PotatoxSeriousSans

[SeriousSans]

Alia felt bad when she noticed MIra's smile fade a bit when she trailed off. Though she hoped that she had been able to reassure her by finishing the thought once she had gained a bit more confidence, she had a feeling she hadn't quite succeeded based on MIra's statement afterwards. "No one's bothering me, honest! And I know, you two are at the top of the list," Alia said hastily, but with a genuine smile. She didn't want MIra to worry about her, especially when there was nothing to worry about.

"If there was something that was bothering me, I know I could tell you. So please don't worry, I only trailed off because, well..." Alia took a breath, looking at the ground. "I know that, um... You guys might feel trapped down here... And I didn't want to seem... Insensitive, I guess? Because I'm glad to be here... But well, I am, because I got to meet you all..."

Alia sighed, still staring at the floor. "Sorry, I'm... Not the best at socializing."

"it's okay, kid," Sans spoke up, his tone reassuring. "and for the record, i'm glad i got to meet you, too."

Alia looked up, and started smiling again. Truthfully, she was quite relieved that sort of mentioning the fact the monsters had been trapped down here for so long hadn't seemed to make him sad or anything. She hoped it hadn't bothered MIra, either... After all, Alia did recall how, when they had first met, Mira had seemed to want to return to the surface. Alia wasn't exactly sure how she felt about it now, but figured it probably hadn't changed that much.

Besides, neither of the two knew what she did, that the barrier was probably going to break sooner or later, at least if the prophecy was real, so it might seem a lot less hopeful for them... Alia knew she couldn't tell them about it yet though, since it would be impossible to explain why she knew this without also explaining about Chara. Maybe she should go back to the library again today, and research magic a bit more... But not until she was sure she hadn't upset Mira.

[PossessedPotato]

'What on Earth is up with this kid? It feels like they are trying to hide something huge, but....'



Mira could see past Alia and the fact that the child was clearly hiding something, for better or worse behind those constantly fearful eyes, her wanting nothing more than to help them in any way she could to feel more comfortable down here.


Mira herself hadn't exactly handled falling down here well either what with her bodies refusal to adapt to the sudden changes and everything, her getting why such a shy child as Alia might want to hide any discomfort they felt because of a fear of 'inconveniencing' others.


"Well, if nothing is bothering you I won't.... we'll I'll try not to worry about you anymore on it, ok?", Mira smiling and as always fully unaware that Alia had a ghostly friend behind them, she was clearly concerned regardless as Alia mentioned how worried they were about bring 'insensitive'.



Mother mode was activated in Mira at this, her gently taking a hold of Alias smaller hands and squeezing them gently.


"Alia, we all love you very, very much. Don't even be concerned about thinking your doing something wrong, alright?", Mira's voice soft and full of love towards Alia, she wasn't the child's mother but had all the energy of one in the moment, "Your doing just fine and I promise everything will be okay even when we get to the surface~".

[SeriousSans]

Alia smiled brighter, feeling relieved, when MIra said she would try not to worry. She was glad that she seemed to have been able to convince Mira that there was nothing to worry about. After all, she didn't want to cause anyone to worry about her just because of her awkwardness when it came to social interactions. "Okay!" she replied happily. She would do her best to make sure she didn't trail off awkwardly as much from now on, hopefully that would help MIra see there was truly nothing to worry about.

Mira's next statement surprised Alia, not because she had trouble believing it but instead because she hadn't expected to actually hear it. To say she was unused to hearing sentiments like this would be an understatement, and while she could tell Mira and the monsters cared about her from their actions, for some reason hearing her say it aloud felt... Alia didn't know how to describe it.

She felt tears start forming in her eyes, but did her best to keep them from falling, after all the last thing she wanted was for Mira to think she was upset or anything of the sort, and she had absolutely no idea how to explain why she was crying, so it was best to just avoid crying in the first place. It was quite a struggle to keep the tears at bay though, especially when Mira continued reassuring her, just like she would sometimes see a mother reassuring a child back on the surface.

"Th-thank you," Alia somehow managed to say without bursting into tears, though it was a rather close call. The mental image of being on the surface after school with MIra and Sans in the crowd of waiting relatives came back, and this time it was much harder to push away than ever before.

"Please, just accept it... And do not make the mistake I did of thinking you need to do something to deserve it..." A quiet voice, barely a whisper really, reached Alia's ears. And without really thinking about it, Alia stood from the chair and rushed forward, hugging Mira and Sans.

...

Sans had noticed that Alia seemed to be holding back tears, but didn't want to draw attention to it, figuring she probably wouldn't want him to. When she suddenly rushed over and hugged him and MIra, he instinctively hugged her back, and glanced over at MIra and smiled reassuringly just in case Alia's reaction might have surprised her. Though he wasn't one hundred percent certain, he had a feeling that the reason for her reaction was that she wasn't used to people comforting her like this. Sans was glad to see Alia seemed to be accepting it though, and he would do his best to help her get used to it.

