Vista sat quietly beside Danny as they both waited for Taylor, or rather as she knew Asriel, to come out of the psychologist's office. The higher-ups thought that Asriel needed somebody to walk them around while they recovered and that somebody needed to keep an eye on them. They had said it was due to a mental condition that was almost unique to Taylor but hadn't said what, though thanks to yesterday Vista knew exactly what that condition was. And she was more than willing to volunteer to be the one who would watch over them.

So after saying hello to Danny she sat down and waited quietly for Asriel and/or Taylor to come out. Ten minutes of waiting and the door opened up with this month's psychologist and Taylor with bags under her eyes. She seemed to perk up as soon as she saw Vista and went over to her while Danny headed straight for the psychologist.

"Howdy Vista." He greeted her happily, making a beeline towards her. Okay so this was Asriel and Taylor was still unconscious or however that worked. "So you're the Ward who's suppose to spend time with me while Danny talks to Dr Frederick?"

She nodded. "Yeah I felt as if we should get to know each other better so I volunteered. So want to go back to the Ward's HQ and wait for Danny?" She asked gesturing towards the way that led to said HQ.

"Sure." He said happily, smiling at her.

Before she could respond Frederick said, "It'll be about an hour or two before I'm done talking with Danny and then we'll come get you okay?" Which Asriel nodded to before both him and Danny went inside the office leaving the two heroes outside.

"Well come on then." She said waving him on after her and leading the way on down to the door of HQ. Looking back over him, she noticed the bags under his eyes. "You have some bags under your eyes Asriel, have you been sleeping alright?"

"Oh, I didn't sleep last night." He casually said shaking his head. "Mostly spaced out, focusing on the pain."

She almost tripped as he said that, quickly catching herself and frowning to him. "It's so bad you can't even sleep?"

He raised an eyebrow at her "Yeah? I was only barely lucid yesterday, too focused on the pain, remember? So of course I couldn't empty my mind enough for sleep."

Vista looked him over, seeing how he walked in a straight line, back straight, no wavering in his voice she shook her head. "You just seem to be over it is why I'm a bit surprised. Most people in pain like that would pass out and everyone else would at least limp a little, while you're just walking completely fine." She said to explain it as they stopped before the elevator leading down to HQ.

He just shrugged in response "Like I said, I have gotten used to it. The fact that I was out of it yesterday was a testament of how badly hurt I was. But it's gotten better."

And again with the fact he's used to things like this. A silent sigh from her before pressing the buttons to go down. "Well at least it is getting better for you then. So what'd you think of Frederick?"

"He was nice. A bit distant, but," he shrugged "we only just met."

She shook her head as the door opened up and they walked down the hallway. "Alright. So what do you want to do to pass the time then Asriel?" She asked stopping before the door to open it up for both of them.

"Well… what do you like to do?" He said a bit nervously.

She shrugged, door opening. "I just read or watch some TV when I'm not training or anything." Then she went on into the room, Asriel following behind. "Why?" She asked, not sure why he was asking beyond him not wanting to pick anything for himself.

"Oh, what kinds of books do you read?" He asked curiously, interest plain on his face.

"Adventure kinds, mostly magic ones." She answered, passing through the main room and monitors, heading on towards her room and pausing, before gesturing to it and asking, "So want to hang in my room for a bit while we're waiting?"

"Sure." He happily said. "You got any of those books here?"

She nodded, opening the door to her room in the Wards base, it sliding into the wall. "A few of them, you wanting to read them?" She asked stepping into her room, a familiar mixture of home and business, thankfully the worst parts of home completely absent. A dresser, a small bed for herself, bookcase and a mirror. Not the most decorated room but wasn't spartan like Shadow Stalker's. Well how it was once, since she wasn't part of the team anymore.

"If you don't mind. It'd be nice to read something new."

She nodded and went on to her bookcase looking them over. "Well I have a good dozen or so, what'd you like?" She asked once more turning to Asriel.

"All kinds, learned to not be picky. What do you suggest?" He asked, wandering over to look at her bookcase with her.

Shrugging to herself she grabbed one and handed it over, giving a brief overview of the book. An orphan thief that looked like the dead prince and an evil baron takes the thief to try and get a claim to the throne. It being one of her favorites.

