Alphys meets Gerson and tries to make a good impression

"Undyne! Undyne! Hey, Undyne!"

A yellow kid in a striped shirt was being carried down the stream. They didn't have arms, but their large head kept them afloat.

"There's a waterfall coming up! And I can't swim!" they announced proudly.

"Ah, crud, not again," Undyne said, as she handed Alphys her jacket. "You go on without me. I need to handle this."

She dived into the river.

Alphys carried the jacket the rest of the way to Gerson's. He didn't have a door, so she walked right in.

"Hello?"

"Woah there! Alphys, right?"

"Oh! Yeah! N-nice to meet you!"

"And the same to you! Lemme put on some tea."

She followed Gerson into his kitchen. The variety of his equipment surprised even her, an experienced garbage dump scavenger - he had modern ceramic knives, a microwave that was from the 2050s at best, a Victorian-looking stove, and a kettle made out of soapy, greenish-black stone.

"See anything you like?"

Alphys realized she was staring. "Oh! No! I mean, yes! It's lovely!"

"Wahaha! I hate throwing things away. I'm glad people still appreciate it."

"Is, uh, is today's youth too fickle?"

"Nah, you kids are great. But old men are legally required to say that junk."

"So, uh, Mr. Hammer - Justice - uh, Mr. Boom -"

"Jus' call me Gerson."

She took a deep breath. "Right. Sorry. Um. Are you and Undyne close?"

"Yeah, guess so. Almost felt like she lived here, at times."

"Gosh."

"She talks about you a lot, you know."

"Oh - oh yeah?"

"Yeah. Always talking my ears off about Alphys this and Alphys that. Says you've been teaching her the weirdest things about human history."

"Y-yeah! G-guess things have changed a lot s-since your day, huh!"

Undyne interrupted the exchange by bursting into the kitchen, splattering everything with water. "Gerson! Howareyou!"

"Undyne! Did somebody pull the old drop-in-the-creek trick?"

"You know it!"