Chapter Text
Dust was the first.
It'd only been a couple years since Frisk got the Monsters to the surface. But only one since Sans began working on his machine. Why bother with it if it's only going to reset? That's what Sans' mindset was until Frisk promised up and down that they weren't going to reset anymore.
And even then, Sans held his breath (as much as a skeleton could), admittedly not trusting the kid in the slightest. But one year came and went and he slowly started becoming less tense, less apathetic.
He figured, why not finally get back to what he gave up on a long time ago. The machine. The one Sans believes can bring back W.D Gaster.
Begrudgingly, Sans required Papyrus' help to lug his machine and all of its parts and his tools up to the surface from their home in Snowdin, which in turn caused his brother to learn what he's doing.
Papyrus was, of course, very cool about it and supported his brother any way he could. Which mainly consisted of making the shorter skeleton take breaks, eat, sleep. ("heh, you know me bro, i'm just so marrow-minded right now." "SANS! EAT, NOT MAKE PUNS.")
The building phase was brutal. Things sparked and fizzled out before anything could happen and wires popped out of place for seemingly no reason. It took a few grueling months to even get the machine to turn on and a few more after that to begin testing.
Sans finally got the formulas and coding down and was finally, finally ready to start searching for Gaster's soul. His attempts didn't bring many results, though. Lots and lots of emptiness. He scoured the void for what seemed like forever before deciding to head back to the drawing board.
Then something happened.
The ex-scientist was just working on his notes at his desk when the machine suddenly sputtered to life. Sans jumped in his chair and spun around at the noise. He looks at it confused for a split second before his sockets widen and he falls out of his chair in his haste to get over.
He reaches the screen to find it flashing the words 'SOUL FOUND' slowly. Panicking, because he doesn't know what SOUL the machine could have possibly found on its own, (seriously, Sans thought the machine was off) he begins attempting to shut it down, his phalanges flying across the keyboard.
Errors start to pop up and the process overloads all other functions, causing the screen to freeze. Magic sweat dripped off of his skull as he took a few steps back to watch his machine shake in horror.
Something loud blares within the small basement before a boom resounds and then immediately after goes quiet. Smoke billows out, shielding Sans from seeing anything. He waves his hand to rid the curtain of thick white away from his face. It's silent as he creeps up to the front of the machine.
His fingers are together, ready to snap a Gaster Blaster into existence if need be. Only to fall backwards onto his coccyx when one spawns in front of him. Not conjured by himself.
It looks the exact same to his own except for the eyes. Instead of plain white eye lights, they are red, though the left one has a ring of blue on the outside. Quickly, Sans brings his own into the fray. It makes the basement all the more crowded with the large skulls taking up most of the space.
The smoke soon disperses just as Sans picks himself off the floor. His eye is lit with magic, blue and yellow swirling with intensity as he holds his breath in anticipation.
In front of him is, well, him.
An almost perfect copy of Sans himself. Complete with his iconic blue jacket and black shorts. The hood is up, (something Sans never does) and the skeleton is wearing untied shoes. Sans' skull shakes left and right minutely as he stares at a copy of him in confusion.
Both skeletons made no moves and said nothing. They just stood and stared. Sans couldn't exactly see the face of the double as it was being shadowed by the hood. The only thing he could see was the strangely colored eye lights; they copied the Gaster Blaster's.
"heya, pal...?" Sans decided to speak up, keeping his voice leveled. The double says nothing, his eyes continue to stay trained on Sans', unmoving, unblinking. Sans' eye lights rove over him and he goes still at the sight of the multitude of grey particles dirtying his jacket and shorts.
"where am i?" the question comes out hard and demanding. Even their voices are extremely similar, the intruder's being just a tad higher.
