Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

    Entry Number 1: 

  Dr. Gaster has decided to start a new experiment. He has put me in charge of the major note taking. 

  He said that we would be creating a new kind of monster. We do not know what he means by this, as he refuses to elaborate. 

   You followed Dr. Gaster into the lab, quickening your pace to keep up with the skeleton. Multiple researchers littered the room, talking to each other, typing out codes and notes or looking through old documents. 

  You’d never actually been inside one of the labs, rather being an on the field researcher who’d just graduated from the most renowned colleges for science. Mt. Ebott University. But now, you’d be one of the lead scientists for something nearly completely unheard of. Yes people have cloned sheep or cells, but creating a new life like this? And a monster no less, was completely unthinkable. 

  “How would we even begin trying to create a SOUL?” You’d asked him, back when he first proposed the idea, asking you to be the one taking notes. 

  He paused for a moment. “Well, perhaps with small samples of someone else’s. We’d need a strong one of course.” His constructs wove his foreign language into one you could understand, signing to you as he spoke. 

  You wondered briefly if that would be the language the monster spoke, the one only the Doctor could understand. It would only make sense that you’d want your groundbreaking creation to listen only to you, after all. 

   Entry Number 2:

  We’ve begun the preparations for the experiment. It took months to get the equipment, and an amount of lying I would not like to admit from Dr. Gaster’s end, but we got it. 

  He seems too committed. He refuses to let anyone tell him no. 

  You walked into the Lab. Since the preparations for the experiment had begun, multiple security measures had been put in place. The Lab it would be happening in was moved under basement level by multiple stories, and you needed a keycard for clearance to even open the elevator to get in, and another to press the button. 

  This seemed too far for something like this. At best maybe it was understandable to have a few security measures but this was just overboard in your humble opinion. But you digress. Stepping around the hurried people finishing the test tubes around the room.  Hurriedly walking to Dr. Gaster you stand at his side. 

  “Ah, Y/N. Glad to see you. Starting tomorrow, I will need you at your best. We’ll begin the process of SOUL creation and I wanted to discuss something with you.” He places his hand on the small of your back gently, leading you to his new office down here. You follow him, his pace brisk and the sound of his dress shoes clicking against the tiled ground helps you keep pace. 

  “What did you want to talk about?” You ask as he gestures to you to walk in ahead of him into his office. You take a seat in the seemingly brand new leather chair in front of his old dark oak desk as he closes the door behind him. 

  “It’s about the SOUL itself. You see, you cannot create something from nothing. And the same thing goes for a SOUL.” He walks behind his desk and sits down in his chair. His ever present smile does little to soothe your growing anxiety. His constructs open a filing cabinet behind his desk and you can hear them flipping through documents before bringing a small stack next to him and stapling them together. You nod, eyes following the translucent blue hands as he speaks. 

  “And thus, I was wondering if we could sample a piece of your soul.” Your mouth drops open at his bold request. “I apologize if this seems crude but; what the fuck do you mean by that?” He chuckles, a timbre in his laugh that sends chills jolting down your spine. 

  “Stars, that’s one way you could have worded that. What I mean is that I would like to take a small piece of your soul to begin creating a new one.” He explains, his constructs bring the papers over to you and place them on the desk. 

  “It would be an incredibly painful process and could take months or possibly even years to fully recover, but the data we could gather and the creatures we could make would be invaluable. You would be compensated beautifully and allowed fully paid medical leave for up to three months.” You pick up the papers the constructs brought over and look over them. 

  They all seem very generic in that it agrees you will not sue anyone, you give full consent and were not coerced into signing, and you give your full permission for them to do anything they please with the piece of your soul that is taken. 

  “Why… Me ?” You ask, looking back up at him from the paper. 

  “Well, you have a very promising SOUL. A phenomenal blend of traits, an unbelievably resilient one and the most unique one out of the options we have.” Gaster explains himself, waving his own hands for emphasis. 

  “There have to be better SOULs than mine though, right?” You ask, trying to figure out if this was some odd joke. 

  “I assure you there isn’t. You were picked to be hired here for a reason, after all.” His smile widens a little more, his eyes squinting and head tilting to the side a touch. 

