Greetings, my chinchilla-tastic readers! A mighty fine day for a mighty fine chapter, wouldn't you say? This part of the story is sure to be absolutely beautiful! After all, we finally get to see everyone's favorite killer-robot-cooking-show-host-news-anchor-famous-actor... the one and only Poodlebot!
...
Were you expecting someone else? Oh... well, anyways, on with the chapter, I guess...
Chapter Eleven
Metal Crusher
"Everyone give a big hand for our wonderful contestant!" –Mettaton
The three humans stood from their brief picnic, having recovered all of their lost HP. After a pleasant moment of rest to regain their strength, everyone was much less tired from all that running, and ready to continue their adventure. Moving further into Hotland across the orange, rocky ground, they soon came to a crossroads.
To their left was what appeared to be an elevator, guarded by two burly figures in black armor. To their right were stairs carved right into the rock, leading down to what was presumably a river, from the sound of rushing water instead of bubbling magma. And finally, directly ahead was a large, white building with big red letters on the front that read, 'LAB'.
Naturally, William was instantly drawn to the huge laboratory. Taking a few steps toward the building, he turned to his friends. "Can we?" he asked, like a child asking to play with his favorite toy.
Frisk nodded, smiling at him while Chara laughed. "Go right ahead, we won't stop you," Chara told him, her being the only one who truly knew how important this was.
Walking right up to the slight rectangular door-shaped indent in the massive white wall, William grinned as it slid open automatically for him, Chara and Frisk following close behind.
William expected to see various incredible technological advances, lining workbenches filled with strange tools… Instead, the lights were off.
All that he could see was a twenty-foot tall screen glowing on the wall, showing… himself. A huge, zoomed-in image of him on the monitor. As he turned, the giant William on the screen turned. It was rather disturbing. He noted that down in each of the bottom corners were smaller windows showing Frisk and Chara, and he knew enough about computers to know that the large and small windows were interchangeable.
As he continued through the dark lab, he felt his way around a desk, nearly knocking over whatever was on it. It felt like a messy stack of papers, or maybe entire books?
They had made it halfway through the lab when without a sound, the lights flicked on.
For a moment, what appeared to be a yellow humanoid lizard in a white lab coat stared at William, wide-eyed, and William stared at the science lizard, neither of them making a sound.
"Um, sorry, the door was unlocked–" William began, but was interrupted when the monster started to panic… but not for the reasons he thought.
"O-oh my gosh, you're here, you're actually here, oh gosh, I-I'm sorry, I haven't showered and I'm barely dressed, the l-lab's a mess, oh my gosh–!" she stuttered out, wringing her hands and apologizing profusely for pretty much everything. "I-I just didn't expect you to show up so soon! So, uh h-hiya! I'm Dr. Alphys. I'm Asgore's royal scientist!" she introduced herself, the words rushing out almost faster than William could keep up with.
"Asgore's scientist? As in the 'King of Monsters' royal scientist?" William muttered as he slowly reached for his dagger, not pulling it out yet, just wanting to be cautious… after all, they had just barely finished escaping from the captain of the royal guard.
Hearing William's suspicion and seeing him reach for his weapon, Alphys's eyes widened. "W-wait! B-b-but, ahhhh, I'm not one of the 'bad guys'! Actually, since you three first stepped out of the RUINS, I've, um… been observing your journey through my console," she revealed, shooting a nervous glance over at the monitor.
William relaxed. He really wanted to be able to trust this Dr. Alphys, seeing as she was his only shot at getting… well, you know, not home, but just out of here.
"Y-your fights! Your f-friendships! Everything!" Alphys continued excitedly when they didn't respond. "I was originally going to stop you, but… watching someone on a screen really makes you root for them," she said with a nervous smile. "A-and it was really weird… w-watching you guys was like, like I was re-watching my f-favorite TV show, b-but it had been years, so I-I only had a very, very vague recollection of it," the scientist attempted to explain. She then looked down, realizing that that probably didn't make any sense. "S-so, ahhh, now I-I want to help you!" she told them brightly.
"Sounds great," William told her. "I'm William, but I'm sure you already knew that," he told her, shaking her hand.
