Whoa, wait, another chapter?! Only a week after the last one? WHAAAAAAT?!

Yep. I managed to write a few chapters over the past week, and I'm going to be posting them every Sunday from now on until I run out of new chapters to post! You're welcome!

Oh, and before I forget - when I posted this on my DeviantArt account, one of the people that reads this posted a very interesting comment, which led to me talking a little bit about the lore of this fanfiction! I'll be posting said lore at the end of this chapter, so if you want to read it, go ahead! ;)


Postcards just didn't do Dublin justice.

Eyes blown wide, Frisk trailed along behind Undyne and Alphys, taking in the sights.

By now they'd been to many countries, many cities with unique architecture. Rome in particular had been one of their favorites, with it's graceful but sturdy marble columns and archways and the famous Coliseum, but despite its lack of towering landmarks, Dublin was right up there next to Rome on their "favorite places to visit" list within the first five minutes of walking down the street. It had a kind of old-time Victorian charm to it, with some two-story buildings lining the narrow cobbled streets sporting ornate decorations around doors and windows, and many shops and theaters boasting ornate wooden signs rather than the neon lights still used by some first-world countries today. The horse-drawn carts that were obviously being used as taxis only added to the effect.

And there were so many monsters. They hadn't seen this large a population of monsters since Ebott, and certainly not a population so at ease with their human neighbors! Everyone from dogs to the amphibious monsters of Waterfall were just strolling along the streets, chatting it up with humans left and right, or helping with bags or groceries – they saw one monster driving one of the taxi-carts!

It was absolutely incredible.

Noticing their awed silence, Undyne cackled and thumped Frisk enthusiastically on the back (nearly toppling them over).

"Yeah, it's pretty great, isn't it punk?" Her grin grew three sizes wider as a couple of humans in the unmistakeable dark blue uniforms of police waved to her as they passed, calling out greetings. "Far cry from all those other snobs out there, right?!"

Frisk nodded emphatically, still gawping with all the tact of a tourist.

"How did this happen so quickly?" They breathed. "Monsters have only been able to live abroad for a year and a half, and in Ireland for a year and three months!"

Alphys gave them a shy little smile. "A l-lot of the officials here are pretty dedicated m-monster supporters, including the mayor. Dublin's pretty monster-friendly because of it."

Pretty monster-friendly was an understatement.

"It's certainly a nice change of pace," Toriel commented. "Most humans still give us frightened looks when they think we're not looking – I don't believe I have seen a single one do that here yet!"

*No, but I've seen a few nasty looks. And look at those shops over there.

Chara's grim comment drew Frisk's attention to a couple of shopfronts boasting "no monster" signs and angry faces behind the windows. One of said faces, noticing them staring, snarled and turned away to finish his cup of steaming drink.

*Still, it's way better than Australia.

Pretty much anywhere is better than Australia.

Oh yes, Australia had been a nightmare. Living on an isolated island continent with barely any contact with the outside world since the Crash had hardly done wonders for their treatment of the monsters there, especially since Toriel had pretty much been the only monster there. Frisk was pretty sure that the only reason people didn't attack them in the streets was because they had diplomatic immunity, plus several large, beefy human guards with very visible guns.

Here, hopefully, they wouldn't have that problem.

"I heard that there's going to be some sort of fostering program going on here," they said, changing the subject. The two monsters exchanged glances.

"Yep!" Undyne confirmed. "The Minister suggested it, as well as the Irish UN representative! It's awesome!"

They'd only heard a few rumors on route to Ireland, and to be honest, they'd thought that grinning crew member had been talking crap. Looked like he hadn't been, after all.

*Swear properly, geeze!

"Do you know anything about it?"

They shook their heads.

"I think that's one of the things the mayor wants to talk to you about." Alphys explained. "We're going t-to the town hall right now, so you can ask him about it yourself."

Good. Frisk picked up the pace, focusing their most determined stare on the domed roof that they recognized as said town hall from the Internet. Time to get down to business.


The mayor of Dublin was a short, portly, wire-haired man with a beaklike nose and a gait with a weird kind of hop with every step, and a surprisingly high-pitched voice for your typical human male.

"Oh, it's so good to meet you, your Majesty!" he trilled upon seeing Toriel, eagerly taking her hand and shaking it furiously. "It's such an honor!" He turned to Frisk, who was struggling to keep a straight face. "And the young Ambassador! Welcome, welcome!"

Frisk accepted the offered handshake with a smile, trying desperately not to compare the man to a chirping bird and ignoring Chara's sniggering. "It's a pleasure to meet you, mister Mayor."

"Oh please, my dear, the pleasure's all mine!"

The man's office was a messy rat's nest (or bird's nest?) of papers, and looked suspiciously like a tornado had come ripping through it. Frisk ignored this, simply moving a stack of papers off a chair and, when the man made a gesture for them to sit, sat. Toriel settled upon a chair of her own, hands folded in her lap and sitting with all the graceful poise of, well, a queen.

"I do hope you find yourself well, Mayor. How have things been here in your city? I imagine us monsters arriving was quite hectic."

"Oh, no, no!" he assured them. "It's been a right fine year so far, hardly any trouble at all! Why, even the anti-monster protests have ended, since your people's arrival!"

"I couldn't help but notice there are some shops that remain segregated?"

The man snorted. "Oh yes. Officially, monsters can enter those shops, but as I understand it, many of those managers aren't particularly fond of you. I am sorry for that – I'm afraid there isn't much I can do about it for now."

Toriel nodded, and Frisk leaned forward, eager to get on with their real reason for talking with this man. "I heard you've agreed to test a fostering program suggested by the Minister?"