"my basement," Sans answers with a shrug and snaps his Blaster away in hopes it'll calm the stranger into doing the same. It doesn't and the imposing weapon stays floating at the ready. "let's just take it easy there, alright, bud?" Sans puts his hands up palms facing down in diffusing manner. Sans' copy slowly, begrudgingly puts his Blaster away. Sans' shoulders immediately loosens and he gives him a lazy smile. "so, how'dja get here?"
The glowing mismatched eye lights scrunch up and the skeleton growls, "you tell me, this is your machine, ain't it?"
So this copy-cat knows about the machine.
"sure, but what were you doing before you came through?"
"nothing," was his short response.
Sans frowns. "nothing? you're speaking my language," he chuckles, hoping to remove the tense atmosphere but it falls flat so he clears his throat and continues, "i mean, were you near your machine? maybe working on it?"
"no."
Sans sighs and pinches his nose bridge. So his machine turns on, goes haywire and brings a completely different SOUL through who knows where and brings him here. "right. right. throw me a bone here, would'ja?" Sans gestures to the machine's computer. His copy follows with his eyes before stepping back.
Sans takes this as permission to pass him, so he does, highly aware of the scrutinizing eyes on him as he does so. Horrifyingly, Sans, as he passed by, couldn't help but smell death on the stranger.
Thinking fast, with his double's focus on his passing by, Sans whirls around and throws his hand out. A 'PING' goes off and he has his copy-cat's SOUL in his grasp.
The intruder's eyes flare and he tries pushing himself out. "pal, buddy, you've got a bit of dust on ya'." Sans' eye sockets go dark as he holds the double's SOUL tightly and in the air.
The skeleton doesn't understand. This-this pansy looking doppelganger is able to hold him-him!- completely. His LV is high. Probably way higher than this guy yet he's struggling to even get a grip on his own SOUL to release himself.
"heh. knife to meet ya'. name's sans, sans the skeleton."
Sans doesn't appreciate the humor, deadpanning, "yeah, i gathered that much." He squeezes his hand. "now i asked ya' a question, bucko."
The Sans copy begins to sweat as he feels his SOUL tighten painfully. He has a lot of health, due to his high LV, but the Sans in front of him is frightening strong, he can feel it.
"you look as if you've never seen death before," he sneers.
"i've seen plenty of death. you, however, seem to be highly acquainted with it."
"heh. whatever it takes to stop the resets, right?" Sans' sockets widen, his eye lights blinking back to life but very tiny.
"what did you do in your timeline?" he asks, terrified for the answer but needing to know.
The Sans in the air grins widely before throwing his head back with laughter. He bends it back up and looks Sans in the eye sockets, his eye lights dilated into pinpricks, making him look insane. He cackles, "whatever it took!" He looks off to the side, his grin falling and his face scrunching into a sneer. "it stopped them, didn't it? fuckin' ungrateful..."
Sans takes a step back, wanting to keep as much distance between himself and his insane copy. He keeps the grip on the other's SOUL as he turns (but only halfway; he does not want this guy out of his sight) to his computer. He types some things in, trying to gather any information on where this guy came from.
His sockets impossibly widen in growing terror at the info he gains. A dying timeline. Hell, it might as well be dead already since there's no one in it. "you're...you..." Sans mutters.
The captive skeleton yawns. "say...this ain't our secret lab..." he mentions nonchalantly. Suddenly, his SOUL feels as if a million pins and needles are stabbing at it.
"you killed the entire underground?" Sans grits his teeth.
"wooow, your machine tell you all that?" he responds with an eye roll.
"it gathers together void energy from different timelines and universes in order to accrue enough information about it to determine if Gaster's SOUL pieces is within it or not." Sans explains, "what it gathered from your time is...nothing but dust. the entire underground is empty. what the hell did you do?"
"let me down," the dust covered Sans growls, "and i'll tell you alllll about it."
"not a chance," Sans sneers.
"SANS! OUR HUMAN FRIEND FRISK IS HERE! COME UP AND SAY HELLO!" Both Sanses flinch.
"gettin' chummy with the human, huh?"
