Things were going quite well until Marty had to screw everything up.
In their Base Camp, there was a large quantity of jobs to be done. Ranging from tactical (Sydna handled most of this) to medical (NurseTem worked in this field) to organizational (her and her fiancé's field) and…then there was a field lovingly referred to as 'impractical'.
The young princess saw little use to the current development of this field. However, Asgore had been swayed to allow and assist in their meddling experiments. The main duo of monsters who tinkered away in their tents all day were Doctor Wingdings Gaster, and Marty.
Gaster had been the one to persuade Asgore to allow the pursuit of his activities. He was a tall and slender monster, although rumor has it the majority of his height comes from his legs. The lights in his tar-black eyes would flare like stars when he was excited, and his dark smile would bend and stretch to reflect his current mood. He was pale-faced and limber, and could often can be seen drifting about the camp like a phantom. A very excitable phantom. One with a tendency to screech like a child upon seeing something that catches his fancy. If the doctor wasn't quirky enough already, he also had a strange tendency to move in hands in a rather particular manner when he is speaking or even when he's not. Very few monsters understood these movements, and the few that did had only a very vague grasp of what he was trying to portray.
With the exception of Marty.
Marty was Gaster's peer, although he was more commonly called an assistant. He was a stout monster, yellow in color and resembling a bi-pedal lizard of sorts. He wore a crown of scaled fringes that pointed off from his head. In front of his eyes, which were usually narrowed in either a scowl or thought, were a pair of rectangular glasses that were constantly being re-adjusted. Although the small man was considered brilliant when it came to academics, most monsters found him…well, to be nice, annoying. It was in his nature to be blunt and straight-forward, often forgetting about a little concept called 'manners' in its entirety. This led to some angry or upset monsters and Marty being completely oblivious to their distress. Yet, despite all of these negative traits, he and Gaster had proven to be quite productive as a team.
But perhaps the greatest fault of Marty was that he didn't know when to mind his own business.
This was what led him to follow the young princess to a long-abandoned shack in the woods. Now, whether it was his intent to stay hidden was unclear. As it was, he walked behind her in plain sight, his footsteps syncing perfectly in time to hide behind the noise of her louder ones. He didn't say anything, simply watching through narrowed eyes and observing the way she moved, warily looking about and unknowingly staring right over her stalker's head. Marty wasn't dumb by any means. And just by looking at his to-be matriarch, he can tell she was hiding something. And he wanted to know what it was.
So when she got to the shack, he finally spoke up.
"What's this, your Majesty?" he asked, raising one scaled brow skeptically. The princess spun on heel, staring down on him with wide and surprised eyes. She folded her hands in front of her, regaining her composure a tad too late.
"Marty. What can I help you with?" she said.
The scientist responded with a short huff. He peered around her, eyeing the door. "I'll admit to a slight curiosity of your stalking off into the woods by yourself to a mildly suspicious shack."
"I believe you might be paranoid." Toriel said curtly.
"I believe you might be full of shit." Marty responded just as curtly. He backed up a step, looking up at her and crossing his short arms over his chest.
Toriel and Marty met gazes, their glares practically creating an angry wave of emotion that swarmed between mutual disgust.
"As I had said, it is nothing of importance." Toriel said, her voice strained as she struggled to remain calm.
"First, you never did say that." Marty pointed out, his voice level and calm much to Toriel's annoyance. He eyed her "Secondly, should I see this as a potential threat, I will not hesitate to mention it to Wingdings."
Toriel couldn't stop her shoulders from rising. And from the smug smirk on Marty's face, she could tell he had noticed. She sighed in her defeat. Much to the lizard man's confusion, she knelt onto her knees to be eye-level with him.
"Marty, PLEASE, don't tell anyone about this." She all but begged. Marty blinked, tilting his head a tad and fidgeting with the alignment of his spectacles. He crossed his arms again.
"What is it, your majesty?" He threw her title at her as if it were a threat.
Toriel sighed, stumbling back onto her feet and knocked on the door. It was returned with a soft scratch, to which Toriel responded with,
"Please just open the door."
Followed by a moment of silence. Then,
"Okoi." And the door being slowly opened. NurseTem, half-hiding behind the doorframe, glared at Marty and bared her small fangs. "MORTY."
"It's Marty." He corrected curtly, stepping into the building with little thought. Toriel sighed, rubbing at her snout, and followed the scientist in. He stared at the wounded human, who gave a forced grin and attempted to slide out of sight by throwing the blanket over his head. Marty shot Toriel a glare.
