July 7th, 2020: Earth
"How has your training been going, Frisk?" Toriel asked, looking curiously at her son from across the table that had been extended to accommodate for several extra people. It had been some time since she had been able to host a dinner party like this. Frisk groaned and shuffled his wings awkwardly from where he was perched on the edge of his chair, tearing into his food with his beak to avoid answering.
"That good, huh bro?" Chara murmured from her seat across from him, taking another bite of her meal.
"I managed to summon a candle's worth of fire," Frisk muttered after he swallowed. "So that was nice at least."
"A-at least it,'s progress, right?" Alphys asked, looking up for a moment from where she was feeding Alexander. The little reptile took the opportunity to try and wiggle out of his highchair, but his plan was foiled as Undyne's powerful arms came around from the other side.
"You're not going anywhere, squirt." The fish woman licked a thumb and started cleaning off Alexander's face a little, much to the little reptile's displeasure.
"Noooooo!" the child whined, trying to beat off Undyne's arms with his own. The warrior simply grinned in response.
"Then maybe you should get more of the yummmies in your mouth, instead of trying to use them as warpaint." She laughed fondly, not stopping in her ministrations.
Toriel reached out a hand and grasped at her son's wing gently.
"Take it one step at a time, dear," she soothed gently. "You will get the hang of it. It is not something you can expect to master immediately. In fact, you have made astounding progress so far. You've already nearly gotten fully used to your phoenix body."
"She's right!" Alphys exclaimed. "Th-that's an impressive amount of progress after so little time!"
Frisk shrugged, looking away.
"Doesn't feel like a lot."
"Yeah, well, suck it up brother." Chara called. "Just because something doesn't come easily or naturally to you-"
"Chara," Asgore chided gently. "There is no need to speak to your brother like that. He needs encouragement right now. Let us try and build him up, hmmm?"
The girl quieted with a grumble, and Kid looked up from his plate. He was seated beside her, and licked his lips clean before leaning over and nuzzling her neck gently, earning a contented sigh from the girl.
"So Alphys," Toriel spoke, garnering the reptile's attention. "You have been working on a few projects, have you not?"
"Oh-yes!" Alphys brought a full spoon to Alexander's mouth again before speaking. "I-I've actually been working on a few things… I'm planning to start seeing if I can set up some sort of… umm...interdimensional communicator?"
"Really?" Papyrus put down his fork and began serving himself a second helping, mostly of pasta. "That sounds like a great idea!"
Alphys blushed and fidgeted.
"I-it's not that different than setting things up in dimensional boxes… in theory," she explained. "I'm hoping to make up some sort of… phone connector and internet connection through the Rift. Th-that way we don't have to worry too much about setting up visits, or if something goes wrong or something…"
"I think that is a wonderful idea." Asgore smiled fondly at the reptile. "Thank you, Alphys."
The scientist ducked her head and mumbled a little at the praise. This caused Undyne to laugh and rub her wife's crest affectionately.
"See? Look at you going and making everyone's lives easier. That's what you're all about, babe."
"Maybe we should stop before she turns into a tomato," Frisk called with laughter, ruffling his feathers in amusement. Undye responded by rising to her feet, lifting Alphys out of her chair and twirling her around, much to Alexander's delight.
"Never!" the fish-woman crowed. "I'm gonna keep complimenting this nerd until she accepts it, if it takes fifty years!"
Alexander clapped and laughed happily at the spectacle, swiftly joined by the others of the table. Alphys just sank further into her embarrassment.
Frisk cooed affectionately as Undyne returned to her seat, but refused to relinquish the blushing reptile, keeping her in own lap.
"You two are just the sweetest things…" The phoenix grinned. "Good thing I got you two started huh?"
"Hate you all," Alphys's voice was muffled, her face hidden in her hands. Undyne just laughed and kissed her crest.
"You know we mean well," she grinned. "And you're stuck with me, too. Until the renovations are done in the basement, you're not hiding any lab stuff down there. I get you all to myself."
"Right, you're putting my idea into action?" Chara asked, her eyes sparking slightly with red light.
Undyne nodded.
"Yeah, we're digging out the yard a bit and knocking out part of the wall so we can set up an entrance on the Rift side that doesn't require guests to go through our house. Don't want to suddenly have people in the house when we weren't expecting it…"
"Fair," Frisk agreed. "Don't want mini-me to see anything… scarring." The bird's grin only widened as Alphys whined her protest.
"Hey, punk! It's my job to break her!" Undyne was still grinning as she admonished him though. "Get your own!"
"Frisk... " Toriel chided gently.
"I know, I know," Frisk grumbled, returning his attention to his food.
"Speaking of getting your own." Chara threw her brother a glance, putting down her fork for a moment. "I hope you haven't been doing anything that's gonna make Fiona not want to train you anymore."
"C'mon, sis!" the bird protested, worrying at the edge of his chair with his talons. "I'm the perfect gentleman! I would never…"
He trailed off in the face of his sister's red-eyed stare, and the soft chortling that could be heard from around the table.
"Alright, so I've tried flirting with her once or twice," Frisk admitted with a sigh. "I keep messing it up though, I don't even think she's noticed."
"Ah, I see you're skipping the extra parts and going straight to the "messing up" part now," Chara let a smug grin spread across her porcelain features.
"Hey, you try flirting when your body can give out without warning," Frisk protested. "It's a lot harder than it-"
"Children," Toriel warned firmly. "That's enough. We do not need to fight, now do we?"
