#she has labs that are half written and are too complex to fit within the lab time

[fandomfluffandfuck]

You ever have one of those professors where you're just like... how? How are you,, employed? Y'know, as an instructor. A teacher. Someone who is supposed to teach. How did you get here because, in the least mean way I can possibly say it, so fucking bad at your job?

[the-little-matchstick]

Prisoners of War Ch. 1 - Linstead fanfiction

This is the first chapter of the first linstead fanfic I’m posting here... Angsty Linstead focusing on Jay. Takes place some time after mid-season 4. Hope you like it! Enjoy! :) For @halsteadandlindsay because you’re my first cpd-lovin friend on tumblr! Also for not blocking me after my last few messages hahaha! :D

...

“Jay, stay home. Or Voight’s just going to send you back. You’re hotter than our radiator!”

“Erin, I’m fine, ok? Just a little temperature. It’s probably because we left the window open last night. Anyway, the office is a lot warmer than your apartment.”

“Our apartment,” Erin corrected. She let out a slow, shallow sigh, shaking her head. “Ok, whatever. If you’re not going to listen to me, if it has to come from Voight, sure –”

“Erin.” Jay pleaded, reaching for her hand to tug her closer. “I’m telling you, I don’t feel bad at all. Anyway, I’d be bored out of mind staying at home, when I know that we have an unsolved case I should be working on. Plus, I thought we promised to never go in without back up. Who’s gonna –”

“–Hank’s got me covered–”

“–take care of me?” he finished, smiling sweetly down at her with those classic Halstead puppy dog eyes. And though they were redder than usual, they didn’t fail to move her.

Erin scoffed, but her eyes were smiling despite herself. Stubborn manchild, she thought. What’s up with men and the tough-guy act?

“Okay…,” she groaned, giving up. She walked away so he wouldn’t see the smile that was tugging at her lips. He’s too sick to be at work…

“Love you, babe…” he called out from behind her as he went to grab his jacket.

“Sure, honey.” Erin replied, not quite ready to forgive his stupidity, or loyalty to the job, whatever it was. He’d have to wait for an ‘I love you’ – at least until she got to say her ‘I told you so’ when Jay finally gave out and went home early.

---

As she expected, the ‘it’s just a little temperature’ act had worn off very fast. The office might be warmer, but the tough case and the harsh glare of his computer screen were quickly tiring Jay out. She had sent him multiple stinging glances from across her table, silently saying ‘Satisfied yet? ’ every time he coughed or sniffled. Every time he stifled a tired groan. But Jay refused to leave.

She wasn’t ashamed of admitting that she’d even texted Hank a couple minutes back in secret, asking if he’d send her partner home. Her Sargent had wedged open the blinds a little to get a look at Jay immediately after.

Thankfully Jay hadn’t noticed, but it seems that Hank didn’t consider it a pressing issue, because the door to his office remained closed and her partner remained at his desk.

Either way, it didn’t matter. Because within the half hour, a couple key pieces of evidence brought the case near its end, and she noticed a noticeable shift in Jay’s behavior. Now that case was practically solved, he let out a huge sigh and excused himself for a coffee break, filling his cup slowly. Then he sat down at the coffee table rather than bringing his drink back to the desk as he usually did.

“You okay?” she asked as she walked into the room. She couldn’t bring herself to say ‘I told you so’ after he saw how tense and exhausted he looked, holding his face above the steaming cup.

“Oh, yeah. Not bad, considering.”

“Listen, I’ll handle the paperwork. Why don’t you go home now and – “

Jay began to refuse but Erin cut back in, saying, “Jay, I’m not asking this time. Get some rest. I’ll be there around 7.”

Jay didn’t know what to say. He didn’t deserve this woman. I love you was written all over his face.

“I love you too, Jay,” she laughed, sitting down across from him.

They spent a few more minutes in a comfortable silence, each savoring their warm coffee, hands cupped around the ceramic to absorb as much heat as possible. Spring was supposed to have arrived but the temperature had unexpectedly dropped to near freezing in anticipation of a storm.

