Once, when Frisk had been very, very young, they'd toddled into the living room to find their biological parents watching a movie on the television. They couldn't remember precisely what the movie had been called – something to do with princesses – but they remembered the scene they'd seen clearly: a ballroom, golden and unbelievably fancy, with ornate pillars and paintings on the ceilings and polished floors, and gold-and-crystal chandeliers, and the entire room filled with people dancing, eating, laughing, in frilly dresses and suits that looked like something straight out of a fairytale.

When Mrs. Fowl had given them the invitations, one of the first things they'd wondered – once the excitement had lessened enough for them to actually think – was if the party at the Fowl estate would be just as fancy and fantastical.

It was.

Well, almost. As they had been escorted in by a mountainous butler in formal wear, Frisk had noted that, although the interior of the estate was just as ornate and castle-like as the exterior suggested, it wasn't quite as gaudy, and what ornate decorations there were – the oaken banister of a staircase, paintings hanging from the walls, and some sort of glass and metal light fixture, to name but a few – were a bit more simplistic, more minimalist than what they'd seen in that movie.

The ballroom the actual party was being hosted in (to start off with, at least) was the same. Though there was a painting on the ceiling – they couldn't make it out thanks to the lights that shone almost directly in their eyes when they tried to look up.

The frilly dresses and suits were spot on, though.

*Geeze, look at that one! Who needs that much lace?!

Frisk glanced around to find the outfit that had caught Chara's attention this time, and their eyes landed on a woman wearing a dress with a lacy, multi-layered skirt that had to have been at least three feet wider than it actually needed to be. It was very pretty, just like most of the other dresses here, and decorated with complex Celtic-knot patterns.

I'm starting to feel underdressed, they thought, fiddling anxiously with the hem of their shawl. Compared to the vast array of breathtaking apparel around them, their own outfit stuck out like a very plain sore thumb.

*Pfft, you'd rather be in one of those gaudy things?

Frisk eyed another party-goer as he passed by, giving the monsters and their ambassador a curious look. Well, I kinda stand out like this…

*Well, yeah, but I'm pretty sure Mom might protest us wearing these things. I mean, seriously, look how low some of those necklines are!

True. But Frisk still couldn't shake the uncertainty. Maybe coming here hadn't been a good idea after all.

*Now that's an understatement. It'd probably be really easy to hide weaponry underneath those skirts…

That thought had crossed their mind, too, but they'd been hoping Chara wouldn't remind them. It was one thing to admire the pretty dresses, and quite another to know that each dress could hide a knife or a pistol far more easily than a casual jacket, and yet that woman in the mayor's office had managed it. How many weapons were hidden in this crowd?

If there were any, at least it didn't look like anybody was pulling them out. The monsters were slowly mingling into the crowd of human guests, and so far there hadn't even been any dirty looks – in fact, most of the looks they got were ones of awe or curiosity, or, in the case of a blonde boy around their own age they'd seen earlier, overeager enthusiasm.

But who knows how things could go wrong? Especially with HuRg around…

Toriel, who Frisk had been tailing after for a little while now, turned to look down at them, and Frisk quickly put a little smile on their face and tried not to look like they were calculating the possibility of everyone in here being an assassin.

"How are you doing, my child?" The Queen asked, smiling. "I imagine this has been quite boring for you, so far."

Not even close, Mom. "No, I'm fine," they said. "I've just been looking around a lot – I mean, look at this place!" They gestured around them with only somewhat-faked enthusiasm. "It's like I'm in a princess movie or something!"

The monster chuckled. "Well, I suppose that's true."

Frisk caught some movement out of the corner of their eyes – a group of monsters and humans chatting, munching on familiar spider-themed pastries.

Looks like Muffet's here.

*Maybe we should go check on her? You know, make sure people aren't giving her shit for being a spider.

You just want more chocolate, don't you?

A general feeling of irritation, from Chara's usual location somewhere behind them.

*I'm not that obsessed with chocolate! I'm serious, Frisk! You know what some humans are like with spiders! And then there's Fuku, too – I saw her earlier. And who knows what Undyne's gotten up to!

That was actually a really good point. It wasn't just Muffet they needed to check on.

But what about Mom?

*We won't be gone long, and anyway, she's a boss monster!

