First off, you have my most sincere apologies that this took so long. Really, there's no excuse for almost a whole year to go by without an update. The fact of the matter is I just got distracted by other things, some mundane and some very important, and it just got away from me. I'll try not to let it happen again. As much as I've wanted to do this story, I really should have been better about managing my time. I'm going to attempt to impose a schedule on myself and see if I can get better about writing this, trying to make sure I get out one chapter a week, but we'll see how that goes before I make any promises. More tentative plans than anything that I'm going to try to get better about balancing real life and my hobby of writing.
That all out of the way, I won't drone on any more. Please feel free to read and enjoy the chapter.
Entry #2
The human woke up a short time ago. It was much easier to calm him than I would have thought originally. I will attribute the original panic when he was being brought to the lab to the pain of the damaged caused from the fall more than the fact that he is now in the presence of monsters. I had theorized that we would be scary to him, but despite a bit of surprise when he woke, he is actually quite lucid. The situation was explained to him and he seemed oddly content when he was told he could never go back home.
Well, the child is very calm and collected. Surely a sign of maturity even though he still seems fairly young. Is this normal? Do humans mature at younger stages of development, or is this child just a very calm individual? I'm sure he should have some questions yet everything I tell him seems to do little to phase him. Humans have never been my field of study so my knowledge on them is entirely limited to texts and writings from before the Underground and the historical videos my assistant provides me with though they do not always seem…
There's hardly a point to that line of thought. My assistant is not known for her accuracy at times. It's something I have to work with her on. Until then, her data is always suspect and not worth reporting.
In any case, the child is doing well. I'm pleased to state the food provided to him healed him almost instantly. There was a slight momentary delay in effect but other magic seems to work just fine on this human. I must admit even though I've had little to do with this field before now, the prospect of learning more of this creature does fill me with a certain level of excitement. I will have to see what more I can find out at a later date. For now though, the royal family has to be informed of the child's state. I'm sure they'll want to see him soon.
Chapter 2: Communiqué
Fingers drummed on a desk, slow and methodical. A gradual and steady rhythm rapping over the smooth and polished wood, over and over. The sound was almost was almost hypnotizing, making it hard to ignore, though the sound was not as relaxing as it might have been under normal circumstances. In fact, it was getting downright hard to listen to. but it didn't seem polite to mention that out loud.
Frisk tried to ignore the sound instead, just waiting as best she could. It was fine. It was just going to be another half an hour and they'd be seen. Smoothing out her skirt, she glanced up at the wall clock, the ticking of the large white circle encased in a black plastic frame and glass almost matching the sound of fingernails drumming the desk a few feet away. The meeting was scheduled to start any moment now but she knew better. In fact, any time now…
"I'm sorry," the secretary said as she put down the phone she'd been talking quietly talking on. A Miss Smith, one of millions with that name out there, Frisk knew little about her even after all her time working with her. A crisp and professional woman with light blond hair always tied up in a tight bun and glasses set in front of her dark brown eyes. Never once had a single hair been out of place on the woman, the epitome of professionalism, even perfection if Frisk could say so. General Jegness had found himself a real gem when hiring her. It was why the ambassador would have known, even without having done this moment in their lives once before, what was about to be said next. "I'm afraid the General is running late in getting here. I just spoke to him. It's going to be another thirty minutes."
"Thirty?" Frisk asked.
"That is what he said," the other woman replied. "He extends his apologies. Apparently there was a minor accident on the road, but he will do his best to arrive promptly."
Frisk had already known this and would have tried to warn him in advance to take another path if she thought she could get away with it. However, casually telling someone to avoid a road that had yet to have an accident on it would probably have raised some suspicion. Her powers were very handy in several cases but it didn't mean using them all the time didn't come with risks. He'd been in the military for nearly twenty-five years now, serving longer than she had even been alive, and he already didn't think much of her mindset on monsters. The last thing she needed was him to be suspicious of her of any kind of wrong doing by telling him to avoid a route that he took every morning for him only to find out about a wreck…
Yeah, she didn't need to find out how he'd react to that kind of thing.
Still, she knew at least this wasn't his fault. As a man of the militaristic mindset, he fully believed in duty and performing to his utmost ability even with responsibilities he didn't care for. He didn't like her but wouldn't have been late to their meeting if he could help it. He was too much of a professional to act like that toward her, even if there had been once or twice it was clear he would have liked to toss her out of his office and never have to hear about her 'love all monsters nonsense' that she loved to spout, as he put it.
His politeness was more a maze than anything, sometimes treating her alright and sometimes not. Still, she knew he would be honestly remorseful about his delay. Frisk already knew what to say to ease his annoyance at the disruption of his schedule and use it to ease him into a more receptive mood of negotiation. The general was not the most pleasant of people but was a man of routine and it made him easy to predict, though not always easy to get him to agree with her. He was, after all, still very stubborn.
Honestly, it was just another one of the points of her job to deal with him in both his good and bad moments, and she was long since used to it. She'd learned just to accept it with a calm mind.
It didn't seem her companion agreed with her sentiment though.
"What do you mean we have to wait?! We've already been here nearly an hour!" Undyne yelled as she stood up suddenly to stalk over to the desk and slammed her fists on it. To Miss Smith's credit, she didn't flinch. She got people that were angry with the general all the time, after all. Frisk did notice though that she did back up in her chair just a little in order to discretely get out of reach of the fish monster in front of her. Frisk didn't blame her there. Undyne's claws were pretty sharp after all.
"Undyne, why don't we go take a short walk?" Frisk offered as she stood up. "We can take the extra time to discuss what we're going to say the general."
"What?! Oh come on! Fifty bucks says he's stalling and already in there!" Undyne proclaimed. "I could break the door down right now and prove it!"