Chicago. The cold never really leaves.

Erin grabbed their mugs when they finished and plopped them in the sink.

“Hey, you got ibuprofen at home?”

“Uh, no,” she said, turning around. “I have paracetamol though. It’s in the bathroom, top shelf.”

“No, I have a bad reaction to paracetamol. Blow up like a balloon,” Jay said, bringing his hands a few inches away from his face to demonstrate. “Never mind, I’ll go back to my old place and pick some up, I think I left a box. Have to pick up the mail anyway.”

“You haven’t changed your mailing address yet, Jay?” Erin asked, annoyance returning to her voice.

Jay had failed to find a buyer for his apartment immediately, and had been pushing off the task for weeks. She hadn’t realized he’d forgotten to forward his mail to their new home as well.

But she quickly changed her tune, realizing now was not the time. “Nevermind. Look, I’ll pick up the ibuprofen and the mail. Just get a taxi home, get some rest.” She stepped close to him and kissed him softly on the mouth, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist and sliding them up over his shoulder blades. He breathed in the smell of her, wanting to fall asleep in her arms right there.

Instead he forced himself to pull away and gave her hand a squeeze.

“Thank you, Erin. For everything. See you at home.”

She smiled. He said home like it was a sacred word.

…

Lindsay walked into Halstead’s old apartment complex. Traffic had been terrible and she’d taken longer than expected with the paperwork. It was now 7:45 and she was just walking into the lobby. She thought of messaging Jay to let him know she was almost home, but decided against it. He was probably asleep.

The large, well-furnished lobby was mostly empty, except for a pair of very fit guys, a woman with a lab mix who looked like she’d just been out running, and the security guard.

“I just started this gig last week.” The guard was saying to pair of men. “I really couldn’t tell you.”

Erin passed the three of them by, walking quickly. God, she was late. Poor Jay. The black-haired guy held her gaze for a second and then turned back to the guard. In front of her, the dog squatted down in preparation to do its business, right smack in the middle of the room. Jogger lady almost lost it, squealing in protest at her dog.

Aaaand there goes the carpet, she thought to herself.

She took the elevator up to Jay’s apartment, and found the ibuprofen right where he’d told her it would be, in the drawer of his bedside table.

No wonder he hasn’t gotten any buyers, she thought, as she slipped the box of tablets into her purse. The rooms all screamed man-cave, in contrast with the fact that the complex was situated in a very family-oriented neighborhood. No wife would want to raise her children in this apartment – at least not as matters stood with the brown leather couch and the dim, moody lighting. Jay had chosen this place because it was close to work and transformed the rooms to his liking. Now it was scaring off potential buyers.

Well, I can help with that, she thought, brightening at the prospect of an interior design project. She’d always wanted to do one.

She gave one last look at the place and then locked the door behind her. Back in the lobby, she fished Jay’s keys out again to open the mini-locker that stored his mail.

Most of the envelopes were addressed to Will. Erin shook her head again. Halsteads. Talk about unorganized.

“Excuse me, Ma’am?” came a voice from behind.

She turned around. It was the same pair of guys. She looked at them properly this time – one was brown haired and baby-faced, while the other one seemed older. They both wore polite smiles but she thought they looked exhausted.

“Yes?” she asked. Her voice came out raspier than usual and her throat felt tight. She was probably catching on whatever virus Jay had.

“That’s Jay Halstead’s mail, am I correct?” he asked. He was pointing at the name that was printed in bold letters across the locker she’d just closed.

“Yes…” she said, stating the obvious. Friends of Jay’s?

“Uh, well, would you perhaps know where he lives? Seeing as your collecting his mail? We’ve been trying to get a hold of him, but..”

“And you are..?”

“Oh, we were with him in the military, ma’am,” the older of the two replied. “He’s a real good friend of ours.”

