As summer was slowly leaving room for autumn to step in, the congress finally agreed to make experimentations on non-consenting monsters illegal. This gave everyone hope for the future of monster rights and also the need to celebrate.
And that's how Frisk's parents and friends found themselves planning a party in the park for everyone in Ebott and its surroundings. Frisk themselves didn't participate in the planning, as both Toriel and Asgore had agreed that between ambassador duties and homework, their child was busy enough as it is. However, they followed all of it by listening every phone call Toriel gave to various other people in and out of town.
Frisk was sitting at their desk in their room and started their homework without their mother that day, as she was busy talking on the phone in the next room. The human child never quite understood why so many adults, no matter their species, talked slightly louder on the phone than they normally would. They were just thankful Papyrus didn't do that too.
"Oh really?" they heard Toriel say. "I'm sure meeting her under different circumstances will be lovely! I certainly look forward to it."
The child frowned. Who was she talking about?
Before they could get any more clue on the matter, their mother cut her phone conversation short to check in on them and ask if they needed any help with their homework. All they really needed at the moment was the definition of a few words and Toriel's company. She provided both with a soft smile on her face.
Once homework was done, mother and child (the latter had insisted on helping the former out) spent most of the week-end making food for the party. You never had to worry about monster food going bad so it could all be prepared in advance. Human food, however, would have to be made the day of.
The day of the party arrived and so did pretty much every monster in Ebott and the surrounding cities, as well as many friendly humans. As Frisk met up with their friends from school, those who had been in charge of the food placed all of it on the large buffet under a white marquee on one side of the park, opposite the stage that was being installed by a few sturdy people of various species. The ex-members of the Royal Guard (and Papyrus) had been recruited as security guards for the day.
It was when Frisk went under the white marquee with Kid that they spotted a familiar human in black (this time she wore some metal band t-shirt instead of a tank top) talking with Toriel and Sans.
"Hey Frisk", the human greeted them as they approached.
"you didn't remember my name but you remember theirs no problem?" the skeleton said playfully.
"Their name has been repeated on the news much more over the last two years", the human pointed out.
"And who are you?" Kid asked.
"Hisha."
"She was there when we all rescued your sister together", Toriel explained.
"Oh?"
"I… didn't actually do much, I was just… there" Hisha laughed nervously. "Oh, there's something I probably should have done then but… you know, with everything going on I had other sh- stuff to think of."
She took her phone from her pocket and suggested a selfie together. The others agreed and soon everyone was squished together and Toriel lowered to fit in the picture. Right before the human woman could press the button, Papyrus walked in on the little group. Today he had traded his usual "battle body" for a crop top that said "SECURITY" on the back.
"OH, ARE YOU TAKING PICTURES? MAY I JOIN IN?"
"Sure", Hisha agreed.
Frisk swore they could actually see stars in the tall skeleton's eye sockets as he walked next to Toriel and, just like her, did his best to fit in the frame.
"I should buy a selfie stick for next time", the human in black stated once she finally managed to take a satisfying picture.
A few ice monsters approached to say hello to Frisk, Toriel and their former neighbours. As Sans briefly explained to Hisha, now that summer was finally dying out they could leave Snowdin again.
"anyway," he said, taking a bottle of ketchup from the monster food table, "i'm sure glad my bro and i don't have to worry about things like temperature."
"Yeah I had guessed that already", she stated. "I mean, you've been wearing a hoodie all summer…"
"that's the cool part of having no skin."
"BROTHER, THIS WAS TERRIBLE EVEN FOR YOU!", Papyrus commented.
"oh come on bro. throw me a bone here."
Toriel and Hisha snickered and Frisk smiled.
"He's just always dead set on making terrible puns", the human in black added.
"MY BROTHER AND I ARE NOT DEAD! WE'RE JUST AS ALIVE AS YOU ARE!"[1]
"we'd be dust otherwise."
"… Sorry..."