[PossessedPotato]

"O-oh, uh....", Mira blushing deeply as she had not at all wanted Alia to cry over the affection they were being given, perhaps it had been a bit to much for the child? It was clear that poor Alia had not had a good life on the surface and wasn't used to anyone caring for them, Mira only wanting the best for Alia just as Sans and everyone else did.


"I just want to see you happy, okay?~ You don't have to thank us", Mira beaming just as Alia practically threw themselves at her and Sans, it took Mira a moment to register the hug as she brought Alia into a tight, warm hug of acceptance.


Mira couldn't help but feel her own eyes tearing up a bit as she blinked them back, her giving a smile to Sans to let him know that everything was going to be alright, "No one will ever hurt you again, I promise".

[SeriousSans]

Alia felt the tears start flowing from her eyes as Mira and Sans hugged her back. At least they wouldn't see the tears, she told herself, hoping the two would not notice if there were some tear stains on the sofa after this. But mostly, she just felt... Happy. Accepted. She never wanted to let go, honestly. The only thing that could have possibly made this better would be if she could be hugging Chara as well. But she understood that was not possible, and besides, the hugs from MIra and Sans were comforting enough already.

When she finally managed to stop the flow of tears and felt confident they wouldn't start up again if she spoke, Alia said, "I am happy, really. And I want to thank you. Both of you are so kind. Thank you for looking out for me."

"anytime, kid." Sans said, deciding not to mention the fact he knew she had been crying because all of the tears were landing on his hoodie. She definitely was not used to being cared for if this was enough to make her cry, and Sans was determined to make sure that changed. Though he wasn't going to bring it up for now, since she was probably feeling awkward enough about having cried when she thought he hadn't noticed. No, for now what she probably needed was a distraction, to keep her from crying again so she wouldn't feel embarrassed. If she was anything like him, she would probably prefer to think through her feelings on her own, where there was no chance of someone else seeing if she started crying.

"hey, do you wanna hear a story about the time i found a rubix cube at the dump and gave it to papyrus?" Sans asked, figuring a funny story would probably help Alia relax. Alia peeked up at him, looking curious, after trying to very discreetly wipe her eyes to remove any traces of tears.

"Sure," she replied.

"okay, so one day i was at the dump, looking through all the random stuff there, and i found a rubix cube. i figured papyrus might like it because it's a puzzle, so i brought it back home and showed it to him. he loved that thing! i think he must have spent at least 5 hours trying to solve it that day. eventually he did solve it, and he was so proud of himself. then, the next day, this dog showed up and solved the rubix cube in like ten minutes. i have no idea how, but it did. ever since, papyrus has been trying to beat its record. he's gotten really good at it, but he hasn't managed to beat the record yet. i'm sure he'll get it sooner or later though!"

Alia listened to the story, giggling at the mention of the dog solving the rubix cube so fast. Sans smiled; it seemed like the distraction had worked.

....

//Random Flowey scene because it will not leave me alone until I write it apparently lol

Flowey had not appeared to anyone, not even Alia, since overhearing what she had said to that Echo Flower. The simple reason was, he was very confused. There had been several things he had noticed about her that made him wonder if perhaps, somehow, it was possible that Chara was still around. Specifically, around her. Flowey had, or at least he told himself he had, accepted that they were gone. After all, they had died, and as far as Flowey had been able to tell throughout all of his many, many resets, Alphys had never attempted any experiments involving anything that could have possibly brought them back. Besides, despite trying literally every single different thing he could think of in his boredom, Flowey had never once found even one hint of anything suggesting Chara might possibly be around here somewhere. And Flowey had found literally every hidden location and secret thing there was to find in the Underground.

But then Alia showed up. She told jokes he remembered Chara telling when they were alive. She always seemed to choose chocolate at any given opportunity, but immediately afterward, she always looked at, well, nothing, as if the chocolate had not really been for her, but for someone else. At one point, Flowey had been hiding out in Snowdin near some puzzle and spotted a drawing in the snow. Sans, Papyrus, and what he originally thought was an unfinished self portrait by Alia. After all, it was of a human, and the drawing didn't look like Mira's art style. Except the drawing of the human had a striped sweater that looked just like Chara's.

At the time, Flowey told himself he was imagining things, reading too much into it because he so desperately wanted to see Chara again. Even now, he was still pretty sure that was probably the case. Striped sweaters were not that uncommon after all, Flowey figured Alia probably just had one on the surface and, being in Snowdin and all, missed it because of how cold she was. And yet, he still couldn't entirely stifle that small bit of hope that maybe, somehow, Chara was here, and Alia had been drawing them.