“Uh, well,” Erin laughed, breaking into an awkward smile. “I do know where he lives…we live together, actually.” A good friend would know that. But she didn’t it aloud.

The pair seemed genuinely surprised. The older one finally said, “Oh, ok. And I’m sorry, we didn’t get to introduce ourselves. I’m Patrick and this is Liam.”

She shook their hands, introducing herself in turn. “Well, uh, if you don’t mind being around a sick Jay, then you’re free to follow my car and come over?” she offered, not sure of what to do. They seemed harmless enough. She wasn’t exactly thrilled to hear that Jay was going to be disturbed yet again, but she couldn’t very well not give the offer without coming off as a little rude.

To her dismay, they glanced at each other and then said ‘Yes, we’d really appreciate that, thank you.’

A little stiff, she thought of the polite pair, as she slipped into her car.

She dumped her purse in the passenger seat and pulled out of the parking lot, waiting by the curb till their car came up behind hers. Then she drove through the unforgiving rain as she mentally prepared herself for a long afternoon. She’d been so looking forward to the end of the day, had been planning on taking a nice bath to relax, and getting Jay to rest as well. Now those plans were put on hold.  

Oh well. Things could be a lot worse.

As she drove, she couldn’t shake off this uneasy feeling. Maybe it was paranoia – she was showing a couple of strangers straight to her home. But it felt silly to question them.

She knew that sentiment was the beginning of the hundreds of rape and sexual assault cases she had dealt with over the years. ‘I didn’t want to be rude, so I didn’t question them, I let them come inside my home…’ was how it went. She felt a pang of understanding for those victims and hoped she wasn’t making a mistake.

But they obviously knew Jay, and she recalled one time Jay had mentioned a friend from the military named ‘Lee’. Short form Liam? Possibly. As for Patrick, she didn’t know. 

She was racking her brain now about anything Jay might have said about his time in the military. He didn’t say much and she never pushed him. She knew it was a tough place for him to revisit and she could very well understand his desire not to open up that Pandora’s box.  Anyway, it would have to come up eventually - he would tell her when he was ready and she wasn’t in any rush. Their relationship with the rock in her life. Jay was her anchor. They faced enough heartbreak at work. No need to bring it back home with them. Her thoughts went in circles, thinking about everything she’d heard from Jay and Mouse and Will about his time in the military. But she couldn’t come with anything so she turned her attention fully back to the road and weaved through the night-time traffic.

She got out of her car once outside her apartment, and walked up to the two of them to lead the way.

“So are you two still in the military?”

“Oh, no, ma’am. We went back to civilian life around the same time as Jay.”

“Call me Erin,” she insisted, smiling. The pair was way too formal for her liking. Solemn, even. But her warmth didn’t earn much more than a forced smile in return.

“Come on, this way,” she said, guiding them inside. The three of them stepped into the elevator. It was a little crowded, and to break the silence, she asked, “Jay’s going to be glad to see you.”

Patrick flinched.

“I mean, he doesn’t talk about his time in the military very often, but when he does, you can tell he loves his old team as though they were his own brothers.”

Patrick nodded and gave another close-lipped smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

“So what brings you around, out of the blue?” Erin asked, silently grateful that the elevator had finally pinged and opened on to her floor. She walked out and turned the key in her door.

From behind her she heard, “Ah, do you think I could get some water, Erin?”

“Uh sure,” she said, wondering if they hadn’t caught her question. These guys just get stranger and stranger, she thought. Her paranoia rose again, when she heard the sound of water falling from the shower. She’d didn’t want to be alone with these guys. They just seem… off. Somehow, the gun at her hip wasn’t any comfort.

She went straight to the kitchen and filled up two glasses with water. She put them on a tray and placed it on the coffee table as Patrick and Liam made their way into the living room.

“Jay’s in the shower, I’ll just call him,” she explained and they nodded.

She went to knock on the bathroom door and said ‘Jay, we have guests, okay? Don’t take your time in there’. She heard a muffled ‘Okay, Linds,’ through the door. The sound of his voice calmed her nerves a little.

