{Handplates chapter references: waking up, some new threads, ciphers}

The first thing 1-S remembered was waking up. The feeling of being carried by a strong pair of arms and his body swaying slightly with every step the monster took.

And then, when his eyes finally adjusted to the light and he could feel his head buzzing with multiple thoughts, the first thing he noticed was this subtle feeling of loss.
Like something was missing but that thought was just as fleeting.

It was as if he woke up from a dream, or a nightmare, where he thought to himself 'this was so good or bad, I could never forget it' but what happened in that dream slipped immediately away from him.

It was there, almost on the tip of his tongue, a word that was ready to be spoken but not truly manifested in his mind.

The feeling fully subsided as the strange monster noticed 1-S's body shift in his arms and he looked down at him with a surprised look: "Oh! Are you awake? I was a little worried about you two...where on earth did you come from? Why were you in the Core? You're lucky you didn't fall in...they still haven't finished the safety rails in that section."

All the words that this gentle giant spoke to 1-S were nothing but a garbled mess to him.
Not even a hint of what he said was recognizable to the small skeleton.

1-S's eyes flickered across the room and landed on his brother, who was starting to stir as well.

"uuuh where am i?", 1-S spoke up, unsure if that guy could understand him.

"what happened?"

"Er, what was that?", replied the yellow bearded monster as he quirked his brow.

2-P also finally opened his eyes but immediately squinted them shut again as a sharp pain tore through his skull: "NNH, OW..."

"you okay?"

"UH I THINK SO...MY HEAD REALLY HURTS."

"Oh dear...I'm afraid I can't understand either of you..."

2-P now also looked around: "UH...WHERE ARE WE?"

"i dunno."

"UH....WHO ARE WE?"

There was a moment of silence as 1-S though to himself and it slowly dawned on him that he had no idea about...anything.

It was as if his entire memory was wiped and when he thought to hard about recalling anything, he felt a strange throb in the back of his skull.

"...i dunno. uh, you're my brother, aren't you?"

"YEAH...YEAH THAT'S RIGHT, I REMEMBER THAT."

The monster in the purple robe spoke up again: "You two seem to have been through a lot...maybe when you've had some rest, we can try and find a way to communicate, and you can tell me what happened...
You can stay with me as long as you like, do not worry. It'll be nice to have company again..."

"i can't remember anything...", said 1-S as he still struggled to recall the recent events.

He looked up at the monster who carried the two of them: "uh this guy seems okay though, i guess."

"YEAH, MAYBE HE KNOWS WHAT HAPPENED?"

2-P gently tugged on his robe and looked up at him: "HEY, DO YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED?"

"I'm sorry, I don't..."

"i don't think he can understand us.", stated 1-S as he watched the monster's puzzled expression in response.

"WHY NOT?"

"i dunno."

"I know I saw a book about skeletons somewhere, maybe that can help...I wonder where it is...?"

"I FEEL REALLY WEIRD.", 2-P put his hand on his chest, trying to calm the strange feeling. 1-S's almost immediately brought his hand up to his chest as well, also trying to understand what was going on inside of him.

"yeah...me too."

"WELL LET'S SEE WHAT HE WANTS, OKAY? THEN WE CAN TRY AND FIGURE OUT WHAT TO DO."

"ok."

...

The three of them found themselves in a building which was nothing but shades of gray.

The only thing that contrasted with the colors were the occasional bundles of flowers that were placed to make the house feel more homely.

It barely had any effect.

It felt untouched, cold.

Asgore sat down the two skeletons, trying to put on a friendly face despite being slightly overwhelmed by this sudden revelation that there are skeletons in the Underground.

"Here we are, little ones. You can stay as long as you like."

Both of them turned to him and stared at him with a neutral expression. They seemed to be waiting for something.
Or they just didn't know what to do with themselves.

A somewhat uncomfortable stretch of silence fell upon them, making Asgore feel like he had to speak up again: "Um...feel free to explore..."

No reaction.

Just more silent staring.

"Or, um...", Asgore took a step forward, gently nudging the two skeletons down the hallway: "Well, maybe some fresh clothes will make you feel more at home. Come with me..."

2-P grasped 1-S's hand as they started walking together and Asgore pushed past them to open the door to a room for them: "Come on, don't just stand there, go through."

He motioned the skeletons to enter the room and walked straight towards the wardrobe where he rummaged through the different pieces of clothing for a minute.

After a while, he held up a cardigan with green and yellow striped, taking in the height of both skeletons: "Yes, just as I thought, you're just about the same size..."

Asgore tried to push those thoughts away before they went somewhere darker and got back onto his feet, gathering all the clothes in his arm.

"I'm afraid it'll be a little small on you though, er...I don't suppose you understand 'name'?"

