Finally, Wolfe managed to schedule a date and location for the town meeting between the monsters and humans in South Ebott. January 5th, in the gymnasium of the small town's only high school. You, Asgore, Reives, and Wolfe spent the whole meeting beforehand talking logistics, while Undyne and Charlie leaned back in their chairs, looking bored. You'd pushed for mandatory background checks on all of the humans wanting to go, and the agents grudgingly acquiesced. The gym was, apparently, rather small, which was good in your opinion. Not many people would be allowed in, so there was less of a chance that someone wishing to do harm could slip by security. Unfortunately, the agents did insist on allowing a few reporters into the event. You weren't sure how you felt about that, knowing what you did about how the media could twist things. Asgore was enthusiastic about spreading the good word about monsters, though, and you couldn't very well warn him in front of Reives and Wolfe.
You found yourself growing more and more nervous about it as the day crept closer. Far more so than you had been for the field trip way back when you'd been Orion. You'd played a large part in setting this one up, and you desperately wanted it to go well. It was really your first test as an ambassador, and you wanted to show Asgore that you could do this. And Reives, if you were being honest, though you were loathe to admit that you wanted to impress him.
Your nights with Sans were like an oasis in the desert of anxiety. The soul sharing, as you'd taken to calling it, became a nightly ritual. Sans' calm, easy-going nature tempered your worries. When thoughts were tumbling around uncontrollably in your mind, he'd surround you with soothing vibes to bring you back to Earth. It was just like when you'd shared a body… Or at least, when you'd shared a body and gotten along with each other. The nice thing was that, instead of being forced to occupy the same mindspace 24/7, you were able to spend time apart. You actually looked forward to soul-sharing, rather than getting annoyed with Sans constantly reading your thoughts. You had the ability to escape that during the day, and it created a much less antagonistic relationship between the two of you.
When you were worried about things like the upcoming town meeting, you usually slept less and dreamed more. They weren't pleasant dreams, either; nightmares about being trapped, being held down, being crushed by walls closing in around you, all tended to feature heavily in your stress dreaming repertoire. But, with Sans in your mind with you, he'd interrupt those dreams before they even started. Instead, you'd dream of flying. Or walking on the bottom of the ocean. Or lying on a bed of straw as you watched birds flitting between the rafters of an old barn. You hadn't realized just how many good memories you had as Orion until Sans was there to point them out to you.
You felt bad that Sans was always the one soothing you, and not the other way around. But he insisted that you helped him, too. You weren't sure how, but he seemed happy every time your souls came together. So you took his word for it.
The night before the town meeting, you had a stress dream about being locked outside of the camp. A giant, medieval-looking stone wall ran along the border, separating you from the monsters. Faceless human guards leered at you from the battlements as you cried for them to let you in. Before the dream could develop any further, Sans interfered by willing the wall to melt to the ground. The trees around you groaned and creaked as they were uprooted, moving further away from you to form walls and pillars. The ground hardened and smoothed, morphing before your eyes into golden tiles. When you looked up, you realized where you were.
"Judgement hall? Odd choice," Your voice echoed as you spoke to Sans, who you found leaning sideways against one of the marble pillars. He stepped out of the shadows with his hands in his pockets. He was wearing his old clothes, but they looked new again. The blue hoodie that was still hanging in Orion's closet, now ripped up beyond repair. The gym shorts, also in Orion's room. And the pink slippers, which were lost forever in another timeline. They silenced his footsteps as he walked to the center of the hall.
"Hmm… Didn't mean to bring us here," He frowned, then closed his eyes and shrugged, "Ah, well. Can't always pick your dreams."
"This isn't a nightmare, is it?" You asked, crossing your arms. The golden light from the windows shined brightly off of Sans' bones, making him look almost like he was glowing.
"Never a nightmare when you're here, sugar," He winked and gave you a silly grin. You rolled your eyes and closed the gap between you, satisfied that this wasn't going to be one of his bad dreams. You wrapped your arms around him and buried your face in his hoodie. It smelled fresh and clean; if you'd needed another sign that this wasn't reality, then that would've been it.
"Wish I knew how you did that. I'd change your dreams, if I could figure out how," You said into the fabric of his clothes. Whenever Sans was having a nightmare, you were always helpless to do anything. But then, his nightmares typically involved you in some way… You killing him, or you controlling Frisk who was killing him. You were always forced to observe from inside of your own body, incapable of stopping yourself. Perhaps your dreams were easier to change because they weren't usually based in reality.
"Think you hit that on the nose," Sans commented on your thoughts, a habit of his which had long since stopped being disconcerting to you, "But, hey… don't worry about it. It's the same sort of crap we dreamed about as Orion. I'm used to it, you're used to it…" He paused, assessing your feelings before amending, "Well, I'm used to it, at least." You hummed and nuzzled your face into his shoulder,
"I miss this hoodie." Sans laughed, and you felt it rumbling in his chest,
"Pretty sure you're getting that from me, not you." You paused to think about it, and found that he was probably right. You only missed it because it was important to Sans and, therefore, important to you. Sleeping while soul-sharing always had interesting results.
