HollowTale

Part Four: A Conversation

Sans shows the Knight into the bathroom, and starts up the bath, and leans against the sink.
"Here we are. Tubs almost full. Hope Paps didn't freak you out down there. he didn't mean it, just is a bit stubborn about cleanliness. You'll feel better with a soak and some grub, trust me."
He shuts off the water so the Knight can get in.
"Alright, towels are right by the door and-"
Sans sees the Knight just hops right in the tub, cloak and all.
"Well, that's one way to wash up. Cloak and all, huh? It's efficient, I'll give you that."
He leaves the room, closes the door.
"Come right on down when your finished, we'll be making dinner."
he sighs and looks down, then heads down to the kitchen, where Papyrus is working on the sauce. He leans against the wall between the kitchen and living room.
"How's it coming bro?"
he smiles confidently at this question, and faces Sans.
"I THINK ITS MY BEST YET! IM TRYING CHILI PASTE IN THE SAUCE THIS TIME!"
Sans gulps, already dreading how this is gonna go. Papyrus sighs and sets down his sauce spoon.
"...SANS, WHAT THEY DID BEFORE. THAT POWER WAS VERY SIMILAR TO-"
"Yeah."
sans finishes for him.
"its not just that either. they don't feel like other humans. not even other monsters."
"YOU MEAN THEIR SOUL?"
"I can't see their soul Paps. No EXP, no LV, nothing. Like staring into a vortex of blackness. Like-"
"THE VOID."
Papyrus finishes this time, stirring the sauce.
"DO YOU THINK IT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH HIM?"
"I'd be more surprised if it didn't. It's been eerily quiet on the underside since we left the Underground. I think I can sense something from the kid but it's like its separate from them. Its powerful. Ancient. And when I first met them, I could hear something, like voices. I could only make out a bit of it. Mostly it sounded scared. But some voices, didn't sound so nice."
"OH MY. DO YOU THINK THEY'RE DANGEROUS?"
He sighs, really hating to admit not knowing whether someone is dangerous or not.
"I don't know. But they're clearly not from these parts and could use all the help they can get. I couldn't just leave them."

Meanwhile, the knight leaves the tub and sits at the toilet, and checks its Charms. It changes out the Defenders Crest charm for the Nailmasters glory charm. Then hops back off and changes its cloak to that sweater Papyrus gave it.

Sans shrugs and smiles once again.
"Besides, we gave Frisk the benefit of the doubt, didn't we? This little guy deserves that at least."
Papyrus beams again and smiles.
"I COULDN'T AGREE MORE BROTHER! WHO BETTER TO TAKE THEM UNDER THEIR WING THAN I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS! OH! DO YOU THINK THEY LIKE PUZZLES? WE COULD MAKE SO MANY NEW PUZZLES!!"
Sans sighs in relief at the end of the void talk and grabs a smallish green book.
"I'm sure they do Paps, but baby steps. Anyway, they seem to understand us but I don't think they can talk like us."
He shows Papyrus the book, which is a Monster Sign Language book.
"What do you think?"
"OH, THAT'S PERFECT!"
The knight heads downstairs as they finish up the conversation.
"Ah, speak of the devil."
Papyrus sighs as he now realizes just how big the sweater is on the knight, which now is just like its cloak but with oversized sleeves.
"WOWIE, I DIDN'T THINK IT WOULD BE THAT BIG. MAYBE-"
He sniffs and immediately panics as Sans sits on the couch.
"OH NO!! MY PERFECTLY SEASONED SPAGHETTI SAUCE!!!"
He bolts to the kitchen.
"Here, take a load off kid."
He sits down besides sans.
"So, where're you from?"
The knight responds by pulling out a parchment map and opens it, the title of it being "Hallownest".
"Hallownest, huh? Never heard of it. Do you know how to get back there?"
It shakes its head.
"Do you know where here is?"
Another head shake.
"Do you even know how you got here?"
It just wobbles its head.
"I don't know what that means kid."
He lays back in the couch.
"We'll, if you don't have any plans, you can stay with Paps and I until you get things sorted out. I'm sure he'll be happy having someone else besides my lazy bones around the house. Whaddya say?"
Now the knight nods.
"Then its settled. First thing is that we should figure out a way to communicate better."
He hands the MoSL book to the Knight, who takes it with curiosity.
"Its called Monster Sign Language, or MoSL. Paps and I both know it and all our friends know the basics."
Papyrus happily sets the table with the spaghetti.
"WORRY NOT! THE SAUCE WAS NOT DAMAGED!"
Sans gets back up.
"We'll check out the book after dinner kid. Welcome aboard the Skele-bro train."
The both of them sit at the table, Sans anxious to even touch the monstrosity of a meal before him, and the Knight trying to figure out how to actually eat the stuff. Surely, this problem can be fixed somehow.