What's it Called? Chap 5
Chapter 5
Two months passed. In those months, the world had been informed of Monsterkind.
Reactions to the news was, to put it kindly, mixed.
I had been condemned by so many for bringing "hellspawn" back that I stopped checking my mail. Most of it was junk mail anyways. And the occasional death threat. I had to change phones after my number had somehow gotten leaked to the public.
I really enjoyed the ones that called me the antichrist. I could read the red, pissed off tones that they wanted to convey through their words. I had a sick sense of humor.
A small majority of society hating me aside, Monsterkind was doing quite well on the surface.
It had started with a town that wasn't too far from Ebott. Only a couple miles around the base of Mt. Ebott. The Monsters built it in a time that was probably record breaking using a combination of insane strength and impressive magic. I never knew that Toriel could use fire magic in such an impressive fashion.
I knew that I didn't want to get on her bad side.
Sans was a lazy sucker and only got off of the couch for if we needed to get to places quickly or ketchup.
He drank ketchup like it was cheap booze and he was an alcoholic. I once tasted a bit of it to make sure he wasn't secretly drinking. Nope. Straight ketchup. Good with fries. Good with everything according to Sans.
Needless to say, we didn't let Sans cook. Papyrus, on the other hand, took cooking to a whole nother level. He, after getting some lessons from Toriel, turned out to be a competent cook.
Undyne...don't get me started on Undyne's cooking. I'm pretty sure the neighbors called the cops because they thought a violent murder was going down at Undyne's place.
They were making a new type of pasta. I tried it out after the police were sent away. It wasn't half bad.
Asgore readily stepped down as king when I told him that the government wouldn't like the idea of a king in their territory. Asgore was really relaxed about the whole thing. Something told me that he was tired of leading a species singlehandedly. The town was given the name New Home. I glared at Asgore until he told me he hadn't come up with it. Apparently the name just came as a suggestion from some random Monster and had caught on.
New Home, West Virginia, soon became the most interesting location in the world in no time for curious people.
The town wouldn't look like someplace special. The dimensions were a little bigger to account for how some Monsters were larger than the average Human. The streets were also a plethora of colors as they were adorned in plant-life of all different shapes and sizes. At night, street lamps were topped with the same crystals that emulated stars underground. Up close, they gave off a pleasant glow that lit up the streets comfortably.
Toriel told me, when I asked, that they fed off of the magic that made up a Monster's being to power. But it was such a slow and gradual draw that someone would have to be totally surrounded by them for weeks for anything to begin to affect them.
I noticed that they got just so slightly brighter when Humans got close and had some slight worry that they might overload if too many came too close.
Toriel worked with Asgore and the small council of Monsters that made up the leading body of New Home. They voted between themselves on laws and various decisions that would affect New Home.
And where was I during this, you might ask? Well it's very simple.
I was the part-time ambassador for the Monsters. I went along with any diplomatic groups that went out of New Home and assisted the Monsters in preparing food for any diplomatic groups that came to New Home. I quickly became well known around New Home as The Human. I was the one to go to if you had a question regarding Humans.
Why? Well Humans began moving in New Home. It was gradual and filled with tension at first, but things worked out well enough. Even after this time, there's the occasional incident. But that's about normal in a town the size of New Home. The royal guard, now called the town guard, took care of things well enough.
Monsters, having their currency made purely of gold, turned out to be extremely wealthy. The government actually had to pay New Home to avoid flooding the market with so much new gold. Needless to say, the Monsters did not want for money.
The only major issue that Monsters had with New Home is the fact that New Home was all there was. The government gave away plenty of farmland and land to build, but minimal land for expansion. If Monsters constructed things at the same speed as Humans, then there would probably have been at least a year of time before space became an issue.
Then there was the problem of Monsters that wanted to explore. A great many wanted to go around the world. Mainly that one robot, named Mettaton.
I had hung out with Mettaton for a few events and he was very over-the-top all the time. Gave me a headache after a bit. Didn't much care for his show. Nice person, though.
But back to the main topic.
It was two months after the Monsters left the underground. I was walking down the street when a voice caught my attention.
"Excuse me!"
I turned and had to look a little down at the kid that ran up to me. The kid looked about eight and had a mop of light brown hair topping her head. (I deemed her a female due to the red circles on her cheeks and the very slight feminine touch to her voice. If she didn't have those, she would have been androgynous and I would have had trouble figuring out which gender she was.)
