Neil Elliot had not been sure of what to say when "Goat Mom" had embraced him. Not sure of what to make of the deep hug that enveloped him now, of her broken voice, pleading with him to stay. And he'd looked at the soft tears trickling down her furry white cheeks, feeling guilt creep into his heart as a worried look came onto his face. His soft blue eyes looked at her as he struggled to think of what to say to her pouring her heart out to him...
In song.
"You...have a lovely voice." He confessed.
Toriel blinked a bit, slowly letting him go from the hug and instead carefully clasping his shoulders, looking into his face with a small smile. "Th-thank you." She said, wiping her eyes before nodding. "My husband and I were both Nose Nuzzle champs AND the Head Duet Duo during the entire 1990's." The soft-faced ex-monarch explained as her eyes filled with warm memories. "We swept all the best awards, especially in '99. I remember, the floodlights bathed over us as soft rose petals wafted down from above, onto the stage we stood upon as everyone cheered and yelled and whooped and hollered. Our darling Chara and sweet Asriel were still there, and they looked so happy as they cheered for us in the front row, the roar of the crowd filling our ears as my heartbeat thumped louder still...ohhh." She clasped her own body tightly, smiling warmly and murring. "It was such a magical night."
"Do monsters often sing and dance?" Elliot asked as he placed his hands on his hips, looking intrigued as Toriel smiled happily and rose up, giving a deep bow.
"Why, of course! Its how we access our magic! How we express ourselves! It's as much a part of our identity as our Souls themselves!" She proclaimed as Elliot took her clawed paw, and the two began to circle around as even more soft music seemed to fill the air, Neil giving a little smile.
"Have you danced with other humans like myself?" He asked, an idea coming to him. If he played his cards right, he wouldn't need to RESET at all. Toriel nodded as she bent him back, the two engaging in a delightful waltz as more memories crept into Toriel's voice.
"Oh, without a doubt. Little Hope and Qiang and Christa were excellent learners. Poor Anthony was rather clumsy, but he was so happy to learn."
Four. Just four humans had fallen down. Neil grinned inwardly. If he could just keep Frisk and Bonnie from getting out through the Ruins, he'd be fine. After all, Toriel visited the opening cave that humans could fall on through every day, and he could watch the exit from the Ruins by staying with Toriel. He could make sure nobody else had to die.
"Toriel...I'd love to stay here with you." He offered to her as he spun her around over the carpeting, and clapped his hands together. "But come! For now, there only exists you...me...and the WALTZ!" Neil Elliot laughed aloud as the monsters outside Toriel's home watched in amusement, a little Whismun blowing her nose into a tissue.
"Oh, it's just so beautiful!" She sobbed. "I just love happy endings."
"I don't know." Loox Eyewalker murmured as his family members muttered amongst each other, the little Mike-the-Monster-Esque lookalike tilting his head to the side. "I'm getting a sense of deja vu every time I look at this kid. There's just something about him I don't really like."
Unbeknownst to them, miles away, another patron was making the same comment at the exact same time. Grillby's bar was popping that night, whenever Tuesday Karaoke came around the place was lit up brighter than a Christmas tree. People were having to pile outside to dance and sing along to the music that wafted through the cold night air, hands clapping together and smiles even brighter than Grillby's own fiery body. The bartender and owner of the bar looked as though he was a living human made of fire, dressed in a dapper white suit with an even MORE dapper black vest, a pair of glasses somehow over a nonexistent "nose" on his fiery face. An adorable little black bow tie and a tilted head, he gazed at the complaining, armor-clad Dog Guard who was looking over at Sans the Skeleton as his family sat in a booth together, all smiling warmly as the next singer took the stage. The lights within the bar focused in on the immense wooden stage, circular tables filling the dining area as others sat right at the bar, the offending customer "harrumphing".
"I'm serious, Grillby. There's something about Sans I don't really like. He's able to move without...moving. Those shortcuts of his, his lazy attitude and..."
The dog guard trailed off as Grillby tilted his head to the other side.
"...sometimes I...sometimes I can SWEAR he's looking right at us guards. Remember when he alerted us about those humans that came through, and we went to claim their Souls?" Dogbert remarked. "He was staring right through me. Judging me. I'm sure of it."
"Sans has a soft spot for kids, maybe." Grillby remarked in his golden voice.
"If he DID, he wouldn't have alerted us to where they were." Dogbert mumbled. "No, it's something else. I just don't get it."