Taking a deep breath, Frisk looked back up at Toriel – who was watching them with a slightly worried expression. Darn, they'd zoned out right in front of her.

"Actually," they said, slowly, letting just a tiny smidgen of their nervousness creep back in, "I'm getting a little bored. Would you mind if I went to see how everybody else is doing…?"

The worry cleared from Toriel's expression, softening into a look of proud understanding. "Of course, Frisk. Feel free. I shall meet you at the entrance to the dining hall once dinner has been served, yes?"

Frisk nodded and quickly darted away.


Muffet, as it turned out, was doing quite well behind the concessions table. Though a couple people had given her trouble for letting her spiders touch the food she'd brought, the misunderstandings had been easy to get over, and she was looking smugger than Frisk had seen her in ages.

The other monsters they stopped to talk to hadn't run across any trouble, either – all the humans had been polite and at least somewhat understanding, and some had been downright enthusiastic.

Still, they hadn't talked to everybody yet, and they still hadn't found Undyne –

"HOLY SHIT THAT'S SO BADASS!"

Never mind.

Frisk sidled their way through the crowds, apologizing and smiling sheepishly if they accidentally bumped into someone, until they found a reasonably clear spot on the floor that everyone seemed to be giving a wide berth. There, they found Undyne, who looked for all the world like she'd just won the Olympics, Alphys, who looked just the tiniest bit stunned, and a trio of humans – a tall, athletic-looking woman with a blonde, jade-bead tipped braid, and two kids, boys, one with curly blonde hair and the other with black.

"I know, right?" The woman was saying, snickering, as Frisk approached. "And that wasn't even the best part! After I clobbered the guy, I managed to get him right in the –"

"Jules!" The blonde boy complained. "Don't say it out loud!"

"Aww, why not?" She teased, turning to him. "Don't tell me you're squeamish about that kind of thing!"

The other boy scoffed "Hardly," he said. "However, it's not something for polite company." He glanced pointedly around them – and caught sight of Frisk, standing awkwardly and watching. Realizing they'd been caught staring, Frisk shifted uncomfortably.

"Um, hello?" They managed.

The other boy leaned over to see what his brother (they looked similar enough, with the same dark blue eyes and facial features, they had to be related somehow) was looking at, and, upon seeing them, gasped.

"You're the monster ambassador!" He squealed, and the next thing Frisk knew their hand had been grabbed and was being furiously shaken with enthusiasm to rival Undyne's cooking lessons. "Hi! Oh my god, Mom told me she invited you but I didn't know you were already here! Your name's Frisk, right? Mine's Beckett!"

"Um," Frisk repeated. "I mean, y-yeah, my name's Frisk. It's nice to be here…?"

*Wow, so articulate.

Hey!

The woman snickered.

"Beck, back up and give the poor thing some space." She said, grinning. "And you're gonna take their hand off if you keep that up, you know!"

"Oops!" Beckett quickly let go of their hand. "Sorry!"

"It's fine." They assured him, quickly, even though their hand was actually hurting a bit. He had a strong grip for a twelve-year-old.

"Ha! As if!" Undyne boasted. "A little wimpy handshake like that is nothing!"

"Hey! My handshake isn't wimpy!"

"Actually," the black haired boy interrupted, "compared to hers, ours probably are 'wimpy.' We simply don't have the musculature to compete." He glared at Undyne. "That being said, you do not need to gloat."

"Whoa, whoa!" Undyne grinned sharkishly at him. "Calm down, tough guy, I didn't mean anything by it!" She marched over to Frisk and gave them a ferocious noogie. "I mean, Frisk is the biggest wimp I know!"

Frisk grinned a little at the backhand compliment, then glanced at the woman, who was watching this whole exchange with obvious amusement. She looked familiar, and after a moment, Frisk realized where they'd seen the Eurasian before.

"Weren't you with Mrs. Fowl, in Muffet's bakery?" They asked. "Sorry, I never got your name…?

"Juliet." She smirked. "I'd offer to shake your hand, but I'm a little worried it'd be too wimpy."

"No way, yours wouldn't be wimpy!"

They blinked and shot Undyne a suspicious look. The former Royal Guard was never this accommodating of people right away. When Frisk worked their way through the Underground, the monster always started off as aggressive, unfriendly.

