Submersion.

Chapter 3 - Back To His Roots

                  Gaster had spent a couple more days in silence at his lab. He had been writing down many things, seeing how the corpse reacted to different experiments, and he had been searching for more books on humans. But to his surprise, there were barely any to be found.
He had to get more knowledge on these humans. Somehow. He just had to.

He had made his way to Snowdin prior to that day, just to pick up a few supplies he had ordered. The royal scientist wasn't quite well known around the rest of the underground, other than a few monsters in Hotland, and the shopkeeper in Snowdin. Yet despite that fact, he was still well respected, and frankly not everyone felt high enough of a role to speak to him. Other than the few that had.

After he has picked up the supplies, he began making his way to his house. He had forgotten some things that he had accidentally brought with him. He reached his house and grabbed what he needed, including a few packs of instant noodles. Though as he made his way back through the forest, he saw something in the distance, the vague figure of... No, not another one. It couldn't possibly be. It was too early.
"Damnit."

He whispered to himself, as he slowly followed the figure, still not capable of fully making out their form. Though as he kept following, he noticed the figure suddenly stopping.

"H-hello?"

The figure called out. And sure enough, it was the voice of a child. A young girl.

The human turned around, only to be met with Gaster's presence, who he himself wasn't very visible, only his two glowing white eyes shining through the fog. Though as they blinked, they were suddenly gone. They felt something rush through their veins, something like adrenaline, forcing their body to move forward, as they quickly made their way across the small bridge connecting the two gaps together, and they just ran. Ran like their life depended on it. Ran until their legs couldn't move anymore.

They had run far enough to reach the outskirts of Snowdin town, where a long unstable bridge stood. They were panting, feeling as if their heart was about to explode, but they had the urge to keep moving forward. They couldn't let that thing catch them. Though just as they were picking themselves up, they were met face to face with the scientist.

"PLEASE DONT HURT ME!"

The child blurred out, quickly scrambling backwards and covering their eyes and face. They simply heard chuckling coming from the skeleton. They peeked a bit, seeing the skeleton smiling, a jolly good chuckle coming from them.
They instantly felt less threatened, as they uncovered their face, but still kept their distance.

"Wh-what are you?"

The child asked, to which Gaster cleared his throat, looking down at them, hands placed behind his back.

"Why, a skeleton of course. Did you skip your classes?"

Gaster said jokingly, even pointing a finger at them whilst raising his non-existent eyebrow. The child would slowly sit up, still uneasy in the presence of this towering and, quite frankly, scary skeleton. But they managed to get out some words.

"I... Never went to school. What's your name?"

"I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours?"

Gaster said calmly. He sat down on the cold snow, legs crossed and hands placed on his knees.

"My name's Maisy. What's yours?"

Maisy now spoke as if she were simply talking to an adult. She felt unthreatened by the skeleton now. Something in his voice gave... Reassurance.