"none of your business," Sans mutters, typing more things into the PC. Maybe he can reverse this and return this murderer to his timeline.
"wonder how many resets you've been through so far. hey, how many genocides did they commit, hmm? surely not that many, yea? i mean, here you are, working on this machine that never worked in the first place."
He goes silent as he's hit with an epiphany. This Sans worked on the machine. He got it working again. He's never applied himself so much to even get the thing started. So if this Sans got it working and if he knows himself (which he does) then time has stopped rewinding for a while. Long enough for this Sans to actually give a damn about something.
Like finding Gaster's SOUL pieces to bring him back.
"you're on the surface," he says, matter-of-factly.
Sans' shoulders tense minutely but Sans knows Sans and he notices it.
"fuck you," he spits, now trying to use all of his magic to get out of his more successful version's grasp.
"watch it, bucko," Sans frowns, turning to face his double again.
"SANS. IF YOU DON'T COME UP, I'LL SEND FRISK DOWN TO GET YOU." Papyrus's voice booms above.
"yeah sans, better get up there," the dusty skeleton glares at the other. "wouldn't want to keep paps waiting."
Sans sighs, rubbing his free hand over his face. He can not let Frisk down here. But he can't just let his double have free reign either. "listen up," he starts, "this is my universe." he points down for emphasis. "we are on the surface. things are different here. if i drop you, you can not do anything to harm anyone. if you so much as hurt a hair on the kid or paps, you'll be dead where you stand. i don't care if it breaks your timeline."
The captive Sans just shrugs with a smirk. "sure. no killing." He looks to his side again. "shut up." Sans shakes his head, not sure about this but letting him go anyway. He lands with a clack against the tiled floor.
He picks himself up and dusts himself off. Horrifyingly, the dust caked everywhere on him doesn't wipe off at all, earning a cringe from the original Sans. The two have a staring stand off. One skeleton thinks about how bad of an idea this is, while the other thinks about possibly killing this Sans and taking over his cushy life on the surface.
Though, this might be his only chance to be free. To enjoy the sunlight. To see his brother again. 'SURE, SURE JUST IGNORE THE BROTHER YOU HAVE' To stop wandering the empty underground as he slowly goes more and more insane.
"i can't believe i'm doing this..." Sans mutters to himself. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, letting it out and reopening them to stare up the stairwell. Grabbing hold of the banister, Sans begins dragging his feet up the stairs, acutely aware of the second pair trailing after him. He doesn't trust this version of himself. Not one bit. But after seeing that he's able to safely and strongly hold the SOUL of a monster with high LV, Sans is confident in his abilities to keep everyone safe.
The door to the basement opens before Sans can reach it. "BROTHER!" Papyrus is so tall you can only see his lower jaw below the archway. He's smiling widely. "OUR FRIEND FRISK IS HERE FOR THE SLUMBER PARTY I HAVE ARRANGED. AND NO SLUMBER PARTY CAN GET STARTED BEFORE DINNER!"
Papyrus moves away, presumably to the kitchen, while Sans sighs and reaches the top of the stairs. Sans notices it had become quiet, so he turns around to find his doppelganger standing stock still on the steps. His eye lights are gone and he's clutching something tightly in his jacket's pocket.
Confused, Sans summons a tiny bone and flicks it to the other skeleton. It bonks him on the forehead. Abruptly, his eye lights return, the left one flaming slightly, and he summons a large, pointed tipped bone, taking a battle stance.
Sans jumps back, hands up and sockets blank. "whoa! simmer down there, pal," he warns. The dust covered skeleton blinks and shakes his head, growling lowly but dismisses his weapon before climbing the rest of the stairs. He roughly brushes past Sans, hitting his shoulder.
"i'm gonna go talk to paps, just go sit down somewhere or something but stay where i can see you. and do not touch the kid." Sans waits until his double nods in acknowledgement and then heads over to Papyrus.
