AN: This fic is kind of headcanon heavy, because I have a lot of thoughts about Mettaton's character. One headcanon that I'd like to mention here because it's not going to be brought up by name in the fic even though it plays a part in Mettaton's actions is I hc Mettaton has untreated, undiagnosed NPD. This absolutely plays into a lot of his actions in this fic, but not in a like - really awful way, if that makes sense? It's not demonized is what I'm trying to say.
"Y' wait your turn, just like the rest of 'em."
The rat monster currently stationed outside the castle looked toward the skeleton sat on a stool, and then up at the gilded doors he was "guarding", in the absolute loosest sense of the word. She had to wonder how those doors had been replaced so fast, it had only been a few weeks that Mettaton had come into power. But in those few weeks it seemed like the entire castle, and most of New Home, had already been remodeled. The formerly simplistic wooden doors now gold, covered in intricate filigree, and embedded with heart shaped pink gems.
And closed, might she add. Which was very different indeed.
"And...how long has the last person been in there?" Peeling her eyes away from the door, she looked toward the stout skeleton. Still sitting on his stool, hadn't moved an inch since she got here. Chin leaned into his hand, the halfmoon shape of his eyelights giving off an impression that his eyes were half-lidded.
"Ain't a last person.", he replied.
"Then.." The rat scrunched up her face in confusion, failing to hide her frustration. "What am I waiting for?""
She tried to not sound as exasperated as she felt, but, god, she couldn't help it. What could the king possibly be doing? She'd been here for an hour! At least! And this smug skeleton was far from pleasant company.
Once more, Sans shrugged, "Dunno, kingly duties, 'spose."
And not five minutes more, did the doors finally swing open. Pulled inward by two of the Royal Guard (who had also gotten a makeover, their armor now the same hot pink sparkly color as the king's chestplate) to reveal their new ruler, standing there poised perfectly in full regalia. Of course he'd rehearsed his dramatic entrance to visitors.
Speaking of regalia - add that to the list of changes. A pink velvet robe with glittery white fur trimming, Asgore's simplistic crown being discarded for something much more extravagant and covered in pink hearts, and a sceptre, something Asgore never had.
But Asgore's gone now, The rat monster had to remind herself, Of course things are going to be different.
She was pulled out of her thoughts by the sound of heels on tile, looking up to see Mettaton speedwalking towards his visitor. "Oh, goodness gracious, my apologies, darling!"
He stopped in front of her, focusing on some of the rings on his fingers instead of the other monster. Giving the impression he had gotten distracted by the sparkles, like some sort of ADHD 5 year old, "I'm so sorry to keep you waiting, my I got so busy trying to pick out what jewelry I wanted to wear today, I lost track of the time."
The rat once more looked towards Sans, who shrugged. "What'd I tell ya'? Kingly duties."
Mettaton pulled his attention away from his gaudy decorations, wrapping his hand back around his scepter and grinning widely at the monster, the glitter coating his vampiric fangs catching the light inside the castle. "Anywho! I'm finished with that now, so, please, feel free to come in!"
He turned back toward the interior of the castle, waving a beckoning hand toward her before walking back in. The rat monster started to follow, and stumbled backwards to avoid being swept up in the long, trailing cape. Did it really need to be that big?
Once she had decided he was a safe distance ahead of her, she continued to pad along behind him. As she walked, the monster continued to examine the changes to the interior of the castle as well. Stained glass windows depicting their new ruler, all in monochromatic pink, had been installed. As well as statues, posters, it looked like some sort of tapestry was in the works...Asgore's flowerbed had been kept in place, perhaps out of respect. That wasn't to say it had no changes as well, another statue had been placed in the center of it. This one of someone the rat didn't immediately recognize, some sort of lizard-like monster, one hand placed on her hip and the other holding a clipboard, chest puffed out and smiling confidently. Unfortunately, the visitor of the castle was ushered by it too fast to read the placard.