No answer. No reaction. Just as he thought.

Asgore thought for a moment and put his hand on his chest to refer to himself: "My name is 'Asgore'. 'As-gore'."

Both skeletons attempted to mimic what he said.
First, they sounded a little clumsy with the pronunciation but as they grew more comfortable with the word, they became rather excited.

2-P mimicked his gesture, putting this hand on his chest and tilted his head in question: "AS-GORE?"

"No-"

2-P didn't listen further, placing his hand on 1-S chest instead and repeating his name again.
1-S did the same, continuing to mumble the name with enthusiasm as they placed their hand on each other's chest.

"Er, no...well. Let's work on that later, alright? Here, you can put these on for now."

The monster king handed the clothes to the skeleton brothers. They unfolded them and inspected them curiously.

And suddenly 2-P began to chew on the shirt while 1-S tried to gaze through the hole of one of the pant legs.

"Er...do you...not know what clothes are...? That's...hmm."
Asgore furrowed his brows, kneeling down in front of them to get a closer look.

He gently tugged on 1-S's strap of the robe he was wearing, a puzzled and somewhat suspicious expression on his face: "....Hmm..."

"Alright, hold up your arms little one... Yes. Like that. There you go. Now stick your legs through here...Yes, good. Not so hard, is it?"

2-P watched closely as Asgore gave 1-S instructions, not sure what this entire procedure means while hugging the shirt that was handed to him.

"OH YOU LOOK DIFFERENT!"

1-S looked down on himself, kind of amazed how every part of his skeleton is covered in tighter fabric.

"they feel weird."

"IS IT BAD?"

"no, it's just different."

2-P started jumping around in excitement, holding up his sweater.

"I WANT SOME! ME TOO!"

1-S stepped up to him and took the sweater from his hands: "oh, i'll help...do what i did, okay?"

Asgore watched the two with a satisfied smile, folding the old robes that they wore before in his hands: "There you go...you two do learn fast, don't you? I'll hang onto these for you..."

He watched quietly as he saw 2-P put up his arms so 1-S could dress him properly when his eyes suddenly landed on the metal plate that was attached to 2-P's hand.

"...Hmm. May I see your hand...? Yes, that one, it will only be a moment."

2-P gave Asgore his hand and the king gently grasped it, tilting it a little to get a better look at it.

"W D G...? Strange... I wonder what it stands for... P, is that your nickname? That must be short for something... I've never seen something like this before."

"I really need to find that book..."

...

"𝑾𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒔𝒌𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒌 𝒊𝒏 𝒇𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔, 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒒𝒖𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒎𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒆. 𝑶𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒐𝒓 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 - 𝑰 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒓𝒆𝒇𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒂𝒔 𝑪𝒊𝒑𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒔.

𝑺𝒌𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒃𝒐𝒓𝒏 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑪𝒊𝒑𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒓𝒂𝒓𝒆, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒖𝒏𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝒐𝒇. 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒐𝒏 𝒂𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝑹𝒐𝒚𝒂𝒍/𝑩𝒐𝒔𝒔 𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒅𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒂 𝒔𝒊𝒈𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒊𝒈𝒉 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒑𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒓'𝒔 𝒐𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒐𝒏.

𝑰𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒚 𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂 𝒔𝒌𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒐𝒏 𝒃𝒐𝒓𝒏 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝑪𝒊𝒑𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒌 𝒊𝒏 𝒂 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 "𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒐𝒏" 𝒇𝒐𝒏𝒕; 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒆, 𝒉𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓.

𝑪𝒊𝒑𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒎𝒂𝒚 𝒃𝒆 𝒖𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒖𝒃𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒖𝒈𝒆, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅𝒍𝒚 𝒔𝒌𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒅𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒐𝒏𝒆'𝒔 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒂 𝑪𝒊𝒑𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒇𝒐𝒄𝒖𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒅𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏.
𝑴𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝑪𝒊𝒑𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒆-𝒕𝒐-𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒃𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒕𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒐𝒏 𝒇𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒔...𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑨 𝒊𝒏 𝒂 𝑪𝒊𝒑𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒔 𝒖𝒔𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒂𝒏 𝑨.

𝑺𝒊𝒈𝒏 𝑳𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒖𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒆 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒌𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒐𝒏 𝑲𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒅𝒐𝒎 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝑪𝒊𝒑𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒏𝒗𝒐𝒍𝒗𝒆𝒅, 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒔𝒑𝒐𝒌𝒆𝒏 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒘𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒏, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒊𝒏 𝒅𝒊𝒓𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒕𝒔, 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒚 𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒂 𝒌𝒆𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒓𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒂 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒏 𝒎𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒂𝒈𝒆.

𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒓𝒖𝒅𝒆, 𝒉𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓.

