PotatoxSeriousSans

[SeriousSans]

(Sure, though I did still have some ideas I wanted to have happen first- the main one I really want to include is Alia and Chara exploring Waterfall for character development purposes which I've been working on behind the scenes for months now and don't just want to skip, but if you want to skip ahead now, I don't mind skipping my other ideas. I just figure Mira and Sans wouldn't let Alia go off "on her own" for hours at a time if they're both worried about someone wanting to take her soul, which would make some of the scenes I've been working on impossible. That said, since most of it is just the two of them, I can put the finishing touches on it and post it all at once if you'd like, and then we can move on? If that works for you, just let me know and I'll finish up what I've been working on and post it all ^^)

(Editing to add- Here it is!)

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Alia entered Waterfall with an excited smile on her face. After having thoroughly explored Snowdin with Chara's help the past few days, she was eager to visit the next location in the Underground. She was relieved that no one seemed to mind her wandering off to explore with Chara, since it really was much more fun when the two could speak openly with each other. Though she enjoyed the presence of the others as well, she had to admit it could get frustrating to force herself not to laugh at one of Chara's narrations whenever someone else was around. Despite her best efforts at researching magic, Alia still hadn't managed to figure out a way to let Chara communicate with the monsters yet. Chara still did not appear to have figured out what she was trying to research, but continued to point out books about magic to her when she visited the library.

Still, Alia wasn't going to let her disappointment distract her right now. She listened happily as Chara told her about Waterfall, and kept wandering through until she came across a flower. It was different from any other flower she'd seen before; it was glowing a bright blue color, and she couldn't see any reason why or how it was doing that. "What's this?"

"That is an echo flower," Chara replied. "They repeat the last thing they hear."

Alia leaned towards the flower, listening curiously. To her surprise, she heard her own voice speak, asking, "What's this?"

"Woah!" Alia said, amazed. Soon after, the flower repeated it. She giggled, then began walking again. Soon, the two reached a hallway. There was a statue being drenched by rain, and Alia couldn't help but feel bad for some reason. She kept glancing at it as she continued walking through the hallway.

When she found a container with several umbrellas in it in the next room, Alia immediately grabbed one and headed back to where the statue was. It took her a few tries to prop the umbrella up in such a way that it was covering the statue, but once she'd succeeded, Alia couldn't help but smile.

A few moments later, a beautiful melody began playing. Neither Alia nor Chara knew where it was coming from, or why it started playing, but they just listened quietly. It wasn't long before memories began pushing to the front of Chara's mind...

//Flashbacks

Chara ran onto the path leading up Mount Ebott, not even bothering to look back at the human town they were leaving behind. Sure, they knew of the legends people told about how anyone who climbed the mountain would never return, but truthfully, Chara didn't want to return so that was fine with them. Once they were several yards into the trek, they stopped running, knowing none of the other humans would follow them this far anyway; they were all too terrified of the rumors.

Looking around, Chara let themself relax slightly. It was actually quite peaceful up here, with no other noises aside from those of nature, and no living creatures other than a few animals that had apparently made a home here. Chara tried their best not to disturb any of them, though they did stop to watch them for a bit before continuing on.

As they walked up the path, they wondered about the legends. Nothing strange had happened thus far, was there even any truth to them at all? Humans were known to let their imaginations run wild when it came to things they didn't understand or were scared of. However, Chara learned that in this instance, it was not entirely exaggerated rumors at work, as they found themself tripping on something and falling into a large opening that suddenly appeared in front of them.

As they fell, Chara wondered whether they should be feeling something. Scared or sad or... Something, at least. Maybe they were just in shock. Logically they realized they would probably be quite injured when they landed, and it wasn't like there was anyone with them to give them medical attention. Yet, they just felt resigned.

Shortly after they landed, they heard movement nearby. Though Chara's head hurt too much to actually look in the direction of the sound, they kept listening in surprise. There was not supposed to be anyone else around here, after all. It was soon proved they were not imagining things when a voice suddenly called out, in a startled and... concerned?... tone, "Are you okay?" The movement got closer, but Chara still did not move or try to reply. They were too confused.

"Please, say something, tell me you're alright!" the voice spoke again, more urgently, and Chara sighed inwardly but struggled to sit up. Why were they only now, after accepting what had seemed to be their fate, finding someone who actually seemed to care what happened to them? To their surprise, they felt someone, presumably the one who had spoken, reach out and help them.

Chara looked up and saw a young goat monster standing in front of them, looking worried but with a hint of relief upon seeing they were still alive and able to move. Chara remembered the stories the other humans told about monsters. All their horror stories were about evil monsters who attacked the innocent.