Seeing her so buddy-buddy with another human, and so quickly – they couldn't have been talking longer than an hour or two, surely – was more than a little strange.

Noticing the look, Alphys finally shuffled over.

"Y-you remember those old human wrestling videos we watched once?" She asked.

They did, actually. If they stayed in the Underground for longer than a week after befriending Undyne, she usually called them over to the skeleton household, where they'd put in some old VHS tapes that had fallen into the dump. One of these tapes was a recording of a series of wrestling matches, between a young blonde human woman called the Jade Princess and various big, meaty looking guys. The Princess won every match, usually with spectacular wrestling moves and some sort of snarky quip.

The monster had never said it, but Frisk was fairly sure that Undyne had based a lot of her moves off of those videos. It would definitely explain where she'd learned the suplex from.

"W-well, uh," Alphys glanced sideways at the woman, almost sheepishly. "She's, um…"

They caught on to what Alphys was implying, and turned to gawp at the newly-introduced Juliet.

"You're the Jade Princess?!" They blurted.

Juliet laughed. "Yup, that's me! I retired a while ago to come watch over these little rascals." She reached over to ruffle the black-haired boy's hair, which he reluctantly accepted with a small roll of his eyes. "Lemme tell you, it never gets boring. You should see some of the stuff Beck and Myles here have pulled off, I swear, they're almost as troublesome as their older brother was!"

"Juliet!" Beckett complained, flushing.

"Hey, you're Fowls, you should be proud of it!" She snickered. She turned towards Undyne, a shit-eating grin splitting her face almost in half. "Once, when they were three, we were messing around in the gardens, and Myles –"

Noticing the embarrassment on the two boys' faces, Frisk decided to take pity on them and leave instead of hearing Juliet's recalling of whatever humiliating childhood incident she was going on about. They excused themselves with the excuse that they were going to check up on the other monsters, and quickly beat a retreat back into the crowd.

Only to turn around and find the boys following them.

"Sorry," Beckett apologized, "but can we come with you?"

Myles nodded. "We'd rather not hear what Juliet has to say about us to your friend. and we've been rather eager to meet the monsters for some time now."

"Oh. Um, sure, I guess?"

"Sweet!" Beckett crowed, and scurried to catch up to them as they kept walking. "So is it really true that you lived underneath Mount Ebott for a month, with the monsters? What was it like down there?"


Frisk wasn't too sure what to think of Myles and Beckett.

Oh, they were nice enough, in different ways. Beckett was a bundle of energy, always talking with contagious enthusiasm and greeting people with a huge smile that was so bright you could've sworn he was a literal beam of sunshine. Myles was calm and considerably more subdued than his brother, and had interesting questions to ask the monsters Frisk introduced them to – everything from how their magic worked to how they'd fed themselves without access to the sun for farming – without accidentally asking something offensive, and if a monster wasn't comfortable with the question, he apologized and backed down.

But they felt a little… awkward, talking to them.

After the monsters had started traveling abroad, Frisk had been busy chatting it up with politicians, mayors, presidents, ministers – all people of great importance, and all adults. They were used to people looking down on them, because in their eyes Frisk was just a child and had no place in politics.

But whenever Beckett turned to them, either to exclaim about how cool the monsters were, or to ask them a question, he looked starstruck. It was weird.

Myles was another thing entirely. He didn't look like he'd just met a celebrity whenever he talked to them, more respectful than anything else. But sometimes Frisk caught him studying them with a very scrutinizing look, as if looking at them through a microscope and trying to spot all the flaws.

It was nerve-wracking, and Frisk couldn't help but feel like they'd slip up, somehow, and expose all those secrets to those scathing eyes.

*Calm down, partner. They're just kids.

I'm just a kid, too, they argued, as they introduced the twins ("Myles is older by ten minutes," Beckett had informed them cheerfully) to another monster. And so are you, technically, and look at how good we are at reading people!

*But we've had a couple thousand Resets to figure out this stuff. They haven't.

True, Frisk admitted, watching Beckett ask the Ice Cap if he could try on their hat, and beaming when the monster said yes and helped him put it on. I guess I'm being a little paranoid, huh?

*Yeah, you are. Relax a little.

