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Alphys watched as the anime protagonist hurried to school, a slice of toast in their mouth. Mood, she thought. She would often get caught up in her daydreams or fanfiction writing and lose track of time, ending up late to class or wherever else she was supposed to be. However, unlike the protagonist of her favorite show, she wasn’t a big fan of toast. She was more of a bugs and noodles kind of dino.
She heard a knock on the door. Looking through the window, she saw that it was the class clown. What was his name? Some common skeleton name, like Light or Serif or something. He had been assigned as her partner for the group project. Better get this over with, she thought. Working with a group had never been Alphys’s strong suit, and she was just certain that the class clown wouldn’t take the project seriously. She turned off the TV and opened the door. “Hi, um. Sorry, what’s your name? I forgot. I’m not really good with names.”
“I’m Sans. Nice to meet ya. You’re Alphys, right?”
“Yeah, that’s me. Are you here for the group project?”
“No, I’m here for the ice cream.” Sans chuckled.
Alphys stared for a moment before answering. “Oh. Oh, okay. That was a joke. Sorry I didn’t get that.”
“So, about the project, do you have any ideas yet?” Sans asked.
“Well, it’s about how magic affects the environment over time, right? So, we could do our project on, like, magical plants in Waterfall. Or the snow in Snowdin, but I don’t really want to have to go out in the cold. Haha.”
“I dunno, I think a project on Snowdin would be pretty cool,” the skeleton joked. “But you’re right. Waterfall’s closer anyways.”
“Okay, good. So, when are you free to go to Waterfall?”
“I’m free right now, aren’t I?”
“I mean, true, but I wasn’t prepared to go right now. I thought we would just be working with poster board or books or something. We could go now though. Just let me grab a notebook.” She picked up her sketchbook, realized her mistake and hurriedly set it back down, then picked up an actual notebook and a pencil. “Alright, let’s go!”
The duo had just arrived in Waterfall and were getting off the riverboat when they were nearly run over by a pack of fish-people – young teenagers, mostly, with dull blue-green scales and bright red hair.
“Hurry up, Salmon!”
“I’m -BLEEP-ing hurrying, Deep, it’s not my fault I’m made for swimming!”
“What were you thinking, Dyne?”
“Come on Nessie, he’s so cool! I couldn’t not talk to him!”
“I -BLEEP-ing swear, Dyne--”
“We KNOW you swear, Salmon! You swear all the time and it’s annoying!”
Following behind the gang of fish siblings at a slower but more intimidating pace was a huge turtle monster holding a massive war hammer as though it were a walking stick. “Yeah! Get out of here, delinquents!” He shouted. “Teach them not to steal from my store anymore.” Then his eyes fell on Sans and Alphys. “More of you?” He sighed. “Delightful. Now, if you go that way, there’s plenty of fun stuff for you to do without trespassing on or stealing from anyone’s property. So, get moving.”
“Um… W-we’re not--” Alphys began.
“Hey, don’t worry. We’re just here for a science project." Sans smiled disarmingly at the intimidating shopkeeper. "Gotta study how magic affects the cave’s ecosystems n’ stuff. B’sides, you really think a couple of nerds like us would try something like that?”
The turtle considered this for a moment, and then relaxed. “I suppose not, but I’ve been having trouble with the youths in this area lately. My shop’s over there in case you do want to buy anything. But if you do end up stealing from or vandalizing my shop, you will be in trouble.” He gave them a stern glare before walking away.
As soon as the turtle was out of earshot, Sans started cracking up. “Haha, oh my goodness. He was like ‘get OFF my LAWN! Y’all whippersnappers aren’t gonna trash up MY shop!’ Hahahaha...”
Alphys couldn’t help giggling a little too, partly from relief and partly at her project partner’s impersonations. She tried to calm down so that they could work on the project. “Hahaha… okay. So. We– haha- we need to work on the project. I’ve got my notebook right here. First let’s look at the magical plants. There’s echo flowers, and there’s these squeaky mushrooms-”
“Mushrooms aren’t plants. They’re fungi.”
“Well yeah, but they’re part of the magical ecosystem here, and also a lot of people don’t know that they’re fungi, so I thought...” Alphys’s voice got quieter and quieter as she continued to make excuses.
“Eh, I just remember it because they’re like me.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m a fun guy.”
“Pfffft—wow, that was bad.”
“But you’re laughing.”
“Yeah, I am. Anyways, we were supposed to be looking at magical plants.”
“And fungi.”
“And fungi.” Alphys tapped her notebook with her pencil. “So far, I’ve written down echo flowers and squeaky mushrooms. What else is there?”
“Hmm.” Sans looked around. “Those glowy pine tree things?”
“Oh yeah, sure. And we can’t forget bridge seeds.”
“I’ve never seen those before.”
“They’re lily pads that can form a temporary bridge when you line them up four in a row.”
“Oh man, think of all the puzzles you could make with those! I bet my little brother would love them.”
“And of course, you can’t have bridge seeds without bell blossoms. I’m not sure if they’re the same plant though, so I’m going to list them separately.” Alphys looked up from writing and saw Sans holding a long, thin marsh plant with a brown, oblong shape at the tip.
“What about this one?”
“That’s a water sausage. They’re not magical. At least, I’m pretty sure.”
“It looks kinda neat, though,” Sans said, contemplating the plant. “Think I could make a hotdog out of this?”
“I don’t know about that. That’s a seedpod. It would probably have some sort of weird texture.”
“Well, I, for one, relish the idea.”
“Oh, for crying out loud.”