Good news greeted the couple this morning. Frisk’s fever had subsided overnight. They could be discharged tomorrow, provided no negative changes happen throughout Saturday.
The monster parents rejoiced. Toriel immediately dialled a specific number on her phone, eager to deliver the good news.
Except, nobody answered. Again and again she called that number. Yet, nothing.
Maybe he’s asleep? He was not quite a morning person.
Afternoon rolled by. Silence followed.
Then early evening. Still no answer.
By now, the Sun had almost set. They had one incoming call from Papyrus, but Sans… he never answered Toriel’s calls.
Their child grew worried too. Frisk was wise beyond their years. The usual tricks that would soothe other children didn’t work on them.
“I’m sure Sans will be fine,” said the goat father. “He can take care of himself. Contrary to his um, usual habits.”
Frisk squinted their already-small eyes in suspicion, but in the end they realised that nothing could be done. All they could do now was to hope and trust.
Toriel excused herself out of the ward. Maybe the phone reception wasn’t good inside, so she decided to try the corridors.
Left alone with his newest child, Asgore asked, “Would you like something to drink?”
“Hmmm…” the child pondered. “I think I want a snack instead. Something salty. But not too oily. Like pretzel sticks.”
“I think I saw some of those in one of the vending machines. Would that satisfy your cravings?”
Frisk nodded.
“If you need anything else, do not hesitate to phone me. Alright?”
A thumbs up from the kid. Ah, how cute.
So Asgore left the ward and headed towards the elevator lobby. He greeted the Magi guards along the way.
He chose to take the long route, selecting the button to where there was an alternative route to the cafeteria. His soft, fluffy presence attracted a tad too much attention. As much as he loved children, he didn’t want to make Frisk wait.
Just as he entered, his phone chimed. It’s a message from Undyne.
It read:
Asgore, I got some bad news. One of our old cases came back burning hot. I’m bringing the suspect to you right now. I know a hospital is probably not the best place, but it’s the only way I can keep Papyrus and the suspect in check at the same time.
Agsore walked straight out of the elevator the moment the door opened. He was too preoccupied to notice that he exited on the wrong floor.
Uh. Yeah. Sorry. She wrote, Paps phoned Frisk, and I guess you heard him screaming over the phone already? Apparently he’s AOK. No more weird eye magic going haywire. At least I’m sure that we’re not gonna crash.
Alphys and Mettaton are tagging along too. So, this is also a Frisk Friendship Team visit.
See you there.
The tiny device in his humongous hands made replying a bit difficult. Maybe he should have bought the larger devices, one more suitable for his size?
Midway his reply, he was interrupted by a string of expletives. It came from a doctor pacing around in circles with a phone to his ear.
Whatever troubled him so much, he didn’t notice the presence of a very large white fluffy monster.
“Judge Mezil, my work is compromised!” exclaimed the doctor. “Someone snuck into my office and rummaged through my files! …Wait. Are you serious? Keep it quiet? What? You’re telling me that you know the culprit? Oh… so they won’t plagiarize my research? W-well if you say so, I guess there is nothing to worry about.”
Asgore glanced to the nearest nameplates. ‘Neurology’. He had no idea what it meant, but it was definitely not the way to the canteen.
He backed away in silence. Should the poor doctor caught wind of his presence, he would be even more troubled. The Fluffybuns didn’t want that.
“Are you going to make sure Judge Cenna won’t find out the truth? I’m so dead if she knew I slipped up. She might just, I dunno, hang me upside down?”
The ex-king’s ears twitched. Secrets shouldn’t surprise him anymore. Just one look at the lady and he knew that Cenna hid plenty. What caught his attention was the fact that a fraction of truth resided in such close proximity.
Whatever it was, he decided to leave the doctor to his own conversation. Asgore backed off and returned to the elevator lobby. This time, he went to the correct floor and bought a packet of pretzel sticks from the vending machine.
Then it’s back to the ward.
His wife had yet to return from her attempts. But, Cenna hung out with Frisk. The dark-skinned woman showed off some string art with her magic-based drones.
She drew a picture of a cat on the table, sleeping next to a ball of yarn.
Frisk’s face lit up with delight at the cute picture. Out of curiosity, they picked up a loop of the magic string from the cat’s tail. Tugged it a bit.
Doing so made it go ‘twang’.
“Strong, huh?” said Cenna. “But mine’s puny compared to some of my colleagues. They could make like, industrial cables. Real handy in rescue operations. Emergencies only though.”