'WOWIE! SEEMS THIS SANS KEEPS HIS BROTHER IN THE LOOP WITH THESE THINGS!'
The dust covered monster ignores the passive aggressiveness thrown at him, opting to find his way to the living room instead. When he steps into it, a little brown haired kid is sitting on the couch, kicking their feet while watching TV. The kid notices 'Sans' and smiles, waving to him.
He grins and eerily approaches the couch. Frisk's waving gets slower and slower the closer he gets. Their eyes widen and they slowly make their way off the couch, taking several steps back but keeping their brown eyes on him.
The skeleton hops onto the couch, laying sideways and taking up both cushions. He places his arms behind his skull and lays back, closing both eyes. "heh, thanks kid."
A hand touches down on Frisk's shoulder, causing the kid to jump and whirl around. "sorry, kid." Sans rubs the back of his neck. He watches as Frisk glances back and forth between the two identical skeletons.
"The machine?!" they sign, eyes wide. Sans sighs, shoulders drooping. He rubs a hand down his face, nodding.
"stay away from him, got it?" They nod vehemently; don't need to tell them twice.
Papyrus steps behind his brother. Frisk cranes their neck to look up at the tall skeleton, smile falling back into place. "I WAS INFORMED THAT WE HAVE A GUEST TONIGHT! I HAVE PULLED OUT MY LEFTOVER SPAGHETTI SO THAT WE MAY ALL EAT TOGETHER. LATER WE SHALL ORDER PIZZA AND BUILD A FORT TO EAT IT IN."
"sounds like a cool plan, bro," Sans smiles lazily up at him.
"OF COURSE IT IS. ONLY THE BEST FOR OUR FRIEND AND GUEST." The energetic skeleton returns to the kitchen. Frisk's smile drops once more as they quickly begin signing at Sans.
"That monster looks like you! And he's covered in dust!"
Sans sighs, glancing over at the monster in question. Figures he'd fall asleep as soon as possible. "i know, kiddo." Sans musses the child's hair. "I'm keeping an eye on 'im. maybe don't engage with him if you can help it though, mkay?"
Frisk agrees, warily eyeing the sleeping skelly one last time before joining Paps in the kitchen. Sans moves over to the couch. His double has one arm behind his head, the other over the top of the couch, one leg bent up at the knee while the other hangs off the side.
"get up, bucko." Sans kicks the other's leg. With a choke, he shoots up, eyes darting around manically. Once they finally rest upon Sans' smirk, his eye lights narrow in disdain. "time for dinner." Sans doesn't bother to wait for a response as he turns and leaves without one. He doesn't really care if the guy joins or not. Only reason why he told him was because Papyrus wanted him to.
Once all three sat in their seats, the fourth entered. Everyone stares at him with different emotions. Sans; suspicious and vigilant, Frisk; wary and curious and Papyrus; excited and curious.
Silently the monster takes the remaining seat and sits. Papyrus eagerly slides a plate of spaghetti to him. "WELCOME OTHER BROTHER! I DO HOPE YOU ENJOY MY GREAT SPAGHETTI. IT MIGHT EVEN BE BETTER THAN YOUR BROTHER'S!" Both Sanses flinch but for different things.
"bro...don't call him that. he's not your brother." Papyrus frowns.
"UT THEN WHAT SHOULD WE CALL HIM? HE IS SANS," the skeleton points out matter-of-factly. Frisk's eyes blink over to the other Sans. He's lowered his head down far enough that his grey hood covers him. The only thing Frisk can see is his nasal ridge poking out from the shadows.
"i don't care what you call him, paps," Sans sighs, defeated. "but it will not be 'sans' or 'brother'," he adds sternly, making sure he knows Paps knows he means business.
"WELL WHY DON'T WE ASK?" Papyrus turns to the other skeleton. "OTHER SANS THAT IS NOT MY BROTHER, WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE REFERRED AS WHILE YOU VISIT?"