"We should probably wake up… I think my alarm's about to go off," Your circadian rhythm was rarely ever wrong. Unlike Sans, who had no rhythm in any sense of the word.
"If you say so," Even as he spoke, you started to feel the judgement hall falling away. Everything slowly turned fuzzy and indistinct until only Sans remained. You gradually emerged from sleep and found yourself in a familiar position; with your arms around Sans and your face buried in his shirt. You felt his chin digging into the top of your head and his arm draped over your shoulders, but, from another perspective, you also felt a warm body pressed up against your front and the tickle of short hair on your mandible. You both opened your eyes at the same time, then winced and quickly shut them again. Coordinating two bodies... feeling everything that both of them felt... was still a strange and, at times, nauseating experience.
You both decided arbitrarily to open the skeleton body's eyes. Through Sans' eye sockets, you saw your two souls hovering above your shared bed. They were pressed together, beating in sync. You reached a bony hand up, thinking hard about it so as to keep the human hand from following its lead. The skeletal fingers slipped between the souls, gently easing them apart-
You flinched and gasped as you suddenly found yourself snapping back into your own body. Your eyes flew open and, as usual, you felt dizzy. Your stomach twisted uncomfortably. You reached up and pulled your soul back into your chest.
"Good?" Sans asked, already sitting up and straightening his shirt, which had somehow ridden up to his chest in the middle of the night.
"In a minute," You pressed your face into the pillow, willing the physical discomfort to go away. Sans never seemed to have this issue, but you always felt a little ill after separating your souls. Still, it was more than worth the temporary nausea.
"Alright, alright… If this is your way to get me to make you breakfast, you win," Sans patted your butt affectionately, making you giggle before he got up from the bed. You listened to him moving around the room, but didn't look up from the pillow until you heard him leave.
"Oh, by the way," Sans surprised you by poking his head back through the doorway, "I ain't gonna let anyone head back to camp without you. There's no way in hell. So don't worry about stuff like that, m'kay?" You blushed and smiled, feeling silly now that it was out in the open like that. You were going to be leaving camp today, and you supposed your unconscious mind had dreamt up the worst possible scenario; that you'd be left behind in the human world, unable to get back in.
"Roger that." As soon as the words left your mouth, your alarm started beeping obnoxiously. You jumped and scrambled to turn it off. By the time that fiasco was over, Sans had already left the room again.
After prying yourself from the warm bed, you took a shower, got dressed, and ate the breakfast Sans had made for you. The rest of the morning flew by and, before you knew it, you were standing around in the cold, feeling drowsy and wishing you were still asleep. You scuffed the toe of your boot on the ground, making yourself a little indent in the snow. You were only half-listening as Charlie addressed everyone who was gathered around on the road. He was explaining how things were going to go to the monsters, most of whom already knew after having heard it all from you. Only Mettaton was really in need of the crash course, and he was more concerned with making sure he had enough battery life in his humanoid body to last the day. You tuned in toward the end of Charlie's speech, as he struggled to figure out how all of you were going to fit on the helicopter.
"Okay, well… I guess we can go in two shifts," He scratched his head, "We can split the guards up between the monsters. King Asgore should go in the first group…" You perked up, linking arms with Sans and shouting to be heard over the idling helicopter in the middle of the street,
"We'll go with him!" In the end, you, Sans, Asgore, Papyrus, Charlie, and Hernandez took the first flight, leaving Undyne, Alphys, and Mettaton to ride with Daujatas, Green, and Samuelsson. It was the same five guards as had accompanied the monsters the last time they took a trip to South Ebott, but the atmosphere between them seemed tenser this time. You hadn't noticed until now, but they weren't rowdy or talking amongst each other today. You didn't have much time to contemplate it before you were ushered into the helicopter.
You ended up sandwiched between two skeletons, which was just fine by you. You wanted to be as close to the middle as you could get; far away from all windows and doors.
"Sibling! Please do not throw up, as you threatened to do last time!" You cringed at Papyrus' loud comment. Luckily, Charlie and Hernandez had turned around to talk to the pilot. They seemed not to have heard.
"You must be thinking of someone else, Pap. I've never been on a helicopter before." You spoke carefully, hoping Papyrus would get it. He gasped,
"Oh! You are correct, my mistake!" He winked, but you didn't reply. You wanted the conversation to end before the officers turned back around.
The rest of the helicopter ride was uneventful, if you didn't count the persistent fear of death for a solid 20 minutes. It didn't help that the pilot had seemed worried before takeoff. Asgore was rather large, and he thought the King might exceed the helicopter's weight limit. It had taken some coercing from Charlie and Hernandez to get him to fly you all down the mountain.
You kept your eyes trained forward for the whole ride, staring at your cane, which rested securely between your knees, for the entire time. You had big headphones on to block out the deafening noise, so you couldn't hear any reassurances that Sans might've offered you. He didn't try to hold your hand or anything, either; probably because Charlie and Hernandez were right in front of you. You didn't think the physical comfort would've done much good for your churning stomach, anyway.