"I think that might put a little damper on the diplomacy," Frisk replied, having to cover her mouth a bid to hide her smile. She had to appear professional after all, but her friend's reaction was kind of funny. Though, if the monster really did go and do such a thing it would not stay funny for very long. Ugh, she'd have to reset the whole nonsense all over again to avoid the man coming in to a broken door and she didn't really feel like bothering. "Trust me. He's a man of his word. He's not in there. Come on, it's only half an hour. Don't worry."
"Ugh. Fine, but I'm going to tell him what I think about this when we see him," Undyne grumbled. "The Royal Guard never would have been allowed to be so bad with punctuality."
"We'll be sure to use that as a point when arguing our case," she promised the fish monster as they walked out. The building was nicely decorated as they milled through the halls, offices of various military men sprinkled around with a few guards at a couple of doors. She largely ignored them as she made her way to a vending machine, though Undyne let her eyes roam over them without shame, clearly sizing them up. Unlike the secretary, several of them quickly looked away which caused her to snort and continue on. The monster didn't seem all that impressed.
"This happen a lot?" Undyne asked as Frisk handed her a bottle of water from the machine. She uncapped it and chugged the water down as Frisk sipped her own much more slowly. "Being forced to wait like this?"
"With General Jegness?" she asked. "No, of course not. He is actually a very decent military man, but that comes with its own pros and cons. He likes to keep his life neat and orderly, and is usually very good at keeping his word on anything he promises. However, most of the time his promises at me are… well, not very flattering. He doesn't like politicians at all and lets me know it often. Says we're all just blowhards who don't know who really has to work to keep the country running, that kind of thing. He seems to think it will make me nervous or something, put me on my toes and keep him in the spot of power for negotiations whenever we cross paths."
"Dick," Undyne muttered.
"He's not so bad. Just… set in his ways," Frisk replied. "Remember, he's been in the military since before monsters even arrived from under the mountain. Going from them not being around, to them suddenly appearing, getting rights and now wanting to join the military? It's kind of a big deal to him."
"You think he'll listen to reason?"
Frisk paused and looked down at her drink, trying to find her words. No, he probably wouldn't. He was stubborn and no matter what she said to him it never seemed to seep through. She'd already dealt with him on other matters. Government was always a big huge, tangled mess and it seemed like there were plenty of hands in the pie. Even when military wasn't involved with the matters she tried to tackle for monsters, she often saw a lot of the same faces. She could not longer even count how many times she'd had to go back and have the same conversation with him over and over again to try to find the right words that would make him listen to her point of view. It didn't even always work either. Again, he was just sometimes too stubborn for anything she could possibly say to make a difference.
"We'll just have to see," she said vaguely. "I'm actually hoping you can help out. He respects men and women of action, so I'm hoping he'll have some esteem for you and be more receptive. He doesn't hate monsters. He's just wary of them. If he can find common ground with you, we might just have ourselves an ally. Passing this law is going to fall a lot to public opinion and his word could sway things either way. For now, we're just going to have to wait to see him. Sorry though this is cutting into your day. I should have just have you arrive later."
"Forget it, nerd," Undyne snorted. "If he'd been on time and I'd been late then he would have just ushered you in and then complained when I wasn't there. Besides, it's not like I have anything else going on today. Alphys is busy with work and everything, but it's my day off so I'm pretty much free."
"Well, that's good," Frisk said with a nod of her head. "How's that going anyway? Her work, I mean?"
"Man, she's definitely enjoying herself. I never would have thought she'd want to actually make her hobbies into a career but she likes it, so more power to her," she said with a big smile. "I mean, being a professional translator in the anime industry doesn't exactly pay by the truckloads, but she made it pretty clear that she didn't want to go back to science. Besides, she gets to watch all those cartoons long before anyone else does so who wouldn't want to indulge?"
"Anything good?" Frisk asked.
"Couple of fighting animes. They're pretty cool, actually! A lot of action, though they don't stop to talk as much as others," Undyne grumbled. "It's like the animators didn't know you have to give the characters a chance to stand around and talk about their back stories and personal monologues. No respect for the classics."
"Less work for Alphys though."
"Bah."
Frisk smiled a bit and snickered at the sour look on Undyne's face. She seemed almost as upset about the pacing of the story as she was about this delayed meeting. A comment almost came of it but a sudden ringing of her phone cut her off.
"What the..." she said softly as she fished it out and flipped it open.
"What's wrong?"
"My phone. I could have sworn I turned it off," she said as she gazed at the screen. Tilting her head in confusion at the lit up surface, the number was not displayed, instead a simple message flashed at her. Blocked number.
Again?
"Um… one second. I need to see who this is," she informed Undyne. "Sorry."
"Oh sure. Go ahead."
With a flick of her thumb she flipped the phone open and raised it to her ear, though made sure to keep it a bit of a distance away just in case it shrieked at her like it had last time.
"This is Ambassador Dreemur. May I ask who's calling?" she spoke into the receiver. There was no answer for a long moment before a soft crackling filled the speaker of the device. Frisk didn't know why she had expected anything else. However, just as she was about to hang up and leave it for later, something seemed to come through.
It was faint, only barely there on the edge of her hearing. A soft whimper, weak and almost a hollow sound. It broke off only to start again, in different tempos and lengths as it began to get stronger and stronger as it morphed. Less and less did it sound like a groan yet it seemed to sound more…
Frisk honestly had no idea how to describe it. The tone was almost mechanical in nature but it didn't seem to quite fit. Despite beeping and a whirling sound in the background, almost impossible to pick up from the static, she somehow got the impression it was a machine making this noise. It was almost like a recording of someone's voice but so distorted and warped that there was no way to tell what the original message could have been.