The monster just narrows his eyes, moving the sauce covered noodles around the plate with a pointed phalanx.
'THE HUMAN CALLED YOU DUSTY QUITE OFTEN! WELL, UP UNTIL THEY DISAPPEARED ON YOU OF COURSE.'
His nose scrunches up at that. That condescending tone of his and the nonchalant jab at reminding him that the human vanished on him souring his mood. Dusty was demeaning, but perhaps just 'Dust' would be fine. It describes him and as a bonus; it'll hopefully make everyone uncomfortable.
Slowly, Dust raises his head to face everyone. He grins widely and tells them, "call me dust." And just as he hoped, everyone looked uncomfortable. Frisk looked away, Sans' sockets went dark and Papyrus, bless him, attempted to hide his uneasiness.
"W-WELL AS LONG AS YOU LIKE IT AND THAT'S WHAT YOU WISH TO BE CALLED...WELCOME TO OUR HOME, DUST!"
Yeah, maybe being here for the time being can be fun.
~~
The machine didn't stop at Dust. A month later, another skeleton came through and he was big. Sans and Dust had been testing things out with the machine in hopes of fixing it (Sans was doing this while Dust was messing around). The two had come to a...tentative mutual agreement. Dust would behave and Sans would let him stay. He would not be allowed around anyone who knows Sans under any circumstances, though, since he can be mistaken for Sans way too easily. So with that being a rule, Dust gets bored quite fast and that boredom leads to bugging Sans which then led to the moment another monster came through.
Sans takes a few steps back, hand out at the ready to restrain the new guy. Dust sits on his swivel chair, looking bored and unbothered. "congrats," he drawls, "it's a skeleton."
A very big skeleton, way taller than Sans and Dust but so very clearly 'Sans'. Iconic blue coat, white t-shirt, pink slippers, and black shorts. Though every piece of clothing appears to be heavily damaged and stained.
The T-shirt is splashed with something reddish- brown, the blue jacket has what appears to be the exact same stains on the sleeves, the shorts looked relatively okay, a bit torn and ripped at the bottom, and finally, the slippers looked as if the wearer trudged through mud everyday without bothering to clean them. It's lost all of its fuzz, making it look pressed and scratchy.
But the kicker was the giant crack and subsequent hole on the top of the newcomer's skull. Right below it, his eye socket houses a large, bright red eye while his right socket holds nothing. It's pitch black and empty.
That's when Sans and Dust met 'Axe'.
~~
Axe was much easier to assimilate than Dust. Axe, albeit quiet most of the time, took everything in stride. He was, of course, agitated and hostile at first but once Sans explained everything as best as he could, Axe calmed down.
The first word to come out of his mouth was 'food'.
Sans sent Dust to go get him something to eat while he checked out the machine to see what info it accrued on this Sans' timeline. Reading what it found, Sans' bones begin to rattle and while skeleton monsters can't throw up, Sans places a hand over his teeth anyway, feeling like he should.
The excerpt he read on Axe's AU was gruesome and horrifying. He now understands why his first word was for food. It doesn't explain why what happened happened. Just that the CORE failed and the Underground fell into a famine.
Sans would love to get the info out of his alternate self but...Axe doesn't seem all there. But who could blame him? Sans can't imagine what he went through to get that wound, let alone what he's currently going through.
Sans sighs and shuts off the computer, double checking the machine and making sure it's off, too.
This just got a whole lot messier.
~~
It got even worse.
This time, the machine thought it'd be funny to spit out a pair of skeletons. Sans was alone this time (thankfully) since he didn't need Dust or stars forbid Axe scaring the newcomers.
One of them groans and writhes on their place on the tiled floor, apparently having had a rough landing. Sans stays in his seat and makes no sudden movements, wanting to get a read on the two before they can attempt to attack or something.
They're both small and Sans shaped so at least this isn't another Axe type scenario.