As if Chara themselves wasn't tense. They were almost more nervous about their two tagalongs than Frisk was, though they'd been getting a little calmer once the unofficial meet-n-greets had started.

Frisk waved goodbye to the Ice Cap as they toddled off with their hat perched securely back on their head, and turned back to the twins.

"Monsters are so cool!" Beckett gushed, for the billionth time. Myles nodded.

"Literally, in this case." He said. Frisk grinned a little, in spite of their nervousness.

"I see what you did there."

Myles raised an eyebrow at them. "I see or icy?"

It took Frisk a moment to get it, but when they did, it startled a laugh out of them.

Okay, maybe he's not so bad.


The twins ended up departing a little later, when Juliet came to find them. Once they'd wandered off ("We'll come back later, before you leave!" Beckett had promised), Frisk didn't actually see them again, save for an occasional glimpse, until after dinner.

Dinner was actually more nerve-wracking than the rest of the gala had been. At least when everyone had been standing around in pretty dresses and gossiping, Frisk had been able to carefully work their way around awkward-sounding conversations, and find places where not as many people would stare at them and their sore-thumb-plain attire.

At the table, which was long and ornate and covered in huge dishes of practically every food Frisk had ever seen and some they hadn't, they couldn't do that. They had to sit down in a chair in full view of everybody, where they couldn't so much as twiddle their thumbs without at least a dozen people seeing them.

On top of that, they were sitting in the middle of a big group of monsters, many of whom were loud and very, very obvious, and, before the food was properly served, Mrs. Fowl and a man Frisk could only assume to be her husband stood up, and literally introduced them and the monsters to everyone in the room as special guests.

"Please make certain to make them feel welcome," Mr. Fowl had added at the end of his wife's speech, and after that, it felt like every eye in the room had stayed focused on the ambassador for the rest of the meal.

So when the boys came by again, and offered to show them around the Fowl Estate gardens as thanks for introducing them to so many monsters, Frisk was all too eager to agree.

Besides, they really wanted to see what the gardens were like. Asgore's garden in New Home had been impressive, and bright and cheerful – what would a human manor's garden be like?

As it turned out, the answer to that question was big.

Seriously, the grounds were enormous. They hadn't even gone halfway around the front of the manor before their feet were aching in their dressy shoes. There was just so much out here – flower patches, bustling with exotic blooms, decorative vines that snaked up stone columns, decorative ponds – sorry, water features – surrounded by carved stones and filled with colorful fish. Frisk could've sworn they'd seen a peacock, too, somewhere in between the water and the section with the community gardens where local farmers helped grow crops.

"Yes, there are peacocks on the grounds," Myles had said when they'd asked. "Not as many as there used to be, though – they were difficult to care for directly after the Crash."

"Peacocks," Frisk repeated, stunned, as they followed the boys around another corner. "You have pet peacocks. That's so cool."

Beckett flushed, apparently flattered, and Myles himself looked a little smug at the praise.

However, despite how amazing the gardens were, Frisk was soon feeling a little nervous again.

Not because of the twins, though Myles' scrutinizing looks hadn't stopped. No, it was because they couldn't see any of the monsters.

*Of course not. They're all inside.

I know, but I'm not in there with them. I've left them on their own in there, just because I was uncomfortable! What if they get hurt?

*I've been keeping an eye on them.

From here? You can't go far!

*Well, no, but I can see in those big fancy windows. Nobody in the ballroom is panicking yet, so no HuRg, or anybody else.

Still, Frisk fretted. What if somebody in there pulls a gun? I should really go back in –

"Hey, are you okay, Ambassador?"

Frisk flinched and quickly turned what they hoped was a reassuring smile in Beckett's direction.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine," they said. "Sorry, I zone out like that sometimes."

The twins exchanged looks, then turned back to them.

"You have no reason to fear for the monsters' safety here," Myles said.

What?