"it's ok, buddy. just don't do that again."
She nodded.
Frisk and Kid soon excused themselves to leave the marquee and walk to another part of the park. The echo flowers in their path repeated bits and pieces of passing conversations, a lot of which seemed to be about the party and the new law it was celebrating.
"Frisk?" the monster kid asked. "What do you think will happen after that? Will the other countries do like this one and ban experimentations too?"
The human child shrugged since they simply had no idea.
"I'm sure they will eventually!" Kid exclaimed. "And then monsters will be able to go everywhere! It'll be awesome!"
Their friend's optimism filled Frisk with determination.
More and more people of all species gathered in front of the stage as the evening approached. Most of them were Mettaton fans who wanted to secure good seats for the robot and his band's gig. Toriel, Asgore and Alphys had wanted to make the band's return from their tour and free concert a surprise ; however they had been powerless to stop Mettaton from making a big deal out of his return to Ebott and announcing it on every social media known to both human and monsterkind. Or prevent him from having posters hanged to the walls of every city in a 100km radius around . How he managed to get this many posters designed, printed and hanged everywhere overnight remained a mystery.
Undyne and Papyrus, who had been trusted with the security around the stage, let Frisk and their friend hang out backstage with the roadies. Kid took this occasion to have the tall skeleton and the fish lady sign their shirt. Signing this child's things always caused stars to appear in Papyrus' eye sockets and a large smile to lighten up Undyne's face.
The two children heard Shyren's singing voice from behind them and turned around to see her quickly rehearsing some of her background vocals with Napstablook. Of course they got up to say hello.
"oh… hi…" the ghost greeted back as their bandmate smiled. "it's been a while hasn't it… how are you?"
"We feel awesome!" Kid exclaimed. "Right, Frisk?"
The human smiled brightly and nodded.
"metta should be here soon…" Napstablook explained. "he wanted to recharge again so he'll be sure to be at full batteries when the show starts…"
Frisk started humming a familiar tune, which caused Shyren's face to light up as she recognised her own song and hummed along. The other two soon joined in. Fortunately, this time the singer's notes weren't actually dangerous.
"Don't start without me!" Mettaton's electronic voice said as he appeared.
He was currently in his rectangular form, which if Frisk remembered well was much less energy-consuming than his humanoid one. A red exclamation point appeared on his screen when he saw the human.
"Oh, Frisk darling! It's been a while! Are you and your friend going to watch my- I mean, our show from backstage?"
The children briefly glanced at each other then looked back at Mettaton and nodded in unison.
"Wonderful!"
The robot's screen showed a large smiley face.
"Since you're here, I have a great idea!" he continued before lowering his voice to discuss his plan.
The very second Mettaton and his bandmates started playing, the crowd went wild and socks started flying towards the stage. Picking these up before anyone could slip on them was actually part of Burgerpants' job nowadays. About halfway through the show, the music stopped and the crowd held their collective breath.
"Beauties and gentlebeauties…"
Mettaton paused to let the audience react. It was almost funny how no matter where his band was playing, the crowd would almost always reply with a similar collective and wordless scream of joy and approval whenever he would talk to them directly during a gig. It was like the universal language of live audiences everywhere.
One simple gesture of his hand stopped the screaming instantly.
"You've all been such a great audience to us tonight!"
The screams returned louder than ever ; the robot waited just a second before silencing them again.
"Now…"[2]
As he said this word, Napstablook pushed a few buttons on their soundboard and music played again, starting low and barely audible but slowly rising in volume as their cousin spoke again :
"Please make even more noise for the one without whom none of us would be here tonight : FRISK DREEMURR!"
And just as they were asked, the crowd went wild when Frisk walked on stage and struck their best pose next to Mettaton (who had wanted to make them have a much more impressive entrance but there sadly hadn't been enough time to prepare anything).
"Now, Frisk darling", he said. "Just like in the Underground!"
