Art made by @millkep (didn’t have time to fully complete but still looks amazing 👍)
Just had this idea pop in my head with sketch ink variant and thought it was cool
For context: Missing!Files is an Error amalgamate (NOT error!sans who became an amalgamate, just an amalgamate who got corrupted in the anti-void), whose whole thing is corrupting AUs (not on purpose) into glitchy messes
So ink wouldn’t like someone ruining his stories, his Au’s =)
The sound of the scanner was all Sans could seem to focus on as Alphys hooked up the machine to give it a test run. The "Insert", or rather, You were waiting behind some glass windows, hands pressed against them as your heads shifted between shapes. Somehow a chill goes down the skeleton's spine at your staring, even though he can't actually feel temperatures. Perhaps that's just an effect you have on him, heart shaped voids where your eyes would be unable to pull away as you observe his subtle movements.
"O-Okay, just hold still and let me look over your soul for a few seconds. Try not to move too mul- much." Alphys' claws can be heard clicking the keys on the keyboard beside her before she presses a button on the machine.
"don't gotta worry too much about that, alphys. it's not like i need to breathe." He simply falls limp where he sits as he feels himself being scanned, Alphys focusing intently on what the machine says. Ooh, he really wants to make a joke right now, but he'd hate to know what could go wrong if she loses focus. Maybe some other time. The two wait in an agonizing silence as the results slowly pull up. Jeez, someone really needs to do maintenance on this..
"Okay, let me take a look at..oh stars." Alphys' brows knit together as she looks at the screen, briefly glancing back at the skeleton.
"you're making me nervous, am i dying or something?" A hint of a chuckle is heard in his voice, but also a small amount of anxiety.
"Well, n-no, but..um..okay. Do you remember the concept of Soulmates that we went over?"
"well yeah. everybody has someone compatible for their soul that they can be bound to, and when a perfect match is found the souls are linked automatically. ..what does that have to do with this?" He tilts his head as he leans to the side, shifting his weight onto one of his hands resting on the seat below him.
She shuts the machine down but keeps the results screen up, shuffling about as she talks. "Those..strings that you saw are all soul links. Links connected to your soul." She turns to face him directly, a serious expression on her face. He freezes, eyesockets going wide in shock.
"..you're saying i have connections to every soul fragment in their body?"
"..Yeah, which means..you're soulmates with the entity." She turns the screen around so he can face it, pointing at each individiual string that's connected from his soul to Yours. Various different colors and styles all link right to him, wrapping around his soul and almost trapping it. "S-Somehow, you've..bonded with every soul here. That is why the entity likes you so much."
"how is that even scientifically possible?" He sits up, adjusting his glasses that had begun to slip and getting off of the chair he'd been sitting in to get a closer look. "how did i manage to bond with a bunch of soul shards we found out and about? i mean, it's not unheard of to have multiple soulmates, but this many?"
He turns back to look at you, watching as your melty grin stretches once you've been acknowledged. Well, it would explain the clingy behavior and why you didn't attack him on sight..
"how could i be bound to that many souls? it's impossible, i can't be..it doesn't make sense." He stares off at a desk in a nearby corner, covered in scattered papers and blue prints for various projects, allowing himself to think.
"I-I don't know myself, it should be impossible. But ten- then..after seeing the results..it's definitely possible now. You're bound." She looks out of the window at You, and You break your staring at Sans, focusing on her as your eyes shift back into circular voids, tilting your head in curiosity.
"i don't get it..there has to be some explanation for this. a mistake somewhere, somehow- why would?.." He puts a gloved hand over his teeth, trying to think of some sort of reasoning, something he's not seeing. But what is it? What is the piece of the puzzle he can't seem to place? He turns back to look at you, watching as your eyes shift back to adoring little hearts. He walks over to the glass without a word, standing behind it as you perk up, gently pressing various shifting hand shapes against it with a wide smile.
"Wh-When you find your soulmate..o-or soulmates, in this case..you're bound for a long time, Sans. And..I think you two are gonna be stuck with each other for a long time." She joins his side, looking at You as you lightly hit the glass, wanting to go inside.
"what am i going to do, al?" He lowers his hand, eyes softening as he looks over you. She sighs, putting a hand on his shoulder and waiting for him to turn to look at her. She looks back at you for a moment, before shifting her gaze back to him.
"Well, for now..we just need to keep working and observing it until we can figure out how all this mess works. M-Maybe there's a chance you can detach somehow! Or..figure something else out! Something..something crazy, b-but possible!"
"i guess we'll have to see, huh?" He puts his hands in his lab coat pockets. Alphys removes her hand, walking over to fully shut down the scanning machine and push some of the previous scientist's journals out of the way. He walks over to the door, letting it scan one of his eyelights before exiting. You're on him in mere seconds, clinging to him like a cat to a scratching post. He lets out an uneasy chuckle, still not quite used to this sort of thing.
"hey. i'm back now." He reaches up to pet your rapidly shifting heads, having a bit of a struggle as your heights constantly change. "you okay? ..all of you?" He pauses, hearing something muttered from your mouths and freezing. ..He didn't think you could speak. "hey, i..i couldn't hear, can you say that again? try again."
"Ssss.." You strain yourselves, voices changing between different pitches and having the tone of a whisper. "Saaaans.." A wide smile crosses your faces, pleased at your discovery. He lets out a little amused huff, stepping back a little.