So why was it that a monster was rushing to help them, when the other humans were always looking for opportunities to bully them?

Chara let the monster help them to their feet, and was surprised when, after stumbling due to their injured leg, the monster let them lean on him and helped them walk along a path. The two walked slowly, the young monster being surprisingly careful of their injuries, until they reached two older goat monsters who were presumably the kid's parents.

One rushed to heal Chara's injuries, while the other hung back a bit, seeming worried about scaring them. Though after dealing with cruel humans for so many years, the kind family of monsters didn't scare Chara at all.

...

Though typically quite slow to trust, Chara found themself trusting the three monsters surprisingly quickly. It helped that all three were so genuinely caring, Toriel had quickly healed their injuries while Asgore appeared to be purposely making himself seem as un-threatening as possible. Asriel was just plain adorable, the kind of brother they would have liked to have watching out for them on the surface. The family had offered to take them in, and since Chara didn't exactly have any other ideas, they agreed.

At first, they tried to stay quiet and out of the way, that was what helped them avoid many incidents on the surface after all, but with Asriel's encouragement they soon found themself becoming part of the family. Chara realized they were happy here, much happier than they'd ever been on the surface.

When Toriel homeschooled them and Asriel, Chara always tried their best, wanting to make her proud. They were equally eager to help Asgore with gardening, and of course they were always happy to spend time with Asriel. They learned he loved roleplaying as his super-powerful OC, and made their own OC to roleplay as whenever he wanted to play.

Slowly, Chara healed from their time on the surface, with every chocolate pie Toriel made, each time they went exploring with Asriel and saw all the cool things in the Underground, every moment where the Dreemurrs were clearly making an effort to include them... The harsh memories faded away.

That allowed them to make their biggest mistake. They eventually forgot about just how cruel humans could be, and thought that maybe, everyone could exist in peace on the surface like the monsters wanted.

...

While Chara had heard monsters occasionally mention wondering what the surface was like, and knew they felt somewhat trapped by the barrier, for the most part they had been sheltered from how much the monsters truly wanted to be free. Of course, they were never in any danger, none of the monsters would ever harm the shy but caring human the King and Queen had adopted, after all. The monsters had merely avoided discussing it much in their presence to avoid scaring them into thinking they might be attacked.

Unfortunately, echo flowers didn't have this ability.

One day, as Chara and Asriel were wandering through Waterfall, they came across some echo flowers telling a story of two monsters whose greatest wish was to see the surface. Chara was rather surprised by this, since this was the first they had heard of monsters wanting to be free so badly. They wondered how many other monsters had a similar wish.

It was not long after that they came across a prophecy. One about an angel, which apparently many monsters believed would end with their freedom. With the new realization that monsters probably wanted to be free much more than they were letting on, Chara began thinking of a way to help them. After all, the monsters had been so kind to them, taking them in and giving them a family... They wanted to return the kindness somehow, and this seemed like a good way to do so.

They spent a lot of time thinking about how to break the barrier. Finally, they had an idea they thought would work. A monster could use their soul to get past the barrier, and since human souls persisted after death, they could find six more on the surface and then break the barrier, with no one needing to hurt anyone. It seemed like the perfect plan.

Except it wasn't. They hadn't expected any humans to come across Asriel when he went to the surface to gather the souls of six already dead humans. But despite him avoiding getting closer than necessary to the humans' settlements, a large group of humans still found him, and immediately began to attack as soon as they saw a monster.

Asriel tried his best to talk things out with them, but it was no use. The humans kept attacking even when he showed he had no intent to harm them, and finally he had to flee due to the number of injuries the humans had inflicted on him.

//End of Flashbacks

While Chara was distracted by memories, they did not notice Alia was glancing at them in concern. When the last of the memories finally faded, they looked at Alia to see if she was ready to leave, and sighed inwardly when they realized she was watching them. They knew she was probably wondering what had happened, and decided it was better to just explain before she started asking questions.

"I was just remembering some memories. It was nothing to concern yourself over," Chara explained. "Are you ready to continue, or would you like to keep listening to the song?" They hoped Alia would realize they did not want to talk about it. Fortunately, she simply nodded and began walking again, though they noticed she did glance at them occasionally. Trying to get her mind off of it, they started telling puns, and while she laughed at them, they had a feeling she hadn't entirely forgotten about it.

...

As the two continued through Waterfall, Alia often paused to listen to echo flowers. In one area, there were a bunch of them seemingly set along the path, and from listening to the first few, Alia guessed that the flowers had picked up most or all of a conversation that had been held while walking along. As far as she could tell, it seemed to be a couple of monsters talking, discussing their wishes.

