Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Thunder rumbled in the distance, heard even over the loud pelting of the rain smashing against the roofs. The Island was still as if drawing in a breath. The ground shook, sending buildings and people around like paper, the thunder drew closer and with a loud moan, the ground began to split itself in two. People hurrying two-and-from stopped, staring with wide eyes as what looked like half a laboratory was spat up from inside the earth. Then, the screaming began. The islanders shook, wondering what awful creature had made the noise before a few recognitions it as someone screaming themselves hoarse.  One of the braver men made their way over, looking around the broken brick way before bending over and throwing up, violently. 

A figure lay in front of a half-bent machine, withering on the ground while clutching at its face. Its legs were melted, looking more like shadows - or rather stars with no pattern - that wisped around the figure. Bits of its body was melting onto the ground, along with the large black lab coat that pulsed along with its legs like it was fused together. It had no skin- only bone . There were holes in its hands, perfect circles, and even holes in the different hands that lay scattered around it. 

“Oh god, oh god.” Whispered the man, throwing up when he looked over again. “Someone call the Marines! Someone call someone! FUCK! Call Whitebeard! Jesus fucking christ!” 

It was like looking at a nightmare. 

And so, the island Kenark, under the protection of the Whitebeard Pirates, found terror struck into their hearts that night. 

The figure gave a low moan before slumping, passing out from the pain. 

“What.” Marco asked, hands clutching the wooden table beneath him, trying desperately to keep calm even when he felt like a volcano about to erupt. “What?”

“Uh, yes. It appeared in the middle of a thunderstorm! We aren't sure where it came from, nor where IT came from but it just popped out of the ground! ‘Half a destroyed lab and everything! The thing was screaming for a while, probably in pain or something’ before it just passed out.”

“Right,” He pinched his nose, sighing. “Right, so you’re saying that this, thingy, whatever it is, appeared three nights ago, is potentially dangerous and you didn’t bother calling us before then?!” He glared at the snail, bending the table under his grip as he tried to melt the den-den with the force of his glare alone.

“ Uh, yes?” The snail’s face scrunched up, obviously thinking. “It’s awake now, and well, they aren’t dangerous! They don’t know how they got here either, something about an ‘underground’ and ‘monsters’?”

Marco took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down despite the violent urge to just punt the den-den into the sky and go take a nap. He's not cut out for this kind of bullshit, he gets enough of it out of his family never mind their territories!

“Ehm, they’re here right now if you want-”

“ Yes,” Hissed Marco, before waving to one of the brothers in the room to go grab Pops. He watched them leave for a brief moment before turning to the mushi.

The snails looks changed. It went bone white, one of its eyes were missing and the other was a bright, glowing purple. One of the cheeks had a scar going down it, passing by its jaw. The other started at the top of the other eye, the missing one, and went well past its head to the back. It looked like a rather weird skeleton when he thought about it. 

“Hello,” It said, their voice crackling like electricity and causing the hairs on the back of his neck to stand straight. It sounded outright painful for them to speak. Marco watched from the corner of his eye as Pops came into the room, weirdly quiet for all his big frame and heavyweight. Wondering just how much paperwork this will drown him in. 

“Hello.” He said, flat and a bit coldly as he swallowed back a groan of despair. The paperwork will never end, will it?

There was a brief pause before it continued. “ My name is Dr W.D Gaster.  May I know your name?”

“Marco.” He itched to light a cigarette but just ground his teeth against the nearly overwhelming urge. The snail exhaled, seeming tired all of a sudden. 

“Let's just get to the point then, shall we? I have absolutely no idea where I am but I have a sneaking suspicion that it’s not my world. Because, well, my name isn't well known, there are humans around and we don’t use snails to talk to each other.”

“What?”

“Do I need to repeat myself? I am not very sure how these ‘ Snails’ work. But yes, another world. Seeing as how there are humans around, or somehow I've managed to bring myself across the Barrier and out to the outer world. It may have to do with what my last experiment was, with trying to reach across time and space, looking back now I can see where some of my notes where wrong or had too many numbers. It shouldn’t be too much fix but with how banged up it is. I won't know 'till I check it.  Maybe changing the wires around? The power, too. I need to make a new C.O R.E as well.. that shouldn't be too hard. Ah, but where would I find the lava?" 