  “I’m sorry?” What he had said caught you completely off guard. He chuckles. “Surely you can’t think it was just luck that you, a brand new college graduate, would be immediately hired to such a prestigious Laboratory.” He quirks a brow bone. 

  “This place is quite hard to get a job at. And you just so happened to have everything we were looking for when planning this whole thing out.” So you weren’t accepted for actually getting good grades and showing promise? But for your SOUL ? YOu really didn’t know how to feel about that. 

  “Anyway, I would deeply appreciate it if you looked over those papers and let me know if you consent or not.” His words felt mildly urgent and insistent. 

  You look over the papers again. Giving a piece of your SOUL is a major thing. The best way to describe it as a human would be like a scar; of course it will grow back but it will never be the same. Something not to be taken lightly. But you felt obligated to agree. 

  You look to the side of his desk to see a small cup of pens and reach for one. Hesitantly, you sign your name at the bottom of the last page. As soon as the pen leaves the paper the translucent blue constructs practically tear the papers out of your hands before filing them away. 

  Gaster claps his hands together enthusiastically and smiles widely. “Perfect!” He stands up, gesturing for you to do the same. “Now, why don’t you head on home? We’ll need you and your SOUL at your physical best for tomorrow.” He suggests, looking down at you. 

  “But I just got here-” You begin, looking up at him confused. “Yes, yes. But I can’t have you tired from a long day at work. And try to eat Magic rich foods too.” He walks you out of his office and towards the elevator. “Now go on.” He makes a scooching motion with his hands as he practically shoves you into the elevator. You stare at him dumbfounded as the elevator closes. His hands clasped together and smile unnervingly wide. 

  What have you gotten yourself into?

Chapter Text

  Your drive home is uncomfortable, to say the least. You didn’t put on music before you started driving and so you were left alone with your thoughts. How absolutely fucked were you? Did you just sign away your entire SOUL? You know you gave permission for them to take a piece, but you have no idea how big that ‘piece’ was going to be. 

  Deciding to take Dr. Gaster’s advice, you stop by a Magic based foods store. You weren’t really one to keep a lot of magic foods in your house, as you really had no need for it as a human, but it’s not like it would kill you. Stepping out of your car, you make haste into the store. 

  It was small, definitely a family owned business but it was nice. The lady at the front was a nice looking panda monster, greeting you happily as the bell chimes. You offer your own greeting in return before wandering down the aisles to get food. You browse a little, grabbing a few snacks and ingredients to make a few meals with. Bringing your items to the panda monster, she looks almost concerned. 

  “Goodness dear, are you planning on eating this all today?” She asks, looking over the items before meeting your gaze. 

  “Um, kinda, yeah. Why?” You tilt your head and look at her. “This is all just very magic rich food. I’m worried your body might not be able to process it properly. Wait! Here, have these too!” She says, grabbing something from behind her. She places a small bag of gummy SOULs into your hands. 

  “These have a low magic content and should help your body get used to digesting magic before you dig into this stuff.” She smiles widely at you. “Think of it as getting used to the water temperature before you take a bath.” 

  “Oh, thank you so much!” You smile back at her. “How much will all of this be?” You ask, pulling out your wallet. She looks over it for a minute before responding. “80G sounds good.” She replies, and you hand her the money. She bags your food and hands it off to you before taking the Gold and puts it away. 

  “Have a lovely day!” She calls after you as you walk out of the store and you give a reply. Placing the bags in the back seat of your car, you decide to actually put on music before the rest of your commute home. 

  Pulling into your apartment’s parking lot you let out a sigh. It was at times like this that you really wished you had magic, as you realized you would have to haul the grocery bags through the building until you reached the elevator. Sliding out of the car, you begin the process of slipping the grocery bags onto your arms to carry them all. 

  Walking up to the glass doors of the building, you question how you’re going to open it with your arms and hands full of multiple bags before you hear someone approaching behind you. 

  “Need help with those?” You turn your head to see Aaron looking at you, pointing at the bags in your hand while somehow flexing his arm. “Yeah, if you wouldn’t mind.” You nod, handing some of your bags off to him. 

  He happily takes the bags, loving any opportunity to show off his muscles. “So what are all of these for? You don’t tend to keep magic stuff in your house?” He asks, following you through the building. You try to figure out a response seeing as telling him the truth might not be the greatest of ideas. 