One is in a brown outfit with a large scarf billowing from his neck and a giant paint brush lies off to the side of him. But the other skeleton? Sans isn't entirely sure. The majority of his bones are black though his legs are red and his hands go from black to red up until his fingertips which are yellow.
The weirdest thing Sans notices are the thin blue lines running down the black skeleton's eye sockets. He appears to be unconscious. The other skeleton jumps up off the floor and looks around wildly.
The two's eyes meet but the newcomer pays Sans no mind as he keeps searching. He gasps, "There you are!" and happily picks the giant paint brush up off the floor and hugs it close. He brushes off the top of it from any grime.
Sans watches in confusion, wondering if he should say something. The newcomer does this for him, though, whirling around and taking a stance, pointing at him. "Classic Sans! What are you doing here!?" His eye lights depict an orange question mark and green triangle.
Staring at his odd eye lights for a moment, Sans opens his mouth to respond, only to be interrupted. "Wait! Where am I exactly? I didn't hop into this AU." The skeleton blinks to himself then looks down at the unconscious one. "WHAT'S ERROR DOING HERE?"
Sans jumps at the sudden volume increase and gets up. "uh...so i can only assume you're sans, right? and him, too?" The artist looking monster turns to face Sans.
He blinks at him multiple times for a good few seconds before gasping again and pointing at him, crying out, "Classic Sans? What are you doing here?"
"who are you?" Sans tries again.
His eyes turn into a purple flower and yellow star as he grins widely and puts his hands on his hips, returning his paint brush to attach to his back "My name's Ink!"
Sans frowns. "you're not uh...ya know...me?"
Ink is quiet for a second before spluttering into laughter. He wipes a rainbow colored tear from his eye. "Well if you wanna get technical, then sure I'm a Sans. Ink Sans maybe. But I've only gone by Ink for a long long time soooo."
Sans' head is starting to hurt.
~~
Ink might have been pleasant, if not a bit airheaded, but when Error regained consciousness, it was a whole fiasco.
Sans couldn't get Ink to sit still for one moment so he sent him upstairs to get acquainted with the others. He heard the words Dusttale and Horrortale and then stopped listening, using his magic to close the door Ink left open.
Sans figured he'd stay down here and keep an eye on the strangely colored skeleton for the time being. One moment, Sans would be checking his notes and the next, he'd turn around to find something floating above the monster lying face down. Sans leans to try to get a closer look but, oddly enough, it's blurry in his eyes.
Not wanting to turn his back to it, Sans brings his notes to his lap instead. Only a little bit goes by when two more strange floating boxes begin flickering in and out of reality. Sans is half tempted to fetch Ink, figuring if the two came together (plus he called him Error), he would know what this stuff is.
Then, the sound of the Windows start up plays, causing Sans to jostle in his chair in surprise. The black skeleton slowly picks himself off up the floor, grumbling to himself and fixing his clothes. The weird boxes continue to blink around him, only this time, Sans could make out the word 'error' accompanying them.
Error turns around, confusion written on his face before making eye contact with Sans. He jumps back, eyes wide. Sans notes his sockets are red and have different sized pupils. Just what kind of 'Sans' is he?
"Who the hell are you?!" his voice comes out a little warbled and scratchy. Error rests his fingers just under his sockets, ready for anything. Sans holds his up to try to placate the other. The glitchy skeleton's pupils dart back and forth, mouth twisted in a sneer.
"name's sans." Error doesn't let up his stance.
"Obviously," he jeers, rolling his eyes. Sans chuckles and shrugs.
"welp, seems you know me. this s'my lab." He then gestures to the machine, Error's eye lights following. "that's my machine. you came through it."
"I came..." Error looks from the machine back to Sans. His shoulders and hands drop. "Huh?"
Sans shrugs again, finding Error's confusion funny. "ink did too i guess. and others."
