ohhh shit. wow you're crossing their timelines/universes?? that's gonna be hard for cal huh? this comic was pretty sad already.... its a new level now though. (excited to see next update<3)
It was just kinda a fun(ha) little crossover idea I had that Bali was kind enough to be okay with. XD But thank you so much! I don’t know if there will be any follow-up comics aside from maybe some sketches here and there of this particular stream, but I’m not really sure if I ever really explained this:
So Vi is another version of Cal who essentially split off from UT Cal due to strange happenings in the void. In the How Many Ways story, Gaster is inhabiting the Void and has caused these rips to appear in the fabric of reality of a lot of timelines. Vi feels partially responsible for this since they helped Gaster build the machine that got him there in the first place, so they borrowed some power from the void and are crossing timelines to try to close these tears so that reality doesn’t fall apart. ◎ܫ◎
So in that comic, they entered the timeline that Fallen Siblings takes place in, and among other things were really just in such a state of shock that Sans would end up with someone other than them that they fuckin killed Farris. lol.
Good thing Frisk was around to turn back time, amirite?
But don’t worry, they instantly regretted killing a wonderful being such as Farris and promise to never do it again. Probably.
eyyyy we’re not staying in canonical order of the story anymore! EYYYYY! Sorry about that. Anyway, here’s an alternate version of Cal (dubbed Vi to keep things from getting confused) straight up tossing @hyperbali‘s wonderful OC Farris off a cliff. Why? Idk. Go look at the Fallen Siblings AU! It’s seriously my favorite.
Gaster? Can monsters die of a broken heart? Is it possible for monsters to die of sadness? Emotions can either increase or decrease the production of important hormones such as adrenaline. Adrenaline has the effect of narrowing the main arteries, putting a person in a situation where they may die of heart failure. Humans can die of sadness and a broken heart. I just wanted to know about the monsters can die of sadness and a broken heart.
[The next installment of How Many Ways! A Sans x OC sic-fi romance gig takes place after the comic intro. This story will be safe for work for the first few parts, but after that it is adults only! Enjoy!]
Prologue: intro1/intro2/p1/p2/p3/p4/p5/p6/Ch1
It was good to be the Royal scientist.
Alphys had only held the position for a few days, but she had already found a home in the winding halls of the Royal Lab. The King was finally utilizing her skills and intelligence for the whole Underground - talk about a confidence boost. Alphys: The One who broke the Barrier once and for all!
Well. Could break. Either way, Alphys knew this would be the start of something extremely important for all monsters; she could feel it in her scales. As an added bonus, the reptilian monster was given free reign of the entire laboratory and all of it’s equipment. She would have no shortage of room for human-catching, barrier-breaking, determination-building science. Sometimes it was a little too quiet, but that was nothing a bit of music couldn’t fix.
The tune of Mew Mew: Kissy Cutie (season 1 opening) echoed through the corridor as she bounced down it, humming along.
“Mew mew you can do it… with the kissy cutie power of love!” Alphys paused to strike a pose in front of a doorway, twirling through as it swished open for her.
A long row of golden flowers waited for her on the other side, silent and unsentient as they… usually were. There had been a few unsettling incidents in the past few days, including one that she still struggled to comprehend now. But science must always move forward, and so Alphys stood before them and cleared her throat. With a few taps on her phone the catchy music stopped and a voice recorder was activated.
“Entry 8.7; no changes to report in the subjects.” She began earnestly, “Although certain anomalies have occurred in recent tests, none were actually- uh recorded, so… maybe I was just seeing things. Mark it down as Pareidolia and-”
WRRRRR-CLANG!
WUMPH.
“....and. uh. Hold that thought.” Alphys stopped the recorder and inched back towards the door nervously. Why in the world would suspicious sounds be coming from the old, disused wing of the lab?
“M...Maybe I should call Undyne.” She mumbled to herself. As if she wasn’t going to call her later anyway. What a nerd.
“Could… could be ghosts…” Nabstablook wasn’t a fan of laboratories. Or highly dangerous and potentially life threatening abandoned experiments.
Alphys stuck her head out into the hall and peered down the corridor. Nothing. Visual and auditory silence.
“Mew Mew would investigate.” Mew Mew was a fictional character. But Alphys had decided, and was already half way down the passage before that thought even crossed her mind. She crept toward the locked door that separated her rooms from the sealed area of the lab. The reptile peered through the small window at a distance- too dark to see anything. With trembling hesitation she pressed her face to the glass, squinting to get a better look. Pitch black. Grunting in frustration, she inched her head down a bit to allow in some light from the hall. Her eyes adjusted behind her glasses as they clinked against the door, and shapes began to form in the shadows.
