the news that Mira’s Soul was damaged in the void, Papyrus had assumed she had contracted some severe illness somehow.

“Tell her when she gets home she is going to have the best pasta she has ever had! I even have young Alia here to assist me!”, Winking a socket at Alia in acknowledgment as he mentioned her name, Papyrus had very much missed the spunky Mira being around to help with things.

(Well, since he hasn't worn a hoodie (or anything other than is usual outfit, really) in such a long time, it's quite surprising. For Sans, at least. Alia just met him today so she has no idea this isn't usual for him, so she hasn't really noticed.)

..........
//Alphys' Lab

Gaster nodded, smiling reassuringly at Alphys as she mentioned she had been busy lately and things were rather scattered. Truthfully, he had often been somewhat disorganized himself while in the midst of important breakthroughs, so he was hardly likely to be judgmental about Alphys doing the same thing. Besides, he'd likely left things quite messy in the wake of his disappearance, having been too focused on what he was doing to worry about proper organization at the time of his ill-fated experiment.

"Thank you, Doctor Alphys," Gaster said. When she mentioned she had something to show him, he was quite curious. There had been various unfinished experiments he'd left behind, and he wondered if she had managed to complete one of them. Though, he felt a bit worried that it might have had something to do with the Determination Extraction machine, and if so, he would have to warn her that they shouldn't use it anymore.

After all, he'd told Sans he wouldn't try any more experiments that involved hurting someone, and as useful as extracted Determination could be, he knew it wasn't worth lying to Sans about. Besides, if Alphys did decide to follow in his past footsteps, it would likely drive a wedge between the two friends, especially since the only human Soul around here for Alphys to use was Mira's. And Gaster didn't want to see that happen.

But that was a conversation for later, and hopefully Alphys wouldn't need much convincing to leave the Determination Extraction machine alone. Gaster simply nodded again. "Certainly. I shall begin by exploring the upper levels, then." Gaster began wandering around the main floor of the lab, examining various equipment though he was careful not to touch anything that looked like an experiment in progress.

......

Sans smiled as Papyrus answered the phone, and sounded happy when he replied after Sans explained Mira was healed. It was a relief that his brother sounded more like his usual self again, as Sans had been getting rather worried about him. Hopefully, now that he was no longer worried about Mira, Papyrus would be back to his usual cheerful self for good.

Though, Sans was a bit confused by Papyrus's comment about Mira being ill; perhaps that was what Alphys and Mira had said was what was going on? Either way, since Mira was healed now, he saw no reason to tell Papyrus what had actually happened. Instead, he just replied, "yep, it's definitely wonderful news."

Sans chuckled at Papyrus's almost immediate subject change to pasta, this seeming like the most compelling evidence that Papyrus was fully back to his usual self. "i'll pass on the message, bro," Sans replied, though he wasn't sure if he'd actually have to considering his brother's natural loudness which meant Mira probably already overheard it. Still, he would let her know anyway, just in case.

Hearing Papyrus mention Alia, he was relieved to hear the newest human child in the Underground was apparently still alright. Sans did feel somewhat bad about disappearing relatively soon after meeting her when he was supposed to be guiding her around the Underground. Though he figured she would understand when he explained he was checking on an injured friend. Still, he'd need to find some way to make it up to her.

Sans hoped Alia wouldn't mind cooking with Papyrus, knowing that he got most of his cooking tips from Undyne and she tended to be quite chaotic about her cooking methods. Since they hadn't yet had their cooking lesson with Mira in charge, Papyrus likely didn't know much about the humans' way of cooking, and he worried that Alia might get a bit freaked out by Undyne and Papyrus's method.

She was only twelve, after all.

Hopefully by the time they started making the pasta, he and Mira would be back so he could keep an eye socket on them. After the phone call ended, he'd have to ask Alphys if they could head back home yet. Of course, she'd probably insist on him making sure Mira didn't try to do too much while she was supposed to be resting, but he was sure he could keep an eye socket on both Mira and Papyrus at the same time, right?


.............
//Snowdin

Alia nodded as Papyrus answered his phone, staying silent so as not to interfere with the call. Her internal questions were answered as Papyrus spoke up, addressing Sans. Alia was glad to hear the other human was alright now, and smiled as Papyrus eagerly promised to make pasta for the other human when she returned. Though she felt a bit nervous when Papyrus said she would help. Alia had never made pasta before, and she didn't want to mess up the meal which Papyrus was loudly declaring would be the best ever.

