Outcast: A Gaster Story [Discontinued]

Chapter 12

No one said drinking was easy, but it sure can be fun. When my eyes landed on that bottle of scotch, I already knew it was my calling. That night with Grillby and Myata, we actually had a great time. We talked and joked around with each other, a pillow fight had even started at one point. I think it was Myata who started it, grabbing one of the pillows off the couch and throwing it in Grillby’s face. I was the only one to finish off the bottle of scotch, and by the taste of it, it could tell it was aged well. 

"Where did you get this scotch, Myata?" I ask drunkenly, twirling the bottle around in my hands. I can feel my face involuntarily heat up from the alcohol. I didn't expect to be the only one to drink the damn thing. He stretches back in his seat, letting out a long breath. He rubs at his head. 

"Maybe a few years ago. It's hard to remember with what's going on these days." I quietly understand as I get up to throw the empty canister away. My feet hate me so much right now. I don't know why. Should I ask them? Probably not. I feel something warm brush up against my arms, holding me up.

"Now I know what to avoid giving you," Grillby crackles. It must be hard for him. Everyone else too. The tension between humans and monsters, I never imagined it would be like this. That they would be forced from their places of employment and their own homes. A quick knocking rapidly hits the door, scaring me half to death. I jump back, causing Grillby to falter as I slam into him. He steadies me, quick to answer the door and relieve the person from knocking so urgently. 

Why did I feel like the room is spinning? Oh, make it stop. I reach for him to hold me, but he dodges me. Not on purpose. At least, I don’t think.
"Thank goodness I found you, Grillby!" I peer around to see who is at the door at this hour. My vision was extremely blurry, and the spinning room was no help, but eyes widen once I see who it is. "The king needs us immediately, the girl too."

"Calm down, Gerson." He glances back at me for a second, "It'll just have to be me. Samantha isn't feeling well." Gerson's expression changes, I think, to confusion. I can see the shape of his head peer around Grillby. 

"Get her to bed, then go to the king. Make it quick." His shadow disappears, and the door clicks. Grillby turns back to me, grabbing my shoulders as I sway.

“Just have her lay down in here,” Myata says, as I lean forward onto Grillby. “I can keep eye on her.” My eyes close, taking me away from the spinning room. Grillby pushes against me, forcibly moving my feet back. 

“Mmm, you’re warm,” I giggle, wrapping my arms around his waist. He stops moving as I cling to him, laying my head against him. I hear Myata begin to chuckle, but I pay no mind. “You know, Firefly, you’re pretty smokin’ for a monster.” I laugh at my own joke, Myata’s laugh getting even louder. Grillby coughs softly, his hands moving to my shoulders and gently prying me off him. He pushes me back onto the bed, the mattress underneath me soft and squishy. 

“You need to lay down, and I need to go see the king.” Grillby’s form gets smaller and smaller before he disappears behind a brown rectangle. Right, there’s a door. Weird how rooms have those. I let my torso fall back, bouncing slightly on impact. The room is still spinning, at least the ceiling is. Ugh, just make it stop. I grab the pillow at the top of the bed, covering my face with it. My eyes close, no longer that sick feeling as prominent. I laugh softly to myself, before giving a long drawn out sigh. 