It annoyed Flowey immensely, because he knew it probably wasn't true and he was just getting his hopes up. And also because, even if it somehow was true, he was apparently unable to see them or communicate with them. ...Then again, Flowey realized, would he want them to realize who he was? After everything he had done? After all, if it was true they were hanging out around Alia for whatever reason, they would have seen how he attacked her and later threatened her. And what if... What if Sans had warned Alia that Flowey was dangerous? If Chara had been listening, they might have found out about some of the stuff he had done before.

Would Flowey really want Chara to know what had happened to their kindhearted little brother? What he had done while soulless and grieving and angry?

...Even so, Flowey just wanted to see them, to know if they are alright. To know he wasn't just imagining things when Alia said or did something that reminded him of them. Or if he really had been imagining things, to know that before he let his hopes get too high.

'I miss you, Chara...'

[PossessedPotato]

(Cute! :_: )

It was safe to say that Mira felt as motherly as they came in the moment as she let Alia cry as much as they needed to get out some much needed emotions over...everything that had been going on even since they fell down here.


It would have been wrong to be -upset- with Alia and Mira knew how it felt for others to get upset with you during a time of duress. Whatever young Alia had dealt with on the surface had clearly resulted in them being terrified of expressing emotions or getting into trouble...abuse Mira suspected.


Alia and Mira were mere humans stuck down here just as much as any monster and despite all the help they were giving with trying to figure out a way for the barrier to be broken neither...seemed to be able to help in making much progress towards freedom....


Besides comforting them and giving a good hug, Mira figured that making Alia a snack might help while Sans told them a story to cheer em up, the three of them feeling like the perfect little family as Mira made Alia a pbj sandwich.


For as much as both of their lives had changed it almost seemed like being stuck down here was a odd improvement from their previous lives on the surface.


"Here you are~", Mira giving Alia a sandwich and drink as the odd feeling of being watched remained, she couldn't quite shake it off but did her best to see it as just a result of living underground, "Can I get you anything else, dear?".

[SeriousSans]

(Such a cute little family ;u; )

Admittedly, Alia had probably really needed an opportunity to release some tears as a result of the very confusing emotions she had been feeling. That didn't mean it hadn't been awkward for her, though. Usually, she tried very hard not to show her emotions or 'make a scene' where it might inconvenience others, a habit ingrained in her on the surface. While she had been hoping at the time that neither Sans nor Mira would notice her crying, she had a feeling they probably had. After all, the two had seemingly waited until she was finished, not saying anything while she cried.

It struck her again just how different the Underground was from the surface. On the surface, her crying like this would have been an annoyance. Her parents there would have never been patient enough to sit there and hug her while she cried. And yet Sans and Mira had chosen to reassure a child they hadn't even known existed a few months ago.

They really did care about her, didn't they? Not because they were obligated to, but because they wanted to.

When Mira stood up, Alia felt reluctant to let go, but still did so. Even if she missed the feeling of being hugged by both Mira and Sans, Alia didn't want to be too clingy. Besides, Sans was able to distract her quickly with another story, this time about the time he found a trombone and decided to learn how to play it for the sole purpose of making more puns.

Eventually, Mira returned with a snack, and Alia smiled gratefully. "Thank you," she said, before taking a long drink of water. The last thing she wanted was to be dehydrated after crying for a while there. "Um, could I have some more water please?" she replied when she realized she had finished more than half the glass of water all at once. It seemed crying had taken more out of her than she'd thought.

In all honesty, actually releasing her emotions instead of keeping them all bottled up had left her rather tired. She felt her eyelids close, and moments later, she had fallen asleep.

Sans carefully levitated the water glass and plate over to the table, then put a blanket over Alia. Speaking quietly so as not to wake her up, he turned to Mira with a reassuring smile. "don't worry, i think she's just tired."

Meanwhile, Chara had been watching the whole time, remaining silent so as not to distract Alia. They were glad to see Mira and Sans comforting Alia, and knew this would probably be a turning point for her, much like when they had realized the Dreemurrs truly cared about them and wanted them to be part of the family. That had been a difficult concept for them to grasp at first, people actually wanting them around, just as they were. They could tell Alia had been struggling with similar issues, but maybe now she could finally accept her place as part of the family without being full of self doubt. Of course, years of conditioning wouldn't go away overnight, but they were sure this had helped Alia a lot. Even though they knew Sans and MIra would not be able to see it, they smiled at them gratefully.

[PossessedPotato]

Mira was very much used to the Underground by this point and even though she wanted nothing more than to return to the surface and the life she had unintentionally left behind....she saw no harm in being a human down here with all these sorts of monsters anymore, Sans, Papyrus, Alphys....all the new friends she had made....


Caring for the mysterious Alia...a child who clearly held so many secrets they refused to divulge.