The human nodded and reached for the robot's switch just as planned. The audience roared in excitement as he took on his humanoid form and posed while the loud music made everyone's hearts beat at the same frequency. Shyren took the lead vocals while Mettaton and Frisk danced, giving everything they had.
Frisk had been hesitant about it at first, however they quickly got really into it. This wasn't like in the Underground : it was much better! Mostly because the robot wasn't trying to kill them this time and they didn't have to worry about dodging any attack. Still, they felt something was missing for this to be perfect.
They glanced to the side of the stage where Kid stood with stars in their eyes. The human smiled at them and gestured them to join in. The young monster hesitated a moment, then ran to their friend. They tripped on a sock but Frisk caught them then spun them both around, making it all look like it had been planned all along.
Mettaton looked surprised but went with it anyway not to interrupt the show. The three of them kept dancing until the song ended. Then, Frisk waved the audience goodbye and both children went backstage again for the rest of the concert.
"I still can't believe this actually happened!" Kid repeated for at least the 10th time since Mettaton's show had ended and Frisk had decided to walk to a much less crowded part of the park.
Both children were still beaming, their adrenaline rush from earlier not quite over yet.
"You were awesome! I'm so proud of you!" Frisk exclaimed as they gave their friend's side a light and playful punch.
"You were better!" they replied, blushing slightly.
Both giggled as they kept walking. Then Kid almost tripped on something…which turned out to actually be Sans sleeping on the grass. As the children were asking each other if they should wake him up right away or not, Hisha showed up.
"Hello again! Have you seen S-"
She tripped on the sleeping skeleton and was caught by Frisk just on time to prevent her from crushing him under her weight.
"T-Thanks", she stuttered as she got up and took a step back.
Sans opened his eye sockets and sat up.
"what… just happened?" he yawned.
"'Suis tombée sur un os", Hisha replied.[3]
None of the others understood what she said, but from her amused tone they guessed it might be some kind of joke.
"i still don't speak french, remember?" the skeleton pointed out as he stood up.
"That's almost ironic"[4], the human woman smiled. "And you're missing out on great puns. Anyway, sleeping in the park where anyone can walk in and fall on you is definitely a bad idea."
"i was just stargazing. falling asleep wasn't really part of the plan, but…"
"Did you guys see us on stage?" Kid interrupted, bouncing in place.
"i was sleepin', sorry kiddo."
"And I was, hum… avoiding the crowd", Hisha explained, fidgeting with the hem of her shirt.
Kid's smile fell for a second.
"Were you on stage right now? With that rectangle guy?" the human in black asked.
Both children nodded in unison.
"I bet it's gonna end up all over the internet."
Frisk and Kid weren't sure if they should feel proud or scared of this fact.
Notes :
[1] : I feel like Sans and Papyrus would be slightly uncomfortable with humans assuming they are dead or undead because they're skeletons. No matter what the actual truth is.
[2] : The musics I imagined here (I have no idea how sound editing actually works so you'll have to imagine it too, sorry) go pretty much like this : from the moment MTT says "Now...", Oh My... from the game's OST start playing at low volume then slowly gets louder until MTT changes form and Death By Glamour starts playing. Only, Shyren sings over it. If you somehow took the soundfount of her song-attack to make her sing Death By Glamour instead then added it to said track, it would sound pretty close to what I have in my head.
[3] : "Tomber sur un os" is common French slang used when one encounters an unforeseen problem/difficulty. I guess the English equivalent would be "hit a snag". A more literal translation would be "fall on/come across a bone" (of course here it's the most literal translation possible that applies) ^^
Oh, and in before anyone comes in with a "haha she fell for him" joke : no it's not gonna actually happen. Shameless Self Insert and I are too gay for this.
[4] : Ironic because, as many of you know, Sans' name is also a French word. I've never heard anyone in the fandom pronounce it the French way though. And wow, that's a lot of author's notes. I usually don't use these many footnotes. Sorry about that ^^"