"so you can talk, huh? well.. you're progressing similarly to the others, at least. won't be long before you can say full sentences again. if you keep working at it, that is."
"Saaaans. Saaaans? Saaaans!" Giggles of differing pitches erupt from your mouth as you cling to him again, Alphys shaking her head as she exits the room behind you both.
"They're like a puppy." She smiles, observing your behavior. "Only without the licking and biting part."
"hey, don't jinx it. they might try it." Sans warns, earning a laugh from the lizard as they both begin walking down a long hallway, motion lights activating above as they pass through. They both find themselves staring off into space as they walk quietly, sounds of content coming from you. Alphys simply types away on her phone, probably to Undyne, Sans thinks. All of a sudden, he feels a sharp pain.
"ow-" He looks over to see your forms biting onto his shoulder before he quickly pulls you off, holding you up by the scruff of your melty neck as you let out sounds of discontent. "no biting, that's bad."
Alphys lets out a laugh, barely able to contain herself. "IT ACTUALLY- IT ACTUALLY BIT YOU-" She wheezes, holding her chest. "Oh my stars, I'm gonna pass out!"
"shut up, al." He murmurs as the three of you enter the elevator to go down a floor. It's quiet for a bit before Alphys perks up, putting her phone away.
"You know, I see what you mean about the lack of elevator music now."
"right? it'd make it a lot less creepy, that's for sure. just goin' in here and listening to..i dunno, casual bongos."
"Bongos? Sans, please. I am not playing bongos in here." She puts a hand on her hip.
"don't hate on them, you just can't handle their power." Sans finally puts you down after a hot minute, and you go right back to clinging to his back. "plus it's funny."
"Oh my stars." She pinches her nose in frustration as the doors open, and the two scientists enter the new hallway. Machinery can be heard moving nearby, likely for Mettaton's routine maintenance. As to which Mettaton? They have no idea. But it's one of 'em.
Sans perks up to make some sort of robot joke, but pauses when the sound of something moving in the air vents interrupts the peace. You perk up, heads all turning to find the location of the sound, before detaching from Sans quickly. He holds out an arm in protest, but is unable to stop you as you go to hunt down whatever it may be.
"that's..probably not good." A bead of magic sweat rolls down his skull, Alphys facepalming shortly after.
"Why did you let it go?! C-Come on, we've gotta find it before it hurts one of the other patients or something." Alphys grabs her phone, opening an app so she can see her security cameras, trying to pinpoint your location. Sans follows the trail of goop you left behind, running after it quickly.
"hey! don't go chasing after stuff, get back here! you don't have enough HP to go running into danger right now!" He shouts at the ceiling, hoping you can hear him from wherever you are. The noise in the vents is much louder, the movement of what sounds like multiple figures able to be heard echoing as the chase proceeds on. The sounds finally stop near a keycard locked room, Sans opening it almost immediately upon hearing a loud crash. He pops his head in, turning on the light with a worried look, before letting out a sigh of relief.
You sit in a little goopy, shifting blob as the patient "Endogeny" sniffs you, barking happily at the fact that it's made a friend. You simply remain still as it seems to "sniff" you, despite having no nose on its body whatsoever, before lying down on the ground beside you, various legs and all.
"thank the stars it was just endo. so that's how something kept getting into the dog food, it's been going through the vents." He pops his head out. "al! it's okay, it was just endo!"
"Are you serious? How did a dog that BIG get into the vents?"
"i dunno, but that's what happened. they're fine now, everything's good."
"Thank the stars..they almost gave me a heart attack. Remind me why I'm working down here again?"
"because we've experienced The Horrors and have to live with that for the rest of our lives?"
"Oh yeah. True."
"Sans? Are You In Here? You Didn't Come Home For Your Break, So I Decided To Visit And Ensure You Are Alright!" Papyrus' voice echoes through the hall. Sans somehow pales despite literally being a white skeleton, tensing before shutting the door. Alphys looks at him worriedly.
"papyrus can not know about this situation right now. just let me handle this, watch over them okay?" He rushes away before she can respond, leaving her frozen in place as she slowly looks into the room you're in. You press your faces against the glass abruptly, causing her to scream and jolt backwards, before she regains her composure. You let out a series of distorted laughs as she sighs, putting her hands on her hips.
"A-Alright, you troublemaker. You're gonna have to get used to me one way or another, and if this is how it'll be then so be it."
You grin smugly at her, Endogeny comically rising up behind you so it can look outside too. Such a good dog. Dogs? Something like that.
"okay sans, just act natural, it's your brother. your brother that does not know what you have been doing with souls and does not know that those souls are your soulmates now. just act..natural." He opens a door, being greeted with the face of his younger brother.
OK, I know that canonically, humans have enough physical matter to take determination... but what if Kazuichi, Nagito, and other people from your DR ships got super sick and they were prolly gonna die... but they accept Determination treatment and of course, it goes wrong. They melt into their SO and it all goes downhill from there. DR AMALGAMATE AU
That would probably be horrifying for them being suddenly melted into the same being than their s/o and loosing themselves. I mean the Amalgamates did hardly remember who they were after a while and behaved very instinctive before being reminded about who they all as separate people were. They also were struggling to talk
