I also love the stuffing out of Zarla-S:
http://zarla-s.tumblr.com and hir handplates au:
http://zarla-s.tumblr.com/post/139516306171/okay-i-get-a-lot-of-questions-about-what-order-the and seeing those little baby skelebros going through all sorts of inexplicable torture for no reason beyond science... Well... I has teh feelz.
So I'm giving them a happier life.
This one's improvised whenever I have mood enough and time. Questions are welcomed. As are edit suggestions.
So without further ado...
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Disclaimer: Undertale belongs to Toby Fox, long may he write ground-breaking games with such lovable characters. The Handplates AU belongs to Zarla-S, long may ze draw. And finally, the whole concept of Toriel rescuing the tortured Skelebros belongs to LoyaltyKask, who sent in the ask in the first place. Peace, love, and serendipity to you all. All I own is this story. I hope it's enjoyable.
Twice Upon a Dream
InterNutter
Abduction Day 1
(WDG-2P)
Something had... changed. Usually, when Two woke up, there was pain. And he was on the soft platform, the one that He used whenever recovery from experiments was... difficult. But there was no pain. Two risked opening an eye. Then the other. Perfect bi nocular vision, as He would say. Everything seemed normal. But it wasn't.
Normal was pain. Normal was the small room with the electric barrier and the hard platform that he and his brother were allowed to sit or sleep on. Though they usually preferred the floor. Normal was Him and His experiments. Normal was trying again and again to understand Why... and an absence of answers.
But here was not normal. Here was soft and warm and... better than the hard platforms. Two sat up. The walls were not grey. They were not any of the bold colours of the colour cube, either. He knew those names. White, Green, Red, Blue, Yellow, and Orange. This was... strange. A colour he could not name. It was almost like Red... but it was also like the Green of their clothes. Weaker.
And another strangeness. One was across the other side of the room, barely visible under his heavy, thick sheet. Just like Two's, but it had different patterns. It, like the platform, was soft and warm and it squished.
One was scared, Two could tell by the glow of his eye. Two only knew one way to help him feel better, but he dared not risk it. They were on the soft platforms for a reason.
"Brother," he whispered. "Are you hurt?"
"...no," said One. "...that's what's got me on edge... it's all wrong."
"I'm scared, too," said Two. "I wish we could be scared together."
Everything was strange. The light. The colours. The things scattered around the room. The flat thing on the floor and the big filing cabinet against the wall with only one door and the... shorter, flatter filing cabinet with weird draws. And the enormous box full of unfamiliar shapes. And the flat, square shapes on the wall with... colours inside. Nothing made sense, and Two wanted to be scared at the top of his lungs, but he knew that would summon Him.
So he put both hands over his mouth and tried to be scared as quietly as possible.
It didn't work. That, at least, was normal. Two was more than used to his efforts not working. But what happened next... it was so far away from normal that he almost fainted from the shock.
The door in the wall opened. Softly and slowly. And by degrees, a giant appeared. They were not Him, but they were something... Other. Other was White. And wore Blue. And Other was much, much bigger than Him. Two was so scared that he forgot about lying quietly on the soft platform and stood up. Other was not going to hurt One!
"Children?" said the Other. "I heard sounds. Are you awake?"
Two pressed himself against the Not-Quite-Red wall despite himself. The world wavered and darkened around him, and he wasn't sure that Other was doing it. "You keep back! Don't touch us!"
(Toriel)
They had been hurt when she found them, taking a covert route through the Underground and towards the Ruins. Whoever had left them there (Toriel had her suspicions, but could not prove them) was lucky that he or she was not present. There would have been quite the battle. As it was, she had taken them and fled. And spent quite a lot of herself trying to heal them. Poor children. They had taken so many hurts.
Now she could hear one of them whimpering, so of course she came to check on them.
What welcomed her was not gratitude, but suspicion and fear. The taller one got up and stood on his bed. The shorter one was hunkered under his covers. She had thought that giving them a warm, comfortable room with their own clothing to choose from and their own toys to play with would have been a welcome thing to do. She was wrong. They were more scared than they had been scarred.
Backed up against the wall, scared out of his wits and about to faint, the taller one spoke. "Yoo keebak! Dun tush us!"
Evidently, their tormenter had not taught them to speak properly. Just enough to make themselves understood, and no more. Toriel fought to keep an angry expression off her face. Fought to be what they needed. And what they needed was an abundance of kindness. "I promise all will be well," she cooed. "You are safe now. I will not harm you."
The smaller one moved around under his covers so he could peek out from the foot of the bed. "...yeh whassa catch? yoo withim?"
"Absolutely not," she said. "I was only down there once, but I saw more than enough to hate what he had done to you. There is no catch, child. Only a home."
The unfamiliar word stuck in both their throats. She could hear them repeating it under their breaths.
"Yes. Home. A place you will always belong within." Though she ached to hold them close and kiss them and gift them with every sign of parental love, she knew that would only frighten them. "I am baking a pie."
Blank skeletal expression from the taller, and unadulterated suspicion and hostility from the other.
"That's a form of food," she added. "When you are ready, you may come out and have some. I will be waiting for you." She left, and left the door open. Soon, they would smell the pie. And if they were like any other monster children, hunger would soon overwhelm their trepidation.
She had the pie cooked to perfection. Butterscotch and Cinnamon, because nothing tempted a child like sweet things. And she had enough magic to heal them quickly if they had an allergy. Toriel cut slices and let the rich scent flood her new house. Set them out on the table and kept them warm with her fire magic. Sat and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Shuffling noises eventually made her look up from her book. Ah. There they came. Clinging to each other like they were all that they had in the world. That each of them was all that they could trust. She pretended to keep reading. They stopped when they spotted her.
"...itsa trik," said the smaller one.
"Smels _good_," said the larger one. "Hungry."
Both their bodies were rumbling. She could hear it. How long could they possibly resist the lure of sweet pie?
They edged around the doorway. Sidled along the wall. Made it all the way to the table.
Toriel remained still. She did whisper, "Yes. You may have some."
The taller of the two snatched a piece of pie off the table and split it into halves for the other. Both ate quickly and with their hands, while they hunkered on the floor. The smaller one never took his gaze off of Toriel.
(WDG-1S)
There had to be a trick. A catch. A trap. Something was very wrong with everything and One could not nail down what it was. This... other creature had to be something like Him. Had to be.
There just wasn't anything else.
But this... pi... tasted so _nice_. He was almost lost in the flavour of it. He was busy scraping crumbs out of his crevices when it finally happened. The Other stood up. He froze in place and reached for his brother. Too late to run. He hurried under the heavy chairs and hoped they were enough. The big white feet came closer. Closer and closer.
They had to be doomed!
But all that happened was another plate of pi. Resting just within their reach.
Unbelievable. And the Other just walked away. Back to the chair they had been sitting in earlier.
What kind of test was this?
One statched up the pi this time, splitting it in two for his brother. It made him feel good. It made them both feel good. Warm inside. And... better.
So very much better.
One would not sleep very well, that night. He had to keep watch. Because the only time when He was kind, was when He was setting up a newer, more painful experiment.
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Instalment one! What do you think? Keep going? Scrap it? Am I the epitome of evil? Say something!