“Pillows aren’t supposed to be used like this. . .or are we missing an underlying message here. . .?” 

~~~~~~

No more scotch for me. At least not in that amount. My head is pounding so hard it woke me up, and now I can’t get back to sleep. Myata is snoring in the chair, Grillby is gone. Where did he go? I groan as I sit up, still wearing the same clothes I was yesterday. What even. . . happened? I remember I started drinking a bit and then its just blank afterwards. My shoes are nowhere to be found. Did I even wear shoes over here? 
   
I should probably find Grillby. I don’t want to interrupt Myata sleeping. As I stand, my head begins to feel light. Just a nasty hangover. I’ll be fine. I manage my way to the door, walking out and closing it as quietly as I can. Maybe he would be in his room? Walking down to his door, I peek inside to find it empty. Great, now where else would he be? Turning, I glance around to try and remember which way to go. With the nerves pounding inside my head, it’s hard to focus. So, let’s go left. 
 
I pass more doors, passing many monsters who seem even more worried than before, either moving away from me or walking into theireir room. I won’t do anything to them. Why are they acting like that? It doesn’t matter right now, I can’t force them to trust me. It will come with time as long as I don’t do anything stupid. 
   
Up ahead of me, I see a skeleton looking down at his clipboard. His mouth is moving, but I can’t figure out what he is saying, his voice too quiet to hear him from here. “Hey, Gaster,” I speak up, quickly walking over to him. He freezes, sighing. 
   
“What do you want?” he asks, looking up at me with bored eyes. Jesus, Grillby was right. He really doesn’t like humans all that much. 
   
“You know where Grillby is?” He stares at me for a moment, before going back to his clipboard. 
   
“You two seem to always be around eachother. Shouldn’t you know where he is?” He retorts, writing something down with a pencil. On the side of his skull I can see tape keeping his glasses in place. He kind of has a point. I find comfort in the fire monster, especially when I have other monsters acting like this. I grumble, rolling my eyes. 
   
“You won’t tell me, will you?”
   
“If I was, I would have told you by now. Now, please. Take your bad decisions elsewhere. I have work to do,” he says matter of factly and begins to walk off. Ass. I’ll just find him on my own then. I begin to wander around, not entirely sure on where I’m going. Left or right? Do I go straight or did I miss a turn? 
   
“How big is this place?” I grumble, before seeing two large doors familiar to me. The throne room. Maybe King Asgore will help. As I approach, the door opens, revealing Grillby. I smile, his yellow eyes looking up at me but not returning the expression. “Hey, I found you. What’s going on?” I ask, confused on why he looks like he has just seen a ghost. He shakes his head, standing between me and the doors. 
   
“You need to go see Atlantia in the lab. King’s orders,” he says, looking down at me. “I need to go inform Myata.” 
   
“Inform him of what? Grillby, come on, man,” I grab his sleeve, stopping him as he begins to turn. He sighs, dropping his head for a moment. 
   
“Atlantia will explain everything to you. Just please go see her,” he says, walking off in the direction of the rooms. Now I have to find my way to the lab? Bloody hell.
   
“Atlantia?” I call, opening the door after fifteen minutes of searching for this place. They really need to have a map to hand out. “Grillby told me to come in here and that you would explain what was going on.” 
   
“Yes, come in. I’m just looking over something in the lab.” I head to the back of the large room, seeing Gaster and Atlantia looking over something on one of the counters. A bunch of papers, but I don’t know what they say. Probably some smart science stuff I wouldn’t understand. Science was never really my forte. I’m a whizz at math, but science, well, don’t put me near an experiment unless you want an explosion. 
   
I eye the two as I approach. It seems that Gaster is acting irritated is normal, but Atlantia just seems worried. “So, doc,” I ignore the extra pounding in my head as I talk, crossing my arms as I lean back against the wall, “can you tell me what’s happening? The monsters seem a bit on edge around me, and Grillby barely looked me in the eye.” Dr. Atlantia nods, looking up from the sheets of paper before her. Gaster just continues, circling a few things on said paper, pushing down on the pencil just a bit too hard. 
   
“King Asgore made a speech this morning,” Atlantia talks softly, nothing like her usual loud and bubbly voice, “Because of the recent events, he has declared war on the humans.” A part of me is terrified by her words. Monsters don’t have that big of a population in numbers anyways, but they do make up with their magic. The other part of me isn’t even surprised. Most of us knew this was coming, we didn’t want it to, but there was nothing we could do to stop it. I take a deep breath, stopping my hands shaking as my nerves bounce off the walls. “You have been stationed with us.” 
   
“I’m not sure why. I don’t see how you would be of use,” Gaster grumbles, the glowing pupils in his eye sockets rolling around. 
   
“Dr. Gaster!” Atlantia snaps, making both the skeleton and I jump, “she is on our side, and if you wish to continue this apprenticeship, you will treat her with respect while working.” Whoa, didn’t know she got that mad. Kinda wish she didn’t, that made my head hurt even more. Gaster looks up at her with wide eye sockets, before mumbling something to himself in a glitched manner. That was the second time he has done that, what does it mean? 
   
“My apologies, Ms. Rulli,” he says, looking at me. His face makes it looks like he is sincere, the way his pupils are now no longer glowing aggressively bright, but instead now a soft glow in his dark eye sockets. For the first time since I have been here, he has looked at me with something other than hatred or irritation, even if it is a facade. I suppose I can still appreciate the effort. I nod slightly, running my hand over my short hair and pushing my gaze towards the floor. 
   
“No worries, I can’t entirely blame you,” I say, giving a small huff of relief from the tense situation. “Just don’t attack me again and we should be fine.” As soon as I said that, his expression changed back to his annoyed self. Atlantia shakes her head for a moment, before grabbing a different clip board. 
   
“I need to go discuss with the king about some supply shortages. Since you are going to be in here, Gaster can show you where everything is.” She taps the back of the clipboard with her nails, giving Gaster one more look of warning before walking out. Oh right, she did say I would be working here. What for? I can fight perfectly fine. Oh well, I’m living here now. I need to learn to listen to the king. 
   