When she got back to the living room, Patrick and Liam were both on their feet, facing the back wall, where she’d hung their picture frames.

She moved toward them, and opened her mouth to say something and then –

Her heart jumped up into her throat.

No.

No.

No.

[missingmorethanmyskull-arch-blog]

Tox’s (and part of Arum’s) Life Story, and music

This gon’ be long so I’ll put it under a readmore

(a bit of comparison to Red and Boss too so I think I’ll reblob this to them)

This is me rambling to my dear @r0astet0aste but I took out everything that’s not actual rambling to shorten it if only a little

I've got to get up an info page for Tox

-slams hands down-

LISTEN I'M GONNA DUMP ALL HIS SONGS ON YOU

OK SO

ARUM NEVER PAID ATTENTION TO HIM. EVER. EVER EVER. NOT UNTIL THE WAR

HE WAS FAR TOO FOCUSED ON BEING GASTER'S ASSISTANT, AND THEN TRYING TO GET HIM BACK

THE SCIENCE DAD AND SON IGNORED THEIR 'UNINTELLIGENT' SON/BRO

TOX GREW UP FEELING INFERIOR AND NEGLECTED AND STUPID

SO HE THREW EVERYTHING HE HAD INTO PHYSICAL ABILITY IN THE HOPES IT WOULD GARNER HIS BROTHER'S ATTENTION

AND EVENTUALLY STARTED TAKING OUT HIS FRUSTRATION BY ABUSING ARUM

BUT ARUM DIDN'T GIVE A FUCK

HE TOOK THE PUNCHES AND KICKS LIKE "are you done throwing a tantrum, bitch? yes? good bye i'm going back downstairs"

Basically he was enamored with his dear old daddy and considered Tox a waste of space

So getting beaten up had the same effect as Tox wailing annoyingly as a small child. That "ugh stop" effect

Meanwhile poor Tox just

Wanted attention

Yes he beat up his big bro but all he wanted was attention

So there's this song for his feelings on Arum pre-war

Diary of Jane - Breaking Benjamin

Keep in mind he doesn't remember G

So all he knows is Arum ignored him for science for no reason

And so he was desperate for attention

He got it in the royal guard

He was good. He was powerful. He was Undyne's favorite

He fell for her of course

So they got together

(Arum has been with his Grillz, his Alphys, and the shopkeep bun in terms of real relationships I just need to figure out the order. Alphys first I'm p sure)

Then

The human fell

Arum fell for her gradually, put his trust in her, believed she'd break them free, etc

That didn't happen

King died. Six souls were destroyed

Toriel returned to the throne

Undyne didn't like that

Because Toriel instilled a mercy policy to fallen humans

But Frisk had told Arum that the human population had grown immensely in the last several centuries

Breaking free and initiating war - Undyne's plan, just like Asgore's - would result in monsters being eradicated

Arum was always on Toriel's side

When Undyne challenged her, the civil war broke out

Tox felt loyalty to his lover, ofc, but he also realized Arum and Toriel were right. War was a bad idea

Besides, the last thing they needed was their ruler to be another Asgore

Who was ruthless and made the underground hell

So he was torn

He eventually settled on a side - Toriel's

There's this song for when he had to fight Undyne

Headstrong - Trapt

Then

then

well, keep in mind

none of this was actually Frisk's fault

Everyone thinks it was but

In reality, she was trapped in the void by Flowey during his omega battle

Flowey felt horribly guilty for fucking it all up

He started rewinding time, again and again

Arum was the only one aware of this

He experienced the resets and reloads

So the Civil War, which stretched for idk a few decades probably

was actually much longer

Tox died

When he was killed the first time

Arum had a meltdown

He realized then that

despite everything

Tox was the only family he'd had left

And none of their fighting mattered, did it?

