Alphys hung up the phone. Her call with the human who had just ruined her life was over. She felt as if the call was never-ending, but alas, it was not. That human was not human; they were a demon, a mindless machine only driven by bloodlust.
“So, uh, wanna talk?” Sans asked slowly. He was unsure of how to proceed in the conversation after what Alphys had just told that human
“No, not yet” Alphys responded. “I don’t want to think about it anymore. It’s...” Alphys began to trail off. Sans nodded his head understandingly. He, too, had lost some dear friends of his from the human. Alphys trotted back to her throne and sat on it. While she didn’t like her position as queen of the underground, she had simply accepted that she was the only one who could actually do it. She had appointed Sans as the new royal scientist, and he seemed to be doing some experiments with some strange machine he had. Alphys had no clue what it was, but she was hopeful that his experiments didn’t end like hers with determination, or worse, that first royal scientist’s.
“Queen Alphys,” A voice beckoned. She recognised it as one of the royal guards. She was thankful that the human decided to spare them, and that they could find love where she couldn’t. As she began to think about this, envy poisoned her thoughts. However, she needed to push away those thoughts from her mind, even if only for 10 minutes. She lifted herself from her throne and went to converse with the royal guard.
“Queen Alphys, one of the areas in the core is malfunctioning,” One of the royal guards said calmly. Alphys’ immediate reaction was surprise, but she needed to maintain her air of confidence. She had no idea how she was going to decipher his notes, it was like they were written in a different language entirely.
“Is the electricity gone?” She asked
“No, but I don’t think it would be a good idea to leave it unchecked,” They responded.
“I will inform the royal scientist and he will commence working on it at once,” Alphys responded. She ushered them out of her room, and as soon as they left, Alphys could feel herself becoming nervous again. It was a miracle that she had managed that conversation with the skill she did, but she was unsure of how to tell Sans of the malfunctioning core. Well, the core isn’t going to fix itself Alphys thought to herself, as she gathered the courage to pick up the phone in her hand and call Sans.
4 minutes passed. She was unsure what was keeping her from calling Sans. He wasn’t going to be mad, far from it. But she was still very anxious about calling him. After a while, she finally hit the call button.
“Sans, there’s, uh, something I need to tell you,” Alphys said, immediately after he picked up
“Oh, is there something urgent?” Sans asked, with no indication of panic or surprise in his voice
“Well, not urgent, but I still think it should be checked out quickly,” Alphys said. She hated phone calls. She felt as if the discrepancies in her tone were extremely obvious, and her word choice was also very formal, he must think she’s trying to undermine their previous relationship as friends. And it was clear that he was thinking that, too. After all, why would he say the word “urgent”? That word was very formal for his way of speaking. He must be losing the semblance of having a personal relationship with her, and he must think of her as the queen and thus, she must think of him as only the royal scientist. God, he’s going to hate me... Alphys thought in despair.
“Hello? Alphys? I asked you what should be checked?” Sans asked, appearing concerned for Alphys
“Oh, sorry, I was just lost in thought for a moment.” Alphys knew that, while not technically a lie, still massively understates what was happening. “One of the parts of the core is malfunctioning. It hasn’t caused any power outages yet due to the small population of the underground, however, it should still be checked out soon.” Alphys said. She had been improving her speech, little by little, as she was talking to Sans.
“Oh, so I’m guessing you want me to go through his documents?” Sans asked
“Actually, if you don’t mind, I think this project would be easier if we worked on it together,” Alphys said. This was a request rarely made by her, yet she still found it to be invaluable to have a peer’s opinion when working in science. Surely Sans knew this as well, right?
“Oh, sure. Just, please don’t overwork yourself. Being queen must be a hard job,” Sans said.
God, if only I could just resign from my position and pretend nothing happened, and just watch anime. That would be amazing Alphys idly daydreamed to herself. She quickly snapped out of it and responded to Sans “I’ll be fine, you don’t need to worry.”
“Ok, I’ll decrypt his documents and then tell you what’s up afterwards. Take it easy,” Sans said.
“Bye,” Alphys said, as she rushed to hit the “end call” button as soon as she could.