MagiStream

(Same, so yeah, absolutely)

Alia awoke rather earlier than Chara would have expected after the long and confusing day she had the previous day. Though, they had always struggled to get much sleep in unfamiliar places themself, even their first few days with the Dreemurrs, so they were not too surprised. Chara had not attempted to sleep whatsoever, but did not feel tired, and so assumed that as a ghost, they did not need to sleep. Either that, or they needed so little that staying up like this was not enough to affect them. Anyway, their thoughts were interrupted by Alia suddenly saying, "Good morning, Character."

"Good morning, Alias," Chara replied, looking over at her from where they had been floating above a chair. Considering they were going to be floating either way and could not interact with furniture, they did not really need to, but they figured Alia might find it amusing. She giggled, so they had probably been right.

"Do you think the others are awake yet?" Alia asked, looking a bit nervous. She did not want to disrupt anyone who was still sleeping by going to make breakfast... Though now it was not out of fear of irritating her parents, but rather out of not wanting to bother the kind family that had taken her in.

Chara listened carefully. They had always had an excellent sense of hearing, and it did not appear to have been negatively affected by becoming a ghost... Somehow. They were not sure why, but they decided not to question it. It sounded like there were, in fact, noises coming from one of the other rooms, so there was definitely at least one other person awake. They were not sure about everyone, but they relayed the information they did have to Alia.

Alia nodded. Well, if they could hear at least one person, she would hopefully be able to avoid bothering anyone... She stood and quietly opened the door regardless, heading towards the kitchen as quietly as she could. She spotted Sans down the hallway, and waved, smiling, but said nothing since she wasn't sure if anyone else was awake.

Sans smiled and waved back, walking over. "heya kid. sleep well?"

Alia nodded. Even if she had not slept in, she still felt well rested. "How about you?" she asked very quietly. She still didn't want to risk waking anyone up, even if it did not seem like Sans had when he spoke.

"yeah." Surprisingly, extremely surprisingly if Sans was being honest with himself, he really had slept a lot better than he'd expected to after everything that happened the previous day. Somehow, not a single nightmare- or none he remembered at any rate- so while he'd stayed up a bit later than he probably should have just thinking through a lot of stuff, he felt fine. "are you hungry?" When Alia nodded again, he smiled and headed for the kitchen, and she followed quietly.

The trio, though Chara was still visible only to Alia, soon reached the kitchen. Both Sans and Alia smiled when they saw Mira inside. Alia waved silently, while Sans spoke. "good morning."

Alia thought the pancakes smelled delicious... She never had any before, actually making them all by herself probably being a bit too dangerous due to the heat of the surface used to cook them, not that she had ever been taught how in the first place anyway. Perhaps she should try to learn sometime. She wondered if Mira would be willing to teach her someday. Though right now, she was more preoccupied thinking about all the things she needed to do today; visit Toriel, go back to the library and continue researching ways to help Chara... Maybe explore a bit more, she thought, eager to hear more of Chara's clever narrations.

(We operate on the same brain than xD)


Mira was planning on, at least hopefully, being able to do more research on monsters in the Kings library today so she could get a better understanding on how monsters worked and potentially be able to make some comparisons between human and monster Souls so she could have the slightest hint on how to aid in research towards the barrier, het knowledge being minimal compared to Alphys or Sans.


Yesterday felt like a complete blur to the girl, what with exploring Waterfall and finding that mysterious door that led to Gaster…and being knocked out by the magic he had used against her. Than there was Alphys who had told her that her Soul had been shattered…..she hadn’t really believed it and had been in a bit of a daze, trying to get off the table and everything when she wasn’t looking….


-God-, it was embarrassing…..



But there had been Sans, her faithful friend down here ever since the start who calmed her down enough for her Soul to be repaired by the same monster that had put her in that predicament….


Well, at least she could distract herself for a bit with cooking, right?


She could…but -something- about sweet Alia just couldn’t leave her mind either, it almost feeling like the child had something…-attached- to them? No, Mira didn’t believe in ghosts, but it was just a odd feeling that she was never really alone with the kid…..