Meanwhile, Sans and his brothers were sitting at their table, Papyrus pushing the red scarf he wore to the side with his gigantic red-gloved hands. He was wearing big, showy armor of white over his chest with red boots to match the gloves, and a big, cheery smile as his voice bordered on the edge of annoying, yet endearing. The best way to sum up Papyrus was that he was like a cute little puppy who always followed you around; annoying, yet adorable. His long, thin head tilted to the side as he heard the horse/mermaid mix that was Aaron of Waterfall proclaim the loss of his "one true love".
"Oh I never thought it'd end like this! Just because I got no tits! I'll shave my legs, I'll wear a bra! I'll even cut my penis off for you!"
The head of the Royal Guard sniggered, covering her mouth as she shook her head back and forth, red ponytailed hair flopping about as her gleaming golden/yellow looked back at Aaron. "Oh, ain't that sweet." She said in her rather loud, faintly British, almost punky voice.
"BUT AARON HAS NO LEGS..." Papyrus mumbled.
"Aaron doesn't have a lot of things. Including tact. Or ANY chance of dating Ms. Undyne, to be honest." Their eldest brother intoned as the black-jacketed skeleton cheekily smiled. Lines ran across his face, one line going up from his right eye socket, the other going down from his left one as he steepled his bony fingers, gigantic holes within his hands as he chuckled at the sight of Aaron. "So what song will you be singing tonight?" He inquired of Sans as Sans gave a little tilt of his head and a wink.
"tequila."
"...of course it'd be that." W.D Gaster intoned as the skeleton shook his head back and forth. "You WOULD pick the one that requires the least amount of effort. I hope we can go up soon, I need to head back to the lab." He remarked, a faintly nervous tone briefly flickering into his voice as Sans saw the expression briefly change on his brother's face.
"wing dings, you can't keep nothin' from me. what're you thinkin' about?"
"Sometimes, I...I think I can see them." Gaster confessed softly as his tone became conspiratorial, clasping his hole-filled hands together as his head sunk a bit. "Staring at me in the dark, accusingly gazing, sad and somber." He cringed. "I haven't slept in nine days."
Papyrus rubbed his chin. "PERHAPS YOU SHOULD RETURN HOME AND BRING THE SOULS WITH YOU! BEING IN PAPYRUS'S ROOM WOULD CHEER UP ANY LONELY SOUL!" He added with a cheery smile. "I'VE ADDED MORE POSTERS."
Gaster gave his brother a sad little smile. "You've always known how to brighten up my day." He admitted. "Maybe some time away from the lab WILL be good." He added quietly, unaware he was being listened to, a figure in the booth next to him tilting her cowboy hat down before she took a draw of the cigarette she had in her mouth, her brown hair falling down around her face. Convincing horns were poking up on her forehead, fake fangs in her mouth as her green eyes turned around and gazed intently at the skeletons behind her before exiting the bar, and making for the cold lands of Snowdin.
The town was picturesque and beautiful, as soft snowflakes gently wafted down around her, and she ambled by various people eager to try and claim the spot she'd been sitting at. She made her way towards the eastern section of the town as the snow slowly drifted around her, the river to her left as she kept her hands in the pockets of her tan jacket. The houses were like something from out of a Christmas storybook, all tiny and small, round and picturesque with cute little red roofs and gentle candles in the windows as she sighed, approaching the exit to the town before seeing a kid was approaching, small, yellow and brown, faintly lizardlike with a spiked head as he cheerily smiled at her.
"Hey there! You're new, right? I'm here to see Undyne! Is she still singing in Mr. Grillby's bar?" The young dibbun asked, shaking slightly from the cold as concern flashed over the brown-haired girl staring down at him.
"You're here all by yourself?" The teenager asked, her voice becoming...concerned. "Ain't safe for a little kid to be out here all alone." She quietly mumbled.
"Well, my parents kinda work in the CORE, and they don't get home until late, so I'm used to being alone." The little Monster Kid confessed with a shrug of his nonexistent shoulders, for he had no arms, only two little legs and a spiky tail. The teenage girl hesitated again. "So is Undyne still singing?" He asked before sneezing. "HACHOOO!"
"She's just a-finishing up a duet with that there mer-horse. Aaron, I think his name is." She sighed. "I'll take ya there. Wouldn't feel kid just leavin' ya out here alone. Aren'tcha cold?"
"A b-bit." He admitted. "I just kinda ran all the way here from Waterfall, d-didn't have time to put a scarf on."