"Y-yeah! I know a lot about you guys! I-I actually know everything! But d-d-don't worry! I won't t-tell any of you things that the others d-don't want you to k-know!" Alphys assured them, locking eyes with each of them in turn. Frisk gave the scientist a pained smile, whereas Chara and William nodded grimly. "Anyways, using my knowledge, I can easily guide you through H-Hotland! I know the way r-right to Asgore's castle n-no problem!" she told them happily.
"Excellent! Nice to meet you officially, Alphys!" Frisk told the monster cheerfully.
"Well, I guess we're happy to have you on our side," Chara commented. She was glancing around the lab, as if looking for a different lab-coat-clad monster, but after a while, she shrugged and gave up the search.
"G-great! There's, uh, just one tiny little issue… a long time ago, I made a robot named Mettaton," Alphys began… but William had met enough scientists to know where this was going. "Originally, I made him to be an, um, entertainment robot. Uh, you know, like a robotic TV star or something… anyway, recently I decided to– er –make him more… useful?" Alphys said nervously. "You know, just some small practical adjustments!" she blurted out, tapping her claws together out of habit.
"Like what?" William asked suspiciously.
"Like, um… anti… anti-human combat features?" she announced quietly, a shameful yet somehow also slightly proud smile spreading across her reptilian features. "O-of course, when I saw you coming, I immediately decided: I have to remove those features!" she assured them. "U-unfortunately, I may have made a teensy mistake while doing so… and, um…" she trailed off.
"Now he's an unstoppable killing machine with a thirst for human blood," William finished.
"Ehehehehe… heh… yeah," Alphys told him, looking at the floor guiltily.
Thud.
"Did anyone else… hear something?" Chara asked.
Thud.
"I heard it too…" Frisk said nervously.
Thud.
Alphys's eyes widened. "Oh no–"
"Ohhhh yes!" A robotic voice echoed through the room as the yellow wall to their left suddenly burst open. What appeared to be a large rectangular metal box on a single wheel crashed through the wall like the freaking Kool-Aid Man, its two metal arms ending in white gloves waving at them. What appeared to be its face was simply a five-by-four horizontal screen of tiles, then a small horizontal line of four tiles directly under that. Finally, four small dials sat right above the bottom of the metal frame, where the single wheel it was somehow balancing on was attached. It was pretty large, about the size of your average TV, but much thicker. "Welcome, Beauties. . ."
The first odd thing William noticed was that the lights of the lab had all converged in a single spotlight, focused on Mettaton. The second thing he noticed was that the robot was holding a microphone.
Then, before any of them could react… a huge, neon sign with loopy letters descended from the ceiling, and several flashing lights formed spotlights on Frisk, Chara, Alphys and himself. ". . .To today's quiz show!" Mettaton finished gleefully. The giant sign read, GAME SHOW! in big flashing letters, and Mettaton seemed absolutely delighted. "Oh, boy, I can already tell it's gonna be a good one! Everyone give a big hand for our wonderful contestants!" Mettaton proceeded to slap his hands together wholeheartedly, his screen flashing several colors in tune with the lights.
"Quiz show?" William asked incredulously. "I don't think we have time for something like this…"
"Hey, it's better than fighting the robot with anti-human combat features," Chara reminded him, slipping her knife back into her pocket.
Zeroing in on Chara, Mettaton rolled right up to her. "Never played before, gorgeous?" he asked.
"Gorgeous?" Chara asked, blushing slightly. She had almost forgotten she got flustered this easily... maybe not having a SOUL had come with a couple of perks.
"No problem! It's simple, really," he told her. "Answer correctly. . . or you die!" Mettaton finished, his arms curling upward in the classic 'maniacal laughter' pose.
"Of course," William muttered as the lab around them faded away. Their SOULs began to glow, crimson, blue, and red, and both Mettaton and Alphys became a monochrome black and white. Alphys was standing just behind the robot, wringing her hands and wincing at them apologetically.
And with that, the quiz show began.
"Okay, what do we do?" Chara asked William, and Frisk looked inquisitively in his direction as well.
When had they started looking to him for direction?
