Not long after lunch, a very excited Asriel ran into Error on his way over to his sister. Error made a string of beeping noises, the error noises from a crappy old windows XP computer, and although the tune did sound oddly like Meglovania, he didn't crash or anything, which was very surprising. Normally, he would've crashed and required rebooting from being rammed into like that.

Blue had an expression of surprise and confusion on his face- he had been expecting to have to reboot Error. Error himself was busy trying to silence the annoying error song, as it wouldn't stop.

"ɪ think this might be ᴡᴏʀsᴇ than crashing..." Error grumbled, unable to find a way to shut the music off. "ɪ hope this stops soon. ɪ'll never be able to go out in public again if it doesn't."

After around two minutes, the beeping finally stopped and Error relaxed. "Well, at least it takes less time to recover from than crashing. Rebooting takes ten or fifteen minutes, that only took two."

"It was much more entertaining than crashing too! And it was a nice tune, I liked it!" Blue squealed.

"Of course you did Blue. Should I even be surprised?" Error muttered under his breath.

Stretch, who was standing right next to Error, snorted quietly, trying not to laugh.

"Well, Blue, Error, Asriel, you guys should head back to the house. My sister, Syrah, should be there any time now. Chara, Stretch, are y'all ready to go? We need to leave now if we want to stop by Muffet's and get some snacks for the meeting, and she makes the best treats, well, other than Quill's pie," said Snow.

"Yup. I'm ready," said Stretch. "Blue, Error, behave yourselves. Error, please don't let Blue have any cookies. He goes crazy."

"Hey, I'm right here you know!" Blue said indignantly.

"Yes, but I don't trust you around cookies Blue. Not after last time."

"What last time?" Error asked, curious now.

"I'll tell you later," said Blue. "When my brother isn't around to comment on it."

"Well, we should be going now Stretch, otherwise no honey. We can stop by Muffet's if we leave now, so come on! I want some of her chocolate macaroons," said Chara.

"Okay, okay, I'm coming!" Stretch said, running over and taking the hand offered to him by Snow.

She shortcutted all three of them to Muffet's, as Chara was unable to teleport normally, and Stretch hadn't been to their Muffet's so he was also unable to shortcut there.

They quickly walked across the grass into the lovely little bakery, where Muffet was sitting behind the counter, busily doing paperwork.

"Hey Muffet! Whatcha got today? Anything special?"

"Well, dearie, you came on a good day! I actually made a variety of new treats from a cookbook a friend brought me, and they look lovely. I'm quite sure that they will taste wonderful as well, as the one I tried was absolutely heavenly. Here, let me show you what we have!"

Muffet handed them a small menu, and the treats shown on it really were beautiful.

"I believe that the recipes were based off of a book or something, as the majority of them seem to be based off of characters. The odd thing is, some of these names are people from around the underground. It's rather strange, really. My own special recipe for spider donuts was in it, and I've never shared that with anyone. Oh, and Chara, this is for you, it's on the house," Muffet said, handing Chara a small box of green and yellow, blue and purple, and rainbow striped macaroons. "I know you love the chocolate ones, so I made the green and yellow ones with chocolate filling."

"Also, Snow, I made you a little something special. I heard your birthday was a few weeks ago, and I never gave you something, so here it is- an entire box of bottles of whipped cream. You can come get it whenever you want."

"Errr, Muffet, we're kinda running on a deadline."

"Okay then, here, let me make you up a nice box of treats. In exchange, I want you to bring the other two new arrivals here sometime soon, so I can meet them!"

"Okay Muffet. Thank you so much."

"Oh, don't worry about it dearie. I'm always up-to-date on what's going on in the Multiverse."

"Uhhh what?" Stretch said, incredibly confused by Muffet and her seemingly all-knowingness.

"Oh, Fresh is her boyfriend. He tells her all the news and gossip about the Multiverse."

"Oh. Okay."

"Ah, my handsome, colorful boyfriend. I love him just the way he is- parasitic tendencies and all," said Muffet dreamily while tucking pastries into the box.

"Here! A nice box of pastries for you and your friends. There are a few for your siblings in the bottom, you'll be able to tell whose are whose," said Muffet cheerfully, handing Stretch the large purple box of treats. "Oh, and for you, dearie, there's a bottle of honey in there too. Fresh told me you liked that."

"Huh. I'll have to thank him next time I see him."

"Well, come on Chara, take my hand. Don't worry about it Stretch, your hands are full so I'll hold your arm for the group shortcut."

Snow grabbed Stretch's arm with her free hand, Chara holding onto the other, and they shortcutted to Lune's studio. It was a cute little building on the border of Waterfall and Swap!Snowdin, with the some of the beautiful falls that gave Waterfall its name creating glowing pools not far away, but it was where the mysterious magical sunshine of the summer Snowdin could fall on it. The studio was bright and cheerful, painted with a variety of patterns and colors that somehow managed to not clash. It really wasn't much of a distance from Muffet's, but it was far enough to be a hassle with the large box of pastries.

Snow walked up to the door, knocking a short tune that seemed to be the beginning of a Megalovania, but it wasn't one that Stretch had heard before.

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

Chara then knocked her own theme on the door, and a light blinked, but it didn't open.

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

"Gosh darn it. It's not opening because it senses you here Stretch. I think she may have forgotten to set the lock so it'll allow guests. I guess I've got to override it."

Snow then hummed a much more complex tune, part of which sounded suspiciously like a Gyftmas song.

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

"Was that a bit of a Gyftmas song in there Snow?!"

"Maybe... it's my pacifist battle theme, so no one ever really hears that one. As for why, I use ice in the majority of my attacks, so of course my themes tend to end up with bits of wintery songs," said Snow. "Now, Stretch, would you mind knocking your theme? It'll accept it and add it to the records. Don't worry, I'll take the box."

After passing the box over to Snow, Stretch knocked his own Megalovania, Powerfest, on the door. It then pinged and hissed open.

A Kitsune in a paint-splattered lab coat came running over, looking very apologetic.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to lock you out!" Lune said.

"It's fine, don't worry about it. It's not your fault, everyone makes mistakes," Chara reassured Lune, while Snow walked over to a table and set down the box of pastries before giving Lune a hug.

"Don't worry about it. It's in the past now, we can't change it," said Snow.

"You're right. Oh, wait, is that a box from Muffet's I see- can I have some?"

"We can go through the box when Quill's here, we have to wait for him."

"Well that's a pity."

————⊰↺◊↻⊱————

This was an interesting chapter to write. I wanted to share some of their themes, and I remembered that at one point in another UTAU fic I read, they used the beginnings of their Megalos as passwords. So I decided to adopt that idea for the door at Lune's studio/lab.

I really want to draw/photoshop maps of so many of the settings I've worked with in Startale. Lune's place is gonna be an interesting one, but I want to start by figuring out the overall layout of the Underground. It'll probably have some more places I come up with, such as what replaces the true lab... oh yes... that'll be fun to draw and edit.

- Snow ❄️