"...here." The girl said with a little smile, taking off her tan jacket and draping it over him as she lifted him up onto her shoulder, and turned around. Going to the lab could wait a little while, she thought to herself. "I'll let you watch Undyne perform, then I can walk you home. How about that?" She asked.
"That's so nice of you!" The Monster Kid said with a large smile, looking up at her as she walked along the snowy path, heading back towards the warmth of Grillby's bar. "What's your name?"
"Bonnie." Bonnie the Human said. "I'm new in town." She added, watching as Dr. Gaster, Royal Scientist, made his way past her towards the exit of the town, and quietly promised herself...soon. Soon she'd avenge the others who'd come through. All those poor kids the monsters had MURDERED.
Let Justice be done. She'd been too late before.
...far too late. But not this time. This time, it would be different...
She stewed, and she thought, and she simmered, unaware that, bit by bit, more and more people were coming on up to the stage to sing. And then, suddenly, Monster Kid had asked-
"Hey, why don't you sing? You're new to town, right?" He'd asked, others in the bar now seeming to really notice Bonnie as she looked up at them, blinking a bit. Her little disguise seemed to be working, they didn't recognize her as a human, but being given the label "new", she was now standing out like a sore thumb. "Come on. Grillby can fit one more song in for tonight."
"I always love hearing new voices." Grillby said with a calm nod of his head as the others in his diner and bar all nodded at once, Bonnie biting her lip before a song began to rise in her mind. Perhaps it was spiteful. Perhaps it was cruel. But she wanted to sing it.
"Alright. Reckon I can sing a bit." The country girl confessed, making her way to the stage as Monster Kid sat next to the scale-bodied fish warrior that was Undyne, Head of the Royal Guard. She smirked, folding her well-developed arms over her chest, tilting her head a bit to watch what this newcomer had to sing.
"Gonna do a little country?" She inquired with a chuckle. "You know, I heard that if you play country music backwards, you get your wife back, your house back and your dog back!" The Head of the Royal Guard remarked as the others in the bar chuckled all at once.
Their chuckling didn't last long as Bonnie clasped her hands together, and closed her eyes, bowing her head as if in prayer, her voice clear, piercing, and powerful.
Lullay, lullay, my little tiny child,
Bye-bye, lullay, lullay!
Everyone in Grillby's bar went quiet as a mouse. Her words carried through the air, as only the youngest and most innocent patrons seemed oblivious to what was being implied, as Sans's eyes turned into black sockets, Grillby slowly turned to look away, Undyne's smile becoming a taut line as Gaster buried his face in one hand.
Oh, sisters two, How may we do, for to preserve this day?
This poor youngling, of whom we do sing, bye-bye, lullay, lullay!
Lullay, lullay, my little tiny child,
Bye-bye, lullay, lullay!
It was an ancient, old song. The Kingdom knew its meaning all too well, for in the days of old, much of them had indeed been Christian. After all, most of them had called Europe their home, and the soft church music every Sunday that drifted over their villages had, at one point, been a comfort to them. Even the agnostic Sans had always said that Christians had the prettiest music he'd ever heard from a religion.
But one song had always made them flinch whenever they heard even a tiny bit of it, foolishly played by a young little dibbun that had popped on a "Greatest Christmas Songs" CD or tape. A song with a meaning they knew far...too...well.
Herod the King, in hiiiiis ragiiiiiing...charged he hath this daaaaay!
His meeeeen of miiiiight...in hiiiiis own siiiight...all children young to slay!
Lullay, lullay, my little tiny child,
Bye-bye, lullay, lullay!
Bonnie could see the child's tear-filled eyes every time she closed her own. He'd just hung his head and covered his face as she stayed hidden in Hotland, hiding behind a natural pillar as the guards had advanced. The skeleton had been off in the distance, and had turned away as the guards raised their weapons, holding the jar in which he'd collect the youngling's soul under his arm. The guards hadn't...done a good job. Their first time hadn't...killed the redheaded little chef. They'd been too disturbed at killing something that hadn't even fought back once. Especially someone who had looked so much like the former princess Chara...
Every day Bonnie could see Anthony's body, his kind, sweet little face ashen and small in death. Every...damn...day.
Gaster wasn't the only one haunted in the night.
Oh woe is me, poor child for thee! And ever morn and day...
For thy parting...neither say nor sing...bye-bye, lullay, lullay!
Lullay, lullay, my little tiny child,
Bye-bye, lullay...luuuullaaaaay!