Perhaps that was the reason why the doctor feared that she’d hang him upside down.
“Oh,” Asgore smiled. “Looks like you two are having fun.”
He passed the packet to Frisk.
“Thanks, Dad.” They ripped the packet in no time. After taking one stick for themselves, the kid offered it to their aunt and adoptive father. “Want one?”
“Sure!” The cool aunt plucked out one stick from the bag. After looking at it she groaned. “Ah c’mon, all the salt flakes are gone from this stick.”
“I’d like to try one too.” He had seen and heard of these salty treats, but he had yet to try.
…If he could even grab them in the first place. The opening of the bag was too small for his large hands to comfortably fit. In the end, Frisk had to take one out for him.
Asgore rubbed the back of his head out of embarrassment. “Why thank you, my child.”
His first bite into the snack tingled his mouth with a strange flavour. It made his eyes cross over each other and his lips pucker.
Frisk and Cenna both covered their mouth, chuckling away. They knew this would happen. First-timer’s reaction.
The confused monster then said, “D-did I just bite into salty soap?”
Cenna grinned as she answered, “Thaaaat’s probably the lye.”
“Lye?!” Asgore gasped. “Isn’t that a cleaning agent? Aren’t they toxic?” He remembered using some for a stubborn burn on his stove once. As far as he could remember, they were caustic solutions.
“They could be. Only if they’re concentrated. Food-grade stuff is diluted tons for safe consumption.”
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
It still left him confused and perplexed. To him, this flavour was not pleasant. “H-how did they end up as ingredients in the first place?”
“Preservation,” answered Cenna. “Unlike magic edibles, physical foodstuff decay over time. Our ancestors experimented with ways to prevent rotting. Some of the discoveries were accidental. Some, well. ‘Necessity is the mother of inventions’, as we say.”
“That’s… quite a stretch of imagination.” Monsterkind would never think of preserving food with such a substance. Any of their known ancient techniques were lost in the Underground anyway. Materials in the ‘down below’ were very different from the ‘up above’.
In the end, Asgore gave his half-eaten pretzel stick to Frisk. The child was fond of the strange taste. Maybe that’s why they could tolerate Papyrus’ spaghetti?
Time to wash the bad taste away with some good-old goldenflower tea. He learned to sew tea bags while he’s on the Surface, allowing him to prepare his favourite brew ahead of time.
After boiling some water from his electric kettle, he poured them into his trusty teapot.
Cenna rose her brows, curious. “You always have that tea around. What is it?”
“Goldenflower tea,” Asgore answered. “Would you like to have some?”
“Goldenflower? Like, ‘Ebott Goldenflower’?”
“Yes.” What else could they be, if they’re named after the mountain itself?
Her eyes widened in amazement. “Whoa, I didn’t know you can make tea out of those!”
“You don’t? Oh dear, you’re missing out.”
That must be rectified. He took out some extra plastic cups from his backpack and made three servings of his favourite drink.
Cenna took a sip, and her mind was blown away. “Daaaaaang, they’re good. I bet if we add honey, they’re gonna be even better! Mezil will love these. He’s a big fan of teas.”
“Too bad Ebott Goldenflowers are rare-ish nowadays.” The Magus took another sip. “Their original habitat got destroyed in a huge fire. What’s left were the samples we had in botanical gardens. Or small plots from plant enthusiasts. They’re hard to grow outside of their native earth.”
“Oh? How strange,” remarked Asgore. “I have a field of these at my throne room. All they required were some watering and pruning, nothing more. They sow themselves and seem to bloom eternal.”
Frisk’s brows furrowed as they thought over this predicament. Then they asked, “Do you think it’s because of magic? There are lots of Echo Flowers down there, and they never grow on the Surface.”
For a prison, Mount Ebott was strangely accommodative. Many of the shelters were already built by their forefathers in the pre-Sealing days. As they explored deeper, they found all four seasons nestled underneath.
“That could be so, my child.” Asgore replied. “Hmm… what are your opinions, Cenna?”
“I ain’t a botanist,” she chuckled. “But yeah, I’ll pass that info to my peers. Learn something new every day, huh?”
Just as they were having a calm evening with warm tea, a car flew past the ward’s window. The only clue Asgore had was a brief buzz of magic before it whizzed out of reception.
And he was sure that he’s at least eight floors off the ground. If not more.