Eventually… mercifully… you landed on solid ground. You required some help getting out of the helicopter; you'd been so tense during the ride that your muscles and joints were aching. Hernandez, who'd been the first to jump out, had been about to offer you his hand before Sans quickly lifted you with his magic and lowered you down, himself. You yelped in surprise as the magic engulfed you, setting you down on your feet gently. It was hard to get used to the feeling of floating weightlessly as someone else controlled your momentum. You glared back at Sans, who gave you a shit-eating grin from where he stood in the doorway of the chopper. Charlie, who'd watched the whole exchange, was frowning. He looked deep in thought.
"What?" You asked once you noticed his staring. He shook his head,
"Just watch it… Remember, people here don't know about this magic stuff. Don't go doin' it in front of them." Sans joined you on the ground and gave Charlie a salute,
"Aye aye, officer." Charlie furrowed his brow, still looking like something was on his mind,
"Uh huh." As the last couple stragglers were getting out of the helicopter, you took a shaky step forward and took in your surroundings. This time, the chopper had taken you right to your destination; the high school parking lot. Even though it was the middle of the day, the place was empty. But, then again, it was a Saturday, so kids didn't have school. The high school here was much smaller than the one you'd gone to, even though it was supposedly the only one in town. You looked over at Charlie skeptically. He'd said before that he hailed from South Ebott… Had he gone to this school? The small town life just didn't seem to suit him.
When Charlie didn't catch your side-eye, you gave up and looked away again. You stuffed your left hand in your pocket, wishing you'd brought a glove for your right. You let out a breath, which puffed up into a white cloud in the cold. The air smelled different here. Not bad, just not the same as in the mountains. It felt so surreal to be outside of camp. Being out here as Orion and being here in your own body was a night and day difference. Again, not a bad difference, but just different. Maybe part of it was the change in season, but you were pretty sure there was more to it.
"Feeling nostalgic?" Sans sidled up to you and nodded toward the school.
"For high school? Hell no," You laughed. Public school had been torture for you… You'd never catch yourself reminiscing about it. For possibly the first time, Sans had incorrectly guessed what you'd been thinking. You tried not to read too much into it.
"Alright, folks… Let's get going. Gotta clear the area so the bird can take off again," Hernandez said as he waved his arms, shepherding your small group toward the school. Asgore walked up beside you,
"This is quite intriguing… To see what humans have done with thousands of years," He murmured contemplatively. You had forgotten that this was Asgore's first time leaving the camp, and that he was one of the few monsters who remembered humanity before the barrier had been created.
"Well, there's a lot more to it than just this," You said, feeling self-conscious about the small, almost rural school. Asgore chuckled, and you looked up to see a glint in his eye,
"I believe you, and I hope that, one day, my people will be able to see everything your people have done. That is, after all, why we are here today." You nodded and looked forward resolutely,
"Right."
As it turned out, the school was a little bit bigger than you'd initially thought. The helicopter had landed in the smaller, back parking lot, leaving the main lot free for the attending humans and spectators to roam.
"This way, we don't have to walk past the crowd of people in the front," Hernandez explained happily to anyone who was listening while Charlie went to open the back door. He was stopped short, however, when the door remained firmly shut. He tugged on it again, but to no avail.
"It's locked," You pointed out, and Charlie glared at you,
"Thanks, Captain Obvious," He cupped his hands to the tiny window to peer through it, "Damn, I told them to leave it unlocked… Don't suppose any of you have any magical door unlocking powers, do you?" He looked at the three monsters hopefully,
"Pap and I could probably blow it off its hinges," Sans suggested, and Papyrus' face lit up at the prospect of being helpful.
"No!" Charlie said with a grimace, "Let's just walk around the front, I guess. How bad can it be?"
The answer was "pretty bad." As soon as the six of you got around to the front of the building, your senses were bombarded by the sight and sound of what had to have been hundreds of humans. You were shocked that so many people even lived in South Ebott. The crowd was quartered off, confined to the front parking lot by waist-high fences. Armed police officers lining the fence had to keep people from bowling it over when they caught sight of your group rounding the corner.
You froze, suddenly engulfed in the blinding camera flashes and indistinct, excited shouts. You and the monsters instinctively huddled closer together. You could feel Papyrus' bones rattling when his arm pressed up against yours. Asgore seemed to gather himself first and, with a determined look, urged the rest of your group to follow Charlie.
You shuffled forward, hyper aware of every movement you made. You watched, wide-eyed, as an officer stopped a man from climbing the fence. The human looked red-faced and angry, though you couldn't hear what he was shouting over all of the other voices. A few reporters pressed to the front of the crowd, desperately holding out microphones as they tried to ask you questions over the bedlam.
It felt like years before you finally made it to the front door. Charlie held it open as the rest of you hurried inside. The click of the door shutting echoed down the hallway, instantly muffling all of the outside voices to a dull murmur. Your group let out a collective sigh of relief, including your human guards.