He'd wasted his brotherhood. He'd ignored the only person he had that was family

First mental break

This song

Not Gonna Die - Skillet

ISN'T IT GREAT?

the last thing i heard was you whispering goodbye... and then i heard you flatline

Arum was an absolute mess

Then time rewound again

He tried to warn Tox not to fight in that battle

Tox didn't listen to him ofc

so he died several times in the war

So I've got a few songs about that

Soldier Side - System of a Down

Battle Cry - Skillet

Not Afraid to Die - Written By Wolves

And my favorite for the Civil War time (aside from Not Gonna Die)

IS THIS ONE

Rise - Skillet

(by the way, yes, in every Skillet song on his playlist, Arum is the girl singing)

I mean

technically Undyne is the one revolting from Toriel's rule but

Toriel's rule is basically a revolution from Asgore's reign of terror

They're fighting on Toriel's side for a semi-peaceful life

They can't wage war on the humans

They obviously won't be breaking the barrier any time soon, back at 0 souls

All Toriel and her followers want is for the death to stop

So the last 40 seconds of this song?

With the phone call and the news reports and all that

They're all things that would've happened in Asgore's reign

Monsters breaking into each others's houses and dusting them for EXP

People being left on the streets to die

etc

AND THAT LAST MALE VOICE?

"You're such a failure!"

"What is wrong with you?"

"You're worthless!"

"You can't do anything right!"

"I wish you had never been born!"

All things Arum has snapped at him throughout his life

So he's got shit like that playing in his head

But he's still fighting to protect

and by this point

Arum has lost him so many times

He just

He wants to take it all back

He synthesizes a carefully measured solution of determination

Aware of his and Alphys's failures with the amalgamates, he realizes pure determination would only make Tox melt

(Alphys has committed suicide by now btw)

So he works desperately to find a working determination amount, mixed with other chemicals, so he can stop Tox from dying without making him melt

Not much time to test it but he does his best

Keep in mind Tox can't remember any of his deaths

All he knows is his brother has flipped his fucking lid ever since the human left

And keeps talking about time shit that he doesn't understand

Arum forces the determination mixture into him

It works

Tox survives the battle he kept dying in

Drawback: Tox's body distorted

It didn't melt but

It had to shift and change to account for the DT

this is why he's nine feet tall

The civil war continues

Inevitably, Toriel loses and steps down

She returns to the ruins

Undyne takes the throne

Tox is one of the only survivors on Toriel's side

The brothers return to Snowdin and Arum attempts to explain the whole time shit

(He pointedly does not attempt to explain Gaster or what he was always working on)

But he apologizes for everything

So ok Tox doesn't really get it all

He's still just... not very bright

But he realizes that Arum has lost everything and is trying to change

So things for sure aren't perfect, but they at least stop hitting each other and attempt to communicate more

Arum's first mental break and the endless resets within the war has left him not enitrely stable

Arum was a mess

He put his faith and trust in Frisk and look where it got him

Look where it got the whole underground

He returned to working desperately to try and get his dad back

He somehow convinced himself if Gaster was back, everything would be okay again

Honestly he put G on such a high pedestal, it's crazy

He consistently believes he could never measure up to him in terms of scientific ability, though he's been monitoring and repairing the core personally ever since G was cast into the void

He's probably surpassed G by this point but he can't believe it

he's got Red's failure complex honestly

He just shows it far less

Oh I should mention his HP was never 1

He always had over 200

Physically, he was always stronger than Red

He just didn't use it

Bigger, stronger, he didn't have the defects that Red was created with basically

anyway after that, whenever a human fell, they'd kill the human and purposefully crush their soul into little bits

so Undyne couldn't take the soul for herself

a few slipped through the cracks, tho

current time, Undyne has 3

Flowey kept occasionally fucking with time

The magic in the underground soured

Crops began to fail

Soon, food became very scarce

the monster population had basically halved due to the war but still

Hunger began to take control over everything

Tox came up with the clever idea (for once) of slowly conditioning himself and Arum to be resistant to most poisons

They started to poison their own food stores to deter people from stealing their food

