#cypyrus

Papyrus pushed himself to his feet, dusting himself off. He walked over to a puddle and looked into it, seeing half of his face was still shadowed, his eye glowing ominously.

"Still like this, hmm?" He sighed, placing a hand over his left eye in an attempt to cover it, watching the aura seep through his glove, "That's all right. Something else I won't forget."

He wondered if the Human would be back to Waterfall today, or if he should go to look for them. Papyrus remembered how they'd spared him and continued their journey of looking for more monsters to slay. It had been a tough pill to swallow, to realize that being slain would have been a preferable ending to being spared. Now he was all alone.

YOU'RE NOT ALONE, PAPYRUS. I'M HERE, TOO.

The skeleton let out a soft laugh, uncovering his eye, "I know you're here. I appreciate it. Always here to remind me of what I need to do. I'm glad you keep me on my toes, Cyprus."

THAT'S THE SPIRIT... ARE YOU GOING TO LOOK FOR THE HUMAN? YOU KNOW WHAT WE HAVE TO DO.

"No, no... I've already told you a hundred times, there's got to be a better way... You used to talk about timelines and resets and reloads. We just need to find them and get them to reload their save. I'm sure..." Papyrus' sentence caught. He was talking to himself again wasn't he?

No... That was clearly Cyprus in the reflection. He couldn't let reality sink in again; if he did, he'd remember just how alone he was. It wouldn't be right... He couldn't accept that he was all alone. It would be too sad. He still hated sad stories.

With a sigh, he walked across the puddle, suddenly summoning a circle of bones behind him, spinning them around in a slow clockwise turn. His eye glowed brighter, like a smoldering fire, and he began to practice his magic, not bothering to hold back. There was no one around anymore for him to accidentally hurt; though his control was still impeccable. As much as a part of him wanted to erase the Human like they erased Cyprus... he maintained his control.

For several hours he practiced, narrowing avoiding every Echo Flower, not wanting to hurt anyone, but at the same time... he wanted to hurt them so badly. It was tough existing like this. He wasn't used to having so much anger and doubt and sadness inside of himself, so he'd pushed it into a separate persona altogether... He'd only named it Cyprus because too often, Cyprus would become so angry, so protective of Papyrus... while the latter would try to reason or defend his attackers and befriend them. It seemed to fit.

Once he finally stopped, the surrounding area was quiet all over again. Papyrus stood upright and glanced about; nothing. No human, no monsters... absolute silence. It would have been serene if it weren't for the fact that he hated to be alone.

"Maybe I'll try to see if the Undernet is working today..."

IT STOPPED WORKING MONTHS AGO, EVEN WITH THE TIMELINE CONNECTION UPGRADE I INSTALLED.

"Yes, well, I'm not known for giving up! Nyeh heh heh... I'm certain... there must be someone out there."

AS LONG AS IT HELPS US FIND THE HUMAN'S LOCATION.

"Cyprus, be patient. I'm sure... they'll come back at some point, and then we'll talk to them then."

TALKING WON'T SOLVE ANYTHING... THEY'RE NO DIFFERENT THAN THE OTHER HUMAN THAT TOOK MY BROTHER FROM ME. WE'RE LIKE THIS BECAUSE OF THEM!

"Please... I don't want to talk about this again... Let's just let it go for now..." He sighed, covering his glowing eye, "Please... calm down... Let's... Let's just go check, okay?"

These conflicted thoughts in his head made him miss the surface. Whenever he'd feel unhappy or doubtful of what he was doing, he used to be able to stare up at the sky, take a deep breath, and organize his thoughts. But there was no sky down here.