"Sorry about that, guys… It'll be better in here. We're not gonna go past those protesters again." You nodded at Charlie's reassurances, staring at your feet. Seeing all of those people, hearing them yelling at you… You'd completely lost your nerve. How were you going to face anyone now? You were just glad you hadn't been able to hear what any of those humans were saying. Oh, God… What if your parents had been in the crowd? You hadn't seen them, but you had kept your head down most of the time. Was that a blessing, or should you have been looking? You glanced nervously over your shoulder at the door.
"Hey," Sans muttered, bumping his shoulder into yours. Everyone else had started walking down the empty hallway, but the two of you hung back, "Don't worry about it. It's behind us." You pursed your lips and nodded. Sans was right.
"C'mon, we better catch up," You grabbed his wrist and tugged him forward, your cane tapping quickly on the linoleum floor while you hurried to catch up to everyone else. You reached the rest of the group right as they walking up to a big set of double doors.
"Alright, everyone know the game plan?" Charlie asked, and you all nodded. You and Sans were a little out of breath from speed-walking. "Good. And…" The officer looked around before lowering his voice, "Whatever you do, don't use any of that freaky magic shit, okay? If anyone's giving you trouble, you holler for one of us." Papyrus nodded again eagerly, but you caught Sans and Asgore glancing at each other. Even as they agreed, you knew that the two of them would not hesitate to use magic if it ended up being needed. You just hoped it wouldn't come to that. You'd gotten away with it once, and you didn't think you'd be so lucky again.
"Okay, then… Let's go," Charlie said with a crooked grin before throwing the double doors open with more gusto than was strictly necessary.
A crowd of faces turned to look as your mismatched crew of humans and monsters shuffled inside. A few quiet whispers and flashing cameras met you, but compared to the masses of people outside, this didn't feel nearly as overwhelming. You'd probably given presentations to groups larger than this. But, still, you felt uncomfortable with the whole situation. Luckily, the attention seemed to be mostly focused on the monsters in your group, not on the odd human among them.
"Hello, everyone," Asgore said, his deep voice echoing through the gym with ease. You looked up at him, and saw him scanning the crowd with a smile, "We are still waiting for a few people to arrive, so do not stop your conversations on our account," With the King's permission, the dull whispering grew into hushed speaking. Some people looked away out of courtesy, but many just kept staring.
"Well, this is cozy," Sans commented, and you snorted. Papyrus must've heard and gave him a cross look,
"Do not be discouraged, brother! All we need to do is approach the humans with friendly conversation, like what I did with those master chefs at the restaurant!" He puffed up his chest proudly. You do distinctly remember Papyrus running to the kitchen at Luini's and scaring the cooks half to death. If that was how he planned to make friends…
"Here, just follow my lead!" With that, the tall skeleton bounded off into the crowd. The humans who saw him and had heard what he'd said fell back, while a few unsuspecting people were still unaware of his approach. He headed toward a group of middle-aged men with their backs to him,
"Pap, wait up-" Sans followed behind him worriedly, and you were about to do the same when you heard a voice yell your name from across the gym.
You turned, startled, and saw a woman around your age frantically waving her arms in your direction. She was short, so you only got a brief glance at her face through the crowd, but that was enough for you to recognize who it was.
"Remi?!" You furrowed your brow and looked around. You couldn't see Sans anymore, but you assumed he was with Papyrus, who towered over all of the humans. He was making wild, excited gestures at the cluster of humans who had gathered around him. People were smiling and laughing, so you assumed everything was going alright. Meanwhile, Asgore was speaking to the few local reporters who had been allowed into the gathering. Charlie was standing by the door, and Hernandez was nowhere to be seen.
You figured you weren't needed anywhere, so you pushed through the mass of people, looking for Remi. You'd lost sight of her… But she hadn't been that far away. The gym was pretty small, surely you could find her…
Once you reached the folded-up bleachers at the edge of the gym, a pair of arms wrapped around you from behind. You twisted around, ready to bash whoever it was over the head with your cane, but stopped yourself when you saw who it was.
"Oh my god! I can't believe you're here!" Remi squeezed the life out of you, and you laughed and threw your arms around her in return,
"Long time no see, huh?" You pulled back to get a good look at her. She didn't look any different from the last time you'd seen her; which was when you and a bunch of friends had gone camping on Mount Ebott. Meeting her here, after eight months… It felt surreal.
"Dude! I barely recognized you… That hair!" She rubbed the top of your fuzzy head, and you swatted her hand away with a grin.
"Is anyone else here?" You looked around, worried but excited by the possibility of reuniting with more of your old friends. You were in a pretty sparse area of the gym; most of the guests were crowded around Asgore or Papyrus. But you still received some weird looks from strangers who were hanging around on the outskirts.