‘It’s not a big deal, Mira, your nerves are just all worked up still’


The sound of footsteps coming down the hall letting her know that at least a few of the fam was up, Mira smiled to herself as she really wanted to see Alia be happy with the cute way she had set up their plate of pancakes, The child clearly needing a lot of love in their life to contend with their past on the surface.


Mira may not have been mother material but dammit she was going to try giving Alia the best life she could from now on.


“Good morning~ I made breakfast for everyone if you guys are hungry”, Mira figuring that the usually early bird Papyrus was just exhausted from yesterday and was sleeping in today, she wasn’t going to question it with…well, the whole fact that he was probably still processing as much as she was from yesterday’s ultra strange day, “I’m not the best but I-I hope they turned out good!”.

(XD)


Alia still had a lot of getting used to not having to make her own meals all the time to do, but for now she just smiled brightly at Mira and looked at the pancakes. There was even one that looked like a heart- or was it a soul? Either way, she thought it was cute. Still a bit nervous about waking up Papyrus or Gaster, she spoke quietly, "Thank you. I'm sure they're delicious!"

"thanks, they look really good," Sans added with a smile, trying to reassure Mira. Sans wasn't sure why she wasn't confident in her cooking abilities; everything she'd made so far with Papyrus had turned out well, which was honestly rather impressive considering how recklessly Undyne had taught him. Hopefully with a bit of encouragement, she would stop being so hard on herself... And Sans was going to try to be as encouraging as possible.

The two sat down at the kitchen table to eat breakfast, and Chara floated silently nearby Alia's chair. They did not want to draw any attention by saying anything Alia might react to, figuring at least Sans and possibly the others as well probably had some idea that Alia had an 'imaginary' friend after how they had tried to calm her down the previous day. It would be a good idea to lay low for a bit until they forgot about it. Though, Chara was not sure if Sans would forget about it. After all, he seemed very observant and would probably notice the smallest indications that Alia was listening to an invisible force...

Well, they would just have to deal with that if it came up. So far he had not said anything; maybe he never would. If he did, Alia could probably explain it away as an imaginary friend or something. Though, how well that explanation would hold up as she got older was uncertain... But then again, her ability to hide her reactions to their comments would probably improve as well. Hopefully enough that even Sans would not notice.

Sans and Alia were eating their pancakes, and complimenting Mira on how skillfully cooked they were, when Gaster suddenly rushed into the room. "Sans! Are there any blueprints in the house? This is urgent!"

Sans chuckled. "once a scientist, always a scientist, i suppose. just a second." Sans disappeared from his chair, and reappeared only about fifteen seconds later with a few sheets of blueprints. "here ya go."

In the meantime, Gaster seemed to have noticed Mira and Alia were also in the room, and looked rather embarrassed that they had witnessed that. "Ah, good morning, Mira, Alia. I apologize for the interruption, I've had an idea I need to write down..." As Sans reappeared, he accepted the blueprints. "Thank you."

Alia waved, relieved that she did not appear to have woken Gaster up, though apparently his idea had. "Good morning," she spoke quietly.

Sans chuckled again as Gaster headed over to the table and immediately began scribbling down barely legible words onto the blueprints. Honestly, Sans was amazed Gaster could even read his own blueprints sometimes. At least, the ones that were written so quickly like this. Sans wondered what his idea had been, but knew better than to interrupt him while he was writing it down, and went back to his pancakes like this was completely normal.

Maybe deep down Mira had always kind of wanted to be a mother of sorts, or at the very least a teacher who could help the youngest among those in beed of guidance. Now, the girl didn’t exactly have much of that in her own life, what with tumbling down into the Underground due to wanting to b e -away- from her overprotective family, but…at least down here she felt wanted and like she had a purpose…..no matter how out of place she felt.


Once she and Alia helped monsters get to the surface Mira hoped to usher in a new age of understanding between monsters and humans with all she had learned, the naive girl not really giving much thought on -why- humans had sealed monsters down here in the first place nor whether they would accept such a species back into normal society.