One said they wished to see the surface, and the other apparently laughed, before replying that that was their wish, too. Alia felt sad; she had no idea how long ago these echo flowers heard the conversation, but to hear how much monsters wanted to return to the surface...

"Alia." Chara spoke, their tone completely serious. "Promise me you will not do anything dangerous or that could cause yourself harm trying to break the barrier."

Alia looked at them, surprised. She had not seen them look this troubled since the time Toriel said many of the monsters in the Ruins had moved on in a way that at first made them think they might have died. "I won't," Alia agreed, then hesitated a few moments before speaking again. "Is that... Is that why you..."

Chara sighed; they should have figured she would realize why they were so serious about this. Still, it was too important to make sure she didn't get herself hurt, not saying anything was not an option. "Come on," they said finally, leading her away from the echo flowers. Though they didn't seem to have been able to hear anything else Chara had said around them, they were not willing to risk it now.

Alia followed silently, watching them with a concerned expression. When the duo was far away from any echo flowers, Chara looked back at Alia, their expression for once showing their emotions rather than masking them.

"Yes, it was soon after I heard that that I began working on a plan to break the barrier. I am a ghost as a result of that plan." Chara internally debated whether or not to explain their plan and what had happened. Part of them did not want to relive those memories again, they just had earlier that day after all, and they trusted Alia to keep her promise. Still, Alia's concerned expression seemed to prompt them into continuing. "I realized that, since human souls persist after death, if we could collect souls from humans who had already died, we would be able to break the barrier without anyone getting hurt. However, there were no other humans in the Underground, so I knew we would need to reach the surface somehow to find any. It takes a human soul and a monster soul to cross the barrier, so I decided to let them use mine to get past the barrier and reach the surface. Except..." Chara took a breath before continuing, "As soon as they saw Rei, the humans started attacking him. Even though he did not fight back and just tried to talk things out with them, they kept attacking until he was badly wounded and had to flee back to the Underground." Chara had not realized it was possible for ghosts to cry, but they were relatively certain they were crying now, if Alia's expression was anything to go by.

Alia instinctively reached out to hug them, before remembering they were a ghost and realizing her arms would just go right through them. She froze for a few moments before reluctantly lowering her arms again, trying to think of a way to calm her friend down. "I'm sorry, Chara. Neither of you deserved that."

"We just wanted everyone to be free... No one was supposed to get hurt..." Chara said quietly, yet full of emotion.

"I know. And don't worry, I'm not going to do anything like that." Alia tried her best to be as reassuring as possible, though she wasn't sure how successful she actually was. Eventually, though, Chara started to calm down, and managed to smile slightly at Alia, trying to reassure her they were alright now.

"Thank you for listening, Alias."

"Of course, Character."

The two continued on, though both were rather more subdued than usual, but Chara still made an effort to narrate the things they came across.

...

Alia saw a sign up ahead and approached it curiously, but Chara stayed back as if trying to avoid it. Alia wondered what that was about; they usually stayed relatively close to her, especially recently, so why were they suddenly being so distant?

She read the sign silently. 'However... There is a prophecy. The Angel... The one who has seen the surface... They will return. And the Underground will go empty.'

"Look, it is just a dumb prophecy. Don't even bother thinking about it. Come on, we should go," Chara spoke up before she could dwell on the sign for very long. Alia glanced at them. They seemed irritated and... A bit worried? She wondered why.

//Swap to Chara's POV

Chara had known at some point the two would come across the sign upon which the prophecy had been carved. However, they had been hoping that if they ignored it and tried to move past it quickly, Alia would too. Unfortunately, she was too curious.

Chara could remember the prophecy all too well, though they would rather forget it. After all, it was all just a load of nonsense, wasn't it? They had tried to free monsterkind, and they had failed miserably.
Now they were worried it would fool Alia the same way it had fooled them. They couldn't stand the idea of Alia making some risky attempt to break the barrier and getting herself killed.

'No, she wouldn't do that. Especially now that she knows what happened...' Chara thought, trying to reassure themself.

"What makes you say that?" Alia asked, looking at them with a confused expression.

"They are just words carved on a sign. They are not worth risking your life over," Chara replied. "So just forget about it, okay?"

Alia seemed to have a moment of realization, though of what, Chara was not sure. Hopefully, whatever it was would convince her to put the prophecy completely out of her mind.

"Well, it's not like I've returned, anyway." Alia said.