"No… Ander wanted to come, but they couldn't get a ticket. And Cody was gonna come with me, but he didn't pass the background checks…" Remi couldn't meet your eyes, and you frowned,
"What do you mean?" Logically, you knew what that meant. You'd been the one to create the background checks, after all. If he couldn't pass them, then that meant…
"Well, I mean… Cody may have gone to an anti-monster rally one time, and none of our other friends live in South Ebott, so-"
"Wait, he did? Why?" Remi scuffed her foot on the worn, gym floor before answering,
"Well, y'know… You kinda disappeared on us. All of us who were there…" She looked around as though making sure no one was listening, "We all felt pretty responsible. And then, when the monsters showed up, it was like we could finally stop blaming ourselves. I mean, it's pretty easy to blame them instead. But then you came back… And, if you say it's not their fault, then 'course I believe you," Remi gave you a tentative smile, "But… not everyone's ready to do that."
You crossed your arms and stared at the floor. You'd been so busy thinking about yourself and your parents that you hadn't even considered what your friends would think of all of this. There were so many more people affected by this than you'd realized...
You and Remi had been friends since high school. She was one of the few people who'd known you before you'd played Undertale, and thus one of the few who you hadn't managed to drive away when you were soulless. You were on bad terms with all of your other high school friends, though there weren't very many to begin with. But Remi had stuck with you, even when you'd been… well. Kind of a jerk.
"Sorry, Remi." You looked up from your feet, and she waved you off,
"Aw, don't apologize. It's not your fault you got lost in a cave full of monsters. That must've sucked," You laughed, leaning on your cane as you doubled over,
"Man, you have no idea," You paused, then added, "Thanks for coming to see me…" Remi scoffed, then threw her arm around your shoulders,
"I didn't come to see you, nerd. I came to see the monsters!" She gestured to Asgore, still standing near the doorway, now accompanied by Undyne, Alphys, and Mettaton. You stuck your tongue out at your friend, but were distracted from answering by Sans suddenly appearing at your other side,
"There you are, I was looking for-" Sans cut himself short when he noticed your friend. He looked from her to you, "Hey, is that-"
"Remi!" You interrupted him before he could give himself away. It'd be pretty hard to explain how a monster knew your best friend by sight when they'd never met, "She's one of my friends from school. Remi, this is Sans," You pulled back from your friend and watched her wide-eyed expression carefully. Sans stuck out his hand, and Remi looked him up and down before tentatively taking it. You tried not to judge her too harshly for her hesitancy; you remembered you'd been startled the first time you saw Sans, too. In fact, you distinctly recalled attacking him with your cane. So at least her reaction was better than yours.
"Nice to-" Remi started, but was cut off by a loud, flatulent noise. She recoiled, and Sans held up his whoopee-cushioned hand with a wink. You snorted and ducked your head, trying and failing to hide your laughter.
"Nice to meet you, too," Sans said, and Remi finally got over her shock and laughed. Thankfully, you knew she loved stupid jokes. With that in mind, you figured she and Sans would get along just fine.
"Oh my god, I need one of those," She grabbed Sans' wrist and examined the whoopee-cushion, "That's hilarious… So much better than those shock button things."
"Ironically, I think the old whoopee-cushion-in-the-hand trick is more shocking," Remi giggled again and let go of his arm. Before Sans could make any more puns, you caught sight of Asgore slowly making his way over to you through the crowd. You poked Sans, who turned around to look.
"Hello… Are you all enjoying yourselves?" The King looked between you, Sans, and Remi, who looked to be in awe. Being even shorter than you, she had to strain her neck in order to look up at him. You smiled, having forgotten how impressive Asgore appeared on first sight. In reality, the guy was a big softie.
"Yeah… This is Remi, one of my friends," The King smiled warmly at her,
"Well, any friend of yours is a friend of mine, of course," Asgore held out his hand. Remi tilted her head as though to check for more hidden whoopee-cushions before shaking it, "Thank you for coming to this event, Remi," There was a pause, as Remi seemed too shocked to answer.
"O-oh, uh, you're welcome!" She squeaked, and you snickered. It felt odd, having your human friend meet your monster friends. But, in a way, you were strangely proud. Sure, it turned out that most of your human friends hated monsters, but this one didn't, so at least that was something.
"Now that everyone is here, I believe I will be making my statement shortly," Asgore turned to you and Sans, "I would like you two to be up there with me, if that is alright."
"Sure!" You said, a spike of nervousness fluttering in your stomach. You hoped Asgore didn't expect you to say anything… You didn't have anything prepared. Before you could worry about it too much, Remi wrapped her arms around you again,
"I'm glad we got to meet up… Don't be a stranger, okay? There's so much else I wanted to tell you…" You patted her back, and she squeezed you tighter. Honestly, you didn't know when you'd be able to get in touch with Remi or any of your friends again. You had no way of contacting them from camp, and you couldn't leave camp unless there was another event like this. But, instead of being truthful, you agreed,
"Yeah, totally." After hearing your confirmation, Remi pulled back and clapped you on the shoulder,
"Alright, go do your ambassador stuff, then. It was nice to meet you, Sans and King Asgore," She nodded to the monsters respectfully, looking proud of herself that she'd managed to form words in front of them. You had to fight back a laugh as you all said your goodbyes and ventured back into the crowd. You looked back over your shoulder as you walked away, but Remi was quickly swallowed by the mass of people trying to get a look at you and your monster friends. Briefly, you wondered when, or even if, you would ever see her again. Or any of your other friends, for that matter. It was discomforting to think of how much everything had changed in such a short time.