Most of her time was spent between helping monsters with various tasks and teaching Alis to be more confident, Mira still unaware of the ghostly Chara that never left Alias side.


She also grew warm to the Former Royal scientist known as Gaster despite the way they had met being less than ideal. Mira had very memory of the time she stepped into that mysterious grey door and even less about when her Soul had cracked, the human sometimes being humored by Sans about how out of it she was that day.


Currently the human was making a delivery to a certain siren in Waterfall, her following a familiar route into the glossy blue caves. Mira was pretty sure she had met mostly every monsters down here by now so didn't think much of it as she passed a field of easily used for pranks Echo flowers.

[SeriousSans]

Flowey was sitting among the echo flowers in Waterfall, hoping to speak with Alia again. She'd just been staying in Snowdin lately, but he was sure she would eventually want to explore Hotland, and to get there she would have to pass through Waterfall. ...Or ask Sans to teleport her there, he realized, several hours into his stakeout. Flowey sighed; hopefully she hadn't done that, because then this would be even more difficult. Hotland had more potential dangers than Waterfall did, so Sans would probably hang around nearby to make sure she didn't get herself hurt. And if he saw Flowey hanging around near her, he definitely would keep an eye on them. Besides, this was really the perfect place to have a conversation. If anyone passed by, they would think Alia was just talking to the echo flowers rather than realizing there was a different kind of talking flower here. In Hotland, something like that would be a lot more difficult to achieve. There weren't many plants at all in Hotland, so even just popping up there could draw unwanted attention to him.

Despite his concerns, Flowey really needed to find out what Alia knew about Chara. So he needed to talk with her without making anyone else suspicious- well, mainly without making Sans suspicious, since nobody else knew anything about his resets and all that- so he had decided to look for an opportunity to speak with her where no one else would interfere.

When he heard footsteps approaching, Flowey felt hopeful- it seemed like his plan had paid off! Peeking around the echo flowers he was hiding among, he was about to speak up when he saw that the human approaching was not the one he had been anticipating.

Oh no. Flowey panicked and froze up, hoping Mira hadn't seen him move. 'Okay, okay, calm down. Just act natural, maybe she won't see you! Or at least, she might think you're just an echo flower and move on!' Flowey told himself, doing his best not to move even a millimeter.

The absolute last thing Flowey needed was for Mira to find out about him. Flowey was sure she would tell Sans about the 'strange yellow talking flower' and then his chances of talking with Alia alone would be zero. Probably less than zero. Flowey had been laying low in hopes that Sans would let his guard down a bit and not notice Flowey interacting with Alia. But all of that would be ruined if Mira reminded Sans about him! Not to mention being surrounded by echo flowers like this would probably make him seem really suspicious. Sans would definitely be wondering what he was up to.

Maybe he could have quickly burrowed underground if he had thought of it sooner, but by now it was too late. Flowey just had to hope Mira would ignore him.

(Flowey's not going to be the one to start the interaction, but feel free to have Mira notice him!)

[PossessedPotato]

Mira may have been familiar with the Underground by now (or so she thought) but she still had plenty to learn about and discover down here on her own, her...stomach even growing used to the overabundance of spices that her budding best friend Papyrus loved to use in his experimental pasta recipes.


Everything lately was looking to be on the upside despite monsters being no closer to the surface than before. Between her accidental release of Gaster from his accidental self imprisonment to helping Alia realize they didn't need to be afraid of anything down here....everything just seemed to be looking up more than usual.


Of course, Mira knew little of resets or the sentient Flower than had discovered such a power, the thought seejing ridiculous that one could undo time through Determination alone.


Even if she -were- to know about it it wasn't as if the human would likely be able to wield such a ability with her nervous nature, her fear of screwing things up and somehow erasing the progress that had been made down here meaning it would sit on the sidelines safely.


Mira had a keen eye for the strange and suspicious over anything, hence why she had so willingly walked into that strange, gray door in Waterfall out of curiosity. Waterfall in general seemed to have a weird vibe to it in general....as if it had many more secrets to behold that it wouldn't give up so easily.


The little yellow flower hiding in the Echo Flowers didn't go unnoticed by the sharp eyed girl seeing as, well...mostly the -only- plant that grew here were water sausages and Echo flowers. If she had been in a hurry Mira would have likely shrugged it off and continued on her way but something in her deepest of Souls told her to take a closer look.


"Uh....", Mira gently brushing the echo flowers aways as she quickly realized that there was something unusual about this particular little flower as it possessed a tiny face that didn't look at all threatening, perhaps this was a monster she had yet to meet? But even Asgore hadn't mentioned any flower monsters....


"Hello? Ah...are you okay?", Mira smiling friendly like as she didn't want this monster to think she met any harm, it had no reason to scare her and she figured maybe it could use some help, "I'm Mira, whats your name?".