"You're the Human that led the Monsters out of the underground, right?" the kid asked excitedly.
I gave a small smile and nodded when she pulled out a phone, familiar with the routine. The kid was probably a tourist that was passing through.
"Mind if I get a selfie with you?"
I shook my head and she gestured towards an alleyway we were next to.
"It can't take very good pictures in the sun. Mind if we get in a kind of darker area?"
The walls of the building set the area in some nice shadow. I didn't mind and we moved over there. I had gotten requests like that before. I wasn't too busy and this wouldn't take too long.
"Thanks!" she exclaimed while holding the phone in her left hand and wrapping her right around my back as I bent down to her level. Probably giving me bunny ears or something childish. I had gotten used to contact from strangers after awhile.
There was just enough light coming into the alleyway to see the glint of the metal in the camera's screen right before her right hand forced a thin six-inch piece of steel into the back of my neck.
I had just enough time to let out a throaty wheeze-as the blade had gotten into my windpipe on its way in-and glimpse the freakiest grin on that child's face before I blacked out.
"-HALL," Papyrus finished saying, the words File Loaded appearing in front of me as I stumbled. I noticed that Sans grunted and rubbed his head a moment later.
"Uh, cool name," I responded, furiously trying to remember the conversation and what context I had to work with. I nearly dropped Ben's Soul before remembering it.
"You drank a lot back at Grillby's," Sans suddenly said. "You need to pee or anything before we meet the King?"
I really didn't, but nodded and Sans led me to a restroom while Undyne waited outside, visually steaming in impatience.
We sat down at the other end of the restroom. The floor was tiled and it seemed pretty modern.
"What happened?"
Sans' tone didn't hold any blame. No condemnation or annoyance or anything I expected from the guy.
"A kid killed me when we were taking a selfie," I said, speaking quietly enough so that my voice wouldn't carry through the door.
"What did the kid look like?"
"I think she's exactly like what we're thinking about. About yay tall," I held my hand up to the general height of the girl. "Brown hair. Red spots on her cheeks. Creepiest fucking smile I have ever seen."
"That's Chara. She must have gotten bored."
"Bored!" I whisper shouted, one push away from actually shouting. "She shoved a knife in my neck!"
Sans met my gaze with a bored one of his own.
"Right," I calmed down a little. The guy would know what it was like to die. Chances are that I had a lamer death than what he usually had.
I rubbed my face and gave a loud sigh. All that work. All those damn meetings, the fake smiles, the acting. All of it, gone with the flash of metal.
"I'll do everything basically the same," I said to Sans. "But you're bringing me back down here and I'll save every week or so-"
"Day," Sans insisted forcefully.
"Every day," I agreed. "So 'this,'" I gestured all around us, "doesn't happen again."
Sans nodded and pushed up and off the wall. He pulled me up with some surprising strength and we left the restroom to see Undyne grinning a painful looking grin at Papyrus. Something told me that she was humoring the skeleton.
After she gave me a customary glare, we were off again.
It was one week after Monsters returned to the surface. The second time, for myself.
I was sleeping in a bed at a newly constructed building that resembled an apartment building. It had been finished only three days prior and already had all the utilities one would expect.
I heard knocking from the door to the suite I was in and I cursed when I saw the time. 5:45 AM.
"This better be an emergency," I muttered, putting on some shorts and a shirt before opening the door.
I found a blade at my throat as the door opened and I had no time to react.
"Hello again, David," Chara grinned at me. "Mind if I come in?"
"Not at all, Chara," I put emphasis on her name and her grin grew wider.
I back up carefully and she kicked the door closed with her foot when she was inside enough. Her arm was extended the whole way to keep the edge of the blade against the left part of my throat.
"How'd you enjoy the underground and all those pathetic Monsters?"
"They make some very tasty food," I replied, matching the brat's stare with my own.
"How much LOVE have you got so far?"
"What?" I was thrown for a loop with that question. Love?
"Uh, I'm friends with m-"
"Not that!" Chara barked. "LOVE! Level Of Violence. LV. That stuff!"
"Um, how does one get LOVE?"
"Killing Monsters!" Chara said, her joy abundantly evident in those two words.