The rather woozy spectacle of her constantly trying to leave the Alphys’s lab table yesterday due to being inebriated by the concoction she had been given was all but lost on Mira’s memory now, all of this seeming like a new beginning to the girl now that, for better or worse, she had reconnected her two skeleton friends with their scientist father by sheer accident.


“I’m glad you like it~ My mother taught me how to-“, Mira smiling at Alia’s comment on how good her cooking was just as Gaster made a sudden appearance out of the blue…for well, blueprints, the girl was cut off as she assumed something was wrong with his tone of voice, her dark eyes wide as she half expected there had been a lab accident.

G….seemed the type that it happened quite a bit with. (Like father like son~)


“U-Uh, you seem quite on edge this morning, are you okay?”, Mira tilting her head as she nodded to a plate sh had prepared for him as well, Mira smiled nervously as she popped a bite of food in her mouth, “Not to interrupt, but it just feels right to ask, for uh….new friends sake?”.

Gaster at first appeared entirely focused on what he was writing on his blueprints, as though anything going on around him was simply going in one ear and out the other. Thus, his response to Mira's questions came a minute or two after she'd initially asked them, as he finished scribbling something and appeared to mentally return to where he was. "Ah, I'm sorry," he spoke with an apologetic expression. "I tend to get rather carried away when I am focused on my ideas, you see." After a few moments pause, as if recalling what she had said while his mind was off in 'write your idea down as fast as you can' mode, he continued, "There's nothing to worry about, truly. Rather than being on edge, I was merely... Enthusiastic, I suppose you could say, about putting my thoughts down on blueprint."

Sans chuckled with a reassuring smile at Mira. "i have a feeling you'll see him like that a lot. if it makes you feel any better, he wasn't trying to ignore you or anything. just got really focused, right dad?"

"Indeed," Gaster agreed, looking apologetically at Mira again. "I'm very sorry if it seemed like I was ignoring you." Now finished with scribbling down his thoughts, he turned his attention to the plate of pancakes before him. "Oh, these look delicious!" Smiling, he picked up a fork and took a bite of the pancakes, before adding that they tasted great.

Alia had been silent, just watching Gaster curiously while quietly eating her pancakes. She was rather curious what he was working on, but kept this to herself. After all, she didn't want to draw attention to herself when it wasn't necessary. She noticed Chara float a bit closer to the blueprints and look at them curiously, but they seemed to be having trouble reading them. Alia didn't blame them, from where she was sitting the words all looked like scribbles. She was half-convinced Gaster himself wouldn't be able to read them, but figured he was probably so used to it he'd still be able to.

Sans glanced over at Alia to see how she was doing; she seemed comfortable enough and he didn't want to draw attention to her, so he turned back to Gaster. "we should visit the king soon."

"Ah, yes, certainly." Gaster agreed absentmindedly, turning back to his blueprints after finishing off his plate of pancakes. As he read over them, he frowned slightly with a hint of confusion in his expression as his eyelights seemed to read over one section over and over. "I really need to work on my penmanship," he muttered to himself.

Alia giggled quietly upon realizing he had, in fact, been unable to read part of it. Chara laughed as well, causing Alia to grin. Sans snickered as he came to the same conclusion.

Gaster sighed, gathering the blueprints. "I'll figure it out later. I have a lot of explaining to do this morning."

Sans had finished his own pancakes, and nodded. "yeah." Standing and taking his plate to the sink, he then spoke to Mira and Alia with a smile. "i'm gonna go with him, but feel free to call me if you need anything."

Alia smiled back and nodded, figuring this would be a good opportunity to visit Toriel. She hoped she wouldn't arrive too early, though she figured it was late enough that Toriel would probably already be awake.

Mira was well aware of the fact that she and Alia were outsiders to the Underground no matter how comfortable they got with monsters and living in this strange, cavernous world, but she wanted to truly make the most of this and assist in somehow finding a way to be free their new friends with the assistance that a human perspective on things could likely give.

Would...a 'human perspective' really change anything though? Mira wasn't sure and she didn't want to give anyone false hope, but she had somehow managed to literally find the former Royal scientist by chance so maybe there was the potential that she could stumble into -more- 'luck'?

