DR. ALPHYS

"Why can't I remember what I named my cats. I have... five? Six? Perhaps I should go see a doctor."

"You, ah... Are you feeling okay? Have you hit your head, or... do you have memory problems?"

"Th... The forbidden fruit test?" Alphys scratches her chin. "Is... is that anything like the T... Turing test?"

But with Alphys’ attentive eye, he knew he couldn’t fool her for too long. “Uhm, well, you see…”, he stuttered, fidgeting with and clicking the child-safety lid of the medicine bottle he was holding. “There has been an few cases of emergencies lately that required a little more attention than usual.”

"There... there have been?"

Alphys thinks for a moment. She hasn't caught up with her co-worker lately.

"Um. I guess I've missed a few things, huh. You, uh, you're not in trouble or anything like that, we just, uh, should put in a request soon. Yeah."

If the swim coach she's been spending time with lately were here, she'd encourage Alphys to stand up for herself, but right now, she doesn't feel like she knows Zandik well enough to interrogate him.

"Uh, you know, the... the administration's really cracking down on security here, because of these disappearances..."

There are three particular cases that come to mind, all of whom Alphys has seen recently: Crystal, a drama professor and wife of the comedian Snowseph Drake; Shyra, a music major with her sister, Shyren; and Muttler, a student of veterinary science. All three of them have gone missing.

A dull-eyed stare; Uzi's been playing Balatro on the clock again. It's easy to slack when no one can see what's on your HUD. She blinks a few times, finally remembering what she's supposed to be doing.

"Oh, yeah. I do maintenance stuff, mostly. Behind the scenes work. Engineering. Y'know, tech work. Don't like to brag, but I'm super good at it," she brags. "But yeah, Tenna's like..."

What's the most eloquent way to phrase this? Something that really encapsulates her relationship with her TV-headed boss?

"...My gay uncle."

Perfect. But while Uzi gives herself a mental pat on the back for her way with words, she can't help but shake the nagging feeling of familiarity that comes with this big lizard.

"But yeah, Tenna's like... my gay uncle."

"Um, I'm sorry, he's, um... He's like your what?"

The probability of Alphys writing fanfiction about her boss (again) just went up a thousandfold. She just needs to find the right partner for him...

Stop getting distracted, Alphys! Pay attention at work!

"... Oh, yeah! We, uh, met briefly, I think. That's pretty cool about your, uh, engineering and things... And if I were a background character, then I'm pretty sure that they wouldn't g-give me lines."

Good one, Alphys. Great line.

"Um. And I have a name, too," she adds. "I'm Alphys! I, uh... What's yours?"

There's a beat.

A greedy digimon that knew where the shining gems were, where everything was perfect and he dug and dug himself to safety. Every moment spent finding the safety of other pain.

"Well, I certainly don't have anything kind to say there. A war between two nations with history unknown, if I was a historian I would have been more interested. But I focus on the future instead."

"N... No. I don't hate humans. If anything, I'm grateful to have met the human who fell down. Because of that human, I became a better person..."

"And without humanity, we wouldn't have anime!" That's the really important part!

"But no, ah, seriously. I know my life would've been very different if I had grown up on the surface. But at least we're there now, and maybe future generations won't end up repeating the past?"

"I won."

"Oh— Oh my god! Are you okay?!"

Alphys has seen some pretty rough sights whenever she passes by Skullrender on the way back from work, but she's never had to deal with them herself. After the initial shock passes, her medical training kicks in.

"You— You need to get some ice on those bruises as soon as you can! Let me just, ah, see what I have..."

"he's a monster born from a human soul. Isn't that something!" Of course without the lack of digital monsters around, its the simpliest explanation he could give because he's not ready to give out the secrets of e pulse just yet.

"W-whoa! That's, uh, that's really something! I've never heard of anything like that before."

"Was he, um, born from your soul?" she asks, then realizes that might be a sensitive subject. "But if not, um, I mean, you don't have to tell me if that's... if that's too personal to ask, or anything."

She stands there in awkward silence for a moment. When Arslen asks about her past, Alphys looks down at the ground, where another monster is said to be lying in wait.

"... Um. No, it was, um. It was forced. In my world, a very... very long time ago, humans and monsters were at war with each other, and monsterkind... lost. So they sent us all there."

Actually, it's kind of cringe to use those terms in this situation.

Alphys notices the turnkey on the woman's back. She had passed it off as elaborate cosplay at first, but now she's not too sure, given what she just told her.

"Oh, uh... s-sorry, I didn't know that I was talking to, uh, a genius here," she says.

"He's quiet too big to be seen above ground, you see."

"Oh, uh... y-yeah, in that case, I— I guess it's safer if he's not above ground? M-maybe he could dig to, uh, outside the city, like to the outskirts, then — or you could let him rest. Heheh..."

She definitely doesn't want to be responsible for the destruction of a city block! Swallowing a lump down her throat, Alphys decides to change the topic.

At the mention of robots, Burnice's eyes lit up.

Alphys sighs. She knows that if Undyne were here, she wouldn't stop fighting until they found a way out. And she knows that Mettaton must miss his cousin Blooky, too.

When the bartender brings up a new turn of phrase, Alphys blinks a few times.

"Y-yeah, I'm, uh, sure you didn't," she says with a smile that implies that she did.