All she really knew how to make was instant ramen and similar meals; cooking pasta wasn't something she'd ever tried to learn since it involved boiling water on the stove which seemed a bit too dangerous for her to try to figure out on her own. It would probably be safe enough to learn how from someone who had practice with it, but still... What if she messed it up?

Chara seemed to notice her worry, even though she was trying to hide it, and smiled reassuringly. "It will be alright. I will do my best to help." Alia smiled back gratefully, though both knew there really wasn't a whole lot a ghost could actually do when it came to cooking. Still, just knowing someone understood how she was feeling and wanted to help was helping quite a bit.

Mira already almost back to being her old, bubbly self again as whatever healing magic that Gaster had used seemed to have done its handiwork on the petite girls serotonin levels as well, the previously doubled over in pain human now just wanted to show Papyrus that she really was healed and that there was no reason for anyone to worry about her at all anymore, the thought of going back to ‘normal’ life not being one Mira was bound to take for granted anytime soon.

She had, in a way, seen death flash before her eyes...the fact that her Soul had survived Gaster’s initial attack being a miracle in and of itself. The last thing the girl needed to do was to ever wind up in such a precarious position again, her heart sinking at how worried everyone, especially Sans, had been about her until this moment.

She...didn’t -want- others to worry about her....to be a burden....

The sound of Papyrus’s loud, excited voice filtering through the phone to the point that Mira could tell almost all of what he was saying, she hadn’t been around to observe the skeleton’s odd behavior earlier and was probably better off for it seeing as she was likely to take some, odd blame in it out of habit.

Mira having yet to have been told about the other fallen human though as a ‘young Alia’ was clearly mentioned on the other end of the phone, for now the girl pushed it off as she figured it was likely one of Papyrus’s monster friends he was with.

Oh, when Mira -did- find out about who Alia was though there was bound to be a whole lot of motherly instincts kicking in, the presence of a sweet but fearful child like them to care for being exactly what a soft hearted girl like Mira needed to keep her hopes up.

“Papyrus sure seems happy~”, Mira curiously watching as Gaster seemed to take a interest in Alphys’s lab while her and Sans were kinda left to just chat on their own, she barely knew the intimidating skeleton that was apparently the brothers father but knew she owned him her life practically, her simply being happy to see that he wasn’t the depraved beast still that she had wandered across in the Void.

God, she just wanted to wipe that encounter from her memory....whatever she had encountered there clearly wasn’t the same, kind monster that was now just interested in catching up to the science world that he had been deprived of for so long.

“Oh! Sans, I almost forgot...”, Mira tugging on the skeleton’s sleeve lightly as she whispered a terrible pun to the monster that she had been thinking of specifically to annoy the life out of Papyrus, Sans habit of being a pun master was clearly rubbing off on his friends sense of humor.

..................

Now that everything was clearly A-okay with Mira, Papyrus was finally able to shed the sense of heaviness and unhappiness that had began to settle into his soul over the course of the past day or so, him even feeling a bit odd now that he wasn’t in his ‘battle body’ and had opted to wear more civilian clothing like some weirdo.

Stars, what had came -over- him? It had been like...like...

He hadn’t been himself, either in mind or Soul.

None of that mattered now of course though, Papyrus still having one thing on his mind besides Mira or Alia that he had been wanting to question Sans about ever since he had encountered that mysteriously tall, black clad skeleton monster outside of the Hotland lab earlier.

Somehow, the monster had known his name despite there being no former interaction between them, the uneasy sense of vague familiarity he had felt still sending a shiver up the skeletons exposed spinal column.

“Sans! On a more serious note, I must ask...did you know that there are other skeletons down here apparently? Earlier I swear to you I talked to a dapper looking one right outside the lab!”, Papyrus -hoping- that his brother wouldn’t simply make some terrible pun out of his discovery, the lanky bag of bones was clearly excited to tell Sans about his strange encounter, him being fully unaware that Sans had been the one to in fact being this ‘stranger’ back into reality, “He just have been from the Capital! Me and you are surely the only skeletons around Snowdin or Waterfall!”.

Sans smiled and nodded at Mira's comment about Papyrus seeming happy. It was certainly a relief to him, particularly with everything that had gone on today. After all, Sans had a tendency to worry a lot, even if he did his best to hide that, and he'd been rather concerned about his brother's sudden change in demeanor while Mira was injured. Though he still wanted to check on Papyrus, just to make sure, it was good to hear that it seemed like he was happy and cheerful again.