The first thing she needed to do was to make friends with this third member of the skeleton family despite their odd and dangerous circumstances of meeting, her peeking at the blueprints he seemed engrossed in curiously despite not understanding what they met.

"Oh! I understand. I'm the same way when it comes to things I'm into as well~ Reading, cooking, painting....sometimes you just kinda make your own little headspace", Mira smiling kindly as she, if anyone hadnt realized yet, was a bit of a cloud headed ditz, her cheeks warming up proudly as G said her cooking was excellent.

It took a moment for Mira to realize that young Alia was being quieter then usual seeing as she figured the kid was just eating, her glancing a bit worried at the girl as she cleaned some dishes, listening to G and Sans discussing the business of meeting the King sooner then later.


Oh yeah....she hadn't really seen him herself apart from the very first day she had fallen down and he had introduced her to the denizens of Hell, the offer of a room in the castle having been there if she had not decided to stay with the skeleton.

Today Mira had her own plans as well and was really wanting to check out the area of Waterfall she had seemingly stepped into a void with more closely for clues on what had occurred, her nodding her regards to Sans when he said he was going to go with G for the day.

"Be safe~ I will check up on Papyrus soon if he doesn't wake up", Mira putting the last of the dishes away as her thoughts drifted to the youngest of the skelebros and how all of this may have been effecting him, she wasn't sure how old Papyrus was but either way just finding...out your dad was kinda just stuck in a infinite loop of reality your entire life couldn't have been easy....

Gaster smiled at Mira when she spoke about understanding how focused he often got when it came to science. Nodding at her comment about it being like being in a private place in his head, he took note of the interests she listed. Still feeling quite bad about the whole incident in the Void, he hoped to find a way to make things up to her a bit more. Though, of the activities she listed, the only one he was particularly good at himself was reading, him not exactly being an excellent chef or an artist. Perhaps he could find or create some art supplies for her, though?

Well, that was something to consider later, as he really needed to focus on the rapidly approaching meeting with King Asgore. Smiling at Mira and Alia, he waved before heading towards the door. "Thanks again for the pancakes. See you later."

Sans smiled and waved as well, with a grateful nod to Mira when she mentioned checking on Papyrus. "thanks. we'll be safe, don't worry." Truthfully, he was wondering why Papyrus hadn't made an appearance yet; usually his brother was the one rushing about in the morning, either to make breakfast or prepare things for his latest puzzle ideas. While he would have liked to check on him himself, he knew he should accompany Gaster for his meeting with King Asgore. Besides, he figured Papyrus was probably still tired from the events of the previous day, and would be much less embarrassed by Mira finding him resting later than usual than if Sans did.

Of course, Sans wouldn't have made a big deal about it or anything. After all the times Papyrus had yelled at Sans for being lazy, though, he might not like the idea of Sans finding him being a bit 'lazy' himself. If there was something more serious going on, he was sure Mira would call him. Worrying about his brother now when he needed to focus on the upcoming meeting would only stress him out. Still, he would try to check on him after the meeting. Assuming something else didn't come up, which he hoped it wouldn't. The past 24 hours or so had been far too eventful already.

"Bye," Alia spoke up quietly, seemingly nervous about waking Papyrus up as far as Sans could tell.

"see ya," Sans gave her a reassuring smile before following Gaster out of the house. Though the two teleported to King Asgore's castle almost immediately afterwards.

As often happened, Asgore answered the door with a watering can in hand; he'd likely been about to tend to his garden. "Good morning," he said when he noticed Sans, though he paused in shock when he realized Sans hadn't come alone. The taller skeleton standing behind him seemed familiar somehow, though Asgore couldn't figure out exactly why. Shaking off the confusion, he managed not to appear too startled as he invited the two in.

"heya. i'm guessing you don't remember gaster, then?" Sans asked, looking a bit concerned about Asgore, who apparently hadn't been able to entirely remove the confusion from his expression. Of course, Sans wasn't too surprised by this; even Papyrus hadn't remembered his own father, so it wasn't really that strange that Asgore didn't remember him either.

"Ah, no, I'm afraid not," Asgore said, looking apologetic.