With Asgore parting the crowd for you and Sans, the three of you made it to the front of the gym in good time. There was a big podium, which was obviously chosen because of the King's size. Even so, he dwarfed the thing when he stood up to it. His presence at the front of the gym caused a hush to fall over the human crowd. From where you stood, you could see that the monsters had really started intermingling with the humans. Papyrus and Mettaton were on opposite ends of the gym, surrounded by people and reporters. Alphys was probably somewhere in the back, where there was a small cluster of humans gathered around. Undyne was making her way from there to where you, Sans, and Asgore were standing.
"Hey punk," She jabbed you in the shoulder before making her way around Asgore to stand at his right. As soon as everyone was in place and the room was quiet, Asgore cleared his throat,
"Hello, everyone," He began, while you stood quietly with your hands clasped in front of you. You stared straight ahead, trying not to glance nervously at all of the cameras and phones being pointed at you, "Thank you all for inviting us into your town. This is the first official gathering of humans and monsters, and you cannot imagine how happy I am to see everyone getting along so well," You glanced to your right to see Asgore beaming. He was always so genuine, and you could see most of the humans in the crowd smiling with him like it was infectious, "I have high hopes for the continued friendship between our species.
"Your kind have forgotten over the millennia which have passed, but there was a time when humans and monsters lived together in peace. I remember humanity as being a resourceful, stubborn group, and I see that little has changed," There were some chuckles in the crowd, as well as some uneasy looks as people tried to figure out if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Asgore didn't clarify, "I think we all have something to offer each other, be it knowledge, resources, or friendship.
"I firmly believe that everyone is good at their core, including the people outside who call for our slaughter," Discomfort rippled through the largely pro-monster crowd, but Asgore continued on as though he didn't notice it, "I ask that you show patience and kindness to your fellows, whom you may disagree with. To those who are in agreement with the mobs at our gates, I ask that you extend those same feelings to my people as we struggle to make a home on the surface. If we all make an effort to understand each other, I believe we can return to an age of peace and harmony," Asgore paused, his smile warm and full of optimism. He nodded, as though reaffirming what he had just said, "Thank you for your time. I would now be happy to answer any questions you may have."
Once he opened the floor to questions, dozens of hands shot into the air. Voices rose up, then quieted down when Asgore pointed at a man with his hand up near the front,
"All due respect, sir, but I do not believe you have addressed the issue that is on the minds of most anti-monster protesters. Two humans now have emerged from your underground home…" You felt all eyes turn to you, and you tried not to fidget under the unwanted attention, "...And neither of them have been forthcoming about what happens down there. Can you really say, with certainty, that none of the people who have gone missing around these mountains are still trapped down there? And, if these cases are monster-related kidnappings, what could've happened to them?"
There were murmurs of agreement in the crowd. People's eyes shifted between you and Asgore, and you wondered if you should say something. The guy was right; you hadn't talked publically about what happened underground. And how could you? Anything you said had to be a lie, since there was no way to explain what had happened without sounding like you were delusional. Your mind was suddenly blank, so you looked to Asgore helplessly. Thankfully, he saved you from having to say anything,
"Well, I can assure you that there was never any kidnapping involved. There is simply no way any monster could have ever forced someone to fall into the Underground. In both cases you bring up, this was merely an unfortunate accident," You cast your eyes downward, knowing that Asgore was lying, too. You couldn't speak for Frisk, but you knew your fall wasn't an accident. But Chara pushing you hardly counted as kidnapping, either, so you kept your mouth shut, "As for whether there are any other humans among us… I can say with the utmost confidence that there are none," There was some whispering among the crowd before someone near the back shouted to be heard,
"How do you know for sure?" Someone else piped up,
"Yeah, and how do we know you're telling the truth?"
Asgore frowned. He was silent for a long moment before speaking slowly,
"Well… There has been some talk of allowing a group of humans to come and see the Underground. Perhaps we could turn it into a sort of search party… Then, you may see for yourselves that there are no humans being held captive," A fevered excitement washed over the gym. You'd assumed that people would be curious about the Underground, but you hadn't figured that they'd be this eager to see it. The humans whispered back and forth to each other, and you overheard a couple of the people near the front saying that they wanted to go.
"I'd give my right arm to see that,"
"Can you imagine? I wonder what it's like!"
