Bite-Sized: Lost Part 1

Bite-Sized: Lost Part 1

Sans was hungry. He had been for some time. Whenever he told Papy, the older fixed up a meal and Sans was starting to feel guilty because Papy never made anything for himself. So the young skeleton tried to focus on something other than his hunger. And that something just so happened to be the pain he felt in his skull. Sans had asked Papy about it, but the older always got really quiet and a bit teary-eyed, so he just stopped asking. The pain could be anywhere from a dull ache to a sharp sting. It was unpleasant and a constant bother.

It didn't take long to find a partial solution to this, of course. Being that Sans lived in Snowdin and the very thing that helped was snow. Or, anything cold really. But he didn't particularly fancy sticking his head into the far too empty fridge. Just as he was about to step outside, the voice of his brother sounded from just upstairs.

"AND WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?" Papyrus asked. Sans sighed and closed the door.

"i wanna go outside,"

"THAT IS ALL WELL AND GOOD, BUT YOU SHOULD BUNDLE UP." Papy strode down the stairs and scooped up his brother who squirmed in his hold. "DO YOU STILL HAVE THAT SCARF?" Oh. The scarf. Sans had it, yes. But he didn't know why. It was longer than he was tall, likely because it was torn off of Papy's scarf. If he thinks about it enough, Sans vaguely remembers being wrapped up in the red cloth, picking at the now torn edges, while his brother was panicking about something. Sans suspects he did something wrong. But nothing ever seems to come to mind.

"yeah, can i get it?" Papyrus gives a wide smile showing his teeth, a few of which have chipped or cracked.

"OH COURSE! YOU GO DO THAT WHILE I GET YOUR SNOW JACKET," The taller chirped happily. He set his wiggly brother down and watched as he ran into his room.

The scarf was easy to find. It was lying next to his pillow as Sans often used it as a blanket more often than a scarf. His bed was very simple, just a mattress really, but Papy got him a bed tent that had all sorts of neat stars on it. Neither of them had seen real stars, but Sans loved pulling his brother underneath and pointing out fun shapes he saw in them. But, scarf acquired, he headed back to Papyrus.

"i got the scarf!" Sans said to- not to his brother, Papy was in his own room, grabbing what appeared to be a small pair of pink snow boots. Oh no. Sans didn't like those boots at all, they made his feet hurt, he liked to wander in just his slippers if he could.

"GOOD JOB SANS! NOW, COME OVER HERE AND I'LL GET YOU AS SNUG AS A BUG IN A RUG,"

"without the boots?" Papyrus shot his brother a look. "okayyy" Sans said, mumbling his complaints as he shuffled over to his brother. Papyrus made quick work of helping his brother slip into his blue puffy jacket and swiftly tying the scarf into a fashionably, yet snug, bow to keep the long tails from dragging. Then, the little skeleton was helped onto the racecar bed, sitting with his socked feet dangling over the edge. A faint embarrassed blush crawled up his cheeks. Even though he was six, Sans could never quite remember how to tie his shoes, so Papy always helped him. Sans tried to focus on what his brother was doing, making a loop with one lace and doing something with the other but...

"THERE WE GO! NOW YOU'RE READY TO GO OUT AND EXPLORE! DON'T GO TOO FAR, AND MAKE SURE TO BE BACK BY DINNER,"

"okay!" Sans agreed. Papyrus smiled and gave his brother a small pat on the head. He got a weird look on his face when he did so, but Sans ignored it and racing into the eternal winter that was his home. His boots left small footprints in the snow, a trail for Papy to find him should he fall asleep in the snow too long.

It was a short walk to Sans' favorite spot in all the Underground. This place was close-ish to home, but Papy disagreed. It was also a ways away from this giant door that Sans had no way of opening. Trees surrounded it and shielded the spot from anyone who didn't know where to look. There was a hollowed out stump covered with a tarp that held some joke books and coloring supplies. But that wasn't what Sans was here for, not this time. As soon as the skeleton arrived to his spot, he promptly fell backwards into the snow and let the cold numb his skull just a bit. A small hum of happiness escaped the little one. It was a welcome relief to the aching he had been feeling. A little nap in the cold comfort of the snow wouldn't hurt. . . And that was Sans's last coherent thought before he fell asleep.

-----

"Alrighty! Let's see here!" Sans groaned, burying his skull deeper into the snow. "Yep! This does seem like Horror..." Whatever the voice was saying, the sleepy skeleton did not hear the rest of it as he pushed the snow over his skull in an attempt to sleep just a bit longer. "Mhmm. A weird variation if you ask me. It's been a while since I've seen an older brother Papyrus,"  A bleary eyelight flickered to life and glared at the snow. This was supposed to be his quiet spot. Not for loud, noisy strangers to talk to themselves. Having enough of this blatant disrespect, tiny arms pushed the small body out of the snow. And then he saw it.