The snail smacked against something with a low 'Clank!', there were some noises and shuffling of drawers being pulled open and papers rustled before the man from before picked up the receiver.  A door banged shut, a loud voice speaking rather enthusiastically to someone else muddled. 

"Uhh.. well, Gaster went into a scientific rant. He probably went to check out his ' machine' , whatever the hell it is-"

A door banged open, Gaster's loud voice cut through the room like thunder. " MAYOR! Can you move the snail without disconnecting!?" 

"Yes, why?-"

"COME! bring it with you!" 

The snail jerked, loud thudding and the scraping of a chair against wood filled the silence. Marco looked at Pops, annoyance clear on his face. Why was this his life?

" GASTER! WATCH YOUR HANDS DAMMIT! YOU NEARLY TOOK MY EYE OUT!" 

"Oh stars, sorry!" 

Muffled movements and light conversations carried on for a moment before Gaster's voice came through, clearly triumphant in whatever it managed to do.

" AHA! here!"  Clangs and machinery starting filled the strained silence from their side. " Now, let me just do this- and this- YES! This should work!" 

The snails' eyes brightened up, clicking a few times before a beam of colour sprayed across Marco's chest. Startled, Marco moved out of the way. The beam went across to the tiled wall, pitch white with little bits of static crackling at the edges before a picture began to show. 

The picture showed a half wrecked lab, wires flying and sparkling in the far corner. The colour was a light grey with some pale purples, blues and oranges thrown in around the corners. Standing in the middle were two figures, the mayor and Gaster. Marco couldn't really make out Gaster's features besides black and white, and that he was very, very, tall.  

Finally, when Gaster stepped forward into view after fiddling with something Marco felt his mind go blank. It was a skeleton , with one eye glowing bright purple, the bottom of its coat and legs collapsing into itself before reforming. It looked like the colour of everything, yet nothing at the time, looking at it looked like peering into the infinite and stars exploding into themselves that made him feel sick just looking at it. Also, the other thing disturbing him was the multitude of floating hands surrounding the skeleton and mayor, doing different things.  

"Gaster," the mayor said, exasperated and fond for all that they had known each other for a few days. 

" OH! Right, yes hello!" Said Gaster, the apparent skeleton . What the fuck?

Its real hands twitched, signing a few things. Sign language maybe? But he couldn't figure out what they said which caused his brow to twitch in annoyance before he could stop it. " Yes! You can see us now, can't you? That's good! your ' snails' are ridiculously easy to understand and improve on! How wonderful!" 

"What?" Marco felt like he was going to be saying that a lot these next few days.  Gaster barrelled on as if it hadn't heard a word he said. 

"Everything in this world is so very simple! Much different to my own, but also similar in different ways! I suppose this counts as a test run for the multiverse theory I had - I wonder, will Sans and Leek continue without me there? - so that will most likely mean that there are millions upon millions of parallel universes or alternate universes! Oh, how exciting!"  

"Dr Gaster," Marco interrupted, so very confused over what the mad-man - skeleton? - was talking off. Pops, off the side, let out a quiet laugh at his expression, clearing enjoying himself. "Please stay on topic!" 

"Topic?" Gaster asked, confused as it looked over at the Mayor, who shrugged. 

"Dr Gaster, are you going to hurt the people under our protection, and/or put them in harm's way?" 

Gaster gapped, looking comedic with its jaw bone hanging low. It also looked rather offended, its hands began to sign rapidly and swiftly. "N-No! Well- my experiments are dangerous, but they are more likely to cause danger to me than others. " it waved its hand over the cracks on its skull and hold hands for emphasis. It also looked a tiny bit amused as it stared at the den-den. "I am not like my younger self, Mr Marco, I haven't had an experiment hurt anyone bar myself in over a couple of thousand years. It's very rude for you to say it in fact!" 

Marco spluttered, jerking away from the snail. "What!? Thousand of what-- Dr Gaster! You can't expect me to believe that!" 