“…What.” Cenna blinked her amber eyes a few times. “Did you just see what I see?”
Frisk replied with the straightest of faces. “A glowing blue car driven by a skeleton with a blazing orange eye, ferrying terrified passengers that consist of a fish, a lizard, and a robot?”
“I’m amazed your eyes are as sharp as mine, Frisky.”
Frisk shook their head. “Nah. Just a lucky guess.”
Defying expectations, the bizarre display did not follow up by the crunching of crashing metal. Asgore knew that Papyrus was a good driver, but he’s also apparently a competent ‘pilot’.
Asgore opened the window to take a peek. Not too much to let the winter air in, but enough to look outside.
Papyrus’ iconic red car had landed in one of the outdoor parking lots nearby. It sat snug in their proper boundaries, as if he drove it there himself.
Listen hard enough and he could hear Undyne’s screams.
She said: “Oh my god, Papyrus you’re NEVER gonna do that again! EVER!”
“BUT UNDYNE,” the young skeleton replied, “YOU WERE HAVING FUN! AND TRAFFIC CONGESTIONS ARE TERRIBLE. I FEEL YOUR FIERY DESIRE TO SUPLEX THE CAR IN FRONT OF US.”
“Not with five passengers! When did you even have enough magic to lift a freaking CAR in the first place???”
Out of the 'five', Asgore saw a face that he had not seen for years.
“…Gaster…?” he muttered.
Memories flooded back. Ones he didn’t realise that he had forgotten. It seemed like yesterday that the Royal Scientist first greeted him as a polite ten-year-old.
King Asgore remembered the days where magic prevailed ahead of science. Gaster’s parents dressed him up in the formal clothes of the old Council, though the organization no longer existed by the time the child was born.
He was the youngest of his generation. Therefore, the only one to live to modern days.
Was this the person who made a cold case hot once more? Asgore hoped not. He had watched the sheepish youngster grow into a man of unbreakable resolution, while inheriting all the graceful ways of his parents.
The day Asgore first stained his hands with the blood of a child still haunted him. As he delivered their SOUL over to the Royal Scientist, the then-King apologized for pushing the burden of research onto others.
But Gaster said:
“Your Majesty, please do not apologize. I swear an oath to never let your sacrifice be in vain. My weight is nothing compared to your pain.”
“We will break the Barrier. We will escape. We will have justice.”
“We will be free.”
Determination burned in the Seer’s eyes. Gaster was not the easiest child to raise, but no one could deny that he had a vision.
Asgore closed the window and turned towards his child. “My child, could you stay here for a moment? I need to guide your friends.”
Frisk nodded. They understand that if left to their own devices, that team might get kicked out of the hospital on grounds of being ‘too loud’.
“I’m going too,” said Cenna. “Gotta give the new faces approval before my guards start questioning.”
Toriel sat down at the bench outside, still dialing the number of her friend. Her attempts remained fruitless.
“Undyne and her friends are here,” said Asgore.
“Is Sans with them?” Toriel’s eyes lit up in hope. Hope that would soon be dashed.
“Sorry madam,” Cenna replied. “Didn’t see the blue shorty when the car flew past the window.”
“…What?” Even for monsters, the idea of a flying car deserved to be under the ‘bizarre’ category.
Asgore cleared his throat to catch some attention. “E-excuse me. I think we should go and meet them post-haste.”
Cenna sent her guards to wait inside together with Frisk. Asgore noticed that she made sure that at least one person was in the child’s sight at any time.
Such arrangements were not the case yesterday. Perhaps she had heard of the hospital break-in?
At the main lobby, Undyne and her gang were there. Plus an extra someone. The entourage of five monsters made every human in the vicinity to stop and watch.
The crowd immediately recognized Mettaton. He’s the most public face of Ebott.
“It’s Mettaton!”
“Oh my god it’s Mettaton!”
“Really? Not a lookalike? This is the real deal?”
Some of the more internet savvy folks recognized Undyne.
“It’s Undyne!”
“Ohemgeeohemgee that’s The Suplex Queen!”
“Man, she looks so damn cool in armour!”
Intimidated by the attention, Alphys more or less glued herself to Undyne’s legs. The shipping fans cheered.
“Oh she’s so cute!”
“Cute couple alert!”
“You mean The Suplex Queen already has her princess?”
Gaster tried his best to look solid in front of all the curious-eyed humans, amused by their positive reception.