Inside, Alphys could see the remains of an enormous machine, dusty and dismantled- a skeleton of what it could have been. The walls were lined with tables and cabinets, deskspace covered by odds and ends of an apparently failed experiment. The previous Royal Scientist had been rather shaken coming out of this room when it was last open, babbling about missing assistants and failsafes. He formally resigned from the position two days after and warned Alphys to keep this particular area sealed when she was appointed in his place. She had so far heeded his request, but her finger itched to punch in the access code. The tip of her claw hovered near the keypad, but something caught her eye past the glass. On the floor in front of the machine was something large and organic -- the shapes didn’t quite fit in with the rest of the equipment. Alphys cupped her hands around her face, struggling to get a better view, when that something groaned and rolled over.
The scientist let out a small shriek, unconsciously backing away from the door, but her curiosity was overpowering the twist of fear that had settled in her gut. She pressed her face to the window, shaking, but the - object? creature? who knows, in this lab - had stopped moving, and the room was still so dark. After a few moments, she could make out the slight rise and fall of what could be a chest. Whatever was in there, it was alive.
“N-now I’m really gonna c-call Undyne…” she whispered, backing away from the panel and clasping her phone with clammy hands. Before she made it to the contact she was looking for, however, her eyes passed over another familiar name. Alphys bit her lip, considering her options. Maybe, if this room really was dangerous, someone who knew what was inside would be a better help.
Not that Undyne couldn’t handle any monster slinking around, she reasoned, but the room really did give her the creeps. It would be best to keep her favorite fish in one piece, out of range of mysterious, supposedly volatile machinery.
Alphys shifted nervously, hunched over more than usual in her anxiety, and made her decision. She desperately hoped he would pick up, but knowing his track record, it didn’t seem very likely. The tone rang once, twice, three times… and a fourth time, before directing to a voice message. She skipped over the message and called again, frustration beating out phone anxiety and slowing her tremors. On the third ring, there was an audible click, and a sleepy greeting.
“y’hello.”
“Sans,” Alphys sighed in relief, pacing in front of the door, “I’m s-sorry if I woke you up, b-but I really need your help.” It was fairly normal for her to stutter on the phone, but she still felt her face heat up in embarrassment as her skeleton friend yawned audibly on the other end of the line.
“don’t worry about it, pal, what’s up?”
He sounded a bit disinterested, but Alphys didn’t let it bother her -- he’d been a little... off for the past several weeks. She didn’t blame him, renouncing royal employee status had to be hard on a monster. Glancing at the dark window, she answered.
“Honestly I’m n-not sure what exactly is up… b-but there’s something… in the lab. Your old lab, s-specifically,” she paused, but when there was no response, continued “I think it m-might be alive? I was just working, and heard a n-noise --”
“i’m coming over,” he uncharacteristically interrupted her, with an equally disparate and intense tone. She started, surprised.
“O-okay. Sans, wh-” The line clicked closed, beeping in the scientist’s ear. Before any irritation at being hung up on could set in, Sans was suddenly in front of her, looking ruffled and off-balance.
“Woah,” Alphys’ reptilian tail pushed against the floor to keep her from falling backwards, “W-woah, Sans! You s-scared me… are you okay?” Her gaze was trained on his eye; the blue light that glowed brightly enough to illuminate the left side of his skull. It dimmed as the short skeleton settled in from his ‘shortcut’, but never faded completely. The eye was fully focused on the door when he spoke.
“did you… open it?” he asked, eerily quiet. His gaze broke away to Alphys, who wrung her clasped hands and shook her head.
“N-no… but I c-could see… something. On the floor.” Bringing Sans over was supposed to make her feel safer, but if she were honest, his manner had her even more worried. Maybe this was bigger than she thought. “Should I… call the King?” She whispered, for some reason afraid to speak too loudly.
“nah. can you stay here?” He replied, trying to sound casual, but visibly tense. It was so, so strange. She nodded, bewildered by his unfamiliar behavior. His eye socket flared blue and yellow before he zipped out of sight. Alphys turned to see Sans inside the room, standing a few feet away from the thing on the floor.
Softly illuminated by the glow of magic, she could see it was definitely a body.
An unfathomably long moment passed before Sans moved forward, falling to his knees in front of the mystery monster.