"Ooo, that sounds interesting." He happily said while gazing at the book in his hands, before a look of realization crossed his face. "Oh, didn't you say earlier you'd want to learn magic? Wanna give it a try now?" He asked excitedly.

She frowned slightly looking him over, "Well if you think you're okay to, sure." He did say he still felt all that pain but was just somehow used to it. So she was kind of worried about him trying to teach her right now.

"Yes!" He cheered, and put the book on a table nearby, before beginning to shrink, clothes shifting around him, and turning black, his right arm disappearing entirely. As he finished changing however, she noticed he wasn't entirely black and charred over any more, there were patches of white here and there too. "Huh." He said, examining himself, flexing his remaining arm some. "I'm not leaking dust anymore, that's good."

She just stared for a few moments, sort of glad to see him looking better but knowing that it still looked painful. Was still painful. So much she couldn't believe that he was just shrugging it all off. And after a few moments of looking over the patchwork of charred 'flesh' she realized something and looked away, blushing slightly. "Um Asriel. You're not wearing clothes."

"Um, yeah?" He asked confused, before continuing. "Oh, right, human society says you are suppose to always wear those." As he was saying this his voice deepened some back to 'Taylor's Voice', and when she glanced again, he was back in her form, hand on his chin and a thoughtful frown. "But I can't do magic in a human form, and I don't have other clothes. I don't really think I should try shape-shifting yet either."

She coughed slightly, not expecting that but glad there was no view and the fact he wouldn't be trying anything yet while still looking so injured. "Maybe it's for the best, you shouldn't be trying anything too hard looking like that." Shrugging she added, "How about just giving me steps for however magic is supposed to feel and etcetera? Something that we can do without you using magic?"

He shook his head in response. "Isn't that simple. You'd need to learn to feel your soul, which is most easily done by stimulating it. The magic isn't hard, shouldn't interfere with my healing too much." He sighed in frustration. "What does humanity have against nudity anyways?"

"It's just uh, not right." She said haltingly. "How about telling me how it should feel or meditation or something? An idea of what to do when you feel better."

He sighed again. "Again, it's not that simple. It's like trying to say what taste is, to a person who has never tasted anything. They'd probably not even know what taste is, till they taste something. Which is the goal behind the stimulation of the soul, for you to feel magic coursing through you, and then to try to track down the feeling to your soul later." He fell quiet for a bit, thinking, before seeming to get another idea. "Could I borrow a shirt of yours or something? That way I won't be naked, and I can still help you."

She nodded before getting up and heading over to her dresser. "It's just I'm kind of worried because most other people that look as bad as you are normally dead." Grabbing a shirt she went back to Asriel and handed it over. "So please don't try anything strenuous just to teach me."

He shook his head and started changing, which she took as a cue to turn around so as to not see him naked. "Don't worry, other than manifesting your soul, it takes even less magic than Ethereal projections. The simplest form of magic." He explained. "Alright, got your shirt on."

She turned back to him now, seeing her shirt draping over his form, all the way to his knees even. Thankfully covering any part of him. "Okay so uh, should we take a seat?" She asked looking to the bed.

"Sure. Feeling magic for the first time can be kinda shocking, so it'd be best to do it while sitting." He said, heading to her bed before plopping himself down, and patting the spot beside him.

Stepping after him she took a seat beside him and held her hands in her lap. "Okay, ready."

"Alright, first I need to manifest your soul. Makes it easier to interact with." As he explained, he first held out his hand towards her chest as he did before, before pulling it back and a purple heart appearing. Her soul, as he calls it. "Alright, now this is going to feel wierd, ready?" Not sure what to expect she simply nodded.

He held out his hand mimed like a gun, pointed right at her soul, and then something that looked like static jumped from his finger to her soul. As soon as it connected, she felt energy running through her, feeling like electricity in her chest, in her heart. It made her jump back a bit, hand going to her heart and breath catching, as that had felt wrong being 'poked' like that. Just something that hadn't felt right. Looking at Asriel again she had to ask, "Is it supposed to feel like that?" Because it certainly didn't feel like it was right.

"Probably. How did it feel? Most people describe their first sensation differently." He asked curiously.

"It felt wrong." She said simply, getting her breath back to normal from that surprise. "Just like it wasn't supposed to be like that."

"It's normal if it felt uncomfortable, I did pretty much poke your soul. But what did it feel like? Fire? Electricity? Cold? Light?" He asked again.

