Skeleton Ghost

Lost Half

((Oooohhh BOOOIIIII.))

Sans slowly blinked awake, staring at a wall of bookshelves lined with stories, many of which were slightly damaged and even showed signs of sitting in water for some time. They'd clearly been restored well despite that, but it was obvious they had been found in the dumps.
Then he realized he had never seen a shelf like that in any house he'd visited in his life.

Sans shifted in place, slightly alarmed but not enough to wake up the rest of the way.
That is, before he saw the skeleton face that was freakishly similar to his own staring from across the room. He immediately sat upright, everything rushing back to him as he stared.
"Oh shit, I really wasn't dreaming."

The other with slimmer teeth, slightly more square shaped skull and wider nasal cavity than Sans was studying him.
"Apparently you're my lost cousin."

Rubbing his face to get over his initial discomfort, Sans replied. "Cousins now, huh?"
"Yep. I heard you look more like Calluna than I do."
"Guess so."
"You don't know either?" The other asked. Sans blinked at him.
"Buddy, I don't remember anything about my mom except a few facts."
"What about your dad?"
He shrugged, looking away. "Not much better, he died in a pretty brutal way."

The other hesitated, slightly orange tinted eyelights flicking awkwardly to the side. "Did.. he starve?"
Sans straightened. "No, he just built something to power the Underground- my side, at least- and fell in the magma."
"Magma?" The other asked incredulously. Sans nodded.
"Yeah, the Core generates power from the heat of Hotland's magma pools."
"Dude, we're trapped in a volcano?"

Sans shrugged. "The Core keeps it from erupting, anyway."
"But what is it like?" The other leaned forward, somewhat excited.
He shrugged. "Hot. Whole area is hot. The Core takes up most of the space in it and Hotland is the second largest part of the Underground. And the magma around it specifically is the insta-death. Further off it's kind of just something that starts fires really easily. I stepped in it once. Lost my best shoes." He kicked idly. "I prefer the slippers anyway."

The other snorted at that, then continued. "Are there monsters that can swim in it, though?"
Sans shrugged. "I mean.. a few? You can't really swim in it, it's not water, it's a thick sludge."
"Oh. Gross."
"...Not when it's pulling you apart and melting you at the same time.." He muttered, staring at the 'cousin' while seeing someone else.

After a few seconds, the other shifted awkwardly. "Can you stop that?"
Sans blinked. "Shit, sorry. I was thinking."
"Thinking angrily?"
"Sorry, bud…. Hey, I never caught your name."
"Candara. You're Sans, right?"
"Yep." He held out a hand, the other taking it hesitantly. He couldn't help but notice the broadness of it, something more akin to Papyrus than the others he'd seen so far- not that it was much to go off of, given he'd met two others.

"You're weird, y'know." Candara stated randomly.
"Thanks..?"
"No, I mean like- I've never had any family since I was a little tibia biter."
Sans blinked, the term carrying a vague familiarity, like tail chewer, shin kicker and humans' ankle biter.

He shrugged, filing the detail away. "Pretty much the same here except I had my bro.. and we were the last of our damn kind?" It came out harshly, frustration over the knowledge boiling over again. Candara flinched back, looking away.

"Sorry. This is still new to me."
“I get it. I'm kind of pissed too. I was told that any family I might have is probably long dead all my life but nooo, they were fine along with the rest of monsterkind in the same damn mountain!"

"Well, a lot of monsters still died. All the plant monsters are gone except Vegitoids."
Candara was now the one to look surprised. "Really? Huh. Random. We have a few too, with like a dozen dryads? And Avalon is actually part dryad?"
"Avalon?" Sans queried.
"Yeah. Another one of us, he's one of the elders."
"...Damn."