This intruder was someone he had never seen before. And with the Underground as small and closed off as it is, that was definitely something. And, this stranger was a skeleton. Papy said there wasn't any other skeletons left but here someone was. Their eyelights were two different colors and shapes, though the color and shape of each changed just about every time they blinked. A black mark stained their cheek, it looked like paint, or even ink. Their outfit showcased almost no color other than browns, but a sash held colorful vials of what the small skeleton was certain were paint. An absolutely enormous brush was attached to their sash on the back, and the skeleton startled when stranger removed it and held it in their hands.

"Welp, time to go, Dream's probably waiting for me to get back," The skeleton said to no one in particular, as he had yet to notice the child watching him with one red eyelight. The brush swiped across the ground leaving a wide black streak in the snow. The stranger jumped in and disappeared.

Unbeknownst to him, the tiny, toddling six-year-old decided it would be fun to fall in too.

I suddenly have the urge to write an in-universe fic by someone who was at the weather station during the attack and just though "yeah, those two are totally dating behind closed doors." And proceeded to tell all of ao3 in the form of the first Weather Station Demon/Pigsy's Noodles Delivery Boy fic, followed by a second one, then a third. They infected three other people online and the numbers only go up from there. The ship gets a following nearly as large as the one we have irl.

Someone claims that the delivery boy is totally in a romantic relationship with the dragon girl and just gets utterly slammed for saying such a thing.

Mei, MK, and Red Son do not talk about this. They all know it's going on, Red Son even reads the him/MK fics sometimes. Mei likes taunting MK with their existence. MK has searched them up once just to make sure they actually exist. All three know the shipping is happening, heck, their parents likely know it's happening. But it never comes up in conversation or during battle banter. They just- don't talk about it.

since I've been making so many citizen memes lately here are the headcanons I came up with for how megapolis/the general public views the plot

pigsy's noodles is the waffle house of megapolis. there are like 2 dozen yin & jin level demons who routinely start shit and pigsy's noodles will stay open through all of them. you only need to be worried about demons when they close early

coincidentally, the pigsy's noodles delivery app will always show the driver heading straight towards danger. there are several conspiracies that the driver is the monkie kid (no one believes them)

the "mayor" actually did assume government office and no one liked him. the editorials in the papers were scathing and he was always in those hideous political cartoons

the jttw fandom discourse was INSANE after the monkie kid appeared. everything is rpf now. everyone on twitter is getting cancelled. new fans who joined because of mk and dbk are getting dragged through the mud. november 5th of megapolis fr

mk has a sizeable following of hardcore fans from edits of shitty news footage. same with dbk. these groups duke it out online daily

mei's streams are legendary for always capturing current events (especially with lbd because you bet the mayor was doing media coverups)

red son is a local cryptid. the delivery kid subreddit has so many theories about why they hang out. weather station demon/pigsy's noodles delivery kid has 6 fics on ao3 for some reason

Homeschooling sucks. Like, I'm sorry, but my teachers couldn't care less about their students. I had no idea what a normal student-teacher relationship looked like until I was thrown into public school in my senior year. And it's not like I had a park I could just walk to. No, my social interactions were so incredibly limited.

When I was supposed to be in middle school, my youngest older sister (step-sister, technically) told me funny stories she had experienced at school. All the rambunctious and crazy things her peers got into. Things she got into. She was living a completely normal teen life. I didn't know I was even missing out on anything until it was too late. I never wanted to be homeschooled, but we moved when I was a bitty little thing, so my parents thought it best to take me out of the public school system. Which was the worst mistake of my life. My grades suffered, I suffered. I can't explain how bad things got for me.

Entering my final year of high school was like a breath of fresh air. I was around kids my age again. There were varying opinions and so many people I could listen to and befriend. Not every interaction was good, but it was better than staying home every day, typing away on my computer for a teacher who wouldn't grade stuff unless I went out of my way to ask.

It was the first time math just clicked for me in a long time too. Like, little me was good at basic math. I loved it! But, without teachers, or anyone I could ask questions to, really, I started to hate it. But my math teacher was incredible! Like, I could rant about this guy for ages. He knew exactly how to teach his subject. He wouldn't directly give you the answer if you asked for help, he would walk you through the steps until it clicked. He did this for any student who asked for help. And I got good grades in his class. I was attentive and started taking notes.