“Whoa, look at that guy. Isn’t he a skeleton?”
“He’s so dapper, tuxedo and all!”
“I didn’t know the monster folks got such classic tastes.”
Papyrus happily waved at his former rulers. Then… he squinted at Cenna. The tall skeleton wasted no time to run straight up to her.
“OH MY GOD! MISS AUNT, HOW IN THE WORLD DID YOU LOSE ANOTHER HP??? AT THIS RATE YOU’RE GONNA TURN INTO A TALL GIRLY SANS!”
Cenna cringed and immediately put a finger on her lips. “Shhhh Papyrus, too many people here. Um yes, I lost another HP. Shame, right? Don’t worry, I’ll be okay in Spring.”
In typical Papyrus fashion, he shoved a flask of soup into her hands.
“NEVER FEAR!” He declared. “DRINK THE GREAT PAPYRUS’ SUPER EXTRA NOURISHING PUMPKIN CARROT SOUP AND YOU WILL REGAIN YOUR VITALITY! IT WORKED FOR MY BROTHER. WELL. HE DIDN’T GAIN A HP, BUT HE BECAME SUPER ENERGETIC!”
Toriel immediately asked, “Papyrus, where’s Sans?”
Never would the Dreemurrs expect to see a silent, downcast Papyrus before them.
“Did something happen to him?” Toriel pressed further, close to panic.
“…SANS…” the youngster answered in half of his usual volume. “HE’S ALIVE. JUST, HE HAD A VERY BAD TIME WITH UNCLE GASTER.”
Toriel gave the poor lad a warm hug of consolation.
“I’ll talk to him, alright?” she said.
“THANK YOU.”
From what Asgore could recall, Gaster had an uneasy relationship with his protege. Both were too alike, yet too different. It got worse in the later half of their lives. After Sans’ graduation, in particular.
The short one handed in a letter of resignation. Asgore understood that he wanted to quit his training and revive his father’s hotdog business.
The then-King agreed. As much as he needed a Tactician for the campaign, Asgore was… too soft to reject. To him, the happiness of his citizens mattered more than his regretful ambitions. He will take full responsibility for the charge, as it should have been from the beginning.
But…
One night later, both men changed. Sans withdrew his resignation. Gaster had wandered off the straight and narrow.
Asgore found himself helpless once more.
Will that the same happen here?
Mettaton kept the crowd busy with his celebrity skills. That allowed Undyne to slip away from view and bring Gaster before the King.
She bowed and said: “Your Majesty, I bring you the true culprit behind The Core Incident. The huge quake happened thanks to his experiment.”
Just as Asgore had feared, Gaster was the suspect.
“It was an accident,” the scientist begrudgingly muttered.
Toriel locked her infamous glare on the scientist. He immediately shrank from it. Worse still, Papyrus just told her that he had done something to hurt Sans.
The ex-Queen warned, “Do not try to dismiss anything, W. D. Gaster.” She was far from happy.
“Yes, Your Majesty.” Toriel commanded so much respect that she had turned this willful man into a good little boy.
Asgore sensed an increase in tension from Cenna. Her fists were tight, and her breathing deepened.
It had the signs of personal pain. He placed his hand on Cenna’s shoulder to calm her down.
Addressing to his citizens, Asgore said. “Let’s settle this in private, shall we? Is there a meeting room that we can borrow?”
After couple of deep breaths, Cenna placed her hand on her hat. She tried hard to not show her turmoil of emotions. “Nawh, there ain’t any spare meeting rooms for the public. But. We could use Frisky’s ward as one. We’ll just need to take the kid elsewhere for a while.”
Papyrus already volunteered himself. “I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL FEED DELICIOUS SOUP TO OUR DEAR HUMAN FRIEND!”
“The same one you gave me?” Cenna asked back.
“YES!”
She grinned. “Great idea. King Asgore, shall we appoint him as leader for Team Frisky?”
Asgore noted that since their duel, the lady Magus had a certain fondness for the tall skeleton.
“Very well,” he said. “Papyrus, you’ll accompany Frisk until the meeting is over. Bring along anyone you wish.”
Papyrus immediately sparkled in both joy and enthusiasm. “WOWIE! ANOTHER SPECIAL REQUEST FROM THE KING! YES, I WILL ALSO BE THE BEST COMPANION IN THE WORLD.”
“LEAVE IT ALL TO ME, NYEH HEH HEH!”