She thought for a second back, ignoring the wrongness of the feeling. "Uh electrical."

He nodded. "That's a common one. Mine felt more like fire, burning in me. That's suppose to be common among Boss Monsters though, we have an affinity with fire. Now, focus on that feeling, and more specifically, where you felt it. Can you feel anything now?"

Trying to focus on where it had felt wrong earlier she thought she felt something. In the center of herself, like her heart. "It uh kind of tingles?" She said not sure how to describe it. Her hand went over top of her heart where that little feeling was.

"Good, now focus on it. See if you can do anything with it, make it move, become more tingly, or anything. If you lose the feeling, tell me, and I can stimulate your soul again so you can find it." He replied happily, sounding really excited to be teaching her.

She frowned slightly not sure how to do that but shrugged, deciding to try anyways. Because it definitely was something she hadn't felt prior to him 'zapping' her. So she just focused on the weird tingliness and tried to imagine it moving. A while of focusing and the tingling had faded a little to her mind and she frowned again, trying to think of another way to move it. Instead she reminded herself she was feeling this and Asriel kept talking about how it was a part of her. So perhaps trying to 'physically' move it?

Another few minutes of simple silence in her room while she tried to move it before she thought she felt something shift. "Woah," Asriel exclaimed in astonishment across from her, prompting her to open her eyes and see him staring at her heart-soul-thing in fascination. "You actually did it."

She blinked looking to her floating heart, seeing nothing different. "Uh I did?" Sure she thought she felt something but how could he tell?

"Your soul," He explained, pointing at the heart between them, "you moved it. I wasn't expecting you to be able to do that for at least another week, if not longer."

She looked to her heart, not noticing in the least it having moved. "So I'm good at this then?" She asked not knowing exactly what that all meant beyond him not expecting it soon.

"If figuring it out so fast wasn't just luck, then yeah! Try to do it again." He prompted.

"Okay." She said trying to do what she had just done a few moments ago, closing her eyes in concentration again. Vaguely like trying to flex but yet not at all like that. It took her a few moments before she felt if shift again. Opening an eye she looked to her heart, it looking a little moved. Maybe? "Did I do it again?"

"Yep!" He happily announced. "You learned to do it really fast!" He beamed at her.

She smiled back at the charred goat. "Yeah I guess I did!" Oh this could be fun learning a new power if it really was like he kept talking about. "So what next? Keep trying to move it?"

"Yeah! Get use to the feeling and being able to locate it. Try increasing it if you can. That will probably take a while, but you learned this step so fast, so I don't know." He said in wonder.

She nodded, trying to do that again now, keeping her eyes open to watch the heart for any movements like Asriel was saying it had done so far. Deciding to ask a few questions while trying to keep moving it she asked, "So how long did it take you to learn magic?"

He blinked at her question, seeming a bit surprised, before answering "I'm a monster, magic comes naturally to us. There are still magical exercises we can do, but the simplest expressions of it are pretty much instinctual. We don't have the raw power humans have though once they figure it out."

She cocked her head, forgetting to try and move her 'heart' for the moment. "So I'm technically stronger than you?" Because he seemed plenty strong when he fought Lung earlier and leveled a building.

Asriel shook his head. "Probably not. I'm not just a monster anymore, Taylor fused her soul with mine, allowing us to benefit from her power, and my skill. Here, look." He brought his paw to his chest, and with a flourish his heart appeared again, still cracked but no longer dripping light, and the rainbow wisps seemed to look a bit brighter. "See the wisps? That is a side effect of our fusion, a human soul is normally completely self contained, like yours. A monster's soul on the other hand," He moved his hand to the side, and stuck his tongue out and furrowed his brow in concentration, and slowly a white heart formed over it, upside down. "Are far less powerful, but can easily expel it's magic, not having a hard 'shell' holding it all together." He explained, poking it causing it to lightly deform around his finger. "When a monster soul is damaged, it doesn't crack like a humans, but rather just turns to dust." He waved his hand at it and it shattered into a million pieces, that shimmered in the air for a bit before disappearing.

"Oh." She said simply. She wondered for a brief moment as to what the other Monsters were like before returning to trying to move her heart again. A slight shift in her actual heart and she finally saw the soul-heart thing move a little bit. More like a twitch. "What are the little wisps supposed to be then? Just… some weird version of a Soul?"

