Chapter Text
Frisk loitered around the lab after Alphys had run off to the ‘toilet’ before pulling out their newly upgraded phone and fiddling with it. Opening up the contacts screen, they hovered over Papyrus’s name before pushing the call button.
Within two rings he picked up and Frisk told them they were in a lab.
“A LAB???” Papyrus spoke up, “MY BROTHER WOULD LOVE THAT! HE LOVES SCIENCE FICTION!! ESPECIALLY WHEN IT'S REAL.”
Frisk laughed in agreement, remembering Sans’s prank with the telescope - it was interesting to know that he actually liked science. It made the creepy smaller skeleton more humanised… figuratively speaking.
They were still wary of Sans though...
Still… it was time to continue on once again.
.
.
.
RESET
.
.
.
Frisk ignored that confused voice in their head asking them why they reset again. They didn’t want to think about that. They just wanted to enjoy this day again…
Make their friends again.
Make more friends this time!
Do even better!
It had been scary at first, but now all they wanted was to meet everyone. Monsters were great!
There was an echo of agreement.
They didn’t hurry through the Underground like they had the previous few times, they weren’t in a rush to leave anymore. They didn’t really want to ever leave...
Still.
They had called Papyrus more during this run than ever before - they still regretted not doing so more that first time.
They were back in Hotland again, Frisk looked up at the lab ahead of them. Fumbling through their pockets, they pulled out their phone and called Papyrus.
Two rings.
When Papyrus picked up, his tone sounded slightly different.
“HMMM... A MYSTERIOUS SCIENCE HOUSE.”
Before Frisk could ask what he meant by that, another voice echoed through the speaker.
“the sign outside says "lab."” the voice of Sans spoke up.
Oh? Sans was there. Huh… he must have taken one of those short-cut things.
“LAB?” Papyrus asked Sans, sounding confused.
Frisk blinked. What? That didn’t seem right.
“like... laboratory.”
Frisk nodded, unseen.
“LABRADOR... Y? DOES THAT MEAN THERE ARE DOGS INSIDE?”
“i mean. i wouldn't rule it out.”
The two hung up.
Frisk stared at their phone in confusion. That… was odd. Last reset Papyrus definitely had known what a lab was, why was he pretending not to know this time?
They thought back to the previous run, to the last time they had called from around the lab. Papyrus had been alone then, but had told them that the lab was something his brother might be interested in. Yet when both of them were on the phone just now, Papyrus had acted clueless…
Maybe it was because of how often they’d been phoning him this time, but they knew Papyrus was anything but clueless. He’d told them that he knew almost nothing about Waterfall at first, only to be able to tell them plenty whenever they called!
Now that they thought of it, when they’d called Papyrus in Waterfall earlier after avoiding Sans’s telescope prank he’d also told you about how much Sans loved science then - and complained about his brother never telling anyone anything.
But wait… Frisk looked up slowly in thought.
Papyrus… didn’t really speak about himself, they realised. He spoke about his brother, and Undyne and about the Underground - but not himself.
Not really.
And then this, Papyrus was lying to Sans about something as odd as this? Why would he pretend he didn’t know what a lab was around his brother?
What a strange thing to lie about.
Sans wasn’t the only one who wasn’t talking about everything it seemed.
They wondered if they should try and do something about it.
But what?
Dialing Papyrus again, they cut him off mid-sentence.
There was a pause, and Papyrus spoke again, much quieter than before.
“... What do you mean ‘why did I lie just then?’ What lie?”