-----------------
A pair of eyes snapped open in the dark. They were blind. The creature couldn’t see anything at all, and they were being held down to a cold, hard surface by some invisible force. There was no outward sound, but a faint ringing in the ears growing louder and louder as the seconds crept on. Soon, it was near deafening, and in an attempt to escape from the noise, they made an effort to roll over. The suffocating feeling of being crushed disappeared completely, apparently imagined, and the monster groaned in relief. The tinny keen in their ears subsided more gradually, but it too was soon gone. Curling in on their side, they sucked in a breath and heaved a hefty sigh.
Continuing to look on into the blackness was building up the rapid beating of their heart in their chest, so they let their eyelids slide closed. None of this felt quite real, they realized, unknowingly slipping back into unconsciousness for a short while.
The monster awoke again with a low moan, eyes opening out of habit. There was a small, soft fluorescent light in the distance this time. Everything felt distant and unreal - perhaps they were still sleeping. Their limbs were trapped by a weightlessness that did not feel unlike a dream, but the cold, dusty surface they laid on was grounding.
A shape moved in the light. The monster’s mind couldn’t, however, dredge up enough curiosity to stay awake. They slept once more.
The third time they broke from sleep, it was in a panic.
The fog of sleep and dream-like haziness lifted instantly, revealing aches and chills that were previously numb. Tips of bony fingers had been resting on their shoulder, but twitched back when the monster gasped, shrinking away and screwing their eyes shut. A scrambled attempt to sit up was made, but it ended abruptly with an exhausted wheeze as a wave of dizziness swept through their head and stomach. The ringing began again in their ears, forcing them to lay back onto the chilled ground, shivering violently. Their eyes opened just slightly, and their mind suddenly registered a new light in the room.
It was bright in contrast to the unlit lab, glowing a strangely comforting blue that illuminated a familiar face. It was an eye, they realized, Sans’ eye.
It was Sans.
That first coherent thought since waking in the room brought a great relief and horrible sense of dread at the same time; They couldn't remember what brought them to this place, but at least their friend was there.
“S...Sans…?” They felt the sound slip from their throat, though they couldn’t quite decide if they were hearing the right voice through the ringing. There was a pause, and with a little effort the monster was able to focus their eyes onto the whole of the skeletal face in front of them. He looked so worried.
“yeah… yeah, it’s me, Cal. I’m here.” It was as if those few words brought the monster back fully into the world. The ringing subsided as the skeleton’s voice filled the empty room. The dizzying ache that rocked their body dwindled to a vacant throbbing behind the eyes, and finally they were able to push themselves up onto their elbows.
“What happened…?” Cal managed weakly as a flood of memories came back; none of them quite clicked into place with their current situation however, and their friend’s blank expression didn’t help much either.
“funny, I was just about to ask you the same thing.” He wasn’t smiling. Cal wasn’t sure they had ever seen Sans not smiling.
Cal stared at the skeleton vacantly until a shiver of cold ran through their sinewy limbs, turning their gaze to the dusty floor tiles. It was then that they finally noticed the absolute lack of clothing covering their body- no wonder they were so cold. Sans stood awkwardly then, shuffling back a few paces and glancing around at the covered work benches as if they were suddenly incredibly relevant. Cal pulled their knees up to their chest, ready to utter an apology toward the skeleton’s embarrassment when he shambled hastily over to one wall, digging around through various drawers until he found what he was looking for.
He returned a moment later with a wrinkled lab coat in hand and held it out to the naked monster silently. Cal managed a small smile and took it, pulling it around themselves and buttoning the front hurriedly.
“Thanks,” was all they could think to say, but their companion seemed to be on another topic already anyway.
“you’re not hurt, are you? you feel okay?” Sans was now watching the enormous machine behind Cal with intensity, and Cal too turned their head to look at it. What an ugly thing it was, covered in dust and cobwebs.
“I think so,” They began softly, “I’m just… a little disoriented, I guess.” What they meant to say was completely bewildered and in need of a hug, but the situation didn’t seem quite right for that.
“what’s the last thing you remember, Cal?” The skeleton finally knelt down again, meeting the other monster’s eye. They had to pause for a moment to remember- the timing of it all just seemed bizarre.
“We were doing tests on the machine-”
“who?” Sans interrupted, his eyes strangely intense. Cal swallowed in response, taken aback by his peculiarly desperate tone.
“You, Dr. Gaster, and I.” Sans suddenly looked incredibly relieved, a faint smile even returning to his face.
“okay… then what?”
“I think something went wrong. I-I’m not sure. Things started sparking, Dr. Gaster tried calling for you to shut the power down, and then…” Cal paused to shrug. “I… woke up here.”