I feel like in the time I was homeschooled, I forgot that I loved to learn. Now I want to go out of my way to get a degree that requires in-person hours to achieve. I don't even want there to be the option to go back to how it was before.

unlike you fools, I didnt go to middle school. i suffered at home like a REAL MAN. i didnt need people OUTSIDE MY HOUSE to bully me and ruin my life, that's what your fucking siblings and parents are for!!

nah but fr i always smile when someone's like "we all knew that one kid who-" no, i didn't. i didn't leave my house until i was 13. I didnt know anyone for more than a few weeks at a time, and this inability to get to know anyone at all persisted far into my high school career. there is a reason i am abysmal at remembering names. AWAY WITH THEE.

This thread omg

Cuddle Pile

Night had fallen and the shiver was curled up in their shared nest, hidden away by Nightmare's tentacles. Well, all of them except one. A lone thresher shark sat curled up at the entrance to the Trench. Despite his poor eyesight in the dark, he scanned the area for any possible dangers to his shiver. It was a ritual that he had started almost as soon as he arrived in the Depths. Cross hated the idea of the others sleeping unguarded, even if they did have two leviathans watching over them all. So he took it upon himself to be a lookout.

He yawned and watched the bubbles that escaped him float up into the darkness where he lost sight of them quickly. He wasn't tired, not at all. That was why he was absolutely able to notice that someone was sneaking up on him and did not let out any sort of shocked cry.

"Heya Crossy," Killer curled his tail with Cross's much longer one. "It's time to go to sleep, ain't it?" Killer was shoved away for his efforts.

"He's right you know," Horror's voice was a sleepy rumble as he scooped up the thresher. "Off to the nest with you," The great white and bull shark swam back to the rest of the shiver, Cross's wiggles and complaints dying not even half way there. Dust, who was also apparently awake, moved to the side to fit in the tired guard. Horror settled Cross in the nest before he and Killer took their spots again and curled around everyone.

Dust let out a soft purr as he cuddled into Cross, who was taking longer and longer blinks as he sat in the nest. He mumbled out some word of affection that the others couldn't quite make out, but got cuddles and kisses for it regardless. It wasn't too long after that the shiver, and Dream who had been watching them, fell back asleep in a pile of cuddles and purrs, all in the safety of Nightmare's tentacles.

Mermaid Tears

Nightmare had long since gotten used to the water harshly crashing into him, as well as the oceans boiling as he swam through them. He was used to claws and teeth and other such sharp things penetrating through his flesh and bones. The weight of his trident was familiar, just as much as throwing it. The leviathan's world was little more than storming clouds and spewing volcanoes. He cared not about the disasters he and his twin caused. Why would he? All that mattered was the fighting. The ceaseless war that wouldn't stop until one side claimed victory... Or died.

The kraken couldn't be sure what had happened. His skull was in such pain, ichor painting the water so thickly that trying to see past it was impossible. Something was horribly, terribly wrong. Nightmare made an attempt to collect his thoughts, but everything was muddled and fuzzy and in so, so much pain. Somehow, he heard the voice of his twin through all the pain.

"𝐸𝓂𝒷𝒶𝓇𝑒𝓈𝓈𝑒𝒹?" Not as much as he was hurting. "𝐼 𝒸𝒶𝓃 𝒸𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝒶 𝓉𝑒𝓂𝓅𝑜𝓇𝒶𝓇𝓎 𝓉𝓇𝓊𝒸𝑒 𝒾𝒻 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓉?" And didn't that sound nice. What if they could just go back to being brothers, even just for a day. Nightmare stopped trying to listen to his brother and instead tried to removed the ichor in his sockets to no avail. Dream had said something else, Nightmare hadn't heard it properly. Should he respond?

"ɖ-ɖʀɛǟʍ? Iȶ hurts," He drew out the s longer than he should have. Did that matter?

"𝒩𝐼𝒢𝐻𝒯𝑀𝒜𝑅𝐸!" Oh, something was really wrong. Dream sounded terrified. Warm hands cupped Nightmare's face, his injury only feeling worse from the heat. "𝒮𝒽𝒽, 𝒾𝓉'𝓈 𝑔𝑜𝓃𝓃𝒶 𝒷𝑒 𝑜𝓀𝒶𝓎. 𝐼 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊, 𝓎𝑜𝓊'𝓇𝑒 𝑜𝓀𝒶𝓎, 𝓈𝒽𝒽𝒽,"

"ɦurts," Nightmare managed to say through the pain, tears mixing with the cyan ichor. "ɦʊrts so bad" 

"𝐼𝓉'𝓁𝓁 𝒷𝑒 𝑜𝓀𝒶𝓎," Dream was hugging his so close. They hadn't been like this since... For a very long time... But the heat was making everything even fuzzier. His tears felt like lava.

"Dreaʍ?"

"𝒴𝑒𝒶𝒽?"

"I'm gonna քass out ռօա," And he did, leaving his frightened twin to try and stop the bleeding. Dream tried not to look at the ichor mixing with the water as he tied makeshift bandages over the wound.