The throne room was soon reached, as it wasn't too long of a walk. Mettaton took a few steps up a small flight of stairs that lead up to the throne. Throwing himself haphazardly across it, lounging more than sitting. His legs were swung over one arm rest, while the other he propped his elbow against it to press his palm against his cheek.
The rat was allowed a moment to look around the throne room, she had to admit she was a bit uncomfortable with the gratious display of wealth. Littered around the throne room, especially at the base of the king's seating, was various items that were clearly only there to show off. Elaborate vases of pink flowers, mainly roses, a cake tower directly by the throne - it was hard to tell if the pink confectionaries and baked treats were covered in real or edible glitter. Mettaton would've probably eaten it either way. Pink, gold, and glitter coated stuffed animals everywhere, the throne itself replaced with some fluffy pink and rose gold. Of course the thing that caught her attention the most was the thing on top of the throne.
Mounted on the very top of the back was a goat skull with horns in a familiar shape, draped around the sides was a large, worn violet cape, held onto the throne with gold shoulder pauldrons.
If that was supposed to be some sort of homage, it was very much in poor taste.
"Now!" Mettaton said, catching the monster's attention away from the morbid memorial. "What's your name, dear?"
"Matilda," The rat responded, folding her hands against her chest.
"Matilda!" Mettaton repeated, "Lovely name, very antique! I like it! Now, tell me, Matilda, darling, what's troubling your pretty little head?"
The rat tried to maintain eye contact, but she found it kind of uncomfortable to stare into the sole artificial eye of their robot ruler. Though she'd never say it outloud, she was always sort of uncomfortable with how Mettaton's face moved. Uncanny valley, she believed the term was. The glittering pink iris, constantly shifting pupil shape, doe-eyed and glassy, set in a face that was just too perfect, too much like a porcelain doll. Meant to be cute and pretty, but the softened depiction of reality just..wasn't normal. But she knew she held the unpopular opinion, most the Underground found Mettaton beautiful. To each their own, she supposed.
So caught up in her pondering she was, she almost missed those too perfect, black painted lips twitching into a frown. "No need to be shy, love, I don't bite."
"Oh, oh! I'm sorry, your majesty." Matilda pulled her attention away from the mechanics of Mettaton's face, instead choosing to focus somewhere else to give the illusion of eye contact, minus the discomfort. "It's my wife, sir. Ever since that human came through, she's been missing. I, didn't want to assume the worst, but it's been so long with no sign of her…" she sighed, looking towards the ground. "I'd at least like to ask if an effort could be made to retrieve her dust? Just to give me something to mourn over.
Mettaton frowned more deeply, sitting up straight in his chair and giving Matilda a sympathetic glance. "Oh, honey, I'm so sorry for your loss. I can relate! A lot of important people have been missing lately, take my dear Alphys for example-" he gestured toward the lizard statue in the flower garden. That's who that was supposed to be? Matilda had to grimace, it didn't look much like her, from the few times she'd run into the Royal Scientist. Maybe the confident pose, trimmer build, and tidier clothes was a bit more flattering than the hunchbacked, handwringing gait Matilda was familiar with.
"But!" Once more Matilda was pulled to look at Mettaton. "I wouldn't jump to worst case scenario so fast, hun! A lot of monsters got scattered after that whole incident. We are still finding live missing people! Either way-" he stood up, and walked up to the rat, taking one of her hands in both of his. "I promise , darling. I will definitely make an effort for your poor wife."
He gave her a comforting smile, and then removed one of his hands to hold it out to the side of him. A clear, pink clipboard was placed in his hand by one of his servants, and shoved into Matilda's grasp. "Just fill this out with your information, your wife's information, if you're looking for a living or dead person, or if you don't care what state they're found in. I recommend bringing one article of her clothing to one of the dogs, and hand it to a guard on your way out." He spoke fast, almost too fast for Matilda to process as she glanced briefly at the form shoved in her hands. Even the paper was pastel pink, at the top written in fancy cursive the words " Missing Persons Effort" . A guard placed a hand on her back, and she was turned to be led back out the door.
"Ciao, darling, good luck~!"