A sigh escaped her when the line went dead, leaving her no closer to understanding what she'd heard than when this had happened yesterday. It was frankly confusing to her and more than a little strange.
Before the defeat of the law and her reset, she knew this had not happened. She'd been just sitting in the waiting room to General Jegness' office, waiting for him to arrive. There had been no call on her phone. She could not have possibly missed this somehow.
Things were progressing differently than she remembered and it she felt a little on edge because of it. As much as she knew the general was a man of routine, she was every bit a creature of habit too. It was a comfort to know what was going on in her life and right now…
She took a deep breath to calm herself and put her phone away after she was sure that it was off. It was just her phone acting up, nothing more. Whatever had happened to it, whatever was causing the malfunctions, she could deal with it at the proper time. There was any number of reasons her phone could be doing this.
She just wished she could think of one.
"You alright?" Undyne asked her. "You look a bit out of it."
"I'm fine. Just this cell phone," she replied with a wave of her hand, assuring her not to worry about it. "It's been acting up since yesterday. When I left you that message it just started spewing static at me, and it's been getting worse every since. I went out for the day with Sans and when I got back there were about twenty missed calls on the thing along with some kind of voice messages. All static and beeping and… I don't know what."
"Prank caller, maybe?" the monster suggested.
"Possible, but that doesn't explain why it started when I attempted contact with you," Frisk admitted. "It's… it's nothing, really. I just need to get it repaired."
The communication device getting a bit wonky was not something to get overly upset over. She used it a lot in her work. While it was more than a little strange that this was happening when she knew it shouldn't be, that was no reason to be overly worried about it. Fixing it would hopefully be easy enough, and even if it wasn't then she would simply have to get a new one. It wasn't like it was the end of the world or anything.
"After the meeting, we can head over to my place. Alphys could probably take a look at it," Undyne offered.
Frisk only laughed.
"I have full coverage on this. Taking it to my provider will be fine," she replied. "Besides, when I gave her my old phone she ended up putting a jet pack on the darn thing, remember?"
"To be fair, the Cooking with a Killer Robot episode was pretty cool," the fish chuckled. "What? Don't you want a jet pack again?"
"I can't say I can see how that would in any way help my current career or anything, no."
"Pfft. You're so boring these days."
"What? No I'm not."
"Uh… yeah, you are. You wear a suit dress to work every day, have a desk job and the most exciting thing happening to you is the fact your cell is having a speaker problem?" Undyne pointed out. "You're living in total drabsville, dweeb."
Frisk only rolled her eyes.
"Really feeling the love here, Undyne."
"Pfft. Well, I guess it's not such a bad job to have. You certainly are doing a lot for us," she admitted. "I mean, what if it had gone another way? What if we hadn't been able to get along and another war had broken out? No matter who won or lost, either humans or monsters just would have been gone. You're the link between us Frisk. If anything had ever happened, if we'd lost you-"
"Undyne, you don't have to say any of this," Frisk cut off with a sudden raise of her hand to stop the speech. This was not a pleasant conversation for her and it never had been. She appreciated the support, but Undyne was getting dangerously close to a truth that the human did not like discussing or even thinking about.
She couldn't explain the reason the words were so unsettling to her. Besides Sans, no one knew about her resets. It had been her closest guarded secret in the Underground and that had continued her entire life. She'd never wished to share it with anyone. It would have been too hard to explain to all of them, too great a burden to place on their shoulders. For them to know she had the power to erase parts of their lives and make them live it over and over again? Maybe they would have accepted it, or maybe it would have enraged them and filled them with horror. She figured on the latter.
Besides, it would bring forth certain questions she didn't want to answer, like how she was unable to truly die due to her determination. She didn't think she would ever have the courage to face the chance one of them might ask if they had ever succeeded in killing her.
Closing her eyes for a second, she tried to shake herself of the dark thoughts. Memories that she didn't like to visit clung to the back of her mind, seeping into her thoughts like a black smudge, staining her thoughts with events long since past. A sharp stabbing in her soul, the glowing spear embedded inside of her body as eyes widened and stared up at a triumphant face, large fangs bared at her in a ferocious smile before everything flashed into an explosion of golden light and she found herself at the foot of the familiar and small tunnel all over again, shivering in the strong winds and wanting to just run away from the fight that was bound to happen.
Sighing softly, she pinched the bridge of her nose and did her best to banish the unwelcome memories. That had all been years ago and had not been anything personal, even if it had felt like it at the time. She had gotten to know Undyne, laughed with her, cooked with her, set fire to her house on accident and in the end had become her friend and ally. That was what mattered.
It felt reassuring to look at the monster now and see a friend. Not an enemy, Frisk told herself firmly. A friend. They'd been so for years. Undyne had been one of the maids of honor at her wedding. She was kind and sweet, rough around the edges but loyal in so many ways. Those memories had come from a time Frisk had long since gotten past and away from. There was no reason to think about them.
"Frisk?" Undyne asked at the long silence.
"Thank you for the kind words," the ambassador said, seeing the intention Undyne had as she pushed the thoughts of their erased past back where they belonged. "It's not needed though. This is my job, even if you think it's a little boring. I swore back when we escaped the Underground that I was going to work my hardest to make life better for monsters, and that's what I'm going to do. If you want to thank me though, try to help me talk things out with the general. I think with your help I might have a chance of getting him to speak in favor of the proposal. As long as you don't lose your temper at him."
"Me? Lose my temper? When has that ever happened?" the former captain snorted.
"Uh… fifteen minutes ago when you were yelling at his secretary?"
"Well, yeah. Besides that though."
"This morning when your breakfast got ruined?"