"Ink? Oh this has his name written all over it," he growls and rubs his skull, looking defeated. "Whatever, I'm outta here," the skeleton snarls and waves his hand. Nothing happens. He does it again, waving faster. Still nothing. Sweat begins to run down his skull now as he frantically waves both hands.
Sans just watches with his signature grin. "you alright there bud-ghk!" Sans' question is cut off by thin blue strings shooting out from Error and wrapping around his SOUL. Error lifts Sans into the air a little bit and approaches him, his lips curled and eye sockets narrowed.
Inwardly panicking, Sans slyly struggles in his grasp, wondering what these strings are and how he's doing it and how to get out of them. "What did you do?!"
"i don't know what you're talkin' about, pal," Sans remains calm, his grin looking easy but tight in the corners.
"I can't port out of here!" Error yells in frustration when his only response is a halfhearted shrug from the classic. "Arg! You're useless!" His eye darts to the side, suddenly remember the stupid machine almost every Sans and Papyri have. Grinning, he walks over to it, keeping one hand extended out towards Sans and keeping him captive.
"hey-buddy, might not want to mess with that, it's what got us here in the first place." Two blue beads of magic sweat form on Sans' skull, his pinprick eye lights warily watching Error's every move.
"You and every other idiot in every other AU always messing with this shit..." Error mumbles to himself, ignoring the Sans he has in his grasp.
Taking his chance, Sans musters up enough magic to take Error's in surprise, breaking the strings and releasing his SOUL. Startled, Error turns around and jumps back, eyes roving over the other skeleton. "How-" He doesn't get another word out before Sans takes hold of his own SOUL.
As he holds the glitching heart, Sans feels pins and needles throughout himself, causing him to shiver in place. Ignoring the captive monster's struggling, Sans approaches his machine to make sure everything is in place. Thankfully, Error hadn't managed to mess anything up, allowing Sans to let out a sigh of relief.
Error continues to squirm in his grasp, yelling out obscenities all the while, as Sans decides to bring the ornery skeleton upstairs. Maybe the other one that came with him can figure out what to do.
Upon entering the living room, Sans finds all three doing something different. Dust is napping on the couch (go figure), while Axe just sits on the floor, a faraway look in his eye. Ink is yapping to Axe about something (who is totally listening aptly if you asked the colorful skeleton), drawing on some printer paper he must have gotten from Papyrus.
"Hm?" Ink looks up and then smiles. "Error!" He jumps up and puts his hands on his hips, tilting his skull while his eyes change into a question mark and circle. "What are you doing, Classic?"
Sans scratches the back of his skull, eye lights looking off to the side as he asks, "do you know how to...subdue him?"
Error lets out an offended gasp. "Subdue me!? You motherfuc-" Ink takes his brush and swipes it horizontally in the air. A blob of black ink launches itself at the skeleton, plastering itself across his teeth and cutting him off. Said monster narrows his eyes at the artist, furious.
"I can take him from here!" Ink exclaims. "I'll just drop him off at the anti-void on my way home." Error's eye dots roll in their sockets.
"uh, about that. buddy already tried to...port somewhere. couldn't do it." Sans begins to sweat, feeling as if he knows what's about to happen.
Ink frowns, putting his hand to his chin. He takes his brush and gathers his magic, placing down what he assumes would be a portal to hop universes onto the ground in the form of an ink puddle. He jumps onto it, splashing the surrounding floor a bit.
Nothing. Blinking, he stomps on it a couple more times for good measure. Axe, having finally moved at the commotion, gazes down at the spot of paint that had landed on his tibia.
"Huh." Ink shrugs, "Well that's weird. I can't port either."
Sans throws his head back and groans. Great. Not only are the other two stuck here until he gets the machine working, the two other, odder skeletons can't use their strange ways to teleport home either.
~~~
Ink and Error have managed to call a truce. A lot of arguing occurred but Sans played a good middle man. He's just happy he doesn't have to worry about, who Ink called 'the AU Destroyer', and his strings attacking him, the others, or Papyrus.
