Gaster sat next to the table, one hand resting on S642's chest, the other on his skull.

Beyond that first initial scream, S642 had been still and quiet. It was almost as if he were asleep. But, peering between his ribs, Gaster could see his Soul. There was a faint red aura around it, mixing with the white glow.

Over the course of the last... eleven hours, now, the red glow had been slowly fading as S642's body and Soul accepted the Determination. So far, there had been no signs of meltiness in him, either.

For all intents and purposes, it seemed like it had worked so far. And, as far as Gaster knew, with minimal pain to S642.

He was hoping, sincerely hoping, that S642's scream had been purely out of shock, not pain, and that this would all work, and S642 wouldn't be hurt, and he could complete the DTW project...

Gaster sighed again, running his hand along S642's ribs.

Eleven hours.

S642 had been unconscious or asleep or whatever for eleven hours now. Gaster had given up trying to work on anything else around the fourth hour, and had just been sitting there for the last seven hours, waiting for S642 to wake up.

Eleven hours.

And then...

It was almost twelve hours. Thirteen.

Time went on. Despite his worry, Gaster dozed off. Napped for a while.

It was near the sixteenth hour that he woke up.

He yawned. Stretched. Cracked his back.

Then he looked at S642. He was still out.

The seventeenth hour came and went.

Gaster was beginning to get seriously concerned. Back when he had been legally experimenting on monsters with Determination, none of them have ever taken this long to react to it.

Had he done something wrong? Made a mistake in the calculations? In the dosage size?

Had he made a mistake overall, just in giving the Determination to-

"... Dings--..."

Gaster snapped back to attention, instantly looking back to S642.

S642 looked exhausted, but he was smiling.

Gaster smiled gently down at his creation. "How do you feel?"

S642's tired grin widened. "... Sleepy."

"Which is surprising," Gaster said as he started undoing the restraints, "considering you've been asleep for the last eighteen hours." Gaster had considered undoing the restraints some time ago, but had decided not to on the same better-safe-than-sorry premise that had made them use the restraints in the first place.

"Eighteen..." S642 breathed out slowly. "... A-... Asleep...? I... it... felt like a lot... longer than that..."

"Were you awake?" Gaster finished with the restraints and scooped up S642, cradling him in his arms.

"I-..." S642 yawned, settling comfortably in Gaster's grip. "I don't... It was dark... and there were... colors. Lots of..." He yawned, his eyes closing. "... more... more red... everything else... spread..." He twisted a little, one hand reaching across to sleepily grip at Gaster's sweater as he drifted off.

"You can tell me once you've rested." Gaster carried him back to his lab and into the little bedroom, then tucked him into bed.

~o0o~

When he woke up, S642 was still quite exhausted. But he was also pretty hungry, and that outweighed his grogginess.

He struggled out from under the blankets of his bed, half sliding, half flopping out of bed. From there, he stumbled to the door. Before opening it, he leaned against it for a moment. When he twisted the doorknob, he forgot that he needed to stop leaning against the door, and suddenly found himself spilling onto the floor.

As he slowly began to pick himself up, he heard Gaster shout.

"Wha--! Are you alright?!"

S642 failed to regain his feet, instead settling for sitting back on his rump.

And then Gaster was there, lifting him up. "Are you okay?"

S642 nodded.

"Not fully awake yet, are you?"

S642 nodded.

Gaster chuckled. "Okay, then. But you're sure you're feeling okay?"

S642 nodded, hesitated, blinked, then shook his head.

"Oh? What's wrong?"

"'Mm hungry."

"Hungry? What do you say to we take a trip down to the break room, and get some food, then?"

That sounded pretty good to S642, so he nodded then let his head flop against Gaster's shoulder.

"I assume I'll be carrying you, then."

S642 nodded again.

~o0o~

A little while later, Gaster walked into the break room, carrying S642. It was around four in the morning, so there was no chance of finding any of his assistants there, a fact that Gaster was grateful for.

He settled S642 onto the couch and walked over to the refrigerator. Since having his first taste of real food a few days ago, S642 had gotten Gaster to give him a variety of other meals. Hotdogs, though, remained his favorite, and it was a hotdog that Gaster pulled from the refrigerator shelf.

As he returned to where S642 had curled up on the couch, the small skeleton cracked open a single eyesocket to look up at him.

Gaster grinned, waving the foil-wrapped hotdog in S642's direction. S642 smiled tiredly up at him. Gaster flopped onto the couch and handed him the hotdog. He took it, slowly unwrapped it, and took a bite.