“So, what will I be doing?” I ask Gaster as he goes back to his clipboard. 
   
“Your folder says you have magic capabilities. You have been ordered to assist with healing monsters that come in and anything else Dr. Atlantia desires for us to do.” He walks away, scribbling down on the clipboard in his hand. He stops and looks over his shoulder. “Well? Are you going to follow or not? I have other matters that need to be tended to.” I stare at him for a moment, processing the words then nodding my head quickly. 
   
“Yeah, sorry.” I jog softly to catch up to him, my mind slightly foggy.
   
“Well, at least you have manners,” he scoffs, looking up at a box. His sockets squint to look at it, proving that those glasses he has need to be a bit stronger prescription. Once he can read it, he immediately goes back to his clipboard to check something off. 
   
“If I got stationed here, does that mean Grillby was put somewhere else?” I ask, “Did he happen to tell you where?” My eyes follow Gaster as he checks something else off on the paper before finally setting the clipboard down on a table. 
   
“I was there when he received his assignment. Unfortunately, he’ll be on the front lines.” He flips through a pile of files before grabbing one. “But let’s not dwell on that, we haven’t got the time for such matters. Instead, I would like for you to demonstrate your magic capabilities. I’m quite intrigued in fact, so don’t disappoint me.” I lean back against the counter, looking at the tall skeleton. 
   
“Yeah, see, about that,” I trail off, Gaster looking over his glasses at me, “I can really only summon a shield right now. I’m not entirely good at the whole ‘magic’ thing.” I mean, what I’m saying is true. I’m a much better fighter than I am with anything that involves magic. 
   
“Nothing at all but a defensive shield?” He grumbles under his breath, annoyingly scratching away at the papers in my folder. “I see no use of you being here. You’ll mostly like just be complication.”
For once, I can agree with him. Why was I stationed here? Gaster groans softly, bringing his hand up to his face. He mumbles something I can’t understand, inhaling sharply. As he looks back at me, his hand begins to glow blue. A pain runs sharply through my arm. I look down, and red begins to appear in a row across my forearm. Before I can see what was behind me, I could only catch the glance of a bone disappearing. “Did you just cut me?” I ask in anger, looking at the slight cut running along on my arm. 
   
“If you desire to be useful in this infirmary you learn how to heal. What better way than to practice, hm?” I grumble at his answer, shaking my head. How would I even attempt at healing this? It shouldn’t be too hard, considering it is not that deep of a cut. The problem lies in where to even begin. Maybe it’s just kind of a ‘will’ thing? Like, I have to will on the magic to heal it. Across from me, Gaster begins to tap his finger on his forearm, expecting me to do something. 
   
“I don’t know what you expect me to do. I’ve never tried to heal something before.” We only ever practiced offensive magic at the compound, the occasional defensive shield. He sighs in annoyance, setting down the folder and walking over. He grabs my arm, the scratch beginning to glow green. 

“As much as this amuses me, I am not a completely crude. So, I suppose I will give you a hint. Think,” he pauses for a moment, his grasp still around my wrist, “Think of anatomy.” With that, he lets go of my arm and backs away from me. Anatomy? Really, that’s the clue he gives me? 
“What am I supposed to do with that?” I ask in disbelief, another pain running across my arm. I curse, jumping away from the sharp bone.

“Would you stop that!?” God damn masochist. He taps a pile of papers on the counter, straightening them out to fit neatly into the cream folder. 

“Only when you learn how to heal. For now, I’ll have you help with the minor duties,” he walks past me, leaving me to figure out this healing thing on my own. I shouldn’t have expected anything different. Damn, and just when I thought he was starting to warm up to me to. “We won’t spoon feed you directions like the army did. Learn to find resolutions to problems yourself.” Oh, I wanna smack ‘em.  

After a few hours of trying to heal this cut, I finally got it to stop bleeding. However, I doubt that was from the magic. Though, my headache has gone away. It's so boring in the infirmary. As someone with no real knowledge of science besides that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, there is nothing for me to do. W.D. Grumpy hasn’t helped the situation all that much. Whenever I try to start a conversation, it either ends with him insulting me or ignoring me altogether. He’s been typing away at a computer for a while, looking between that and a large book. I wasn’t able to spot what it was on. 

I roll over on the medical bed I’m lying on, allowing my head to hang off the edge. “Whatcha’ doin’?” I ask like a bored five year old. His fingers click at the keyboard in front of him, one hand moving to flatten out the page in the book. 

“Research,” he answers simply, his back to me. I groan, rolling my eyes. 

“Do you act like this around Grillby, too?” He doesn’t answer, continuing to read. I look around the room for a moment, smiling suddenly. I hold my hand out, a small shield forming behind his chair. I push it forward, causing the chair to roll forward. He turns quickly, my shield disappearing. He eyes me, beginning to grow confused. 

“How did you do that?” He asks, making me smirk. 

“Magicians never reveal their secrets,” I reply, before my hand glows orange. The shield presses against his chest, pushing him away from the computer. “Just remember you aren’t the only one with a few tricks up their sleeve.” With a move of his foot, the chair stops rolling across the floor. He goes to open his mouth, but someone else beats him to it. 

“Hey, girly! Where ya at?” 

“Over here, Gerson.” I wave over to the turtle, a suitcase being pulled behind him as he walks. I smile and sit up quickly, all the blood that was rushing to my head now dispersing. It throbs for a moment, a small headache forming. Eh, I’ll be fine. 
I meet Gerson halfway, looking down at him. “Yer mom said she misses ya,” he says, allowing me to grab the suitcase. My shoulders drop, letting out a soft sigh. Of course I’m gonna miss Mom and Nathan, but I just couldn’t stay. I’ll see them once this is over with. Hell, Mom might be the only person who will want to see me. “She said yer father is furious. They know yer here, girly. There’s no going back now.” I nod, taking a deep breath.

“Yeah, I know.”