The man started, then smiled sheepishly. "Oh, yes, the fostering program. Well, as I'm sure you know, Miss Frisk –"

Frisk frowned at the pronoun, and the man quickly changed his tune. "Oh, sorry, Ambassador Frisk. As I'm sure you know, even here, monsters are segregated from humans, living in seperrate communities, and while that's working well for now, it won't in the long term – it'll encourage prejudice against the monsters. So, the minister and his UN representative have suggested that some monsters move into human dwellings and take on more human-oriented jobs, to see if both they and their foster families can take it. Simple but quite ingenius, I do say!"

Frisk could see the logic behind it, but it brought up a whole slew of problems that needed to be addressed. "That's all well and good," they pointed out, "but I doubt everybody's happy with that. Have you done background checks? Have the volunteers been checked for histories of violence or criminal activity? What about their incomes – can they support an extra mouth to feed without losing their houses? Are their bosses anti-monster, and willing to turn them away for volunteering? What about their neighbors? Are they pro-monster, or anti-monster? Are they likely to try to sabotage the program's success? Or the local businesses? Will they turn monsters away at the door? Will they become targets if the anti-monster rallies begin again?"

The man stared at them with his jaw dropped, and Frisk stopped. Oops.

"G-good God," the mayor muttered. "I thought they only came one to a planet. What are the odds..." He cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Er, I mean, we have done background checks on all of the volunteers, and their closest neighbors… I d-don't think anybody checked their employers..."

*Great, you scared him.

It's not like I meant to. When they got started they just… tended to steamroll ahead. And they'd missed some of that stuff in the past, and missing details that crucial could mean death, and another Reset.

Sometimes they forgot that seeing that level of detail wasn't exactly something other people would consider normal for a kid their age.

There was a knock on the office door, and a young woman with a tray of tea and what looked to be scones came in.

"Ah, Jennifer!" the mayor cried, obviously relieved for a distraction to present itself. "Thank you, thank you! Just set it down on the table!"

The woman complied, casting an unreadable look at the visitors, and just as she stood up and her hand brushed casually against her pants belt, underneath her jacket, Chara suddenly yelped, and with a sickening yanking feeling in their gut, Frisk was no longer in control of their body.

"She has a gun!" Chara yelled, using Frisk's voice. They lunged forward, grabbing with suddenly strong hands at the weapon as it began to emerge from inside the woman's jacket. There was a yelp, and a gunshot that punched a hole open in the wall right where the mayor's head been seconds before, and then Chara was wrenching the gun from the would-be assassin's grip and tossing it across the room, and tackling her with enough force to send her toppling to the ground.

"You little shit!" she hissed, rearing back one fist to strike them –

Then she froze, eyes blowing wide open in dawning terror as she stared at something over Frisk/Chara's shoulder.

"Now," Toriel said, with deceptive calmness. "There is no need for further violence, is there not? You will remain here, quietly, until security arrives. Is that understood?"

The woman gulped and nodded furiously.

Chara, put me back in control!

With a little huff, the ghost pulled back, allowing them access to their own muscles again. Frisk sucked in a deep breath – that odd possession trick always left them feeling dizzy and out of breath – and then got up slowly, turning back to the other occupants of the room.

The mayor was pale, already dialing for security. Toriel was standing tall, proud, and royal, a stormy look in her eyes, but whatever motherly death glare she'd leveled at the assassin was already gone. Upon seeing Frisk's face (which they were certain was a little pale), her gaze softened.

"Are you alright, my child?"

They gulped, throat suddenly dry.

"Y-yeah," they croaked. "I'm fine."

After a moment, the mayor cleared his throat.

"S-security's on its way!" he squeaked. "C-could we p-perhaps continue this disc-cussion on a later date? I-I'm afraid I'm rather shaken..."


Whew, Frisk's only been in Dublin for a few hours, and someone's already tried to shoot the mayor! Good thing Chara has such good reflexes!

And now, for that lore I mentioned up at the top! The commenter on DA that got this little lore snippet asked me how I was going to explain the monsters and fairies not being aware of each other, and this is the response I gave them!

-So, firstly, I can tell you that the main reason that monsters and fairies were never really too aware of each other is because of the distance between them. The two races lived on completely different continents, the monsters in the Americas and the fairies in Europe and Asia, and since in those days fairies had no shuttles to carry them to other continents (wings or dwarven digging talents can only take you so far over the Atlantic before you have to turn back or die at sea), and would've eventually had to return to Ireland anyway to replenish their magic, they never really saw any point to going to the Americas. Why waste the energy/magic, when they had all they needed right here at home? And by the time they actually wanted to/developed the means to travel that far, the monsters had already been imprisoned underneath Mt. Ebott.

-Now, that being said, the monsters were never aware of the fairies, but that doesn't mean the fairies back in those days didn't know about the monsters. As I'm sure you noticed the last time you looked at a world map, there are places on the Eurasian continent that are very very close to part of the Americas - Russia and Alaska. Since the fairies don't like cold, they wouldn't have gone up there often, but there were rare occasions where a fairy would somehow end up there, and would get blown off course and end up in the Alaskan tundra. These fairies never stuck around, but since we know there are cold-climate monsters, it would be safe to assume that those fairies could have encountered them. However, even if those fairies made it back home and talked about what they found, most of their brethren were just like, "oh, these things live across the ocean from us? Okay, cool, can we talk about something more important now?" They never really cared about what was across the Atlantic, because they had enough problems at home. And because their ancestors didn't care, and there was no evidence to suggest that the monsters had ever been there once they got to the Americas, save for human legends about them, modern fairies never knew about the monsters until they resurfaced.