"Don't worry, that's quite expected, really. Nearly everyone else has forgotten about me as well," Gaster replied reassuringly. "I was the previous Royal Scientist, until one of my experiments had a mishap that resulted in me ending up in the Void. Sans only recently managed to figure out how to bring me back."

Asgore paused, thinking back. Well, he had to admit he didn't really recall anything about who had been the Royal Scientist prior to Alphys, and Gaster had seemed familiar in some odd way in that he had no idea why. This would explain how he had almost no knowledge of someone who was supposed to have been working closely with him for years.

Managing to pull his thoughts together, Asgore smiled. "Well then, welcome back."

"Thank you." Gaster smiled, relieved that things were going well. Initially, he'd been worried Asgore would ask a bunch of questions-

"Of course, I have a few questions," Asgore continued. Gaster managed to hide a sigh.

.....

Alia decided a few minutes after Sans and Gaster had left that it was a good time for her to get going as well. Smiling at Mira, she spoke (again, quietly, so as not to wake up Papyrus), "I think I'll go for a walk. I'll be back later today. See you!" She waved before heading to the door, followed by Chara.

The two walked through Snowdin towards the large door that led to Toriel's house. Chara told some puns along the way, and sometimes, when both were certain none of Snowdin's inhabitants were in hearing range, they talked. Soon, though, they were back in the forest, where Alia was quite glad Chara had the paths memorized and could lead her among the many, many trees in the correct direction.

Alia was almost certain she would have gotten lost at least once if not for her guide.

By the time the two reached the door, Alia felt confident it was late enough that she wouldn't be waking Toriel up, which gave her the courage to knock on the door. Hopefully, seeing that she was sticking to her promise to visit, and the fact she had been fine yesterday, would mean Toriel wouldn't worry about her exploring anymore.

(Mine is SO short compared to yours since its just Toriel greeting and looking over Alia xD She is quite happy to see her child again tho!)


For as kind as she was towards those that once in a blue moon fell into the Ruins and those she met outside on her rare excursions out to Snowdin, Toriel was very much a worrywart and was still nervous about Alia and where they had gone off to ever since leaving home, her knowing that Sans would protect her....but her being aware of the many elemental dangers too that didn't involve monsters.

There was the potential to get lost in Snowdin forest, fall into a river in Waterfall,
Trip into a geyser in Hotland....

But Alia was a smart child, that much Toriel knew. The kindly goat mom was just hoping to be able to see her child soon though to check them over and feed them (a growing child needed good food made with healthy fire magic after all, human or monster).

As usual, the goat mom had made a butterscotch cinnamon pie as well as a few other desserts to pass the time, there only being so many books and the like that one could read when cooped up from the rest of the Underground.

The sound of a echoing knock at the Ruins doors alerting Toriel as she perked up from her reading chair, whether it was a sixth sense or not the goat mom seemed to know right away it was Alia (and a lesser known ghostly companion) as she went to greet her dear child and bring them in from the cold, her huge arms wrapping around Alia in a warm embrace as a smile graced her face.

"My child, it doesn't seem your hurt at all from your adventuring", Toriel naturally looking over Alia up and down as she led the youngster out of the cold, If she knew that Chara was lingering about she would have surely been brought to tears at knowing, at least on some level, they were still around, "Please, tell me about everything you have seen and done, you must be exhausted~".

(That's totally fine ^^ I had a lot of characters interacting in my last post )

Alia smiled as Toriel opened the door, relieved to see that she did, in fact, not seem to have woken her up. Sure, she doubted Toriel would have minded, but Alia still preferred not to cause any issues for others. She was glad to see Toriel seemed happy, and hoped that seeing she was fine was easing any worries Toriel might still have about letting her go off to explore the Underground. She was happy to see Toriel as well; even if Alia didn't feel quite right staying in her home since she didn't want to 'take over' the room that belonged to Chara and their brother, she liked the kind and caring monster a lot.

Hugging Toriel back, Alia nodded at her comment that she didn't seem hurt. Alia hoped that this was reassuring Toriel that she had made the right choice and that she didn't have to worry about Alia when she was exploring. "Yeah, I've been very careful," she replied, following Toriel inside. Glancing at Chara, she was glad to see they seemed happy about seeing Toriel again, but also felt a bit guilty that they still couldn't communicate with her. Logically, she knew it was unrealistic to think she could solve the problem in just a day, even if she spent the whole time in the library, but she wanted to help her best friend as soon as possible...