The skeleton definitely looked amused now, the few flying hands jerking about in response to the skeletons thoughts before carrying on with fixing the machinery around the two.  

"Ah, you humans are so short-lived compared to us Monsters. - Asgore had better be keeping his head up high, or I'll have to travel back and boot his furry behind into gear since the Queen isn't there to do so. -   Skeletons, like myself, live even longer than all other Monsters due to the lack of skin that eventually decays over time, even with their longevity. We are essentially immortal, we, of course, can still be killed, but I myself have never seen a skeleton or Monster die of old age. "  

Marco looked over at Pops from the corner of his eye, watching the tiny frown on his face. "Wait, so how old are you?"

"I am entering my.." Gaster paused, counting on its fingers and the other hands for a while. "Fifty thousand year, this time next winter." 

"The fuck?" Even the mayor looked gobsmacked. 

Gaster waved a hand as if what it had just said wasn't important. "Calm down, I am not the oldest Monster, there have also been skeletons that had lived longer than I." 

" Had?" Marco asked, feeling a pit form in his stomach. Gaster paused, its hands twitching. 

" Ah, yes. Had, I am the oldest nowadays, there are only three skeletons left now. Myself and my two sons, Sans and Papyrus." 

Marco could see Pops perk up at the mention of the skeletons having sons, because like any good father, Pops himself liked to brag about his children's achievements to anyone who would listen.  He passed the snail receiver over to Pops with a small smile when he gestured for it over. 

"Sons? Who's your oldest?" 

Gaster paused at the new voice. "Sans is, by a couple of hundred years. Papyrus wasn't exactly planned but I can't say I regret it.  Who am I speaking to now?" 

"I'm the captain known as Whitebeard or Edward Newgate. What about their mother?" 

"Ah, well then. Hello Mr Edward. My name is Dr W.D Gaster, in case you hadn't heard, which I doubt.  Some Monsters don't need a mother to conceive a child, skeletons are one of those as we don't really have genders unless one prefers the other for some reason."

Gaster waved his hands, showing the holes in them.  "But of course you do need to give something, which is part of yourself. Sans happened to inherit some of my abilities more than Papyrus, but he ended up being given a rather stunted height and health due to unforeseen consequences during the process. - I wonder, will they try to build my machine and try to bring me back? - Papyrus, on the other hand, ended up with a higher ability to use BONE attacks but without the punch to make it stronger.  He also, got my height, though not all of it." 

It turned out, even Monster- Dads liked to brag about their children. As Gaster all but beamed at the chance to talk about his children. 

"Oh?" Pops looked amused, a small smile curled at his lips underneath his moustache. Marco guessed it was over the fact that Gaster was giving information without thinking twice and its face practically showed how much it cared for its sons. 

"Mhmm, yes!" Gaster's face softened, looking so full of love he could burst. "My children mean the world to me, but they are also old enough to make choices without me there to hold their hands, but that doesn't mean they won't need me. So I will try my best to either get word back to them or send myself back. Whichever I can do, even if it isn't the safest option."  

"So you will be staying on Kenark for now then?" Pops asked, looking at Marco from the corner of his eye. 

"Yes, I suppose I will. If you don't mind me staying in your territory, Captain Whitebeard." The skeleton had switched its address, instead of calling Pops 'Mr. Edward' it changed to 'Captain Whitebeard.' Pops raised a brow at the screen, looking curious. Gaster bared its teeth in what Marco thought looked like a rather weird attempt to smile. 

"Captain Whitehead, I was the Royal Scientist to a King and a whole country, I can be political when I need be, which is what I need to be to stay on an island under your protection. They didn't call me the Greatest Mind Ever to get myself killed over politics, so they made sure I could navigate just fine. "

Pops laughed, clearly delighted and liking the skeleton for all he had just been brutally honest and told them what he was doing and why. "I like you, join me as my son." 

Gaster raised an eyebrow. Marco groaned into his hand, trying not to think about the mess everyone would makeover having a skeleton on the crew. All the puns! 