The doors once more slammed shut with a heavy sound, and Mettaton laid back down as he was before. Dropping his grin and pressing fingers into the corners of his eyes, letting out a long sigh.
"That wasn't very nice, Mettaton."
Mettaton looked up toward the source of the voice, finding his other royal advisor, the one that was actually useful, frowning at him. Mettaton returned that with a smile.
"Oh, Papy-dear! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean for it to come out so, oh, uncaring?" He tapped his fingers against his lips. "It's just when I've had to repeat the same spiel over and over again. It becomes - " another pause, trying to think of a metaphor. "Like an over rehearsed script! You're no longer speaking from your heart, you're just repeating words you've trained on too much like a rob-"
He cut himself off. "No offense, but I'm glad your brother wasn't around to hear that one."
Mettaton stretched his legs out straight, throwing his hands behind his head and settling in a bit more comfortably. "Besides! I'm still trying to find Alphys, I can't be worrying about the dozens of other missing monsters when she's still MIA."
Papyrus tilted his head. "Forgive me for speaking plainly, Mettaton, but isn't it your job as the king to worry about all of the other monsters?"
Mettaton popped his eye back open, and pouted, "Why? They can worry about themselves, can't they?"
Papyrus blinked, expression not changing. "I suppose that's true! They can! Stress is very bad for you after a while. And I suppose having to worry about every single monster would be VERY stressful."
Mettaton nodded slowly in agreement. "Exactly~! Anyways, the Royal Guard is taking care of all that missing people stuff. Which! Leaves me to focus on much more important things."
He gripped onto the handles of the arm rests, and pulled himself up to his feet, fixing the clasp of his cape as he started to walk away. Then he froze, as if he had forgotten something, and turned back to look at his extravagant chair. Tapping one foot and placing a hand on his chin, he hummed to himself. Suddenly, his pupil turned to a little exclamation mark, having a little 'a-ha!' moment. Walking back towards the throne, he plucked a rose from one of the many vases, and stretched his arm up to stuff it into the eye socket of the goat skull.
"Like that! It looks much more pretty that way, doesn't it?"
Papyrus looked up at the large, foreboding faux skull of Asgore. Fake or not, it was still a bit creepy. But, he guessed it did make for a nice memorial piece, and the rose did certainly add character! Though, he had to think Asgore would've preferred golden flowers..
"It looks very nice…" he remarked, turning back to where Mettaton was very obviously waiting for his praise.
"Oh, I know, it's just perfect. Asgore would've loved it." Mettaton cooed, taking a moment to examine his handiwork once more before finally turning around again to continue his stroll down another hallway. He held his scepter to his chest at an angle and hummed a little tune as he walked, "Anyway! As I was saying, there's still my beautification project that's been eating up so much of my time. That's top priority! Everything will be so much happier once things are nicer to look at."
Papyrus was forced to a sudden stop as Mettaton came to an abrupt halt in the hallway, turning around to poke his scepter at Papyrus's chest. "Not to speak ill of the dearly departed, but that's where Asgore went wrong, you see. He was so focused on getting to the Surface he never even stopped to try and make things happier down here. He left it up to us, well, up to me, let's be honest here. To do that. So, see, I'm already a better ruler than he ever was~!"
Papyrus nodded. "That's also true. It's always best for people to make best of any situation they're given. Even if..." He frowned, "I think a lot of monsters would really like to get to the Surface one day... no matter how pretty the Underground is."
"In time, darling, in time." Mettaton responded, brushing off Papyrus's concern and continuing down the hallway. They continued in silence until he made a sharp turn to walk out onto a balcony. Picking up the pace as he dropped his sceptre haphazardly, the bejewelled staff clattering to the ground and being forgotten about for the time being. Mettaton rushing up to the railing, wrapping his fingers around the gilded, per usual, pink and gold architecture to look down at the in progress construction to New Home. He grinned widely to himself, already things were looking so much better! Everything looked so gold, and pink, and sparkly! And of course, there was the various depictions of himself - which was the surefire way to boost his mood.
"Things are going to be better than ever, Papyrus, dear. Mark my words on that one!"