But the fact is they started to starve slowly

Another human fell

In a fit of hunger, having lost himself, Arum killed and ate the human

well he set half aside for Tox but

yeah he tasted meat for the first time that day

Cue another mental break afterwards, when he realized the brutal, horrifying act he'd just committed

He'd killed only a few times in his life, and only in self-defense

Tox had dusted many in the war, but that was war

This was him murdering and eating someone in cold blood

and he really loved the taste, too

He was sickened by himself

Tox, too

But they didn't really have a choice anymore

Tox had long since accepted that the world was fucked up

Arum was new to the idea, having locked himself away in labs for most of his life, he was far more sensitive to this shit

This was around the time that Arum first became suicidal

So here's another Tox song as he started to realize Arum was in even worse mental shape than he thought

Never Too Late - Three Days Grace

Arum is growing ever more desperate about getting his father back

On a very bad day, he attempted to use the machine he was building, before he had finished it and properly tested it

Oh boy did that backfire

He reached into the void with a flawed machine and the void yanked payment

You've seen Fullmetal Alchemist, right?

Them boys reached into the void asking for the impossible

Arum reached into the void asking for something very possible, but he did it in a flawed way

He didn't have enough power or control in the machine

So first of all it exploded and took a chunk out of his skull manually

Now that could be healed with green magic provided you have all of the bone material with you

But what the void took wasn't all physical

It took chunks of his mind

Not only that, it soured and rotted his soul

His soul reached 0/0 HP but he did not die

His soul was permanently rotted and changed. He's already at 0, but still there, so he can't die

His magic soured too

You recall his dark, dark red magic color? Almost brownish black?

Wasn't originally that color

The hole in his skull destroyed one eye but the other began to glow permanently

He can't teleport, he can't die, he can't conceive a child, he can't even soulbond

He's essentially a zombie

And he looked the part for a while, too

Tox heard the explosion and rushed down there to find Arum unconscious with a chunk missing, tendrils of voidy shit being battered back by vines

Flowey probably saved them all from more damage

Tox attempted to heal the wound in Arum's skull but it didn't work

His body no longer accepted green magic

The basis of green magic is healing HP and at 0/0, there is nothing to be healed

Green magic hurts Arum about as much as being attacked does

Both make his soul glitch the fuck out like an amalgamate's

Anyway, Arum was unconscious for a damn long time

Days

But finally, he woke up... And he couldn't remember anything. He couldn't focus his gaze on anything. He couldn't speak and could hardly move

He was completely catatonic and only vaguely conscious

Tox had to take care of him the same way you might take care of a baby or doll, minus the crying

He fed Arum by hand, carried him around the house, manually moved his joints so Arum's body didn't entropy

Attempted to communicate in any way

Eventually Arum started to be able to recognize sign language again, and at least nod or shake his head in response to simple questions

He slowly regained control of his body, then speech, and at last, his memories began to come back hazily

He's still missing chunks of his life but he made a pretty miraculous recovery over a period of several years

He remembers, vaguely, the feeling of time resetting

But he can no longer experience resets properly

He doesn't remember them and they give him intense migraines

He never remembered the events of the day the machine exploded, and seeing as Tox has no clue what happened, he still doesn't know

He's just sort of... Assumed the machine is fine

And hes always like "oh yeah i should get back to building it some day" but hasn't gone to the basement since and he doesn't know why

Flowey ain't around

I mean they were never friends

Arum and Flowey fought over resets before, though Arum's mostly forgotten it

And they've talked about Alphys or about science briefly but

Theyre acquaintances at best

But Flowey, guilt ridden yet again, hasn't been around and won't tell him what happened

Anyway

The period of several years where Arum was 100% dependent on Tox stuck with them

Their shaky bond has evolved into a full on dependency on each other

Arum needs Tox desperately because he's a fucking mess mentally, and often he'll have bad days where he can't remember anything and goes semi-catatonic again

During which days Tox babies him and ensures his safety and comfort

Tox needs Arum because now he has a purpose

He's not only wanted but needed

It's like they never fought

They're as close as brothers can get

(Without being incestuous lmao)

They rely on each other 100%

Arum is there for Tox when he has war-induced PTSD flashbacks and needs comfort. Arum feeds them both with humans and other food he can steal.