"Hey! That package said the eggs could be microwaved in that stupid little plastic cup thing! They exploded!"
"Heh. You're right. What was a I thinking? Your the epitome of complete calm."
"Damn straight I am."
Why had Frisk thought this was a good idea again? She should have brought Doggo or something. With her luck, Undyne would end up throwing the man out a window. Finding common ground between the two might be harder than she thought it was going to be at first.
Oh well. If she'd ever learned anything in her life it was nothing ventured, nothing gained.
"Speaking of the general, we should probably be heading back to wait for him. I'm sure he's already going to be in a bit of a foul mood by being so late himself, and I'm pretty sure he has other appointments today. If we're late getting back ourselves he's not going to make extra time for us to let us make our case. He'll just cut us off to get to the others who want his time and attention," Frisk mentioned. "Better if we're waiting for him when he arrives and not waste any time."
"You sure are going to a lot of effort to appease this guy. We really need his support that badly?" Undyne asked.
Frisk thought back to all the articles in the paper and interviews in the news during the debates over this law. A lot of them had been with General Jegness and he'd had a very successful campaign to keep monsters out of his military. For a man who had no love for politicians, he certainly had been good at swaying a crowd to see his point of view. He certainly hadn't been the only one to oppose the law but he'd had one of the loudest voices on the topic. If there was any way to make this go another way, he was the key to changing it.
"Yes, I'm pretty sure that we do," she said firmly as she led the female monster back to the waiting room.
#-#
"S-so… how did it g-go?"
Frisk wanted to collapse as she walked into the living room of the apartment that Undyne and Alphys shared, and she would have if there was anywhere to actually sit. The place wasn't all that small but it was cramped beyond all belief. Comics and manga littered the many surfaces of tables, bookshelves and the few chairs sitting around and lone couch, along with workout equipment everywhere on the floor that took up just as much space. It wasn't really messy or dirty per se, but disorganized would be a good word for it. Their main room had long since seemed to have turned into a sort of personalized storage area for the both of them, their kitchen and bedroom in better shape but only just barely.
The reptile monster called it organized chaos, and as she was always able to lay her claws on anything she was looking for in mere seconds, Frisk could only guess that was true. The odd system seemed to work for the two of them just fine.
It still left the ambassador without anywhere to sit though and that was making her feel kind of cranky on top of the morning she had already had.
"Uh… that well, huh?" Alphys asked from the expression on the human's face.
"Huh? Oh no, it went fine," she answered and gave a little smile. It was a tired one but enthusiastic. Undyne had been great, just like she'd hoped for. She'd sat down with the general and discussed all sorts of things. Her duties as the head of the Royal Guard, her previous experiences as captain and everything in between. Even little things like how she'd decided who got what shifts of guard duties and decision making in recruitment had been gone over in great length.
Fisk had been right to have some faith in her friend for being able to handle this. Undyne might have a temper and easy to fly off the handle, but she'd still been a professional soldier. She'd been able to keep her cool relatively well.
It would have been perfect if not for the ending.
"Oh man, Alphys! You should have seen it! I was freaking amazing!" Undyne declared as she slammed the door shut. "That guy was so freaking stuffy I didn't think I could have stood another minute talking to him! He probably hasn't seen even half the action I have!"
"Well, she hid it well at least," Frisk sighed, trying to look on the bright side.
"After the meeting was done, I just had to give him one last good impression of us monsters and what we're capable of," the monster explained proudly. "Give him a taste of some pure, raw power!"
"Oh-oh my. What did y-y-you do?" her girlfriend asked.
"Well, there was this really cool tank outside the complex, right? You could see it right from the office we were talking in."
"An antique tank, actually," the ambassador pointed out.
"Yeah, real old and stuff. I just couldn't stop looking at it. It was so cool looking that it inspired me," the fish laughed.
"What did you do?"
"She leaped out his window and lifted the thing over her head," Frisk muttered.
"Ha! It was easy!"
"I'm lucky you didn't break it. Antique tanks can't just be replaced at the supermarket, you know," she stated.
"Ah, come on. I put it down just fine. Didn't even get a scratch. It certainly impressed that old man of yours. And to think you thought he wouldn't be able to see the upside of monsters serving alongside humans," Undyne said. "Pffft. Doubt he thinks that now."
On that note, Frisk wasn't really sure. She didn't think she would use the word impressed. Shocked more like it. He hadn't said anything when he'd turned from the sight out his window of the monster with the very heavy war machine held over her head and had just silently shown Frisk out. She had a feeling he'd been too shocked to really say much of anything, but it was clear his mind was going to be going a mile a minute when he had time to process it.
She hoped that it wouldn't lead to anything bad. Most of the meeting had gone just fine. Undyne hadn't gone and punched him or anything, and it was already common knowledge that some monsters were insanely strong. If she was lucky this wouldn't lead to any bad repercussions. Part of her, a very large part in fact, wanted to just go back a couple of hours in order to stress to her friend that any feats of strength were completely unnecessary. It would have been perfect then but her promise to Sans had made her stop from considering it too deeply.
After all, who knew? Maybe it would work out in their favor. Even if it didn't, Frisk could try to smooth it over if she had to. Undyne hadn't caused any damage or anything. It had just been a little bit of showing off. That was just what she did. The human would feel a bit more confident if it had not happened at all. As it was though, it seemed good enough to allow herself to proceed. There was still four months to work with until the vote on the matter. The odds of this one little incident affecting things that much were pretty remote.
Granted, it itched at her instincts to go back just a little and fix it. It wasn't really needed though. At least she hoped not anyway. Even if it was, there was no way she could risk breaking her promise just a day after making it. Sans might notice and he'd know what she did. Even if he didn't, she would know and it was just as bad if not worse.