Both Frisk and Chara quietened at that, and Chara's tail lashed about for a few moments before settling.
There was quiet at the table for a time, while the Monsters focused on their food. Eventually, Undyne emptied her plate and leaned back with a contented sigh, then gently poked her wife's side.
"Hey, Alph, didn't you have something else you were gonna tell these guys?"
The reptile looked up, her flush still coloring the scales on her face.
"O-oh… right," she swallowed nervously, and started rubbing her hands together, while Undyne hugged her into herself, resting her own blue-scaled head on Alphys's crest.
"Uhm," she began nervously, still a little flustered and shying away from the attention of the others at the table. "W-well, I've been working on another… little project on the side, ever since Frisk…"
"Turned into a bird," the boy in question called helpfully.
"Y-yeah. I've been um… collating the data I got from that, and I even um… looked at some of the… remnants from the battle."
"Why?" Asgore asked, a shudder running through his body, and an unsettling wave washed over the room at the reminder of the creatures they'd fought under the mountain.
"Frisk was a unique case," Alphys explained, taking off her spectacles and cleaning them for a moment. "If anyone else had gone through what he did… they would have become one of those things long before we'd managed to get to him."
"Well that's comforting," Frisk mumbled around a beakful of food.
"A-anyways! I was doing this for a reason. W-with everything that happened, it gave us a… a viewpoint on things I hadn't had before. So…" Alphys fidgeted slightly in her wife's hold, calming a little when the fish-woman kissed the top of her head.
"I've been studying to try and find out why Humans deteriorated while we were trapped Underground."
Asgore and Toriel perked, focusing more intently on Alphys, food temporarily forgotten.
"Did you find anything?" Toriel asked quickly.
"A few things… enough to piece together a theory at least? I-I don't have anything… concrete, and I could be way off with my theory but…"
"Go ahead," Asgore encouraged. "We are all ears."
"A-alright." Alphys clasped her hands together and breathed deeply before speaking.
"So, I spent a long time studying the effect the magic had on the Humans. How it interacted with the mind, body and soul, and how it interacted with all three. In each case, except for Frisk… a-and that girl… it overwhelmed everything. The mind was overtaken by pain, the soul was infused with the magic, and the body… well.
"I won't go into t-too much of the details… yeah, laugh it up Frisk," she glared half-heartedly at the Phoenix who was choking on his food. The yellow reptile huffed, then continued. "But there were certain reactions, certain… stimulants that were triggered that I took notice of. I did some work… took some tests… observed results. And I came up with a theory.
"I think that Humans and Monsters are actually supposed to be in a… symbiotic relationship."
"What do you mean?" Chara asked quietly, while Kid looked over in confusion, cocking his head to the left.
"Well, some of the reactions hinted at… a mental connector of sorts. And I had stumbled on something similar with Monsters when I was umm… experimenting with… Determination…"
She slumped a little and Asgore gave out a soothing rumble.
"Everyone has forgiven you for that," he placed a hand on the table gently. "You do not have to feel guilty about it anymore."
"Thanks…" Alphys mumbled. "Anyways, back on track… the theory. We Monsters are naturally magical… we have to be. We're literally nothing but magic. But Humans aren't, and never were, right?"
Toriel nodded. "Yes. They had the capacity to learn magic, and their Wizards commanded incredible power, but no Human was born with it, nor did they understand it the way we did." A fond, distant smile crossed her muzzle. "In the old days, the Wizards would come to us to learn more of the depth… the personality of magic."
Alphys grinned slightly, worrying at her lower lip with her teeth.
"Right. Then us Monsters… we're not weak, not by any means. Just… the Humans had so much power, even the ones without magic, that they had us terribly outmatched."
"And now, the tables have turned…" Chara murmured, her gaze never leaving Alphys.
"Yes. So why? Well… I think that Humans, with their great power, were there to protect Monsters. And in return… we were able to give them magic and power their souls."
"How?" Chara asked. Alphys shrugged.
"Magic generation probably? Soul proximity? Something like that. I think."
"So then, you think that Humans only had their power because of Monsters?" Asgore's brow furrowed in thought.
"I do. So when we were sealed Underground…"
Chara suddenly started laughing raucously, startling a few of the others. She let her head fall to the table and pounded a fist against it in mirth, her body shaking from the force of her laughter.
"They… they sealed Monsters away…" she managed between guffaws, "And… and they lost their power? Oh… the irony! It's… it's…" she broke down into her fit of laughter again, shaking her head against the wooden surface.
"Just a theory…" Alphys muttered. "But I think it's plausible."
"I have a question," Frisk raised a wing, as if he was back in school. "If you're right, does that mean Human's could get their power back again now that we're free?"
Chara's laughter stopped abruptly and she turned her head on the table, waiting intently for Alphys's answer.
"Theoretically? I… I can't say for certain. We've been up here for years now, and there hasn't been any sign of it. Plus, we don't have nearly as many Monsters… or Boss Monsters… as we used to. Even if they did start to regain what they lost… it would be a slow process, and it would take… probably centuries at least. Maybe millennia. If it does happen…" she shrugged. "None of us will be around to see it, anyways."
"I had not thought that there might be a connection between our imprisonment and the deterioration of Humans," Asgore mused, rubbing his beard in thought. "I wonder…" he trailed off, taking another bite of food instead of finishing.
"It's just a theory," Alphys repeated. "But… it's what I've got for now. I might see about running some more tests, maybe keep an eye on how the Humans do long-term. Maybe one day they'll be like they were… maybe not."