"We can't run, what else can we do?" he asked, directing the question at Frisk. She was the one who always seemed to know what action to take to appease a monster.
However, in this case, she only shrugged at them. "Maybe… play along?"
"I don't mind," Chara told him. He nodded back at her, and turned to Mettaton.
"Alright, we're ready. We can work as a team, right?" he asked.
"Of course! Now, let's start with an easy one!" Mettaton said. "What's the prize for answering correctly?" he asked dramatically.
In front of the humans, four glowing options appeared in the place of the usual magical attacks:
A: Money
B: Mercy
C: New Car
D: More questions
And above these options was a glowing red number that was counting down from 30… way too fast.
"I'd love to tell you that it's 'B', but things are never that easy, are they?" Frisk said mournfully. "It's 'D'…" she told him dejectedly. William agreed entirely, and pressed the 'D' button.
As he suspected, confetti fell from nowhere and Mettaton waved his question cards around joyfully. "Right! Sounds like you get it! Now, here's your terrific prize!" the robot said, flipping to the next card. "What's the king's full name?"
A: Lord Fluffybuns
B: Fuzzy Pushover
C: Asgore Dreemurr
D: Dr. Friendship
"It's C," Chara told him, and he pressed the corresponding button.
"Correct! What a terrific answer!" Mettaton exclaimed.
This was actually kind of fun… almost fun enough to make them forget that their lives were at stake.
"Now, enough about you, let's talk about me!" Mettaton told them gleefully. "What are robots made of?"
A: Hopes & Dreams
B: Metal & Magic
C: Snips & Snails
D: Sugar & Spice
E: Poodles & Gears
Without a moment's hesitation, William chose 'B'. He knew the answer to that one far too well already. Besides, Frisk was just staring at answer "E" with a puzzled expression.
"Too easy for you, huh?" Mettaton asked, sounding slightly impatient. "Well, here's another easy one for you," he told them… William could almost feel the robot smirking. "Two trains, train A and train B, simultaneously depart station A and station B. Station A and station B are 252.5 miles away from each other. Train A is moving at 124.7mph towards station B, and train B is moving at 253.5mph towards station A. If both trains departed at 10:00AM and it is now 10:08, how much longer until both trains pass each other?" Mettaton read off, condescendingly slowly.
A: 31.o54 Minutes
B: 16.232 Minutes
C: 32.0–
"32.058 minutes!" William yelled excitedly, glancing up from a piece of paper he had been scribbling on before that answer had even finished loading.
"That's. . . correct," Mettaton said, sounding slightly frazzled and more than a little suspicious. However, he quickly regained his composure. "Wonderful! I'm astounded, folks! But don't 'count' on your victory!" Mettaton told them, holding up a jar full of small, buzzing insects. "Now. . . how many flies are in this jar?"
A: 54
B: 53
C: 55
D: 52
"How are we supposed to count those?" William complained, squinting at the container.
"Complaining is against the rules," Mettaton chastised him.
"But–"
"Don't worry, the answer is 'A'," Frisk told him.
"How do you know?" Chara asked, but not suspiciously… more like, 'my life depends on this are you absolutely sure?'
"Just trust me!" Frisk told them.
William nodded, and chose 'A'.
"INCREDIBLE! That's correct! Next Question: What monster is this?" Mettaton asked, brushing past their impossibly correct answer as his screen changed to show a familiar image. Though cut off on the side and bottom, the image was clearly a Froggit from the RUINS.
A: Froggit
B: Whimsun
C: Moldsmal
D: Mettaton
"Easy, that's a Froggit," William said, grinning confidently.
"No, wait–!" Frisk yelled, but he had already pressed 'A'.
"WRONG! WRONG! WROOOOONG!" Mettaton shouted delightedly. "Too bad!" The image zoomed out, revealing that it was Mettaton wearing a shirt with a Froggit on it. The robot pointed a finger gun at them, and suddenly, a large laser beam shot out and struck William's SOUL, before blasting through to Chara's, and then finally to Frisk's.
BZZZZZZZZT!
And boy did that laser beam hurt.