"W-what do y-you –"

Myles gave them a slightly irritated look. "Do not try to play dumb, Ambassador. I've been observing you since we first met. You, up until now, have refused to wander far from the monsters. You have repeatedly visited numerous monsters, including the spider monster Muffet and several other monsters with appearances similar to things many humans find distasteful. You consistently scan the crowds around you, paying particular attention to people's hands, and to any particularly frivolous articles of clothing which could be used to hide the presence of a weapon. If a human approaches a monster – such as ourselves – you tense, and watch them carefully until they have proven they are not a threat. And," he raised a finger to punctuate his final point. "I happen to know, for a fact, that none of this can be explained as a simple fear of crowds, which would have been the next most logical conclusion, as I have seen videos of many of your speeches, and you show no signs of such nervousness amongst crowds that are known to be predominantly pro-monster or are obviously secured and therefore safe."

Frisk stared at him, stunned, and was distantly aware of Chara swearing.

"We might be kids," Beckett added, seriously, "but even we know an event like this could be dangerous to the monsters, especially with that terrorist group active. Mom and Dad were very careful when they were vetting the security guards."

"They were especially careful concerning their guests," Myles continued for him. "The guards were ordered to check every individual here for weapons discretely, so as not to provoke others that may have been armed into taking more drastic action, and any suspicious individuals were taken aside and thoroughly searched for weaponry." He stared at Frisk, full in the face, as if daring them to argue. "This is undoubtedly one of the safest places on the planet for the monsters at present time, Ambassador. You have no reason to fear for them."

He finally fell silent, watching them.

*Holy shit.

There were no words that could have put it better. How the heck? They'd – he'd – how –

After a few moments of wrestling with their emotions, Frisk managed to croak out, "Was it really that obvious?"

Beckett grinned sheepishly. "Not for normal people," he admitted. "I didn't catch any of that until Myles told me right after dinner. But he's really smart!" He beamed with inherited pride at his brother, who nodded.

"I have a doctorate in psychology," he said, as if it was no big deal.

*He has a what?

"I… I see." Frisk gulped. This kid, who couldn't be any older, than they were (biologically, at least), had a doctorate in psychology.

Wow. That was just... wow.

Nobody had ever read them so easily before. Even Sans had needed several hundred Resets to get to know them well enough to know when they were faking (or so he claimed).

Their unease must've shown (of course it would, there was no way it wouldn't), because Myles finally stopped watching them so intensely, and actually looked a little abashed.

"I apologize," he said. "I did not mean to scare you."

"No, no, it's fine!" Frisk assured him quickly. "It – it just caught me off guard." They forced a laugh. "You really have a doctorate?"

"Several."

*Several?!

"R-really?"

He nodded seriously. Beckett quickly butted in before Frisk could ask what those doctorates were for, though.

"Okay, come on, we still have one more place to show you!" He grabbed their hand. "This is the best place in the gardens!"

Still shaken and somewhat glad for the distraction, Frisk let him drag them after him. "The b-best, huh?"

"Uh-huh!" He shot them his beaming ray-of-sunshine smile. "You seemed to really like the flower plots earlier, so I bet you'll love this!"

They rounded a corner, and Beckett dropped their hand in order to spread his own in a wide, dramatic gesture. "Tah-dah!"

In front of them, a large crater had been bored into the earth, almost as if a meteor had landed here. (Considering how many satellites had fallen during the Crash, it probably might as well have been.) The rubble remains of what must have been some sort of stone structure were scattered around it in a rough circle. And amongst the bits of carved stones, a spiral of bright orange roses was in full bloom.

Seeing their stunned expression, Beckett grinned.

"See? Isn't this great?"

Frisk nodded. It was, easily, the best place on the grounds, but not because of the flowers. The roses were pretty amazing, they couldn't deny that – they'd never seen flowers like this before. The blooms were enormous, easily the biggest roses they'd ever seen, and their orange color was impossibly bright – the same shade of orange as one of the human souls in the Underground, the soul of Bravery.

But that wasn't why this place was amazing.

No, the real reason was the golden light floating at the exact center of the rose spiral, brilliant even against the fluorescent petals.

A SAVE Point.


This chapter wasn't, uh, meant to be this long. It kinda... got out of hand? I mean, I had so much fun writing Frisk's interactions with the twins (and figuring out how to make Myles not quite sound like a mini-Artemis - I tried to make him at least a little different, but I'm not sure how successful I was), especially at the end there... *sweats*

But hey, you guys get a long chapter now, and look! Important plot stuff, right there at the end, so it's not really a filler chapter, either! Success!