Chapter 11: the plot thickens

Mettaton POV:

Mettaton sat in his room, pondering over the perfect outfit to wear. He was in his rectangle form, however, as that form made it easier and faster to charge his battery. Though he much rather his other form, as it has more sex appeal and fit better in his clothing, he often finds himself having to revert to the old, less him form to conserve battery life. He made a mental note to take his portable charger with him, so he could stay in his better form longer. He wasn't sure how long they will be on this date. Mettaton had a lot of plans, and he was excited to get going.

He looked at the clock. It was almost 5 PM. Papyrus would be off work by then, so he had to get a move on. He hopped up from his bed and made his way to his closet, flinging clothing over his shoulder and grumbling. "no, no, no! that is not it, nor that!" he was too busy frantically rooting through his many cloths, he didn't notice his cousin, Napstablook faze through the wall, entering his home without opening the door.

The blueish white ghost watched Mettaton for a moment before speaking up. "…. oh… Mettabl- um, Mettaton, what are you doing…...?" he said meekly as he dodged a projectile in the shape of a large sequined hat.

"I am looking for the perfect outfit to wear on my third date! Oh, Blooky, darling, I cannot find anything!" Mettaton never looked up, nor stopped rummaging as he spoke. Napstablook timidly floated over to his side, watching him closely. He spotted a pair of red, high wasted shorts and a baby pink top that said, 'baby girl' with the word 'girl' crossed out and replaced with 'boy'. "…..what…about those…?"

Mettaton's attention shifted to the clothing on the ground. He studied them for a moment before his pixel monitor lit up with a big heart. "perfect, Blooky! This will do wonderfully!" he got up from his spot on the ground, turning to face his back towards Napstablook. "can you flip my switch, dearie? it is hard to reach in this form." Napstablook sighed heavily, but complied, using his ghost magic to flip the switch to EX. He backed away as Mettaton's body began to shake, then a white light flashed. After the light dissipated, Mettaton was standing, naked, in his EX form. Blook shut his eyes quickly. "ohh… I'm sorry… I didn't mean to see you naked…. Oh nooooo…" he whined, turning around.

Mettaton chuckled and unplugged himself from his wall outlet and started to get changed. "Blooky, darling, don't worry about it." His cousin was always extremely worried about offending anyone, or disappointing anyone. As a result, he was very shy, and almost always strayed away from talking to people he didn't know. Luckily for him, though, he had mettaton to help him make friends. Where would he be without him?

Mettaton finished getting dressed and turned on his heal toward Napstablook, giving a pose and a wink. "ready for my date~ how do I look?"

Napstablook took a look at Mettaton, analyzing his form up and down with a slight nod. "…very nice….."

Mettaton nodded back, confident once again about the date. He checked the time, and gasped, quickly picking up his things and shoving them into a small purse. "I'm late! Goodbye, Blooky, I will give you all the details later~!" Napstablook watched as Mettaton made his way quickly out the door, wishing him luck on the date before the robot sped down the walk to Waterfall's main road.

Papyrus' POV, after his talk with the king

Papyrus quickly got back to work in the garden, watering the flowers to the right of the king's throne. He got so caught up in his job that he inevitably lost track of time, humming some show toons to himself, uprooting dead flowers and replacing them, watering them, fertilizing them and using his powers to get supplies down from tall shelves. These were his daily chores. Very repetitive and not hard at all, but Papyrus found joy in it, somehow. He was very good at finding the fun in mundane tasks.

Before he knew it, it was time to go home for the day. Five o'clock seems to arrive far too fast, at least for Papyrus. He whipped the dirt from his overalls and hung up his sun hat and garden gloves in his locker, which was decorated with knick knacks and a photo booth pictures of him and Undyne, along with an old picture of Sans holding him as a baby on their dad's lap. This was a special one, and he liked keeping it with him. After placing his things inside the locker, he grabbed the photo and stuffed it deep into his wallet. He wanted to show this one to Mettaton. It might be nice to talk about their childhood, even if it hurts a bit.

It was time to go home to get ready for his date! He happily trotted out of the castle and toward the elevator that would take him to the entrance of Hotland.