"Well, g-good to know it went smoothly," Alphys said with a smile. "I have to admit I was just a teensiest bit worried. Nothing you've ever told me of General Jegness has been very flattering."
"Guess I do complain about him a bit much. He seemed more mellow during our talks today though," Frisk admitted. "I should have brought Undyne to meet him ages ago."
"See? Told you I left a good impression on him."
"I hope so. We can't afford for you not to have."
"You worry too much, Frisk. It'll be fine," the monster assured her. "Anyway, while you're here, want some grub? I can fix up something to eat while Alphys looks at your phone for you. You've got to be hungry by now."
"Is something wrong with your phone?" Alphys asked.
"The speaker is broken I think. It keeps making all these garbled noises and I'm getting a lot of calls from a blocked number. I think someone is trying to get in contact with me but it's impossible to understand what they're saying," Frisk explained.
"Sure it's on your end?" the former scientist asked as she took the cell from Frisk as it was handed to her, looking it over with a critical eye. "Doesn't look broken but I could crack it open. See if some wires are loose or something."
"I think it's probably on my end," she admitted. "It's mostly been with this number but it happened with a call that I tried to make too yesterday. I was planning on replacing it if I had to but if you can get it working again it sure would save me a lot of hassle. Getting a new phone and storing all my contacts and information into a new one right before I had to dive into this military issue would be a huge pain."
"That d-does sound kind of in-inconvenient," she agreed. "Okay. I'll see what I can do. Want me to take a look at it now?"
"If you don't mind."
"I'll go ahead and get some whipped up in the kitchen while you two see to that," Undyne offered. "How's some instant noodles sound? We got beef, shrimp and chicken."
"Oooh. Chicken for me," her girlfriend stated with a smile.
"I think I'll have shrimp," Frisk agreed.
"Right. Won't be long."
While Undyne went to the kitchen to get them all something to eat, Frisk followed Alphys back into the bedroom. It was also pretty much her work area, computer set up and a bookshelf full of tapes and notebooks crammed together. Frisk could only guess deadlines for a new anime were coming up soon and the reptile was hard at work to get her commissioned translation done in time.
"I hope I'm not imposing. Undyne insisted I come here to get you to look at it. I could have just as easily gotten tech support from my provider to handle it," Frisk said.
"Oh, it's no trouble. You know I love this kind of stuff," she replied with a shaky sort of laugh. "Besides, it's always nice to see you, Frisk. Things are going to get busy for you pretty soon, s-so who knows when we'll have a chance to h-hang out?"
"Mmm, I guess that's true," she admitted. Work swamped her pretty easily on the best of days. The whole monster embassy was a pretty small staff. It was really just her and her assistant, and as much as M. K. did his best to help… Well, he was enthusiastic about his work, every bit as she was, but he'd never stopped being so clumsy. He really did help with the workload in his own way, often taking on duties of talking to monsters about their woes or questions on legal advice, or scheduling meetings and keeping things running smoothly for her, though he'd never been the best at things like paperwork given the obvious circumstances.
She really would like to hire another person soon. They were both going to end up very busy before she knew it. She'd tried to keep the work to just the two of them the last time, but maybe additional help might be in order. It couldn't hurt her chances after all.
"In any case, do you think you can fix it?" Frisk asked, figuring if she had to get a replacement it should get put on the list of her errands sooner rather than later.
"Mmm, probably. If it really is just a speaker problem than that shouldn't be too big of an issue. Worst case scenario is that it might need some new parts,"
Alphys said. "Though I think I can handle it without doing anything like that. I'm going to listen to the voice mail messages first though, see if I can hear exactly what seems to be wrong. M-mind if I give them a listen?"
"Oh no. Go right ahead. The password to get into that is my birth year."
"R-right. Okay. Let's see here."
Alphys typed the numbers in gently and listened to the phone. Frisk herself had already heard each of the messages at least once already. She'd been hoping one of them would have come in clear and she would have had some clue about who was trying so hard to get in contact with her. Sadly it had been no such luck. Though maybe the monster would have a better shot at it. Alphys was much better with machines than she herself could ever hope to be.
"Hmm. It does sound p-p-pretty distorted," she hummed as she listened to the first couple of messages, replaying them both a couple of times. "I'm not sure if this is your speaker t-though. If it was, it would be messing up in random spots. The first message just keeps glitching out at the same points over and over again, m-making the same sounds. Whatever the issue is, it w-was recorded, so that means it was probably the caller's problem."
"But it made a lot of fuss when I called Undyne too," Frisk pointed out.
"You sure?"
"Of course I am."
"S-sorry!" Alphys suddenly cried out, as if she'd just been snapped at instead of the calm tone Frisk had used. "I didn't mean to in-insinuate that you… I mean that don't you know your own b-business."
"What do you mean?" Frisk asked. "You didn't do anything of the sort."
"Uh… right. S-sorry," the monster replied.
"Alphys? Are you okay?" she asked. It was in no way strange for the monster to stutter or be nervous but this seemed extreme even for her, especially over something so small as a phone acting up. "Really, I'm a bit worried now."
Alphys glanced down at the device in her claws before sighing softly and glancing away.
"I… I don't know. All of a sudden I-I-I just feel a little on edge. Weird, right?" she chuckled out before shaking her head. "Anyway, I can run a few t-tests on it, plug it into my computer and run some diagnostics on it. B-before that, I'll try to make a few test calls. Do you mind?"
"Sure. Go ahead," she replied with a nod and a patient smile. Whatever was making her friend nervous, she wanted to do her best to put her at ease any way that she could. "Any idea how long it might take?"