As he was chewing , Gaster wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him close. S642 leaned happily against Gaster's side.

He only got about halfway through the hotdog before falling asleep again, curled up beside Gaster.

When Jeff arrived later that morning around eight, he found Gaster sprawled across the couch, sound asleep, with S642 lying next to him, head and shoulders on Gaster's chest.

~o0o~

A few weeks passed.

It was subtle, but Gaster could see the difference the Determination made in S642. He put just a little more effort in things. Worked harder to do better. Tried a little longer before giving up.

With lessons every other day, it was only a week and a half before S642 managed to summon a complete attack. He didn't manage to actually attack with it, since he was only able to summon it for a second or two before becoming exhausted, but for a five year old...? That was more than pretty good. That was excellent.

S642 was strong.

A variety of tests showed that S642's Soul had fully accepted the Determination, and his body was easily sustaining the strain. But after waking up, he couldn't remember what had 'happened' while he had been unconscious... If he had been unconscious. All he could remember was that there had been a lot of 'colors,' and there was more red than any other. Gaster theorized that his semiconscious mind had created some sort of delusion to cope with the Determination, or something along the lines of that.

Regardless, things moved forward. They had plans for the next set of injections in a month and a half.

~o0o~

"Hey, Dings?"

Gaster looked up from what he was doing (yet more CORE designs...) and turned to look at S642, who was on the floor, reading through some storybook or whatever.

"Yes?"

S642 hesitated, then looked up at Gaster. "Is-... Is 'S642' my real name?"

Gaster blinked slowly. "...What?"

S642 gestured to the book he was reading. "Well, it's just... I know you've said it's because I'm your six hundred forty second attempt, but... It's..."

"It doesn't seem like a real name to you."

S642 shook his head. "... No."

With a slow sight, Gaster rose from his seat and came to sit on the floor in front of S642. "It's... you see, when I made you, I didn't intend for you to be smart, especially not as smart as you are. I didn't think I would have to do the whole... raising a kid thing. In fact, truth be told, if Jeff hadn't interjected, I probably wouldn't have. Or, at least, I wouldn't have accepted it as soon as I did. Regardless, you were only meant to have the intelligence of... Oh, I don't know, a smart dog? A parrot? Just smart enough to take orders. Not... not a child. So, no, I never... I never really thought about naming you, beyond basic identification."

S642 looked down. "... Oh."

Gaster rubbed the back of his skull. "That doesn't mean that I think of you like that. Because you are most definitely smarter than a parrot."

S642 let out a small laugh at that. Then, slowly, he looked back up at Gaster. "Dings... Can I... Can I have a real name?"

Gaster paused. Yes, he had been expecting this. He had seen it coming, right from the start of the conversation. But it still caught him off-guard nonetheless. "I mean-..." He hesitated. S642 was S642. That was just-... to change that...

No. S642 was more than that, Gaster had learned long ago. He was a sentient, living child, and should be treated as such.

"... Yeah, sure, why not?"

S642 grinned. Then he frowned. "I, uh-... What's my name?"

Gaster shrugged, laughing. "Hadn't really thought about that, had you?"

S642 shook his head.

"Well, it shouldn't be too hard. You are, after all, going to have a traditional skeleton name. Which means naming you after a font."

"Like... a computer font?"

Gaster laughed at S642's shocked expression. "Yeah. Weird, right? But that's just how it works. Most of the time, a skeleton's font name embodies a lot of the skeleton's personality."

S642 grinned. "So, like, WingDings would be a weird, crazy font for a weird, crazy skeleton?"

Gaster gave him an amused look. "Something like that, yes."

S642 smirked. Then, "So that still doesn't answer what is my name."

Gaster smirked right back at him. "What, you think I'm going to choose for you? I'd just say something like comic sans and be done with it. No, you get to do the searching, since you're gonna be the one who has to live with it for the rest of your life."

S642 groaned. "But I don't even know where to start!"

Gaster laughed. "Well, that's easy enough. Start with you. Look at a bunch of fonts, and try to figure out what sort of impression they give you. And find one that matches you."

S642 opened his mouth, then closed it. Then opened it again.

"I never said it would be quick." Gaster chuckled dryly. "In fact, I'd be surprised if it didn't take a few weeks at least. But hey, I'll make it a little easier for you. You can get on my computer when I'm not using it, and look up fonts on the undernet."

S642 frowned thoughtfully. "Okay."

And so, the search for a name began.

§

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