" I must politely decline to be one of your sons, as I love my parents and I have no room to love another as I did them. But, perhaps I could be a brother to you and an uncle to yours if you find that sustainable? My own sons are enough for me. Though I am not against expanding that family." 

"A brother, eh?" Pops grinned. "I don't see why not, but be sure to prepare yourself for all the nieces and nephews you get!"

Gaster snorted, amused despite its protests. " I hope your sons are not against having a skeleton for an uncle and two skeleton cousins." 

Marco wished a hole could open up and swallow him whole, oh God the puns. He could just imagine then. 

"Don't worry, I'm sure my sons will be excited to meet you." Pops wiggled his eyebrows, smirking. "One could say, a skele- ton. "

Oh God, end him now!

Chapter Text

It had been two months since the mysterious appearance of the scientist Doctor W. D Gaster on Kenark Island and nothing had really changed on the Moby Dick, apart from the fact that they now had an ‘Uncle’ who was a skeleton, apparently. 

Vista wasn’t in the Den-Den room when Marco had called Kenark’s mayor, nor when Pops had been called in by the First Mate but from what he was told, Gaster was a genius who had seen the Den-Den's, didn’t understand anything about them and already starting coming up with theories and improvements. The skeleton had somehow managed to upgrade their own snail! On the Moby! Without being anywhere near the damn ship. 

So it wasn’t really surprising that when a hawk appeared, wearing the riddle of ‘beware the man who speaks in hands .’ on a purple bandana wrapped around its neck that he wasn't even attempting to be surprised anymore.

Vista reached up, letting the hawk settle on his gloved hand before taking the package and note from the animal. 

‘This is Alfie, my messenger. When this finds you, brother Edward, please call me! I will explain the purpose of the things inside the box, it is far too important to be told over Alfie despite my faith in him. 

Gaster.’

He twitched, the note wrinkling slightly before he straightened it out. He looked at the hawk, taking in its beautiful golden feathers before shrugging. He headed off to find Pops and Marco to inform them of the package. 

“Hello!”

Gaster was waiting for their call, apparently, as the snail lit up after the first few rings and showed the skeleton on the tiled wall. Which he still can’t really believe happened, because what the fuck?

“Gaster,” Pops greeted the scientist, lips twitching. Which, of course, made sense because yes everyone loves skeletons that can apparently upgrade things from a distance!

Pops gestured to the box that he had sat on the table, eyebrow raised. “What have you sent us?”

Gaster beamed. Its - his? Hands flying everywhere in a mockery of sign language. Also is he the only one freaked out at the sight of the hundreds of hands flying everywhere behind him? A quick look at Marco showed that no, he wasn’t the only one freaked out. 

“It is a Dimensional Box! Since I've managed to get a C.O.R.E made over here and everything else is rather easy to make I attempted to remake other things from my world, which is the D-Box, wonderfully useful thing!”

“A Dimensional Box? What exactly does it do?” Marco asked, grabbing at his hair. 

“I can use it to send items to one place to another in an instant!”

Now, that had everyone in the room sitting up straighter. Gaster looked confused at the intense focus he was now pinned with. 

“What?” Marco had given up on looking professional and had just squatted down with his head in hands right where he stood, not caring for the chair nor table leg in his way. Vista would very much like to join him, but he had too much professional pride to do so. “Why would you do that?!” Marco moaned, looking like he was in physical pain. Pops just laughed, clearly amused and impressed. 

“Why wouldn’t I? I can just make more, so it’s not like I was giving up anything important! The important stuff will be what I send through the box!”

Gaster looked over at Pops, well on the screen it looked like he did but Vista couldn’t be really sure. “ Please have your head nurse, or head doctor, called. What I am sending will either make or break your day.”

Marco stood with a sigh, before nodding as he walked out of the room, clearly done with his ‘Uncle’s’ antics already, which caused a flare of amusement through Vista. Pops levelled Gaster with a more serious expression which caused the skeleton to flex his hands slightly, the only sign of his nerves.

Within a few minutes, Marco had returned with the Head Doctor, Alex, who was not amused to be called out when he was probably doing paperwork or something. Gaster waved, clearly not caring about the glare being sent his way. 