  “I just wanted to try something new, ya’know?” You say, looking over to him as you step into the elevator and hit the eighth floor button. “Sick, I totally get it. If you ever wanna try some awesome protein shakes or energy drinks, you should let me know.” He flexes again and you laugh softly. “I will, don’t worry.”

  Living next to someone so absorbed into health and fitness was almost always a perk, especially when you have to haul heavy things up multiple flights of stairs when the elevator is broken. And when he’s more than willing to carry you when your legs get too tired to keep climbing the flights. 

  You both make idle chit-chat as the elevator rises. Aaron had what you would definitely describe as a Frat Boy personality but he was a good person. Willing to help at any point in time, even if his efforts can be… Exotic. It’s the thought that counts though. 

  The elevator dings as you reach your floor and you both step out of it and make your way to your apartments. Aaron hands off your bags to you and you thank him. 

  “Of course! Anything to help a bro out!” He smiles proudly and flexes one more time before walking into his apartment. You unlock yours quickly and step in, sighing softly as you close the door behind you. Despite how cheap the apartment was, being only a few hundred gold a month, it was pretty big. Making your way to your kitchen, you put the food you’d just bought away before looking at the gummy SOULs that panda gave you. Deciding it would probably be best to eat them now, you grab a drink and open the small package before making your way to your living room to put something on to watch. 

  It was barely even eleven am and you really had nothing better to do today anyway, having planned on being at work until seven. Popping a gummy into your mouth, you’re immediately hit with an overwhelming sweetness. It made you feel vaguely nauseous so you tried to get it over with by quickly chewing and swallowing it and taking a swig of your drink. 

  You also realize your mouth is oddly warm, and you feel warmth blossom through your digestive system and chest. It almost feels like you’d just had a warm drink, it was comforting. Looking at the rest of the gummies, they’re are only a few left so you decide to eat them all now and let your body get used to the magic. Popping two more in your mouth, you swallow them quickly again, preferring not to wallow in nauseating sweetness. The warmth continues to flow through you and you let it sit, taking a few minutes to let it calm down to not overload your system. Looking down at yourself though, you see you’re glowing a gentle light blue. A few other colors are mixed in, most notably green and yellow, but it’s mostly blue. You also notice you’d forgotten to change out of your work clothes. 

  Standing up, you’re hit with vertigo, and need to brace yourself on the arm of your couch to keep yourself from falling over. Taking a moment to simply let your body right itself again, you take a deep breath and make your way to your bedroom to change. Grabbing some much more comfortable clothing, you change into it and walk back to your living room. 

  A few hours pass at this point and you’ve finished off the overly sweet gummies. It’s past lunch and you decide it’s best to make yourself something to eat other than snacks. Landing on sandwiches, you grab what you want on them and hum to yourself as you make them. But your attention is quickly drawn to your phone as you hear its ringtone. Setting everything down, you look at the caller ID to see that your colleague and acquaintance was calling you. 

  Answering it and putting it on speaker, you set it down on the counter. “What’s up?” You ask, beginning to assemble your sandwiches. 

  “Hey! Where are you?” Her voice calls out, based on the background noise you assume she’s probably on her lunch break. “Oh, Dr. Gaster sent me home to rest. He’s wanting to take a look at my SOUL tomorrow and wants it to be in as good of a shape as it can be.” You don’t know how much Ezell knows about Gaster’s plans with your SOUL so you decide to dance around that subject a touch. 

  “Lucky! I wanna be sent home to do nothing all day!” She faux whines, making you smile a little and roll your eyes. “Well maybe you should have a quote ‘promising SOUL’. Whatever the fuck that means.” You chuckle, finishing one sandwich and moving to the other. 

  “You’re so right, lemme just swap out my SOUL for someone else's.” Ezell giggles into the mic. “Oh, by the way, are you doing anything Saturday? There’s some new menu items at Muffet’s cafe so my girlfriend and I wanna go and I thought you should come too!” She asks, and you can practically see the way she tilts her head. 

  “Wouldn’t I be third wheeling? That sounds like the opposite of what I want to be doing.” You joke, grabbing a plate for your food. “Oh that’s fair. I could totally invite one of my guy friends, that way you have someone to go with too, so it can be like a double date sort of thing. And before you say anything-!” She starts, knowing exactly what you were going to say. “This isn’t just me trying to set you up with someone. He’s not looking for anyone right now and I just think you two would get along really well.” 