𝑲𝒏𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝑪𝒊𝒑𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒔:
𝑾𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔, 𝑾𝒆𝒃𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔, 𝑫𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒃𝒂𝒕𝒔, 𝑴𝒊𝒔𝒌𝒂𝒕𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒄, 𝑹𝒖𝒏𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑫𝒂𝒓𝒈𝒐𝒏, ..."

Asgore sighed as he read through the different excerpts of the book: "Hopefully they don't naturally speak in a cipher...otherwise I'll just have to teach them sign language."

He put the book on the table and turned it so the two skeletons could look at it.

1-S was currently sipping on a glass of milk while 2-P enjoyed a chocolate bar.
Both of them looked up at Asgore, then back to the book with a questioning expression.

"Here you two...here's a list of, um "fonts". Do any of these look familiar?"

2-P immediately pointed to a passage that included Wingdings: "OH LOOK! IT'S THE ALPHABET!"

Asgore took notice of where the taller skeleton pointed, trying his best to copy their Cipher on paper: "Hmm...a cipher, like I thought. Just a moment." When he finished, he slid the paper towards them.

"Here, do you see? Here are your letters and here are my letters. What's a word you would know....hm... How about..."

Asgore write down the word 'Skeleton' and handed the paper back to them.

1-S immediately picked up on the idea and translated the writing into Wingdings.

"Yes, good! So this is something, at least..." Asgore was relieved that they somewhat understand where he was getting at.

Finally, 1-S spoke up, communicating his thoughts with his brother: "so...he's speaking in a code, i think."

"THAT'S WEIRD, WHY'S HE DOING THAT?"

"i don't know, but I think i can figure it out..."

1-S eagerly picked up the paper again, continuing to scribble down various letters and signs.

"UMM...COULD YOU MAYBE TRANSLATE IT AGAIN? Uh, JUST IN CASE HE DIDN'T GET IT...", 2-P asked, rubbing his arm nervously.

The truth was, he didn't really get it himself and he had troubles reading but he didn't want his brother to know about it. "yeah, here....see..."

Asgore beamed as he saw how eagerly they were trying to learn and he slowly rose from his chair: "Wonderful! I'll go make some tea."

A short while later, Asgore entered the room again with a tray of tea in his paws. He had also changed from his 'kingly' attire to a casual pink blouse with white patterns on it.

"Hello little ones. How is it coming along?"

1-S perked up slightly, a small smile on his lips: "adkfjhbaflghhhehnasdghj."

Asgore's shoulders slumped slightly as he heard that this strange garbled noise leaving 1-S's mouth.

No doubt, now he heard letters he could at least recognize but...that wasn't a word.

"did i not say it right?", 1-S asked, turning to 2-P. 2-P raised a brow, rotating the book in his hands around. He was not aware that he held it upside down.

"WHAT DO THESE LETTERS EVEN SOUND LIKE ANYWAY?"

"let me ask...", 1-S immediately reached for the paper again and scribbled a couple of words down with his pen.

Asgore picked it up and read it: "'Did I say it right'....Oh, of course...it can be a little hard to say something out loud when you've only read it on paper...do not worry, I can teach you."

Asgore placed the tea down on the desk and grabbed a chair to sit down next to them.

He pointed at the first letter of the alphabet: "Now, here...this is 'A'..."

---

!!Important A/N, please read!!

Hey Hey, so we finally reached this part of the story and I wanted to generally get an opinion because I am slightly struggling with how to process with this. Undoubtedly, you are gone now - out of the picture for the time being and I don't want to bore you all due to the "lack of reader" so I am giving you a couple of options you can vote for or tell me your preferences/own suggestions:

1) I cover the ENTIRE trope of Sans and Papyrus growing up/becoming part of the Underworld and them trying to find out about their past:

Well, this version pretty much covers all the chapters that are included in the comic. Means many many more chapters but your presence isn't exactly there for quite some time. May get boring, maybe not. Depends on how much you guys enjoy a re-tell of the chapters in story-format.

2) Author's choice:

I pretty much have already selected a couple of chapters of this trope that I wanted to pick up to not have a too big of a jump from this plot to the next one, you can either read them or skip them if you do not wish to unnecessarily read chapters that don't include "you"/the reader - I will mark these as [FILLERS] - in case people do not wish to dwelve in this part of the story for too long. However, it would also mean you would have to wait for a little until the "important" parts come back again.

3) Skip the entire section:

Pretty much, we skip the entire section with their character growth and their life in the Underground and them trying to figure out their previous lives and head straight to part where Frisk will finally make a presence.

I am letting you guys decide, I am pretty much alright with any and every choice. I genuinely enjoy writing this so I am willing to go however you guys want.

I am leaving this open for a little while to get as many opinions as possible and also to take this as an opportunity to take a break and focus on college work. So please be patient with me and expect. Any input, ideas and votes are appreciated!