"An hour, maybe?" Alphys guessed. "Maybe a teensy bit longer?"
"Enough time to get something to eat then. Do you need to be with the computer when it's running the diagnostic?" she asked.
"Oh, n-no."
"Great. We can eat with Undyne then while it's doing that and hopefully by the time we're done it should be finished. Thanks again for being willing to do this for me. Really, I don't know what the issue is with this thing. If you could fix it or even figure out the problem it would be a huge help," Frisk said encouragingly, to which Alphys blushed deeply.
"A-ah. Oh w-wow. It's n-nothing, really," she said happily, even as she stuttered, clearly moved by the praise. Seemed she wasn't so tense anymore now. Frisk was pretty happy for that. "T-tell you what. Why don't you try to m-make a call? See if anything goes wrong?"
"Sure. I should check in with Sans anyway to let him know where I am. This trip to your guys' apartment wasn't really planned after all. He should be getting off for his lunch break around this time anyway," she replied as she dialed the phone before holding it up to her ear.
It rang several times and the human was about to give up and try someone else' number instead when she heard the distinctive beep of someone answering.
"Heya," Sans said on the other side of the line, thankfully coming in crystal clear. Looks like Alphys was right about nothing being too wrong with it. "What's up? Done with your meeting?"
"Yes, all finished," she answered. "I ended up accompanying Undyne to her apartment for lunch and I wanted to check in and let you know where I was."
For some reason only silence answered. Oh darn it, had something happened after all?
"Hello?" she asked.
"W-what's wrong?" Alphys whispered.
"I think we got cut off," Frisk said. "Hello, Sans can you hear me?"
"Oh yeah. Sorry, I got distracted," he replied. "Just checking the cameras one last time before I head off for lunch."
"Oh geez. I was worried for a second," she grumbled before realization hit her. "Wait, are you still working? I'm sorry. I guess I called too early."
"Nah, forget about it," he assured her. "My relief literally just walked into the office. It's cool. Hey, tell you what, how about I come and-"
The phone suddenly screamed out in static so loud even Alphys covered her ears, flinching at the noise.
"Oh geez! Oh no!" she cried out as she snatched it up, hanging up quickly. "Yeah, this thing definitely has some issues to it."
"Darn it. It cut him off," Frisk said. "Can I borrow your phone real fast? I'll call him back."
"S-sure. Go ahead."
"Thanks," she said as Alphys handed her own over. Frisk took no time to call him again, though it went straight to voice mail. He had to be trying to call back her own phone or something. "Hey, honey. I'm sorry. My phone is acting up a lot right now so I just borrowed Alphys to get back in contact with you. I didn't hear what you said when you got cut off, but when you get this message just call her phone if you want, okay? Anyway, I'll talk to you later. Love you."
"Well, so much for it being an issue on the caller's end," Frisk sighed out as she put down the borrowed phone. "Any ideas? You don't think it's a virus, do you? Like I caught it from the person calling me?"
"Doesn't work like that. Maybe if you'd gotten a text message with something attached to it," Alphys mused. "Did you?"
"No, nothing like that."
"Hmm, weird. Well, I'll hook it up for now," she said as she started fiddling with her computer, pulling out a wire to connect the cell to it and then start opening a few programs. Frisk looked over her shoulder in curiosity, but it all looked too foreign to her to make heads or tails of it. "H-how about we go join Undyne for lunch, eh? She should be finished cooking by now."
"Sounds good to me," Frisk replied before they made their way to the kitchen. The auroma of ramen was wafting in the air, smelling pretty nice actually. It was downright hard to screw up instant cups after all, even for an enthusiastic and extreme cook like the former head of the Royal Guard.
She sat at the small table and ate her lunch while the couple talked. Mostly tuning them out, she focused on blowing on her noodles to cool them off and taking small bites of the food. Part of her was listening in for Alphys' cell to ring, just in case Sans tried to call. She wasn't sure what he was about to say but it had sounded like he'd been thinking about stopping by. Though, if he was going to then he'd clearly changed his mind. He could have teleported here by now if he'd wanted to join them for lunch. Maybe he'd been saying something else or had changed his mind. Well, she would see him tonight so it wasn't a big deal.
Still, for some reason she wished he'd call back. After this morning it would be nice to hear his voice again for longer than a few moments. Oh well.
Frisk looked down at her noodles, the food swirling gently in the styrofoam cup with the tiny shrimp and vegetables. An odd feeling was starting to fill her, crawling in though her mind and settling down just out of sight. She couldn't shake the thought she should be somewhere, doing something. It made no sense though since she'd made sure the morning was completely clear for her meeting. She didn't have anything later on today except to make sure some letters and memos were sent out, a few calls to make from her office as well, but nothing else than that. For the moment she should be relaxing, letting herself just enjoy lunch and the company of her friends.
Why hadn't Sans called back? He really should have. Had she called him last time? Putting her cup down, she rubbed at her forehead and tried to remember if she had or not. It was such a small little detail there was no way to recall or not. She hadn't had Undyne with her last time so she hadn't ended up at her apartment. What had she done for lunch? There was a small diner not far from where the general worked. Frisk was fairly sure she'd gone there, but more because that was often her stopping place if she was nearby rather than a certain memory. The coffee wasn't very good, often burned, but the service was fast so she could often get food to go if she was in a hurry.
Had she been in a hurry then? The meeting with General Jegness had run long… mostly arguing with him. She'd been in a rush to get back to the office but…
No, she had called Sans. She could remember now. She'd asked him if he minded handling dinner himself because she was probably going to be late getting home that night. Frisk had been so frantic that day, things feeling hectic and horrible, like it was already going all wrong. It had gone all wrong. Ugh, she should have just reset from that meeting alone. Why hadn't she just grabbed Undyne and brought her along the first time? She'd wasted four months for nothing.