"Agh!" William grunted, falling to his knees. That laser had taken out over half of his HP in one shot… shoving a Crab Apple into his mouth to regain some of his lost HP, he motioned for the others to do the same while Mettaton read off the next question.
"But can you get this one?" Mettaton asked dramatically. "Would you smooch a ghost?"
A: Heck Yeah
B: Heck Yeah
C: Heck Yeah
D: Heck Yeah
"That's hardly fair!" William told robot. "I would never cross the sacred line between the dead and the living! I call blasphemy!" he proclaimed, while Chara snickered.
"Oh, 'Blast me'? Alright!" Mettaton exclaimed delightedly.
"Wai–"
BZZZZZZZZZT!
"You… stupid… microwave…" he grumbled, his SOUL still smoking, as were Chara and Frisk's.
"Now here's one that's sure to stump you!" Mettaton told them, brushing past his insult like the human hadn't said a word. "In the dating simulation video game 'Mew Mew Kissy Cutie' what is Mew Mew's favorite food?"
Before the answers could even load, Alphys spoke up, interrupting whatever would have happened next (another laser beam, probably). "OH! OH! I KNOW THIS ONE! IT'S SNAIL ICE CREAM!" Alphys yelled, even hopping up and down a little in her excitement. "IN THE FOURTH CHAPTER EVERYONE GOES TO THE BEACH! AND SHE BUYS ICE CREAM FOR ALL OF HER FRIENDS! BUT IT'S SNAIL FLAVOR AND SHE'S THE ONLY ONE WHO WANTS IT! IT'S ONE OF MY FAVORITE PARTS OF THE GAME BECAUSE IT'S ACTUALLY, a very powerful message about friendship and… uh…" Alphys trailed off, glancing nervously over at Mettaton.
"Alphys, Alphys, Alphys. . . you haven't been helping our contestants, have you?" he asked, wagging his finger at her. "OOOOH! You should have told me. . ."
Behind William, he noticed Frisk sigh disappointedly. So that was how she had known the answers… Frisk had been cheating.
"Now I'll ask a question. . . you'll be sure to know the answer to!" Mettaton proclaimed smugly. "So, contestants. . . who does Dr. Alphys have a crush on?"
A: Undyne
B: Asgore
C: William
D: Don't know
Alphys silently begged them not to answer, shaking her hands in front of her in a no no no no no! motion.
William thought for a split second about letting the timer reach zero so they didn't have to answer (they all had enough HP to take another hit), but the timer wasn't moving.
"Choose 'A'!" Frisk whispered to him.
"I swear, if it's 'C'…" Chara muttered just loud enough for him to hear, clenching her fists and glaring at the scientist.
"Um…" William decided to play it safe. After all, in this case at least, there was no way for Frisk to know the correct answer. He pressed 'D'.
"Correct."
"What?" he asked. He hadn't chosen an actual answer, had he…? Though it seemed to be what Alphys wanted, as she was giving him a thumbs up.
"Dr. Alphys has a crush on. . . the unknowable. You see, Alphys believes there is someone out there. . ." Mettaton explained. "Someone watching her. Someone she thinks is 'cute' and 'interesting'."
Alphys squinted suspiciously at the robot, unsure of where he was going with this.
"Hello, theoretical person. Dr. Alphys likes you," Mettaton tells you. "Too bad you are not real." Ouch. That's rough, buddy… Mettaton cues his derisive laughtrack, further damaging your feelings.
"H-hey, I've done research about this!" Alphys defends you. "There are alternate universes out there!"
William snorts. "No kidding," he mutters under his breath.
"S-someday, maybe, I could meet them…" Alphys mutters hopefully, glancing around as if you might be there.
"You said the exact same thing about Mew Mew Kissy Cutie," Mettaton replies flatly. ". . . but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Person, if you are out there, how about giving us a sign, right now?" he asks you, his screen flashing into a question mark pattern.
…
…
…
"That settles that, doesn't it?" Mettaton states smugly. Alphys sniffles and stares at the floor, too disappointed to speak.
"Well, well, well," Mettaton said, turning back to the humans. "With Dr. Alphys helping you, the show has no dramatic tension! We can't go on like this!" Mettaton exclaimed.