There was a long pause then, followed by an uncomfortable chuckle from Sans.
“that’s it?”
Cal nodded, but a heavy sense of unease still had a hold on them. Everything just felt wrong. The lab looked utterly abandoned. Everything that had been alive and buzzing with electricity just a little while earlier was covered in grime and cold as death.
“Where’s Dr. Gaster?” Cal was almost afraid to ask, and their fears were confirmed when Sans’ smile faded again.
“i was hoping you could answer that.” The skeleton diverted his eyes to the dusty floor tiles contemplatively. Cal only furrowed their brow in response. Did Sans not have any of the answers here? They were at a loss- what could they say about something they didn't remember? A stifling moment passed before the skeleton looked up again.
“Cal, you and Gaster just disappeared into thin air over three months ago.”
“What?” The lab-coat clad monster managed after the shock had settled in.
“N-no, that can’t be right… We were just… just a minute ago…” Their head was starting to hurt again.
“what’s even worse, no one else seems to remember you two. every time i try to tell anyone what happened, they look at me like i’m crazy.”
“Is this some kind of joke?” Cal managed, running trembling fingers through their hair, tears beginning to well up in the corner of their dark eyes. Everything about Sans’ tone and demeanor told them that it wasn’t, but how was anything he was saying possible?
“I-I know you like your practical jokes, Sans-”
“Cal-”
“But this isn’t funny… This… I don’t…”
“trust me.” Sans cut in in a low voice, meeting his friend’s gaze once again. “i wish this was just some crazy prank.”
Cal studied Sans’ face for awhile. It wasn’t like him to be cruel, so the only other possibility was that he was telling the truth. There was nothing else for them to say. They sighed with resignation and shook their head slowly.
“Cal, where did you go after the accident?” Sans pressed on, leaning in a little closer.
“and how did you get back?”
“I-I didn’t… I mean,” They paused, rubbing the back of their neck.
“I was just kind of… gone, and then I woke up again.”
“then where did Gaster go?” The skeleton seemed to be getting frustrated now. Cal’s headache felt too big for their skull with each passing word.
“Sans, I-I don’t know…”
“why did you come back, and he didn’t?” So that was it. Sans seemed to be talking to himself more than Cal at this point, but the words still sunk into the monster’s chest like a heavy stone. Of course. Why would he be happy to see someone he had only known for a little over a year when he could have had his father back? To Cal it was perfectly rational, but it still hurt.
“I’m… sorry, Sans… I-” Cal was interrupted by a flood of fluorescent light as the hall door swished open. Silhouetted in the light was the head of a reptile, peeking out from behind the door frame.
“Erm,” Alphys’ small voice squeaked, “Is everything… o-okay in here?”
Sans stood abruptly then, turning to face Alphys with a casual grin plastered on his face.
“yeah, ‘course! dr. Alphys, this is-”
“Cal…?” Alphys was already peering past Sans at the confused monster seated on the floor. The skeleton faltered for a moment, blinking in surprise at the lizard’s apparent recognition.
“Cal! Ohmygosh! H-How did you get in here?! And… where… have you been?”
“Alphys,” Cal started, pushing themselves up onto wobbly legs, “do you remember-”
“hey, you got any extra clothes lying around here dr. A?” Sans cut in, shooting Cal a quick, desperate glance. “Cal seems to have misplaced theirs in an ill-lab-berate turn of events.” With a half-hearted chuckle the skeleton gestured to the ill fitting lab coat clasped around Cal’s form. No one else laughed.
“Oh! Y-Yeah, probably!” Alphys’ face flushed slightly before she scurried back into the hall, Sans following quickly behind.
“Sans-” Cal couldn’t put their worry away as easily as the skeleton. If Alphys had managed to remember Cal, then maybe there was hope for Dr. Gaster, too. “Alphys might-”
“she doesn’t.” He hissed back, accompanied by a pleading look to leave it be. Cal wanted to protest- what was the harm in asking? But the sickly grimace on Sans’ face quickly stamped out their defiance. They sighed heavily in resignation and stepped out into the hall after the other two monsters.
WOW OKAY. So this turned into something big literally overnight. @sanscrap and I are gonna make a thing. Not sure what exactly it’s gonna be, but it’s gonna be awesome!!!!
Look at this dumb baby. I went and made an Undertale OC. My first since middle school WOW. Anyway meet Blood red Rachel Dementia Way Aka Cal At the suggestion of @sanscrap who is super cool and just as much of a kinky nerd as me. <3