She made Sans go back four months. She'd made everyone go back four months. She should have been smart enough to fix it the first time. She should have-
"Frisk?"
"Huh!" she gasped out as she looked up to see the two monsters staring at her. "Is… is something the matter?"
She didn't like the way the two glanced at each other. Their expressions were worried. Was something wrong?
"You just… you weren't responding at all," Undyne said. Her voice, normally so firm and strong, sounded concerned. "Totally spacing out. You okay?"
Was she okay? Frisk honestly didn't know. For a moment she'd felt completely at peace with everything, but then it was like everything was wrong that she couldn't fix it. A small little nagging worry had just formed inside of her only to start snowballing as she got lost in thought. Maybe the date she'd had with Sans hadn't been enough. Maybe she should have tried to relax a little more. It was clear stress was starting to get to her.
"I guess I just spaced out," she said with a shake of her head. "Sorry. You know how it is. Trying to make sure all my ducks are in a row for work. I didn't mean to ignore you guys."
"I-it's fine," Alphys replied.
"So anyway, what were you saying?" Frisk asked.
"Just wanted to know if you were full," Undyne replied. "You were staring at your ramen for a while."
"Oh… um," she said as she glanced down at her cup of noodles. They weren't even steaming anymore and looked a little plump in the water. How long had she been out of it for? Honestly, she was letting herself worry way too much if she was acting this bad. Maybe another little break was in order. Perhaps Sans would like to do something around the house to help her relax like a couple board games or a movie. If there was anyone who knew how to let nothing ever get them down and just relax, it was him.
She sighed softly before shrugging and gave a bit of a smile.
"Sorry. I guess I'm not very hungry," she said. "Didn't mean to make you cook for nothing. I'll just throw this away."
Frisk stood up quickly to toss the food in the trash can but Undyne's chair scrapped over the floor as she stood up and grabbed the woman's wrist.
"Undyne?" she asked, a little uncertainly as the monster moved in close and peered at her carefully. "Undyne, what is it?"
"You sure you're okay, Frisk?" the monster asked. "This isn't the first time that you've spaced out today, you know. I can't help but start to think something is bothering you."
"It's just the work load," she admitted honestly. "It's been… getting to me, I think."
"O-oh dear. Y-y-you shouldn't overw-work yourself, Frisk," Alphys stated. "Your health is important. If you need to take a break then-"
"No. No, I can't," Frisk said with a firm shake of her head. "I can't. Everyone is counting on this law getting passed. I couldn't possibly try to stop right now."
"Alphys is right though," Undyne reaffirmed. "Tell you what, when your phone is up to specs again, you send me your schedule. I'll see what I can do to help."
"But your work," Frisk protested.
"Bah. Oh come on, I'm just working as a personal trainer right now. I think I can work something out with my cleints. Besides, you're busting your butt to just get us monster into the military. I think that's way more important for my career in the long run," she laughed loudly with only the confidence that the fish woman could muster up. At times it still surprised Frisk just how lively her friend could be. "Look, just let me help out, okay? You already asked once after all, and that turned out great!"
Frisk wasn't so sure that the word great was the best way to describe how the meeting had gone, but she didn't know it had gone poorly either. Still, it wasn't like the two of them didn't have a point. If she was so out of it that she couldn't even keep herself focused enough for a casual conversation then what hope did she have for the coming trials ahead? She could use the assistance and this was a personal investment for Undyne anyway, along with a lot of other monsters. Doing this alone had already failed. What did she have to lose by accepting the help of one of her closet friends?
"I have been working kind of hard lately," she admitted. "Sans was saying the same thing just the other night too. I guess I should be more conscious of this kind of thing."
Undyne frowned for a moment before reached out and scooped the human up effortlessly. Frisk gave a loud meep in surprise but it was not listened to or paid the slightest bit of attention to.
"Come on. We're going back to the waiting room so you can sit down," she said in a tone that made it clear she did not want to be argued with.
"U-Undyne, I'm just a little distracted, I'm not hurt or anything!" Frisk protested as she felt her cheeks get hot at the idea of the fish monster carrying her around like she was just a little kid again. She hadn't been a child for years! She was fine!
"Don't talk back, brat," she said with a full grin. "You have some more time until the phone is done anyway. Isn't that right, Alphys?"
"Y-yes, right," the doctor replied, nodding slowly.
"So you might as well rest up a bit, Frisk," she said as she carried the flustered woman to the living room. The human ambassador for all of monster kind, savior of the Underground, and the holder of the power to save and reset, all but powerless at the might of a stubborn monster to force her to take a break.
She was starting to see that as a pattern in her life.
Oh well. Frisk supposed it didn't matter if she spent her lunch break in the kitchen or sitting down on the couch. Either way she was going to have to wait on her cell, just like Undyne had said herself. Still, it was more than a little embarrassing to be touted around like that.
Not that saying anything to Undyne about it would in any way dissuade her.
"Thank you," she said when she was set down after Undyne had cleared some stuff off the couch, trying not to sound ungrateful or gruff at all. She didn't want to seem like she didn't appreciate the effort, even if the execution could have used some work. Still, expecting Undyne to be subtle was kind of pointless. Once she set her mind on something, she just did it and that was all that there was to it. After so much time in company, honestly Frisk should be used to it by now.
After that, Alphys just went back to the bedroom to get back to work, or so the woman assumed. Honestly after all this fuss, she wondered if maybe she shouldn't have gotten a professional to work on it after all. At least then she wouldn't have been forced to sit around like a child. Ironic really, considering she could probably remember living more years than either Undyne or Alphys had at this point.