"Thank goodness…" William muttered. He hated it when the game was rigged; his entire life so far felt like it had been setting him up to lose in the end.
"But! But! This was just the pilot episode!" Mettaton told them delightedly. "Next up, more drama! More bloodshed! More romance!" the robot cackled, resuming his 'evil laugh' pose on the last word as if he had just named their next torturous trial. "Until next time, darlings!" With that, Mettaton's wheel was replaced by a rocket as he flew through a hatch in the ceiling of the lab.
Color returned to their surroundings, and Alphys turned to them. "Well, that was certainly something," she stated with a nervous smile.
"Yes… yes, it was…" Chara replied with a relieved sigh.
"S-so, um, are you all okay?" Alphys asked worriedly. "Y-you took a few hits from Mettaton's lasers, l-let me get you something to eat!" she said hurriedly, running over to her refrigerator, which sat in the middle of the lab. "I have some, um, noodles…" she muttered.
"Do you have any chocolate?" Chara asked, following Alphys to the fridge, leaving the remaining humans on the other side of the lab.
"That was fun," Frisk remarked, smiling at William.
"It sort of was, wasn't it? In an odd, life-and-death sort of way," William agreed. "So Alphys was helping with the answers the entire time?"
"Yeah," Frisk said with a slightly guilty smile. "It wasn't really cheating though, was it? I mean, I know it was technically against the rules, but–" she began to try to explain, but William stopped her with a small chuckle.
"Frisk, it was literally 'answer correctly or die'. I think a little help from a friend isn't too bad," he assured her. "I'm not that stingy about rules, am I?"
"Well, you did get pretty technical about the exact way I was allowed to touch the blocks when we were playing Jenja back at mom's," Frisk teased, recalling how he had very specifically explained how she was only supposed to use one hand, and how she couldn't support the tower in any other way, and so on...
"Yeah, I guess I can– wait, what?" William asked suddenly, confusion flashing across his face. "We never played Jenja."
"O-oh, really?" Frisk asked, feigning surprise as she silently berated herself for her mistake. Another slip-up like that, and...
"I mean, I don't think we did..." William muttered to himself, trying to recall. He remembered seeing the game in Ms. Toriel's games collection, but he was absolutely sure they had never played it. Mostly sure... wait, had they...?
"I must have been thinking of another game then, haha," Frisk corrected herself with a nervous laugh, glancing away.
"You're probably right... that, or I'm just tired," William said, trying to sift through the rather murky memories. Usually, he only experienced this sort of mental and memory-based difficulty after... after a...
"Hey, William," Frisk said, regaining her usual cheerfulness and pulling William out of his thoughts. "You know you can trust me, right? It's me, Frisk!"
As William met the gaze of his friend, he couldn't help but wonder if Frisk was really telling the truth about everything... or if she was just a really good actor. He'd met far too many people in the past who had taken advantage of his trust, and for a flicker of a second he could have sworn it seemed like Frisk was hiding something from him...
But staring into her big, innocent eyes, William quickly shook all these thoughts away. What was he thinking? This was Frisk. There was practically nobody in the Underground as sweet and innocent as her.
Seeing this change in expression, Frisk grinned widely up at him. "Don't worry William, I would never hide anything from you! You're my best friend!" she told him in a practiced tone that seemed almost recited from memory... as if she had read his mind. But obviously, she couldn't have known what he was thinking. It wasn't as if she had ever had this conversation with him before.
"William! Do you have any food?" Chara called back to him, distracting him for a moment. "All Alphys has are noodles! Like, a ridiculous amount of noodles!" she commented, squinting into the fridge, which was completely stuffed with the little round packages. Most had labels slapped onto them that said things like "Mealworm Flavor!", "Cricket Crunch!" and "Now with Extra Grubs!" in bright colorful letters.
"S-sorry!" Alphys apologized, wringing her hands.
"Well, do you want a Spider Donut…?" William offered, separating himself from Frisk and coming over to them.
"No! Never!" Chara told him, disgusted.