Chara frowned at this, the words of the prophecy crossing their mind once again. It was true, it had clearly stated the angel would return and then the Underground would go empty. So the plan had been doomed to fail from the start, then? Why hadn't they realized that sooner?

Alia giggled, drawing Chara out of their thoughts. "What is it?"

"Nothing! I just, uh, thought of a pun! Hey, race you to the bridge!" Alia replied, not very convincingly in Chara's opinion. Besides, she could never resist telling a pun as soon as she thought of it. There was something going on here, but Chara had no idea what it was.

"Be careful!" Chara called out as Alia started running towards the bridge. They were not sure what she was hiding, but it certainly wasn't worth her tripping and falling down into the large chasm beneath them.

Alia stopped immediately, then turned towards them sheepishly. "Right, sorry!"

Chara simply sighed and followed her.

.....

//Flowey's POV

Flowey knew Alia had been visiting Waterfall that day, and decided it might be a good opportunity to try to learn more about her. From watching her from a distance, he noticed that she sometimes seemed to talk to herself, though he was never close enough to hear what she actually said. But with so many echo flowers strewn about Waterfall, perhaps she said something close enough to a few that they would be repeating, and he could listen to them.

When he approached the first one, he thought he might be right when he heard what was unmistakably Alia's voice saying, "Woah!" Grinning to himself, Flowey continued on, listening to every echo flower for any hints as to what Alia was up to. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like she'd spoken to or around any other flowers for quite some time, since they were all saying the same things they always did.

Flowey was beginning to consider giving up since he still hadn't heard anything new by the time he reached the area with the echo flowers talking about wishes. Flowey didn't particularly like this area, as he suspected it played a role in Chara deciding to sacrifice themself so the monsters could have their freedom. Still, he forced himself to listen to each flower, and was rewarded when he reached the final one and heard Alia's voice.

"Is that... Is that why you..."

Alia had definitely gone to Waterfall alone, but here it certainly sounded like she was talking to someone else, not herself. Which brought up a few questions. Had she ever actually been talking to herself? And more importantly...

Who was she talking to?

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(Annnnnd finished! Feel free to skip ahead to wherever you would like now!)

[PossessedPotato]

(Wonderful reply x3 I tried to make my own post about Miras development as well. Never feel the need to skip over anything you wanna add in, ok?? I love reading Alias development regardless of any time skips or plot devices we got going on!)



Mira was a natural worrywart when it came to Alias safety seeing as a child wandering about the Underground was a recipe for disaster in her eyes, her own, strange encounter with a gray door in waterfall nearly sealing her own fate if not fo the intervention of Sans between her and the in between version of the former Royal scientist.


The human could never truly admit to herself how afraid she had been in that endless void of a room...the despair and sadness she had felt was unmatched by anything she had dealt with until than, Mira having resigned herself to death in the moment before she had been rescued.


Everything that had happened in Alphys's lab was just as much of a blur to Mira, Sans attempts to explain to her just how off her rocker and ill she had actually been not reminding her of her usual self at all, Mira tending to be thr obedient quiet type usually and not one who need to be kept watch of to make sure they stayed safe.


Perhaps having a shattered Soul had somehow....altered her state of mind? Or perhaps it was the shock of everything until that point?


Mira did want to know...but she was still a bit wary of Gaster, the best monster to ask on such a subject.



Maybe it was because she was used to Sans and Papyrus that something about the third skeleton unnerved her. Compared to the bon brothers, Gaser had the appearance of a crafted skeletal doll more than what a human may have thought of a 'living skeleton', her encounter with him in the void not helping much in regards to her not seeing him as always being a potential threat.



Well...maybe not a -threat-.....but as a human in the Underground she couldn't afford not to be wary, right?



'God Mira, stop worrying over every little thing that happens down here. You know no one will hurt you or Alia...t-that was just a freak encounter back there'



Mira had since returned to Waterfallbonce or twice by herself but the girl clearly had some sort of ptsd when walking through some of the longer, more isolated corridors despite there being little to no threat to be found now.



Mira spent most of her time studying books on monster culture and Souls while Alia explored the wider Underground, her also dealing with her unfortunate tendency to get sick at the worst possible times, likely due to stress. On top of this she spent time trying go get to know Sans more,



Back in Snowdin, Mira wasn't aware that Alia may have potrnrislly be in danger as she did her best to practice what little magic she knew, said magic being the odd glow she could make from her fingertips.


It wasn't terribly strong by any means but she has enhanced it to the point where it could at least guide one's way in a dark corridor....