Tox mans puzzles, patrols, keeps them safe from Undyne and is there for when Arum's mental health deteriorates

They split food evenly down the middle

Arum would give Tox more of his share since he can't starve to death, but Tox refuses

Arum is still often suicidal

He's honestly tried every method in the book to die

Overdose on poison he's trained himself to survive. Bullet to the head (ow). Trying to crush his own soul. Starving on purpose. Drowning. Freezing. Setting himself on fire. Hell. There's a Reapertale Sans rp blog ( @jokingdeath ) that Arum went up to and was like "touch my hand and kill me"

He literally shook hands with death and it didn't kill him

And nights when he's attempted or wants to attempt, and knows it's all useless, and is just a sobbing mess

Tox is there for him 

Here's the last two songs lol

Also both Skillet

Fire and Fury - Skillet (I realize this is a love song but platonically okay)

The Last Night - Skillet (not all of the lyrics fit but you get the gist of it)

Oh i fORGOT MY OTHER FAVE!

why isn't it on the youtube playlist how dare

wait there it is lol

Ok so this one, The Last Night, Rise, and Not Gonna Die are my top 4 for Tox

honestly I can't rank them they're just my top four

Fix You - The Offspring

She sees a million stars like holes in the sky

Arum has a far more bitter take on the surface world than Red does

all God's tears for her they cry, and I am in her rain

Arum is just

you think Red is in bad shape depression wise?

hAH

The difference is Arum puts up a far better "i don't give a fuck" front than Red

Arum laughs at his own pain far more. He makes death jokes and dead baby jokes

(His laugh is not sane anyway)

He kills mercilessly, without hesitation

With a smile on his face

(His smile is not sane either)

Gore makes Red vomit

it makes Arum grin

Red has at least a modicum of faith that they'll get out some day

Arum knows damn well he's never going to be free

Honestly they're both Underfell!Sans but they are vastly different

They were vastly different long before Frisk fell

And they had vastly different lives from the beginning

Arum's Gaster was a good man

Yes, he neglected Tox terribly, they both did

But Dros created them to be his children

As the last skeleton alive, and not interested in a romantic relationship, he created Arum and Tox in a similar fashion as how Erebus created Red and Boss, bot for the opposite reason

He also didn't fuck up with Arum

Red's physical body came out wrong

He formed too small, too frail

He always had 1 HP

Yes, it was in part due to his pessimism, but physically, his body can't hold much HP in the first place

If Red's HP were to rise (and it will) I think I'd cap him at 50

My 5 foot smol was born with the short end of the stick

slaps knee

short end

Boss was born with the long end slaps knee again

Boss's body was always too big

He couldn't control his magic properly and his body was pushed too far

which made him a very sickly child

but as an adult he evened it out with endless training

They're both on one end of an extreme

Whereas Arum and Tox were both quite average. They were evenly leveled, physically

Arum is 5'6", he's completely normal

He just happened to have inherited Dros's extreme intelligence

a fairly common thing in humans, genius can be hereditary

Meanwhile Tox... didn't

Boss was born with strength that he had to hone. Tox was born average and created his own extreme strength through willpower and desperation

Red was born with a too-strong mind that was further distended with experimentation, and had to hone and focus his intelligence once they escaped. It left him with so many emotional issues

Arum's inherited intelligence was carefully guided by his father and he was an average genius, also made extreme through willpower

All of his emotional issues are because of his fucked-up timeline 8,D

Ahhh I love designing characters

Red and Arum as as different from each other as they're both different from Chaos

who is also an Underfell!Sans

Who just happens to be female

and just happened to go insane and kill her entire timeline due to a certain brat :3c

BUT THAT'S RAMBLING FOR ANOTHER DAY