"W-why not? They're actually really healthy, I hear," Alphys told them. "I-I mean, I could never afford them, but they always smell great," Alphys commented, thinking back to her trips from Hotland to the Capitol. "I won't take any of yours, though!" she said nervously, tapping her claws together. "I c-can't believe you even could pay for that many…"
"They're just… not something I want to have anywhere near me," Chara told them, turning away.
"Why is it so impressive that I have this many?" William asked, reaching into his pockets.
"I've seen you eat, like, thirteen of those things since you left the RUINS! I don't even want to think about how much that must have c-cost you!" the scientist said incredulously.
"Only twelve G apiece, actually," William said as he continued searching his remaining pockets. However, his expression slowly morphed into one of horror as he found all of his pockets empty of Spider Donuts. "No…" he whispered.
"O-only twelve G? That's incredible! How did you find them for so cheap?" Alphys asked, astonished. But William wasn't listening.
"I ate my last donut hours ago… hours ago, and I didn't even know! I would have savored it so much more…" he said to himself, his voice filled with regret.
"William! Really! How did you get them so cheap? What did you do in the RUINS?" Alphys asked, sounding greatly disturbed, as if she suspected blatant theivery.
"The bake sale there… it sold them for that much…" William muttered dully. "And I can never go back," he continued mournfully. Spider Donuts had quickly become his favorite food of all time, he now realized. The only thing that could possible compare was Ms. Toriel's Butterscotch-Cinnamon Pie, and… and that was locked in the RUINS too!
William sighed in defeat… before Alphys's next question filled him with hope.
"Wait, there's another bake sale in the RUINS?" Alphys asked curiously.
"Another?" William returned hopefully. "Does that mean that there's also another bake sale out here?" he asked frantically.
"W-well, yes, but it's way overpriced–" Alphys began.
"Can you guide me to it?" he asked.
"O-of course! In fact, you'll need to pass right by it if you want to get to Asgore," she told him, vaguely gesturing out there... into Hotland.
Chara cleared her throat. "Ahem, William? I don't think that overpriced pastries are really that important when you consider our other problems…" she reminded him.
"Oh… right. Of course," he agreed quickly.
"Yeah, we've gotta break the Barrier!" Frisk exclaimed happily.
"H-how are you going to d-do that?" Alphys asked curiously.
Nobody answered her for a moment.
"With determination!" Frisk exclaimed confidently.
Alphys squinted at the girl for a moment, before nodding slowly. "Um… alright…?"
"We'll, uh, figure something out when we get there," William told the scientist.
"Y-yeah, you three make a really good team! I'm sure you'll get it," Alphys decided.
"Well, speaking of that, we should probably get going in a moment here," William said. "Frisk, Chara, you two go on ahead. I've got to talk with Alphys about some… you know, nerd stuff," he told them.
"What kind of nerd stuff?" Frisk asked.
"The boring kind," Chara told her, before leading her out of the lab's back door before she could protest. She gave William a knowing look over her should just before the door slid shut.
"Okay. Show me the pieces," Alphys said seriously, clearing off a space on her desk.
William was startled for a moment, before remembering that Alphys had been 'observing' them ever since they left the RUINS. It was strange, thinking that someone had been watching their every move… hearing their every word and seeing their every action… honestly, William didn't like it very much at all. But there wasn't much he could do about it. "Here," he said, summoning his dimensional pouch and pouring out the contents. He caught the infernite core in the fabric of the bag before it could burn a hole in the table or his hand, as the rest of the mechanical fragments tumbled out. Then, one final Spider Donut came tumbling out, making his face light up in delight– but he quickly put it away as Alphys spoke.
"Do you have the schematics?" she asked seriously. William noticed that oddly enough, the scientist's stutter was gone. It gave him hope that she was so sure about this subject.
"Yes," he replied, placing the blueprints on the table beside the shards.
"This is really complicated," she told him after studying the papers for a few minutes, flipping through the various pages. Normally, these words would have worried him, but Alphys said it more like she was excited for the challenge rather than intimidated by it. "You've got quite the technology here… how did you come across such an advanced device?" Alphys asked eagerly.
"I found it in a corpse's pocket," he told her dully.
"Oh."
The two glanced up at each other, and silently agreed to not ask any more questions beyond what was necessary.