Currently, Mira was perched on the sofa with a old looking book of human magic in front of her, her focus steady as she did her best to concentrate herself just as the book said to do.


'Take a deep breath, Mira, focus....'



Her fingertips lighting up to a faint pink glow, it only lasted for a few seconds before they fizzled out, Mira sighing annoyed as took a note on how long this attempt had lasted.




'5 seconds....'



Muttering to herself as she wrote, it felt strange to be down here in a land of magic and monsters without any real useful abilities of her own, it almost feeling like a disability seeing as there were literally doors that needed magic to open and strange ways of communicating through said magic with some monsters that she wouldn't be able to talk with otherwise.


Maybe she could ask for help? Well, she didn't wanna bother anyone...a holdover habit from when she was on the surface. Mira works never admit it but she truly juat wanted to prove herself in a sense that she was strong like her new friends down here.

[SeriousSans]

(Thank you, I really appreciate that! I just didn't want to keep the roleplay from moving ahead or anything. I'll do my best to find ways to fit my ideas in regardless of the time skips though! And I'm enjoying reading Mira's development too!)

//Librarby

Alia was back at the library, looking through more books on magic. She felt even more determined after the adventure in Waterfall. Perhaps she was just being overly hopeful or reading too much into it, but she now felt more confident that she would be able to succeed in her goal if she just stuck with it. After all, surely the Angel of the Underground should be able to speak with the monsters, shouldn't they?

Alia had absolutely no idea how all that prophecy stuff was going to work out, but Chara had returned- as a ghost, sure, but it still counted!- so somehow, the monsters were going to be free at some point. At least, they would if the prophecy actually was going to happen and wasn't "just words carved on a sign" as Chara had put it.

It didn't seem like Chara had come to the same conclusion as Alia, though. She had noticed they had been looking slightly worried whenever they thought she wasn't paying attention ever since the two had come across the sign with the prophecy on it. It seemed like they were genuinely scared Alia might risk her life to try to break the barrier or something. Alia tried her best to reassure them by sticking to her usual routine and never mentioning the barrier; she'd even been avoiding books that mentioned it in hopes of helping them relax, although part of her did worry that doing this was causing her to miss helpful information. Still, she could always try reading those books later if she didn't find anything elsewhere.

Besides, Alia had no intention of trying to mess with the barrier. She figured it would be better to just wait and see what happened rather than try to figure it all out herself. Maybe it didn't even require any further action in the first place, anyway. Prophecies were always supposed to be mysterious and confusing, after all, right? And Alia already had plenty to focus on with her research on magic, so she didn't need any more research projects. Thus, Alia just kept reading books on magic, hoping she would find what she was looking for soon, and not worrying about the barrier in the slightest.

.....

//Snowdin

Sans had just finished his sentry duty for the day, and teleported back home. Though in the past he would have just teleported straight to his room, now that Mira and Alia were around he always made an effort to check on them first whenever he got back. So, today he teleported to the front door and walked inside. Seeing MIra on the sofa with a book, writing notes as far as he could tell, he spoke up quietly so as not to startle her.

"heya, how's it going?" Sans hoped he wasn't disturbing her, but he also didn't want to just stand there saying nothing in case she would feel embarrassed when she eventually realized he was there. After all, he still remembered that time she had a whole conversation with Papyrus without realizing he was also in the room, the last thing he wanted to do was cause a repeat of that to happen. Sans didn't want either Mira or Alia to feel uncomfortable here at all, and while there were of course probably still plenty more differences between humans and monsters he didn't know about, he was trying his best to make them both feel welcome.

Speaking of Alia, she didn't appear to be around right now. Sans wondered if she was at the library again, she'd been making sure to visit it for at least an hour or two every day. Sans wasn't sure why she spent so much time there, but figured she probably had a reason. It was probably best to wait and let her bring it up if she wanted to. While she had clearly been making an effort not to be so quiet all the time, Sans could tell she still felt uncomfortable if too much attention was on her for too long, so he tried not to involve her in long conversations when there were other people around.

As observant as he was, though, Sans had noticed her reading books about magic, and figured her research probably had something to do with that. Despite his curiosity, he hadn't asked about it, though he had offered to help her out if she needed anything. While she seemed grateful, she hadn't asked him any questions about magic yet besides a few basic things that had come up naturally from seeing him levitate something or teleport. Maybe she was still getting used to not having to do everything herself, he figured. It didn't seem like she'd been given much help on the surface from how she typically tried to do things by herself at first.

[PossessedPotato]

Mira in a sense felt more confident now that she had another human down here that needed to get back to the surface just as much as she did, her hoping that if anything Alia would decide to live with her and have a happy life instead of going back to the parents who had presumably led them to be such a shy little flower in the first place.