The three learned a little about the two. Learning that Ink is the opposite to Error, being the Watcher and Guardian of all AU's and having a hand in creating them, too. Error called themselves outcodes.
Papyrus, as always, was super cool and took this in stride, helping the newcomers into their new rooms. Sans is forever grateful they bought a large house.
~~
One more. One more Sans came through before the classic one called it quits. This Sans was primarily clothed in reds, blacks, and yellows and had extremely sharp teeth; one even having been replaced with a golden one. His eye lights were red and he seemed to always wear a scowl.
He wore the classic 'Sans' shorts except the usual white stripe was yellow and instead of the usual shirt and jacket combo, this Sans wore a red, turtlenecked, wool sweater with a black and yellow striped scarf wrapped around his neck.
Of course, he was another 'hostile' one, having lashed out in panic, so he had to be restrained before he hurt anyone (that being Sans, Ink and Dust who were in the basement at the time). Ink called his AU Flowerfell, a variant to Underfell.
At the name of his universe, the edgy looking skeleton cringed and looked away. Sans let him go, sensing this one might not cause as much trouble as Dust and Error had. He immediately relaxes and stuffs his hands into his pockets, pinpricked eye lights scanning over everyone else.
He settled on being called 'Fell'.
~~
That was all a year ago. Sans and the others stopped working on the machine lest they pulled more wayward skeletons through. Most didn't want to go back to their respective AUs anyways.
Papyrus had started teaching Axe how to cook per his request. Error kept to himself most of the time, staying in his room and avoiding interactions with the others while only really coming out to eat. Ink was always moving, always jovially telling whoever would listen to his ideas.. though everyone could see the lingering sadness his strange eye lights would attempt to hide.
Fell was quiet; never really speaking on his own accord unless one brought him into conversation. He didn't like talking about his AU and would get mad if Ink attempted to explain for him. His first time meeting Frisk was a disaster. He had taken one look at the kid before his eye lights distinguished and he shortcut-ted out of there. Sans couldn't get him to leave his room for a week.
But Dust? Dust was and still is Sans' biggest concern. Sure Axe was big and scary looking, Error was volatile and prone to going off the rails over little things but Dust was...eerie.
The skeleton liked to talk to himself a lot, often staring off at nothing while doing so. Sans tried many times to understand what was happening but Dust would refuse to elaborate and Ink was no longer privy to explaining the other's AUs after Fell's meltdown over his own being talked about.
Not only was he creepy, he was dangerous. His LV was uncomfortably high and he would get urges and would sometimes lash out at the others. Ink and Sans would have to restrain him if he got really bad. He almost never slept at night, opting to take multiple naps throughout the day, and causing Sans to paranoidly stay up those nights just to keep watch.
But through all of that, Sans can't say he hates any of them or wishes they weren't there. They've formed a sort of bond, a sense of camaraderie (even if Error vehemently denies it) between them. They do their best to understand and respect one another. It was his fault they were all here in the first place.
And it's not always so bad. Being here, on the surface in such a peaceful timeline, has done them wonders.
Axe now talks a lot more. He's working on his memory but he actively engages in conversations more. The others help with his broken speech where they can.
They all learned Error was funny when he wasn't being a prick (Ink swore up and down previously but no one believed him at the time) and that he loved telenovelas. He gripes about the lack of his AU television channels but secretly loves the ones this universe has to offer even if he grumpily denies it.
Fell, though quiet as ever, had started writing. He always refused to show his work but would occasionally and softly read excerpts to Frisk. Speaking of the kid, Fell slowly became used to seeing them. Eventually moving up to interacting with them when they approach him first and then finally being comfortable enough to read to them.
Frisk adored the sharp toothed monster. Sans isn't sure when they became so close but he's happy to see it. Fell sometimes gets a sad look on his face when looking at the kid but...he'd tell you he'll be fine every time he'd be asked.
And that's when you fell through.