"So, can you fix it?" he asked worriedly.
"Oh, uh, definitely," the monster replied. "I only need a few hours, and I can get it working perfectly! But… what will you do then?" she asked.
"I'm not going anywhere until the Barrier is broken," William stated. "I promised that I would free the monsters and protect Frisk, and that's what I'm going to do."
Alphys looked impressed. "That's… really admirable, William. Most humans– and most monsters, too –wouldn't put their life in danger just to uphold a promise," she told him.
"Yeah, I know. It's just… in my nature, I guess, as an Integrity SOUL," he told her, trying to brush it off.
"No, no it's not. You realize that the whole SOUL-trait-color thing is just speculative, right? The fact that your SOUL is blue has nothing to do with your honesty or morals, or anything like that. Those are conscious decisions that you make, William," she told him. "You've worked hard to stay honest and kind, and although you've done what you had to to survive… you've kept your morals consistent. You've upheld your ideals and done what you thought was right, despite how much harder it has made things for you. You are a true Integrity SOUL, William… even in spite of the fact that it has cost you dearly, which just proves it all over again," she told him confidently. Although William wasn't so sure about the SOUL-Trait-Color correspondence being totally unproven, the science-minded reptile did have a point.
William sighed. "As much as I want to believe that I'm a horrible person, you people really aren't gonna let it go, are you?" he asked with a small smile.
"I-I mean… well, yeah! That's right!" Alphys told him. "You're worth something, you know? I'm not exactly the most learned monster on the subject of recognizing self-worth," she muttered ashamedly, "but I can tell you that you're pretty great! And if you ever want her to like you back, you need to realize that!" she told him confidently, before realizing what she had just said and going back to her usual nervous, apologetic, stuttering self. "O-oh my gosh, I'm sorry, it's just r-really obvious and–"
"No, Alphys. You're right. If I ever want anybody to see me as likable, I have to like myself first!" he stated, moving past the implications of what the lizard-like scientist had said.
"Y-yeah, I mean, if you don't think you're worth dating, why would you expect anybody else to think you are?" she asked, continuing on with her previous train of thought. "B-be confident in yourself, William! I personally think that you'd be a wonderful romantic partner! And I mean that in the most platonic way possible," she assured him solemnly.
"Exactl– wait. When did this become about dating?" he demanded.
"Uh, I, um… I'll have that fixed for you by tomorrow goodbye!" Alphys blurted out, rushing over to what appeared to be the bathroom. She shut the door behind her, and with a click, it locked.
Wait… monsters didn't need bathrooms…
More than a little confused, William decided to chalk it up to Alphys being Alphys… at least for the last part. What she had said was true, he had worked hard to stay true to himself. The least he could do was be proud of it. He was starting to think that maybe, just maybe, he might be good enough for Chara. Maybe someday she would even like him back… but if he knew one thing for sure, it was that he was't going to change anything about himself for her. He was William, and if he had to compromise on that fact to make someone like him, maybe they weren't the type of person he wanted to like him anyways. William could only hope that over time, Chara might start liking him for who he was…
Which, of course, she already did. But William sure as heck didn't know that.
Either way, when William left the lab, he stood a little bit taller, just a small amount more confident in who he was.
Sometimes, it seems like the shorter chapters are some of the more important ones, huh? Well, now that they've entered Hotland and William is down to his last Spider Donut, things are going to start heating up a bit more!
Also, now that we've reached a little over the midway point of the story, I figured I'd try something I saw that other authors do when they reach a checkpoint in their story... a Q&A Section! From what I understand about the whole process, you PM me a question (any question you'd like, as long as it's about the story) and I'll try to answer it! As long as it's not spoiler-y or anything, that is. Anyways, if you're interested in that, go ahead and PM me your question... and I'll post the results at the end of the next chapter after about a week or so, so that everyone can get their questions in. If you're not interested in any of that, then don't bother with it, and I'll try to have the next chapter along for you shortly.
Well, don't get too excited when you see the title of this next chapter, but I have something a little bit special lined up for Valentine's Day...
Up Next Is...
Chapter 12: Dating Start!
~Poodlebot 906