Of course, she wanted monsters to be able to go free as well, Mira wondering sometimes if she would ever even -see- her friends down here again once everyone was able to get to the surface.


Down here everyone was kind of made to know everyone by circumstance, but...Mira secretly hoped that Sans and the others would still be around despite the unlimited opportunities before them once they got out of these caverns.


How would the monsters cope with humanity though was another issue...a lot of humans were still intolerant bastards towards anything that even slightly displeased their sense of being...would monsters even be safe once the barrier was broken?


Maybe it would be best to discuss these things with the King later today...


Mira tended to be the type to be a bit oblivious in a harmless sense but she was getting a bit better about it compared to her first few weeks down here, the girl looking up from her notes when she heard a familiar voice seemingly popping out of thin air next to her.

"Oh! Hi", Mira brightening up a bit as she was always happy to see Sans, the two were as bonded as could be and Mira enjoyed sharing her knowledge about the surface with him, "I was just taking some notes is all, what about you?"

The Underground, as it was now, seemed to be relatively safe for someone like Alia to explore so Mira wasn't too worried about the little human wandering about, her instincts to mother the child being strong regardless as she wanted to give them some sense of 'normalcy' in a family who would never dare to hurt them.


"Actually, uh....can I ask you a question?", Mira folding her notes together as she sighed and tried to give Sans a hopeful look, Mira may have had trust in Alia but nonetheless she was a worrywart over the kid, "Do you think...A-Alia is happy down here, uh.. with us?".

[SeriousSans]

Sans felt bad when Mira seemed to have been startled for a moment at first when he spoke up. Hopefully he hadn't interrupted anything important... Though, she seemed happy enough as she greeted him, so it didn't seem like he had picked a bad time. Sans smiled as he replied, "i just got back from work, and figured i'd check in to see how things were going."

When Mira asked if she could ask him a question, he was a bit confused by how she sounded kind of nervous. "yeah, of course you can," he said reassuringly, wondering what was going on. Had something happened? She seemed more worried than he would have expected about asking a question, which of course caused him to worry as well. Things had seemingly been going well recently, and Sans was hoping that would continue... Then again, his luck typically wasn't that good. Really, he shouldn't be counting on things staying peaceful and happy for too long, or he would miss when something went wrong. If he hadn't already.

Which, of course, immediately resulted in his mind coming up with a bunch of scenarios of what could have happened. Maybe Flowey had done something? Though, there hadn't been any resets or even any loads since Alia had arrived. Sans still wasn't sure what exactly was going on with the flower besides his theory that Alia reminded him of Chara so much that he wanted to keep spending time with her and thus was being much nicer than usual. Still, that probably wouldn't stop him from causing issues elsewhere when she wasn't around to stop him...

...And he had been threatening Sans about bothering Mira back before the whole incident in the Void, hadn't he? Maybe he had finally gotten around to visiting her. Though Sans figured that probably wasn't the case, Flowey had been talking like he was going to attack her, and Mira didn't seem injured. Unless he had decided not to attack Mira because of how close Alia was to her? Honestly, at this point Sans was more confused than ever about Flowey. The point was, he didn't think Flowey had anything to do with this.

Maybe it was just something she had read in the book. But what could she have read that would make her worried? Sans sighed inwardly, he was only going to stress himself out if he kept trying to figure out what was going on without any knowledge about what it was. It would be better to just wait to see what the question actually was, maybe it was nowhere near as bad as he was thinking it would be.

Mira's question confused him a lot. Alia had seemed fine that morning, as far as he could tell. She had been slowly but steadily opening up a bit more over time, at least when there were only a couple of people around. She was still shy in large groups, but he didn't blame her for that. It could be a lot to get used to after all. "yeah, she seems to be adjusting well. why? did she say something that made you think otherwise?" Sans was unable to fully conceal the worry from his voice as he asked his last question.

Although he hadn't seen any evidence to suggest Alia was unhappy here himself, he wasn't going to ignore it if MIra had. Alia did have a tendency to try to figure things out by herself, after all. Sans figured if she was unhappy, she would try to keep it to herself. And with MIra being a human as well, she might be better suited to seeing evidence of another human being unhappy. But still... Sans liked to think he would have noticed something if Alia was unhappy.

Was he even doing a good job taking care of her if he missed something like that? The thought hit him like a punch in the gut, but he managed not to show any reaction to it. 'calm down. you don't even know for sure something's wrong. if it sounds like there is, you can always check on her when she gets back,' Sans told himself, managing to calm down somewhat. Nonetheless, he couldn't help but continue to worry a bit.