You looked up at Asgore with a wary expression. It had been your own idea to let humans into the Underground, but you were beginning to wonder if that had been the right call. If they were just going to treat the monsters like fascinating animals in a zoo…
Asgore caught your look and gave you a reassuring smile in return. It was all he offered before addressing the crowd again,
"If there are no other questions…" Hands shot up, even more than the first time. The King paused, then amended, "I will not be taking questions about the Underground trip at this time. As of right now, nothing is set in stone, and I have no answers for you," Several hands went back down. The King gestured toward a young woman near the wall. You couldn't see her face from where you stood, so you didn't realize that it was Remi until you heard her voice,
"This town meeting thing is all well and good, but when are monsters going to be allowed to live in town with everyone else? It must be depressing, being stuck in a little camp on the mountain," That garnered mixed reactions from the other humans. Even though the room was almost exclusively full of monster supporters, many of them looked unhappy… or at least, uneasy… about the prospect of monsters living among them. You heard one person in the back let out a 'Whoop!' in agreement, but they were in the minority. As usual, Asgore considered the question with scrutiny before answering,
"You are correct, our current situation is not ideal. But, as I said earlier, we must have patience. Whatever the future may hold, I am confident that it will be to the liking of both humans and monsters."
You thought he'd dodged the question fairly well, but his answer didn't seem to the liking of the crowd. When Asgore asked for more questions, no one raised their hands. Either they'd all had the same question as Remi, or, more likely, they lost their nerves. People looked around the room, as though wishing someone else would ask a question but not wanting to do it themselves. Asgore waited patiently, but no one seemed willing to speak up.
"Well, thank you for your time and your questions. I hope this is merely the first of many meetings to come, but until then… Have a wonderful afternoon," Asgore nodded respectfully toward everyone before stepping off the podium. A few, unsure claps echoed in the room until everyone caught on and gave the King a round of applause. You followed Asgore hurriedly as he made his way to the side of the gym,
"That was weird… I'm sorry I didn't say anything, I just-"
"It went as well as can be expected, I believe," He interrupted you, then glanced back at you over his shoulder, "Do not worry, I did not expect you to say anything. You did just fine,"
You were distracted from answering Asgore by Sans, who was nudging your shoulder with his own. You'd honestly forgotten he was even there; he'd been so silent as he stood by your side. You looked over at him, then followed his subtle gesture with your eyes. You quickly found what he was trying to alert you to; a well-dressed woman with a microphone walking toward your group briskly, while a man with a large camera followed behind her.
You stopped walking and waited for her to catch up. This was obviously not what Sans had in mind, judging by his groan of frustration. Dutifully, he stopped with you, even though he was clearly unhappy about it.
"Oh, hello!" The reporter seemed surprised that you'd stopped, too. She took a second to catch her breath, then introduced herself, "My name is Diana Newton from Channel 11 News. Do you have a moment to talk?" You looked back at Asgore and Undyne, who seemed to have gotten cornered by a couple other reporters of their own. You figured there was no rush, then… Plus, you still felt bad about not saying anything during the Q&A. You felt obligated to say something to someone.
"Yeah, sure." Diana smiled widely and straightened her blazer,
"Excellent! So, you've been stuck on Mount Ebott for a long time… How does it feel to get back to civilization?" You glanced over at Sans, who was standing quite a ways away from you. You figured he just didn't want to be on TV, but still… You wished he would've stayed by your side. His hands were in his pockets and his eyes were dark, as though he was seeing a danger that was invisible to you. But he didn't try to signal you, or anything, so you didn't know what to make of it. You tore your attention away from him to answer the question,
"Um… It's alright. I've been to South Ebott before, and it's a nice town," You ended lamely, unsure what else to say. Diana kept going, undeterred,
"I'm sure you know that people have been clamoring to hear your side of the story. What really happened to you in the Underground?" You nodded a little, unsurprised. You'd expected this question, and were now more prepared to answer it,
"I already told the FBI everything that happened," You spoke slowly and with as much confidence as you could manage to project, "I was hiking with my friends and decided to head back to our campsite early because I was tired. On my way, I tripped and fell into a hole, which led to the Underground. I got lost down there until a monster found me and helped me get back to the surface," You purposefully omitted Sans' name from the story, figuring by his distrustful expression that he didn't want to get dragged into this, "It's really not that complicated." Diana nodded,
"I see… But how did you survive? You were trapped underground for months… That must've been so hard on you."
"O-oh, um…" You stuttered. You'd been expecting to have to defend yourself against accusations, not sympathy. Your fingers clenched and unclenched around the handle of your cane. You'd always been uncomfortable with people feeling sorry for you, and you were beginning to realize that it was even worse when you were lying about your troubles, "I-it wasn't that terrible… It was kind of like camping…" You didn't know whether to laugh or cringe at yourself and how very much not like camping it had been. You ended up chuckling nervously, which only made the reporter's expression look even more sympathetic. She probably thought you'd gone crazy down there... Which, now that you thought about it, was actually not a wholly inaccurate assessment.
"So, you say the monsters saved you… Would you consider them your friends?" Thank God, an easy question. You smiled and answered truthfully for the first time,
"Yes, absolutely. And if people actually got to know them, I think they'd consider them friends, too."
"You consider them such good friends that you would give up your life to be their ambassador?" Diana asked, skeptical but eager. She held the microphone a little too close to your face. Looking back, you realized that all of the previous questions had been leading up to this.