"They're magic. Like I said, in a human's soul, all the magic is self contained. That makes it very hardy, being able to even exist past the death of the body for a short while, but also prevents it from easily casting magic. A monsters lets the magic out easily, making them comparatively fragile, and crumble to dust along with the body. This fusion soul, on the other, seems to have a semi-permeable barrier." His voice got a bit more serious, like he's thinking hard on what he's saying, and he leaned in to look closely at his soul. "I guess the wisps kept on the outside are the easily accessible bits of magic let out by the soul but not completely released into the world. Let's see…" He trailed off, and as he did so two glowing balls formed to either side of him. They slowly grew bigger, and bits of the wisps began to disappear, only to be replaced by more wisps flowing out of the heart. He nodded to himself "Yep, looks like I was right."

She nodded to that source of information, getting a bit of information on all this new stuff, making the floating heart twitch again. "Alright. Are there any uh, human magicians or anybody to compare me to?" She asked, since most if not all of his information seemed to be about Monsters.

He shook his head. "I only know so much about human magicians from my mom and dad and Old Man Gerson. They are among the few who were alive before The Great War to know any human magicians."

Great War? What? "So I'll be the only person to learn magic that you know of?" She asked, having hoped of some type of comparison. But she guessed she wouldn't get one, beyond him just being happy that she's doing better than expected.

Asriel shook his head again. "Taylor doesn't really count, being part monster now and having me who can show her directly what she needs to do, and Chara didn't have time to learn." He paused, when he said that, eyes opening wide in surprise, and uttered a small "Whoops."

Vista stared at him for a few moments, not sure why he said whoops like he did just now. "Um… whoops what?" She wondered as to who Chara was for a moment, both because they were one of two names listed by Asriel and because he had immediately followed it with a whoops.

"Uh, heh, it's nothing." He said, smiling nervously while rubbing the back of his head.

She stared at him for a few moments with slightly narrowed eyes, just watching him as he kept looking nervous. Then she finally shook her head. "Alright then." She kept wondering as to who Chara was, moving the heart once more again. She instead asked, "So how are you doing?"

He looked relieved at the topic change, and replied "Alright." He paused for a bit, before continuing a bit morosely "Got in a bit of trouble this morning, upsetting Danny before I learned that humans are suppose to wear clothes while around each other."

She chuckled a little at his expense. "Is it really that uncommon for you guys to wear clothes?"

"Well, not uncommon. Lots of people wore clothes, but only because clothes looked nice. There is absolutely nothing wrong with not wearing any in Monster Society."

She cocked her head before shaking it again. "Well I'm glad you learned it's not the same here." She moved the heart again a bit more, it being a bit more noticeable than a twitch this time. "So how long are you expecting to be hurt like this?"

He shrugged in response. "I don't know, never been fused with a human for long before, and beforehand I usually just… did something that's not an option anymore."

She paused for a second, wondering what this option was. "Which is?"

"A power that I had, which I can't use any more." He vaguely explained.

She frowned at him, stopping in her practice with the purple heart. "You're not going to say what it is, are you?"

"Well…" He began, seeming to think hard on it. "I guess it isn't something Taylor said we should keep secret." Wiggling some to reset himself across from her, he began "I used to have a power called DETERMINATION, and with it, I could rewind time back to before I got hurt. I'm not sure if we still have that power or not, and the only way I'm aware of to find out… is to die and see if we come back."

She leaned back in surprise at that statement, being the furthest thing from her mind when she was wondering. "Uh… that power… sucks." She said, that being the only thing she could think of saying.

Asriel shrugged in response "Mostly just the learning of it that sucks. Once you learn and master it, you load 'saves' at will. And it's useful if you have to do something dangerous where you're likely to die till you get it right."

She still shook her head with a slight shiver. Dying to learn to use a power. Did not sound fun or something she'd want to try at all. "Yeah, still not not something good."

Again he shrugged "But yeah, that's why it's not an option. Just have to wait it out." He paused for a bit, before continuing "I should probably stockpile on Monster Food before next time, cause eating a bunch would help the healing process. Making some now would just be counterproductive though."

She just nodded to that, not sure what to say to that either. She looked to the floating heart again and decided to focus on that now.