[PossessedPotato]

Mira didn't intend to come off as nervous but she was just a naturally shy human despite being good friends with Sans and many other monsters by now, her doing her best to show she was capable of being smart and had common sense....


Unlike what some on the surface may have thought, some humans being...less than kind to her naive, sweet nature and leaving the girl in her constant state of worry that she was now.



"Its just, something in the back of my mind is telling me that something is up with Alia....not in a bad way, but...", Mira sighing and looking down at her hands for a moment as if she felt bad for talking about the child like this, she did get the vibe that there was more to the kid than meets the eye and hoped maybe Sans could help figure this out, "Im not the best at these things but maybe we should sit down with them and.. uh, figure things out?"


It wasn't as if Mira had given even the slightest hint to knowing about Chara at this point, her not even -knowing- about any humans besides Alia and her down here. Even if she did know it would be a stretch for Mira to comprehend that Alias presence had somehow awoken the soul of a long dead human, "I don't know, I just really want to make sure they are okay and all...I really like the kid a lot".

[SeriousSans]

Sans listened as Mira explained her thoughts, and though he was unsure what had caused her to feel this way he was determined to help her figure it out. "of course we can," he replied when Mira was finished talking, smiling reassuringly despite now feeling concerned that he really may have missed something. After all, he hadn't noticed anything, but it seemed like Mira had noticed something which seemed to be bothering her... If it was true that there was something going on and Alia actually wasn't as happy as she seemed, Sans definitely wanted to check in on her and resolve any issues sooner rather than later. The idea that she might actually be unhappy and was just hiding it made him feel sad.

"i care about her a lot too," Sans added, "so don't worry, i'll do what i can to help you figure it out." Sans did his best to continue to be reassuring, though internally he was going over every interaction he had with Alia over the past few days, trying to find any hints of whatever was bothering Mira. However, despite his best efforts, he was drawing a blank. Alia had seemed to be happy, and Sans thought he'd gotten pretty good at figuring out when people were hiding their true emotions. Besides, when he first met her he'd been able to tell when she was hiding how she felt, so could she really have gotten that much better at it in such a short period of time?

Just then, the door opened with the sound of giggling drifting inside. Sans looked over, and saw Alia walk in. Watching her expression carefully, he tried to look for any hints that she was feeling unhappy at all, but he didn't see any. In fact, she looked just like she always did when he told a particularly bad pun. Well, it didn't seem like there was anything wrong at the moment... Still, he wanted to help Mira feel better- and make sure he wasn't somehow missing something- so he spoke up. "heya kid, did ya have a good time?"

Alia smiled and nodded. Though she still hadn't had any luck with her research project, she was still feeling confident that she would find something if she stuck with it. "Hi Sans, hi Mira!"

"wanna hang out with us for a bit?" Sans asked, figuring now would be a good time for a talk since Gaster was busy working on one of his blueprints today- which was sure to keep him occupied for a few more hours at least- and Papyrus was out working on some puzzles. Since it would just be him, Mira, and Alia, he figured Alia would be a lot more comfortable talking about whatever might be going on since there wouldn't be a large group of people around.

"Sure," Alia replied, walking over and sitting on a chair. She was still smiling, and Sans still didn't see any hints that her smile was fake... Hopefully they would be able to figure this out...

[PossessedPotato]

It probably wasn't Miras place to keep watch on Alia like she did seeing as the kid had parents somewhere who likely missed the missing child terribly and wouldn't appreciate her acting so motherly, but it wasn't as if either of them were getting back to the surface soon....so maybe parents be damned?


The sinking feeling that something wasn't right just had to be Miras anxiety over the child's well being, right? Of course it had to be....Alia seemed happy to everyone else so Mira was most likely overthinking things as always.


'I'm not going crazy, am I?'


Mira sighing and giving a small smile to Sans in a assurance that everything would be okay hopefully, she was quite happy to hear Alia coming in through the front door seemed to set Mira at ease seeing as it the the child hadn't gotten into trouble.


"I hope your adventuring went well~", Mira greeting Alia and masking her nervousness that something might not be 'okay' with the child, she didn't want Alia to worry at all just as Sans did, "I was wondering what you were up to these past few hours".



Mira going to take a seat at the table as well as she really hoped Alia could tell them if anything was wrong, if there even was anything.


She...just wanted to help....to be useful.