  You think about what she said for a moment. Muffet’s cafe was always an amazing option for having a small lunch or get-together since the food and drinks were always phenomenal, and it would be a nice opportunity to get out of the house. 

  “Fuck it, why not? What time should I be there?” You ask, plating your food and putting everything away. “Sweet! I think around 12:30 would be good, does that work for you?” You can hear Ezell writing something down, probably the time for it in her planner to help remind her. 

  “Yeah that’s fine.” You agree, making a mental note of it and bringing your food to the living room, setting the plate down on the coffee table. “Lovely!” She chirps happily. “I’ll let you go now, my break is almost over. I’ll see you tomorrow!” You both exchange farewells and hang up, letting you enjoy your lunch.

  You’d fallen asleep by accident. By the time you’d woken up on your couch, it was past 5 and probably time for you to start dinner.  Sitting up, you stretch, popping your back, and make your way back to the kitchen. Perhaps something more simple tonight would be a good idea. You aren’t currently in the mood to make anything complex so you settle on a stew. Wandering around your apartment while the stew cooks, you tidy up the little messes around it. Putting clothing in the washing machine, sweeping the crumbs off the floor in the living room and setting out your clothing for work tomorrow. 

  Entry Number 3:

  Doctor Gaster has asked for a sample of my SOUL to base the experiment’s SOUL off of. I don’t know what this will entail but I agreed. Perhaps I should have thought more about it in the moment but I will not say that I regret the decision, more simply, I am just worried about what will happen. 

  You walk into the Lab with a clear air of anxiety around you. Your hand shakes as you scan the keycard to go to B12, and even more so when you press the button. You try to steady your heart rate with calmed breathing but it does little to soothe your nerves. The elevator ride feels both too quick and too slow as you watch the numbers change. You jump at the sound of the elevator dinging when it reaches B12. 

  Standing in front of the elevator doors is Dr. Gaster. His hands clasped in front of him and his smile stretched wide. His eyes scan you and you feel the vague knowledge that he has CHECKed you. You’re worried about what he’s going to find even though you have nothing to hide.

  *Y/N - ATK 3 - DEF 2

  *LV  2, EXP 10

  *Is anxious about what is going to happen.

  *Their magic level is abnormally high for a human. Even for them.

  Once he’s finished his CHECK, his eye lights snap back up to your eyes. 

  “Lovely, it appears that you’ve done as I told you. Your magic level is higher than the average human and you’re in quite good shape. Please follow me.” He says near giddy as he begins walking down a hallway you could have sworn wasn’t there yesterday. You keep pace behind him as he walks down the seemingly never ending hallway. The sounds of your coworkers slowly face into the background and the sounds of your echoing steps become louder and louder. 

  It feels like an eternity before he stops in front of a door in the hall. He pulls a keyring out of his pocket and unlocks the door with one of the many keys on it. Dr. Gaster opens the door and gestures for you to wall in first and you comply. In the room sits a surgical chair surrounded by recognisable but unfamiliar equipment. Above the chair specifically, sits a SOUL extractor.They’re common in medical practice to get a proper read on a SOUL, as it being pulled out of the body by a monster has a risk of diluting the subject’s SOUL with the monster’s magic. 

  “Please, sit down, I need to turn on the machinery and it will take a few minutes so make yourself comfortable.” Gaster smiles at you and sits down at a desk that you realize is sectioned off by a concrete wall and assumedly lead glass. You also take notice that this room seems heavily sound proofed. Foam panels line the walls and the floor is carpeted, unlike the rest of B12. 

  You hesitantly sit down in the surgical chair and wait for Dr. Gaster to come back out. Your wrist brushes against something on the arm when you try to use it and you look down to see thick leather straps on the arms of the chair. And on the legs. The torso. And the neck. Your heart rate speeds when you realize that you would be tied down and physically unable to move. 

  Footsteps sound behind you and you hear the machines surrounding you fire up. Dr. Gaster steps into your view with a grin all too wide and eye lights glowing much too bright. 

  “Allow me to help you get comfortable and strapped in.”