“Hello, Doctor!” He paused, doing a little jingle with his hands causing Pops to snort. 

“Hello, Dr Gaster,” Alex said, clearly not amused. 

Gaster looked like a kid caught with their hands in the cookie jar, causing both Vista and Pops to snort. Poor skeleton, he looked very confused over Alex’s approach. “ Okay? Well, what I'm about to send through the D-Box is a special candy that we made in my world.”

Alex bristled, clearly even more annoyed. Gaster raised his hands, clearly not finished.

“It’s a bit different from normal candy!” He rushed out, clearly uncertain to the Doctor’s reactions. “It’s called Monster Candy and it heals you! It doesn’t matter really what, it just heals your cells.”

Gaster looked at Pops, clearly nervous from the way his hands where wriggling together.

Vista looked over at Pops, seeing him wearing the same curious expression as before. 

"Really?" Asked Alex, clearly suspicious. "and let me guess, only you can make it?"

Gaster looked at her confused. " No? I mean, maybe? It's Monster Candy so maybe Monsters can only make it but, I haven't yet tried having other humans make it."

"Alright," Pops interrupted. "Let us see your Monster Candy, Gaster."  

"Right," Gaster nodded, gesturing to the box on the table. "Place your hand on the D-Box and think ' Monster Candy,' the Candy should show when you open it." 

Marco nodded, clearly done with everything. He rested his hand on the D-Box before flicking the latch. Sitting on the roof of the box was a thin screen that had eight boxes, one had a picture of three candy's on it. Sitting in the middle were three ordinary-looking candies, wrapped in bright red wrappers. Marco picked them up, inspecting them before handing them over to Pops. 

Pops looked them over before looking at Gaster's image. "What have you found to make them so quickly?" 

Gaster froze clearly unsuspecting the question. He wrung his hands nervously. "I have.. finished rebuilding my machine. But, it will likely take me years to finish calibrating this dimensions atmosphere before I can really do anything. And, in that time I have had a chance to read up on biographies on human medicine and others. They all said that around the years that humans hit their fifties to seventies that certain body parts begin to fail. And so, in getting to know you over the past few months I have… grown attached you could say, and I would miss you if you passed due to bodily function shutting down when I can fix them. So, Monster Candy. " 

Gaster looked even more nervous at the silence, his hands going crazy with signs. "I can make them in different forms! It doesn't have to be-"

"Gaster," Pops said quietly, his eyes soft and fond. "It is fine, brother. I imagine it being a bit weird for you to see others around you grow old when your own kind do not."  

Gaster's face lit up purple in what looked like a blush, which looked ridiculous on a skeleton when he didn't have skin, but Vista supposed it was the thought that counted. 

Pops unwrapped the candy's and ate them with a hum, clearly surprised at the taste. 

"They will work better when you rest! So your body has more time to focus on healing than other things. So you will be feeling it more in the morning." 

Pops nodded. Alex watched Pops for a while and Marco slumped against the far wall with a tired groan. Vista just rubbed his moustache, amused. "So, is there anything that's happened recently in Kenark, Uncle?" 

Gaster beamed at the title, clearly happy. Vista thought It suited the skeleton rather than his morose state. "Ah, yes! Some Marine ships tried to come to the island. But, they didn't manage to get close due to the tide." Gaster looked at them, his head tilted to the side. "I was thinking about trying to make a force field around the island? Linking it to either a separate C.O.R.E or the main one." 

"Oh?" Vista hummed. "What would that entail?" 

"Hmm.. protection against unwanted ships or attacks on the island. I will more than likely put a code of some type into the mainframe to allow your ships and allies entrance. They will most likely be changed every three weeks." 

Vista nodded, spotting Marco looking up, curiously. "How long will it take you to make it?" 

Gaster twisted his hands. "Not long, I've told you of the Barrier from my world, yes?" 

They nodded, apart from Alex. That had all been briefed on it. 

"Well, I was studying the Barrier when I was there to try and twist its purpose to allow us to get to the Overworld and in doing so I had come across the idea of a Forcefield that could be powered by a large enough power source that would allow entrance and excitation…  "