"You seem really happy here, hm? I know your probably missing home but everyone down here is doing their best to give you the best life", Mira being genuine as she did enjoy Alia both as human company and almost like a sibling, she wanted the best for the kid, "There hasn't been anything on your mind you wanna talk about with us, is there?".

[SeriousSans]

Alia smiled at MIra when she greeted her, she was quite happy about the opportunity to hang out with Sans and Mira for a while, since aside from Chara they were the two people Alia trusted most. ...And the two people that deep down, Alia was truly starting to consider family, not that she had fully admitted that even to herself. Of course, Papyrus and Gaster were also up there on that list, though they were more like a cool uncle and a science-obsessed granddad. When it came to Sans and Mira, though...

Often, when Alia was about to start walking to her house after school, she would see her classmates rushing over to their waiting parents, excitedly shouting about how they did on a test or how their team won a game at recess. Alia had accepted that there wasn't anyone for her to rush over to and tell about her day as she walked back to the house, her parents were both busy at work after all.

But very recently, after falling into the Underground, Alia could almost imagine that scene she was so used to, the large crowd of relatives waiting to walk home with the other kids, and among them, Sans or Mira or both. Alia hadn't quite figured out what she thought about that; despite how quickly she'd had to learn how to take care of herself, she was still just twelve, and understanding one's own feelings could be really confusing. Besides, her school was on the surface, and Alia really didn't want to be there when she could be here with the monsters instead.

So she mostly just pushed the image out of her mind whenever it happened to pop up.

Even so, it wasn't lost on Alia that both Mira and Sans had asked her about her day, perhaps somewhat indirectly but still... She quickly pushed the thought away again so she could focus on the conversation. She smiled even brighter and nodded when Mira commented about how she seemed happy here.

"I am really happy here," Alia said, her tone genuine. "You and Sans and- and everyone have been so kind and welcoming!" Alia barely caught herself before mentioning Chara's name, and she could almost sense her ghost companion tense up and then relax beside her as if they knew.

"I know I tend to be rather quiet most of the time, but I really do appreciate you all looking out for me. And if you're worried about me missing the surface or anything like that... You don't have to be." Alia smiled reassuringly, mostly at Mira since she was the one who brought it up but also at Sans since she didn't want him to have uncertainties about it either.

"In fact, um..." She hesitated for a few moments, uncertain whether or not to continue, but Sans smiled reassuringly at her and it gave her the confidence she needed to finish her thought. "I'm really glad I'm here."

.....

Sans was watching Alia's expression as MIra spoke up, still searching for any hints of unhappiness or anything that might have caused Mira to feel worried. But even when MIra mentioned the idea of missing home, Alia's smile didn't waver. There were absolutely no signs in her expression that would indicate she was anything other than happy to be here.

When Alia spoke, her tone didn't betray any sadness either- she truly sounded as happy as she claimed to be. The only thing that caught his attention about her reply was when she seemed to cut herself off midway through a sentence, as if she had been about to say something else. 'You and Sans and...' And who? It felt like she had been about to say another name, but whose name, and why did she stop herself from saying it?

Well, it could have just been another monster she was friends with. Sans didn't want to press her for an answer, especially when there was a good chance he would find out sooner or later if she had become friends with a particular monster. Besides, he was supposed to be looking for hints of her being unhappy, not prying into her social life, so he shook off the thought for now.

As Alia spoke up again, Sans redoubled his efforts to study her expression, but it still looked completely genuine. Though, he did notice that she said 'if you're worried about me missing the surface', not 'if you're worried about me missing home'.

If he had to guess, he thought she probably wasn't homesick at all... Because she didn't consider the surface home.

[PossessedPotato]

Maybe in another time and place Mira would have made a good mother, her patience and kindness towards children always being present and ready to help take care of Alia down here in this subterranean world alongside everyone else. 


For as much as Alia had a terrible life of neglect on the surface at least one could say they had a new lease on life down here, yes? At least Mira hoped...found family could be just as good as any in her eyes.


At this age Alia needed all the help they could get and Mira was going to help them through this rough time in their life.


"Well I'm happy your happy!~", Mira beaming as she was relieved to hear that Alia was content with their new life down here, seeing Alia down here -and- being sad would have in turn made Mira sad and left Sans to deal with two down humans.


Miras smile fading a bit as Alia seemed to hesitate on saying something hiding in their mind, she didn't want to give Alia any doubts that things weren't okay, for better or worse.


"I just, uh...want you to know, if anything or anyone is bothering you there are plenty of people you can trust", Something about the way Alia almost mentioned a certain ghost child seemed to get to Mira as she sighed in thought, "Its not that group of monsters kids who hang out in the forest?".