-----

Blood. It was all Horror could smell. He couldn't see much anymore, however, even if he wanted to. But even with his now damaged eyelight, he could see the carnage. Blood and seafoam floated around, the scent taunting him for living. Bodies of the dead and dying were barely visible with his new injury. Everything had gone so wrong so quickly. And now he was the only one alive. If he actually recovered from this. His head pounded. Some of the blood was from him, he had little doubt in that. But what could he do? He was stuck here with only those turning to sea foam. He could focus on the sights and scents, but what good would that do? He couldn't exactly escape it all either, the sea foam sticking to him whenever it got close.

So he cried. He cried for those who were alive only moments before, he cried for the pups who were barely starting to live, he cried for those who tried so valiantly to defend the shiver, he cried for the memories he had of them all, lost when his skull was crushed, he cried for those who he loved and cared for, never to be seen again. He cried so much he could have filled the ocean from his tears alone. For that was all he could do.

-----

In some colorful reef sat a quiet whitetip shark mer. Pilot fish flittered around him, the only family he had left. A few were exploring the reef, the rest were just swimming around Dust, like a fishy barrier between him and the rest of the ocean. It was nice. Dust got a moment of calm and quiet. And Papyrus was always watching him. A pilot fish swam up and bonked their heads together. Oh. Dust really missed having his brother around for real. These fish, they acted just like him but- Dust didn't know he had started crying until all the fish had huddled around him, trying to give comfort. Something so familiar, Dust yearned for his brother to be the one pressing soft kisses to his forehead, telling him that everything was going to be alright. But he was gone. And all Dust had left was a school of ghost fish who were painfully similar yet just that much different than his brother.

-----

Killer would never admit it, but sometimes, he got really lonely. He never had a shiver, but who needed one anyway? Sure, some company would be nice, but why go out of his way to look for someone? Made no sense to him. Took up too much time and effort. Besides, he could go anywhere he wanted! He had no one place to tie him down! One day, he could be in warm waters, searching for the freshest of tuna to catch, the next he could find a cooler, shallow beach to lounge around in with no one to bother him. It was a good life he was living. A life of adventure and thrills! Why would he need someone else to slow this all down? He didn't. Sure, it would be nice to have someone to share it all with, but Killer liked his life right now. He didn't need to change it because of some silly emotions. He could drift to his soul's content.

Happy trills sounded from somewhere near by. Killer went over to investigate. A few mers were darting around each other in the brighter water making the shallows of the area. A goldfish mer was curling around a larger great white mer and giving him affectionate kisses while a whitetip settled on the sand nearby, petting a small fish. Killer watched with, not quite envy, at the display. He wouldn't lie and say he didn't want to have that sort of love with someone, but he wasn't jealous of them.

The bull shark quickly made his way back to the cavern he was staying in. And there, all alone with no one, not some sweet goldfish or other shark, he cried. Not that he would ever admit it.

-----

"Hello?" Cross peaked his head out of the container. There wasn't anything. Well, fish and a small squid, but no other mers. Or any giant beasts with writhing tentacles capable of ripping the container's door open and snapping off his shock collar. "Anyone there?" No reply. Was this a test? Did Gaster set this all up? Cross carefully swam out of the container. What was the goal? Did he even have one or- Or was he really free? He swam further. No, how would he have even escaped? Sure, the container could have just fallen into the ocean, but Gaster was not a careless man. He wouldn't have let something as simple as a storm knock Cross overboard. Not when he had been working on him for years. Still...

Cross darted away from the container as fast as he could. He was free. Even if this was all just some test rigged by Gaster, he wasn't in some small aquarium anymore. This was open ocean. It had to be- It- it... Cross glanced at the container, getting smaller as he swam away. This was real, right? Cross settled on the sand covering the bottom of the ocean. It was soft on his fins, unlike the rocks that had been in the bottom of one of his old tanks. Seaweed floated, a massive cover for fish and other sea creatures. Bubbles floated from the occasional lobster or crab returning from the surface. Some were just dropped back in, how, Cross didn't know. Maybe landwalkers, maybe it rained crustaceans out here. In wasn't scientifically impossible. Was it? Frog rain was a thing. Gaster had talked about it once. And frogs weren't much bigger than some crabs.

The newly freed mer had laid in the sand for hours, watching the fish swim past, snapping up the occasional critter that strayed too close to the shark. It was... Nice. The open water, all the animals swimming around, the waves, the light, the water. And Cross would hopefully get to live in this forever. The very same seas that he was robbed of in his puphood, they were all his to explore now. Much too late, yes. But he was still here now. Tears pricked at his sockets, and for the first time, Cross allowed himself to cry. there was no doctor who would mock him for it out here. He could cry, he could swim, he could hunt. And no one could stop him anymore.