#dusted off

The forest on Mt. Ebott had no sign of habitation, recent or otherwise. The forests around Mt. Ebott had no sign of habitation, recent or otherwise. The plains around the forests around Mt. Ebott were vast and equally as empty, save for the remains of roads choked with grass, cracked almost to the point of unrecognizability and near death.A rusted car with one cracked headlight was found half buried in earth up to its front doors. After getting hauled out, it was loudly claimed by Papyrus.Against all odds, it was still able to roll. He drove it by pushing the bones of his feet through the remains of the floor and walking, all while making engine noises.Papyrus engine noises sounded a lot like the Core. At least he was having fun.The monsters had no real reason to rove further. Undyne’s scouting missions became less and less frequent as the monsters began to get settled in New New Home, which was the third choice of name after Outside and Treeplace, and about the time Asgore’s suggestions were politely cut off. Houses of felled lumber sprung up on the slopes like mushrooms. Lives were lived, and got on with.And still the absence unnerved, like a shadow that disappears whenever you turn to look.Alphys set up a communications station, partially at the behest of Mettaton and partly because her anime supply had become exhausted; she had watched every single episode she owned at least fifty times over, even her least favourite ones. She broadcast on multiple bandwidths, AM and FM. She set up radar. She even managed to make contact with a satellite.A simple, test message. Anyone there? We’re here. But nobody came. All of Alphys’s technical wizardry only coughed up static.Frisk did not seem bothered by this, or surprised. It was hard to tell, with a face like theirs, but they didn’t seem curious about their own kind. Their habit of slipping off without warning got worse.Toriel almost had a heart attack when Frisk started bringing home dead things.Rabbits, mainly. The smaller mammals that lived in the woods. Once, a young doe. The rabbits had been run to death, but the others had had their necks snapped or been struck by something blunt but hard in such a way as to suggest they had been killed by a single blow they hadn’t seen coming.“I don’t understand it,” she confided to Sans one night, the cool air filled with the sound of crickets. It was a clear night, and the milky way splashed across the sky. Sans’s telescope, hauled all the way to the surface and cleaned of paint, was set up next to them. “Frisk is such a gentle creature…”“hey, don’t worry about it,” Sans said. “i’ll keep an eye on them”And he did.Frisk knew a lot of skills that were useful, or were interesting. They could start fires without magic, a source of endless fascination to the younger monsters, and they knew what all the plants did and could be used for. They showed a tendency to hoarding that RG02 found themselves being impressed by; their room in Toriel’s new house quickly became cluttered with a large variety of things picked up from the Underground and the surrounding area. And food.Even though no monster would dream of hurting them now, Frisk still collected food like it was going out of style.A twig snapped, and Frisk whirled, alert, scanning the surroundings, ready to move, dodge at a moment’s notice. The squirrel they were intently focusing on and had been for the past half hour while slowly and quietly closing the distance also froze at the noise, and scampered off into the inaccessible undergrowth.“old habits dying hard, huh?”Sans watched the kid relax at his voice, their hunted expression changing to their calmer, neutral, impassive one. They seemed unconcerned about the loss of the squirrel, and really that could be taken either way, he thought. They waved at him, exuding friendliness in their demeanour if not their expression.“come on, it’s a nice day out. let’s walk a bit.”Frisk nodded happily enough, and fell in step with him. It was a nice day. Birds were singing, the sun was shining, and the morning mist that had covered the forest floor was starting to burn off. For a while the only sound was the shuffling of brush. Sans wasn’t going in any direction that lead to anything, as far as Frisk knew, but he was also Sans, who seemed to have an odd relationship with direction most times.“you know you don’t have to hunt to eat now kid, you realize that?”Frisk looked up at Sans and blinked. Actually, no. Frisk looked down at him and blinked. When had the kid gotten taller than him, sometime these past few months? There was a bit more of a silence, and then Frisk nodded and looked away and down, their fringe hanging over their eyes.“i mean, it’s nice of you to try and help toriel,” if a little messed up, the way they were going about it, hence this conversation existing. “human and monster food, though, they’re different things if you get me.” The implication was technically a lie, and predation wasn’t some unheard of thing given snails and spiders, but Sans liked a kid that didn’t kill anything at all. Call it a holdover.Frisk nodded again, and fidgeted with the hem of their shirt.“Winter,” they mumbled. “Stores.”Oh, kid. He nudged them with his elbow. “hey, i lived in Snowdin, remember? i can guarantee that’s not gonna be an issue.”“Mmh,” the kid said, and he knew that was all he was going to get out of them for the next bit. And that was fine. He had all the time in the world, and nothing that needed doing that couldn’t be procrastinated on more. He could enjoy the sunshine for a bit.Eventually, he was pulled out of his thoughts by a tug on his jacket.“Sans…?” their voice was very small.“that’s my name,” he replied. There was fear in the kid’s eyes. Not fear for themselves, that much he could tell from a glance. Frisk had one hell of a poker face, but you needed a good eye to catch the minute shifts in timelines.“i don’t want to…” They broke off, and looked down, and stopped walking, shuffling their feet in the pine needles. Sans went forward a step or two before coming to a halt himself and turning, out of pure automation. He waited. There was clearly a tangle of things balling up in the kid’s head, like their fists at their sides, and it was better to let them straighten things out for themselves than to press and try to unpick the knotted result.Eventually their hands uncurled and their jaw clamped a little tighter closed. Sans began walking forward again, and didn’t miss the look of gratitude flicked towards him as Frisk resumed trotting next to him.“Humans aren’t nice,” Frisk said, strongly and decisively, with an undercurrent of earnest, the need to be understood because those three words summed up their entire rumination on the matter and couldn’t be added to without repeating some aspect of what they were trying to convey. It was said with the force of immutable fact.“that’s a shame,” Sans said. Sometimes the kid’s words needed the same focus as a rubik’s cube. Of course most other times they didn’t. “you seem to be bucking the trend, though.” And then you got conversations like this, a tennis court of you know I know you know.Frisk chewed at the inside of their mouth. “I broke Alphys’s dish,” they said, guiltily.