Reminding herself that she could go back to the library again later that day, she felt a bit better about things and very determined to figure out a way to help Chara communicate with the monsters, even if her goal might be a bit unrealistic timewise.

Focusing on Toriel again, Alia smiled at her request to hear about everything she saw while exploring. Snowdin really was very cool- and not just because of the temperature, she thought with an internal giggle- so she could understand why Toriel would want to hear all about it. Though, she still wasn't quite sure why Toriel was so opposed to the idea of just going outside to explore herself. It probably wasn't any of her business, she figured, so she didn't ask.

Alia began with explaining about meeting Sans and telling puns with him and him showing her around Snowdin. She then explained about meeting Papyrus and trying his puzzle with all the doors- she decided against mentioning the first puzzle he had shown her, not wanting Toriel to worry at all- and then going to the library. Finally, she talked about meeting Mira and Gaster, and drawing animals with Mira.

She felt bad not including all the times Chara had helped her, since she was very grateful they were always there to help her out, but she didn't want to upset Toriel since she couldn't see Chara. So, she reluctantly left out their conversations and explorations of Snowdin, choosing instead to make it sound like she had only been exploring with Sans and Papyrus. Alia couldn't wait until Chara and Toriel could communicate, and she would finally be able to talk about spending time with them, too. But for now, she knew it would be better to only mention the people Toriel would actually be able to see and talk to if she decided to leave the Ruins.

Regardless, Alia hoped that hearing that she had been fine in Snowdin was helping Toriel feel better about her adventures. She didn't want Toriel to feel worried again when she headed back to Snowdin later.

"How have you been?" Alia asked, still not used to being the one talking for so long, though it was admittedly a bit easier when only one or two people were listening rather than a whole group.

Toriel truly did not want to leave Alia with how she hugged the human child in a warm, tight embrace for a few moments, the kindly goat mom excited to hear about what adventures Alia had been getting up to in this new world they had before them as she sat Alia on a comfy couch with a cup of cocoa.


As she listened, the former Queen had been previously unaware of the dangers that had fallen onto the -other- human with their exploration or how it had almost brought about their death and ended with the return of a old friend of hers, but that bit on Mira could all wait a bit, her gasping as Alia mentioned that the old doctor had reappeared after all these years.



Though, if only she knew that the spirit of her beloved Chara also lingered about Alia ever since they fell into the Ruins...it wasn't that Toriel thought her child rested uneasily, but....even just to talk to them again just once could have soothed her own, troubled Soul.




Of course, that wasn't possible though.



Toriel letting Alia talk all about their adventures in Snowdin with the friends they seemed to have made in the skeleton Brothers, she occasionally interjected with a question or two but overall let the happy child talk as much as they pleased, her Soul and even a bit of her worry being sated with knowing that no one actually seemed to want to -harm- humans anymore.



Maybe her overprotectivness was unwarranted?....



"Its been the same as usual here, dear. Nothing much ever really changes in the Ruins", Toriel sighing wistfully as she really didn't seem to show any of the inner sadness she felt with not venturing outside of the Ruins often, it was...better off if the larger Underground didn't know she was in here, but that wasn't something she was going to discuss with a child like Alia.




"Though, I do very much enjoy your stories on what Is going on out there, child. If you don't mind...the next time you wish to come here, please...feel free to invite a friend? Perhaps this fellow human you speak of?", Toriel -almost- tempted to potentially  maybe make a short visit to Snowdin to catch up with her old friend Gaster. She would need to do it sometime in the near future for sure, "Here, I should have given this to you sooner as well. I know this may not help a lot but it's just for you".


Toriel getting up to find a book on the old shelf that held many much used novels, the well worn book titled 'Beginning magic for human Souls', one that she had shared with Chara many years ago, was one she felt Alia might enjoy greatly, "It used to belong to someone very special to me so take good care of it, alright?".