When Mira tugged on his sleeve, Sans looked at her curiously, wondering what she had just remembered. It seemed like it was important, so he listened carefully as she whispered... An absolutely hilarious pun! Sans chuckled, grinning at her as he whispered back, "that was very humerus!" Of course, he was careful to speak quietly enough so Papyrus wouldn't hear; after everything that had happened today, Sans figured Papyrus deserved a break from the bad jokes, at least for awhile.

Well, maybe just a couple hours. After all, Sans couldn't go too long without telling a terrible pun or two, but he was going to try to give Papyrus a break for now. At least Mira liked the bad jokes, and Alia seemed to as well, so maybe later he could tell puns with them while Papyrus was working on puzzles or something. That seemed reasonable.

Returning his focus to the phone call with Papyrus as his brother spoke up, Sans listened as he explained about meeting Gaster in Hotland earlier. Sans wasn't exactly sure how to respond at first; should he just explain who Gaster was? It certainly sounded like Papyrus truly had no idea, even after seeing and speaking with Gaster. Apparently Gaster hadn't had a chance to explain who he was at the time; Sans supposed that was probably because he accidentally interrupted them to announce Mira was ready to be healed...

Well, Gaster seemed busy examining random stuff around the lab at the moment, so Sans figured it was up to him to explain. "oh, uh... that was actually our dad, bro." Sans hoped this wouldn't be too much of a shock for Papyrus, considering the day already had held several shocks. But he figured Papyrus wouldn't want him to not explain it, since he'd asked. Besides, he would have probably found out sooner rather than later anyway.

........

Alia did her best to stay quiet and out of the way while Papyrus was talking on the phone, not wanting to interrupt his conversation. However, she was getting somewhat bored just standing there. She couldn't even talk quietly with Chara, since if Papyrus noticed he would think she was talking to herself. Which would be very awkward, though she was starting to feel even more awkward just doing nothing.

Fortunately, Chara began narrating random stuff around her, which, as always, was absolutely hilarious. Alia had to stifle giggles multiple times, and hoped Papyrus wouldn't think to ask her what she'd been laughing about after his phone call ended. Alia wandered a bit away from Papyrus as Chara ran out of nearby things to talk about, careful to stay within sight in case Papyrus would get worried about her getting lost or something otherwise.

Soon, Chara was just telling puns, seemingly trying to get Alia to laugh without stifling her giggles. Their efforts only amused Alia more, so it didn't take them long to succeed. The two were soon grinning and laughing together, Chara not even needing to say anything since any time one of them managed to stop laughing, the other's laughter would prove contagious enough to make them start laughing again.

Sans habit of telling terrible puns having washed off on Mira over these past few weeks to the extent that she was thinking of ‘hilarious’ puns of her own in her downtime, the cheery girl had pretty much returned to her former self now that she had her Soul fixed, her just wanting to get back to learning more about the barrier and to meet more of the monsters that called this place home.

Sure, actually getting to the surface seemed like a long shot, but Mira was determined that there was a way to actually get herself and everyone to the outside world and show Sans the sun and the sky and everything else being kept away from monsters for who knows how long.

The girl going to sit back on the table as she watched Alphys explain some of her projects to Gaster while Sans continued to talk on the phone to Papyrus, to her everything felt the same as before...yes somehow incredibly different at the same time. It was like her going through that strange door had caused some kind of parallel that...may have been leaning towards some brightness arriving in this strange in the form of a particular third skeleton....

..................

Okay, so maybe he was a bit oblivious, but Papyrus really was curious to know who mysterious skeleton he had met near the lab actually was, the string bean of a monster not having gotten the hint that Gaster was in fact related to him by more than just being the same species. Sans was the one who had raised him after all, the once tiny skeleton having no real lingering memories of his father or what had led to his demise.

If anything, Papyrus would have been liable to think that he was just some monster he had never met before from the Capital or something rather than who Sans rather bluntly claimed he was, there being a long silence on the other end of the phone with the older of the brothers admittance as Papyrus was stunned into silence as he processed what he was told.

“U-uh...have you hit your skull somehow, brother? That’s a serious one, even for you!”, Laughing nervously as he kept a eye on Alia, Papyrus didn’t want to admit it but somehow in the back of his mind he knew Sans wasn’t lying, him letting out a breath as his bone brows knitted together unsure, “Our dad died forever ago, right? Uh...your really confusing me, brother”.