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Gaster watched his son Papyrus move about in the kitchen with his friend Undyne as they cooked up spaghetti, a pastime they had carried up to the surface from the Underground. Despite their rather messy and explosive way of going about things, he felt immensely proud of his son for never letting failure defeat him.
He was proud of Papyrus for a lot of things, in fact. A lot of people had thought the skeleton wouldn’t amount to anything, as he had had troubles with a lot of traditional developmental milestones as a child and even now had difficulty with reading, paying attention to things that didn’t interest him, and anxiety.
But Papyrus had proved them all wrong. He was very successful at his job on the surface. He had lots of friends and a handsome, popular, loving partner. He was a powerful fighter—it was very difficult to win against him if he put in even only a little effort. And beyond his abilities, he had been instrumental in freeing the monsters, having befriended and helped the last fallen human in their journey through the Underground.
Gaster only wished he could congratulate Papyrus on all of that.
Papyrus said something to Undyne about retrieving some spices for the tomato sauce, then turned and headed for the pantry… walking right through Gaster as he did so.
Because, technically speaking, Gaster wasn’t really there.
He’d fallen into his creation, the CORE, back in the Underground—how many years ago was it now? Ten? Fifteen? He had trouble keeping track of time now that he had been effectively erased from it—and now he only existed as some kind of ghost that couldn’t be seen by anyone.
Nobody ever talked about him.
At first Gaster had thought that maybe people were just too broken up over his disappearance that they didn’t want to talk about him, but it eventually became clear to him that nobody seemed to know that he had ever been born at all. Asgore talked about Doctor Alphys, the formal Royal Scientist, as though she hadn’t had a predecessor. The same went for other people who should have known him, such as Undyne’s mother and the old warrior Gerson.
And of course, his sons. Papyrus and Sans had clear gaps in their memories that they sometimes talked about, but had largely accepted would probably never be cleared up.
It broke Gaster’s heart, but there was nothing anybody could do about it, least of all himself.
Having literally nothing else to do, he followed his sons around, occasionally leaving them to see how Asgore and other old friends were doing.
Now, Gaster watched Papyrus get the spices for his sauce and moved closer to him, until he stood right beside him next to the stove. He reached out as though he were running a hand over Papyrus’s skull, the way he used to comfort him as a small child. A deep wave of longing washed over Gaster’s heart. What he wouldn’t give just to be able to hug his boy one last time…
But wishing would never do anything for him.
Gaster sighed as Papyrus and Undyne managed to set the spaghetti on fire somehow. At least he could assure himself that Papyrus was having a good time in life without him.
At least he wasn’t missing Gaster the way Gaster was missing him.