You hadn't expected anyone to care why you, personally, had decided to stay with the monsters. In reality, there were so many reasons; guilt for what you'd done to them, commitment to Sans, and, yes, friendship. But there was something else, too, that you thought you could safely tell the world,
"Yes. Not only that, but I feel like it's my duty to help. When I got to the surface, when I saw that they were being confined to what was basically an internment camp… It was such a great injustice. I thought, if I could do something to help, then I should. So, yeah, I gave up my life to do this, and I'd make the same decision again if I could." You couldn't help but to look over at Sans as you finished, and were disappointed to see that his blank expression hadn't changed. Every now and then, his eyes would dart around, as though looking for some means of escape. You didn't understand why until Diana turned her attention to him,
"That sounds like a noble cause… And is this one of your friends? What do you think about the current state of monster-human relations?" You gritted your teeth, wishing she had just stuck to questioning you. Sans shot you an unreadable look, then forced a smile and shook his head good-naturedly,
"I've got nothin' to say, lady," You side-stepped in front of Sans, feeling like you needed to protect him from the giant camera and microphone in his face,
"We should probably go," You said quickly, reaching for Sans' hand before remembering yourself and grabbing his upper arm instead, "Got a helicopter, to catch, and all."
"Oh, well, thank you for your time," You nodded, barely staying to hear Diana's parting words before nudging Sans in the direction of the exit. He didn't need to be told twice; he ended up leading you toward the door rather than the other way around.
Once you caught up with the other monsters, you found that they were all already gathered together, with Asgore saying some parting words to the other reporters and guests. Some of the humans had already started to leave, which left the gym feeling much more spacious than before. Papyrus was bidding everyone farewell as they left, while Mettaton, Undyne, and Alphys were carrying on a conversation with a small group of stragglers. Sans led you to stand against the wall beside the door, where you could see everyone but no one could approach you from behind. Once you were out of earshot, Sans spoke,
"Don't make me do that again," His sharp tone surprised you. You let go of his arm and put your hand on your hip,
"I'm sorry you had to talk to someone, but I couldn't really do anything about it," You said just as sharply, feeling defensive and a little hurt. It was one reporter, who he didn't even really have to say anything to. You didn't get what the big deal was.
"Not just that, this whole thing. You disappearing on me, then having to stand up there, then the questions…" His eyes darted around again, "I don't like any of this ambassador stuff… I didn't want anything to do with it-"
"Well, it's what I'm doing. You don't have to follow me around if you don't like it," You snapped, then added more calmly, "We can do our own thing every now and then… You don't have to come to these meetings. I won't feel bad if you stay home," Sans clenched and unclenched his jaw, unable to meet your eyes. He looked conflicted, and you wished you could read his thoughts. You supposed you just had to be patient; you'd find out more about what he was thinking later tonight.
"Let's talk about this later," He mumbled, staring at something over to his right. You followed his gaze and saw that Charlie and Daujatas were ushering the reporters away from the King. Asgore saw you and Sans looking in his direction, and motioned for you to follow him. You looked back at Sans sadly,
"Alright. Later, then," You so badly wanted to give him a kiss, but you figured you'd have to save that for later, too. Without further ado, you and Sans followed Asgore out the gym door. As you were walking down the hallway, Papyrus bounded up to you,
"Hello, siblings! Did you have fun at the meeting?" He didn't give you time to answer before declaring, "I had a tremendous amount of fun! Humans are wonderful! Some of them are quite shy, but I think I made great progress toward getting them out of their shells!" Papyrus went on to describe each and every human he met in excruciating detail. Sans seemed to be at least half-listening, but you couldn't help but to tune him out completely. In front of you, Undyne and Alphys were holding hands and talking excitedly about some new show that one of the humans had told them about. Mettaton was behind you, talking the ears off of Hernandez, who seemed to be genuinely interested in hearing about the robot's acting career. Meanwhile, Asgore was up front, speaking in a hushed voice to Charlie. Samuelsson, who had been oddly quiet and innocuous during the whole event, looked like he was eavesdropping.
"How's it goin'?" You jumped at the sound of Green's deep voice right next to you. He was the kind of guy who was always quiet and innocuous, so you weren't all that surprised that he'd managed to accidentally sneak up on you.
"It's fine…" You said, distracted by your own thoughts. There was silence for a moment before Green commented,
"I heard you talking to that reporter," When he added nothing, you asked,
"So how'd I do?" You were too downtrodden by your pseudo-argument with Sans to really care what Green thought of what you'd said. But, still, you surprised yourself by smiling when he gave you a silent thumbs-up, "At least someone thinks so…" You muttered, too quiet for Sans to overhear.
"Eh, you'll do fine. Don't worry about it," Green patted you on the back, and you laughed… Both at the situation in general, and at yourself. The armed officer who was awkwardly trying to comfort you was right; you were doing well at your new job, and would continue to do well. You didn't need Sans' constant praise to know that.
"Thanks. I'll try."