Not that they knew that.
Not that she'd ever let them know.
She ran a hand through her hair. Yes, those were the thoughts she had been precisely trying to avoid in the first place. She really should stop letting her mind wander.
"So, you really want to help out with my work more?" she asked, mostly just to distract herself.
"Yeah. Well, at least for this case," Undyne replied. "I think I could probably arrange more character witnesses for you too. You know, from the old Royal Guard? You said this was going to go to court, right?"
"There is supposed to be a long hearing before the vote is cast, yes," Frisk replied.
"Great! We'll be sure to get plenty of monsters to talk about it then!"
Frisk had to admit, it was worth a shot, though she would have to make sure she prepped any monster she brought into it thoroughly considering what their job had formerly been. The other slain humans… it was a very strict secret of what had befallen their fate. If it had ever gotten out that they'd been killed for the sake of monster's freedom, peace would have been impossible when the they had emerged. Getting the monsters who had specifically been tasked with hunting those humans on the stand would be tricky. It's why she had avoided it last time, but it seems she would have to risk it. Well, they all knew already it wasn't okay to talk about it so it should be fine as long as she worked out the details of what would be talked about and avoided at the hearing.
"Okay then. Go ahead and get a list prepared of monster you think will be able to help. We'll go from there," she replied with a nod. "Thank you for being so helpful in all of this."
"Of course!" she boasted as she playfully punched Frisk's arm. Though, even playfully, it still throbbed a bit. Ow. "We're all counting on you, after all! It's the least I can to help out!"
"Heh… yeah," she said softly. "Everyone is counting on me."
And they wondered why they had to urge her to take breaks when they said things like that too? Oh well, it was true. Everyone was counting on her. Even if no one said it, they all knew it was the case and she did too. There was nothing to be done about it.
"Frisk?" Alphys asked when she walked back into the room, Frisk's cell phone held in her yellow claws.
"Oh, hey Alphys. How's the phone look?" she asked. "Where you able to figure out what was wrong with it?"
"Uh… well, no. I don't think so," she admitted. "According to the diagnostic, there isn't anything wrong with it at all."
"That can't be right. You hear it yourself when it filled with static," Frisk said.
"Yes, I did. I-I just mean the diagnostic didn't catch anything," she said. "So there's no internal program where it comes to the programing. No apps are messing up or anything is what I mean. I would say it could be a physical p-problem, like your speakers shorting out but… well… like I said before, I don't think that it would catch on a recording if that were the case. It would be messing up on different parts every single time. Instead it seems that the static is part of messages, would make it look like the issue was with the one who called you, but..."
"But I had the same problem when I called Sans and Undyne," Frisk concluded, to which Alphys nodded.
"Sorry. I'm not sure what the issue could be then," she admitted. "Unless… you think S-Sans maybe was pranking you somehow?"
"He was with me when the calls happened so I don't think he could have done it. Even he's not that good. Besides, he would have taken credit by now if it were a joke," she replied.
The reptile's shoulders slumped a bit at having to seem to have run out of possible theories.
"S-sorry. I guess I wasn't m-much help after all," she said sadly.
"Oh, Alphys. It's okay. You did your best. At least you know it's not an issue on my end," she said with a smile.
"Yeah. Though… I was going to ask something. It's about the messages. This might sound a little weird but… I-I think that I-I've heard something like it before. They sound oddly f-familar," she stated. "Would you mind if I maybe borrowed it a little listen to them some more?"
"Familiar?" Undyne asked. "What do you mean?"
"I'm not… entirely sure," she admitted hesitantly. "I can't quite put my claw on it. It's just… familiar. Maybe I've heard this issue before and just not remembered it clearly. Bratty and Catty had me work on their electronics all the time after all, including their phones. Maybe this is something similar. I think if I h-had a chance to listen to the messages a bit longer, I might be able to figure out the i-issue for you, Frisk. Can you spare your phone for a bit?"
"I think that depends on how long it would be," she stated. "I mean, I will need it for work a lot."
"Oh, d-don't worry about that. I'll just keep it until tomorrow," she reassured her. "You c-c-could pick it up in the morning before you had to go anywhere, p-p-promise. I'll just record the messages onto my computer and try to analyze them there, okay?"
"Well, I guess that will work out," she admitted. It's not like she couldn't survive the night without the thing, and if this wasn't figured out then she was sure that it would drive her crazy for a while now in curiosity in just who was trying so hard to get in contact with her. "I'll swing by with Sans in the morning and grab it before work."
"G-Great!" she said enthusiastically. "I'll be super careful with it, promise!"
"I know," Frisk stated with a smile.
"Well, if that's all, I guess I should get you back to work," Undyne said with a grin. "You ready to go, Frisk, or was there anything else you needed?"
"No, I think that's it," she admitted. "Thanks for all the help, you two."
"Of course! No problem," Undyne said. "Come on, let's go."
Before the two headed out, the fish monster was sure to give her girlfriend a quick kiss. Frisk had to admit, the way she squealed when it happened was rather cute. Those two never got old, that was for sure.
She just hoped that whatever was going on, Alphys would be able to figure it out.
End of Chapter 2
I adored writing Undyne in this. She was absolutely fantastic, but considering she's one of my favorite characters then I guess that's just to be assumed. Alphys was a bit more difficult. I wanted to have the stutter there obviously but did my best to keep it from coming up every sentence since I didn't want to overdo it. Now though I'm not sure now if I did it enough. On the other hand, every time I thought about adding more to it then it just seemed like unneeded padding.
Thoughts on it? Did she come alright, or should I tweak her speech a bit? If so, then in what way? I'd appreciate the opinions.
Also, just reviews in general. I always love to hear what my readers think about my work.