"What the hell is this!?" he snapped, motioning to the patient in an angry wave. NurseTem slammed the door shut, scrambling up onto a windowsill and staring intently into the wilderness.
"A human." Toriel said. "I found him injured and-"
"AND NOTHING!" Marty snapped "That's a HUMAN! Y'know, the species we're currently AT WAR with!?"
"hey, i told her that too." The human said with a shrug.
"No one asked you!" Marty hissed.
"rude." he chuckled.
"Marty, please-" Toriel began.
"PLEASE NOTHIN'!" He snapped. He took a deep breathe, forcing his voice to quiet but failing from keeping it from hissing out of his teeth "Your Majesty, with all due respect, this is a very, very, dangerous action. I understand your heart is in the right place, but this is a very bad idea."
"your life was a very bad idea." The human said casually.
"oooOOOOOOOOHHHH!" NurseTem howled, raising her paws to frame the human. Toriel and Marty both shot the cat-dog a glare. She cowered under their gazes. The human gave her a friendly scratch behind one of her ears.
"hey, thanks buddy."
Marty huffed, glaring back at Toriel "I'm telling Wingdings."
"NOOOOOUUUUUU!" NurseTem barked "Don't Tell DOoocter Goister!"
"who?" the human asked, going ignored.
"Marty, please! He'd kill him!" Toriel said.
"GOOD! Better than having a SPY running around!" Marty hissed.
"c'mon, who's 'gaster'?"
"He's not a spy!"
"How the hell would you know!?"
"NU TELL GOISTER! NUUUU!"
"hello….?" The human mumbled "can someone tell me who 'gaster' is….?"
"SHUT UP!" The three monsters turned, snapping at him in unison. The white-haired man mumbled, slouching back into the bedding and settled for watching the three decide his fate. Yawning slightly, he threw the soft blanket around his shoulders and turned himself into a cozy little dumpling. Through half-lidded eyes he watched them argue. He felt the pressure of small paws on his shoulder and the barking of NurseTem brush against his face.
Eventually, when it became evident this argument was going to be stuck in a never-ending loop, he interrupted with:
"i say you just kill me."
Toriel and Marty both stared at him. The young princess covered her mouth with her paws, eyes brimming with tears as she struggled to find something to say. Marty stared at him like he grew an extra head. Then snapped.
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN WE SHOULD KILL YOU?"
"like you said, there really ain't a reason for me to live." He shrugged "and really it just makes more sense to kill me, anyway."
This left the scientist in an elongated silence. His mouth moved, although no words came out, and he stared at Toriel, then at the human, and gave a brief glance to the now-wailing Temmie who clung on the man while crying out 'Nnnuuuuuuuuuuu'.
Marty snorted, turning his back towards the man. The tip of his tail twitched indignantly and he muttered.
"Y'know what? Fine. Keep the dumbass alive."
Toriel stared at him, shocked "Wh….Really?"
"Yeah." Marty huffed. He shot a glare to the human, then looked back to the princess "I'm not going to tell Wingdings about him." He voice dropped to a growl "But I sure hope you know what the hell you're doing."
Toriel nodded, straightening herself. A small smile was set on her face. "I believe I do. Thank you, Marty."
"Don't get used to it." He snorted.
"YAYYYAAAAA I GET TO KEEP THE HUMAHN!" NurseTem cheered, rubbing her face affectionately against the said human's.
Marty gave her a mildly annoyed glare "….So….The Nurse seems to have gotten attached."
"Seems so." Toriel said with a slight nod.
"why the sudden change in heart?" the human asked despite himself. He completely ignored the affectionate Tem on his head.
Marty growled, meeting his glare straight-on "When someone asks to DIE then that means they were never given a reason to LIVE. And that's just fucking sad."
The human laughed, giving a slight shrug "wow. you monsters sure are something else."
"Shut up." Marty hissed.
"after you." The human winked.
Toriel chuckled softly "Well, it appears the human fits right in with us monsters quite easily."
"Wut makes uze say dat, TORI?" NurseTem asked as the two men began snapping insults at eachother.
Toriel giggled "He doesn't get along with Marty."
"NO ONE gets aloing wid Maaaaoorrrttyyy." NurseTem dragged the name out through her teeth.
"Very true." Toriel nodded "Very true indeed."
A/N
Fun fact: I actually REALLY like the Marty character. (In case you didn't quite catch his appearance, imagine Alphys but a bit bigger and with some more of those head-spikes. And male.).
So this chapter was a bit shorter than intended, but I kind of slacked off with updates so….hopefully they'll start being more consistent.
Drop a review, if you'd please!