Papyrus made it to the River Person's docking station in Hotland right on time. How they knew where to show up for a passenger 100% of the time was a mystery even to him. He would try to get answers from them on occasion, but they always responded with a riddle. Papyrus would normally go right home and try to decipher the riddles given by the cloaked mystery monster, but always fail. No, not fail! He never failed! These riddles were…. just too simple for his genius mind! It refuses to solve such simple puzzles. Though, he always loved to try.

Just as expected, the River Person was docked at the Hotland river side. Without even looking in Papyrus' direction, they spoke in their hauntingly creepy, sing-song voice. "tra la la~ it is the tall skeleton, right on time~ tra la~ board my boat, tall one~ or else, your later engagement will be halted~"

Papyrus cocked an eye socket at this, as he entered the boat slowly, sitting on the bench behind them. "…. engagements?" he thought a moment as the boat started off.

the river person continued. "the ghost in a shell rode on my vessel to the land of fire just moments and moments ago, donned in garments of sparkle and wonder, talking of engagements with a tall skeleton~ tra la la~"

"…. tall skeleton…. ghost in a shell…. engagements…." Papyrus mumbled the key points to this riddle, thinking for a moment before he realized. "Mettaton! And me! and our date! So, what you are saying is, Mettaton took your ferry to Hotland just moments ago? Wowie, we just missed each other! Oh no, that…. that means, I don't have much time to get ready! N-nyeh, can-can this thing go any faster!?" Papyrus was getting nervous again. He didn't want to leave Mettaton waiting, and if he had already arrived at Hotland moments before Papyrus had arrived at the ferry, it means he will more than likely make it to the meeting spot way before Papyrus could even get back home!

"tra la la, patience rewards you~ in time, wounds will heal~ in time, truths will reveal~ tra la~"

"wh-what does that even mean!?" Papyrus had no time to decipher this nonsense dribble. Though, before he could speak more, or beg the River person to go faster, they were arriving at Snowdin's port.

"tra la, land of snow, we have ariv- " before they could finish, Papyrus sped off the boat.

"y-yeah, thank you for the ride, see you in a few minutes!" he yelled back to the River Person as he sped down the walkway.

Random Royal Gardener POV, back in the king's castle after Papyrus left

This particular gardener hated his job. He hated that they were all demoted to gardening. He lived for the fighting and protecting, but now, all they do is water flowers. And who made that dumb skeleton the captain!? He swears he's going to go crazy if he hears one more command from his stupid, annoying voiced mouth. And what's more annoying is that this mentally challenged, overly excited, sickly kind buffoon actually won Mettaton's competition. It's not fair! He entered almost a hundred times, this had to be rigged.

It was finally time to go home. Papyrus was always the first to head for the door, which is funny, because he was literally the only one who even liked this job. The monster sighed slumping over. "…..is it just me, or is the dumb skeleton extra excited today?"

The monster's friend shrugged, taking off his hat and whipping some sweat from his brow. "seems so, yeah. Maybe he has a date~" the two friends laughed.

"yeah, as if…" the friends started to walk out, when monster A stepped on something hard. "…..huh?" he leaned down, picking up a phone from within the flowers the case read PAPYRUS on the back in red paint. The monster's face lit up "looks like Mr. Skeleton left his phone~" he said with a glance to his friend. "….should weee…?"

The friend nodded vigorously. "yes, peak inside! I'm sure there's bound to be some juicy secrets in there~"

"dude, what if he's into BDSM? And we just find a shit tone of photos of him doming a bunch of helpless monsters?" the monster said as he unlocked the easy to unlock phone. The password was pasta. So obvious.

His friend laughed, smacking him playfully on the back. "no way, dude! He'd be a sub, for sure."

"yeah, you're right~" they share a laugh as he skims through some photos. Nothing really interesting. There's many pictures of blurry spaghetti and puzzles. Some of him and frisk, some of him and his brother, and some of the rest of their friends hanging out. One, though, a more recent one, caught their eye, and they paused. "…. dude, what the fuck?"

"holy shit. Now, this is interesting~"

The two friends grinned at one another devilishly.

This can't be good.