"Then none. I have no LOVE. And I really wish it was called something-ouch!" Her blade pushed deeper into me and caused a furious burning to appear. I heard a faint drip on the floor next to my foot.
"How many times have you Reset?" Chara's voice was a little more human, meaning: less overall insanity.
"I've been killed plenty of times by Flowey and once by you."
"But how many times have you Reset?"
"What does that even mean?" I barked. I hated the fact that this kid knew more about this situation than me. Was in more control of this situation than me. That she had a knife held to my throat.
"You know," she said, her voice showing some confusion. "The choices when you die? Continue and Reset? I've seen it a million times. Anything ringing a bell?"
I shook my head.
"I just die and go back to when I last touched a Save Point. You set me back by an entire two months the last time you killed me."
She shrugged, obviously not caring one whit.
I grit my teeth and slammed my arm into the one holding the knife in place. She grimaced at the move, but the knife stayed right in her hand and was soon headed back towards me in a sweeping swing.
I grabbed the arm that held the knife and then grabbed her other one before pinning both arms to the wall. Who knew how useful being physically larger and stronger would help so much? She growled and spat under my grip, kicking at my legs and such.
"Why do you even bother doing this?" I asked, once she stopped making so much of a fuss. I was curious, but mainly I was waiting for Sans.
He was supposed to arrive at 6:00, on the dot. This was one thing that he never missed and once abducted me from my bed when I didn't move fast enough and dropped me into a patch of snow to wake me up.
I glared at him for the rest of that day.
But I only had to hold the demon brat for five or so more minutes before he would teleport right in like he always did.
"Because I'm so bored!"
"Bored?"
"I've been doing this for so long that I've learned how to manipulate everyone in the underground in about every way. I've befriended all of them, dated all of them, and killed all of them in every way conceivable. I'm bored!"
My eye twitched.
"So you've gotten bored after centuries of doing whatever you want. Why do you keep going down there if it's so boring?"
"Because Monsters are so much more interesting than Humans. It's so much more interesting to fight against Monsters and so much easier to clean up after than with Humans. With Monsters, I just need a little broom if I even bother to clean up. Wish I had one a little earlier."
It took a moment for me to connect the dots and notice the pale dust that coated her knife and hands.
My throat clenched at the sight and I squeezed her knife-holding hand until she grit her teeth from the pain. Bitch still didn't drop that knife.
"Who-you know what, I don't care. How long ago did you start killing?"
"This time? Uh, when I got in town."
"When, exactly?" I hissed in her face and she grinned.
"Oh? Are you thinking of Resetting? Wasting two months just to prevent a few deaths?"
The sound of slippers against the floor of my bedroom stopped what I was about to say.
"Sans!"
"Oh? Sansie boy is here?"
"Da-" Sans stopped talking the moment he saw me holding a grinning demon against the wall.
"She's killed some people. We need to go back to the last time we Saved."
We had talked about it before, but hasn't had to use the option. Not until then, anyways.
"Got it. Sorry, David."
Sans' eyes were replaced with a single glowing blue eye and he raised his hand towards me.
"Gaster Blaster time!" Chara shrieked-happily?
"I'll be seeing you soon," I growled at her right before the blast from the draconian skull reduced my lifespan to zilch.
Then I was back.
"Let's go!" Sans gripped my arm and we were in front of Alphys' house and he was knocking while I was still stumbling from the unexpected scenery change.
We waited a minute and I stopped Sans from knocking again.
"It's not even six in the morning. Give her a minute to come to the door."
Sans look at me with his blue eye activated and I took a step back.
"That brat is here and could be killing someone right now. She could Reset at any moment. We need Alphys now."
The door opened and Sans turned to the dinosaur Monster, turning the blue eye off when he looked away from me.
"W-w-" a yawn cut off her stutter and Sans spoke quickly.
"We need you to run a scan for a certain individual, and we need that now."
Alphys blinked rapidly at the news, nodded, then shuffled inside. She was probably surprised by the lack of lazy drawl coming from him. And my lack of proper clothing. I didn't exactly have time to get dressed the day before to go Save. I closed the door behind us and followed her through the house to her lab area.
"R-r-right over here!" Alphys led us to a wall that was covered in computers and as well as other electronic devices. She quickly typed at the keyboard that sat in front of all of them and the screen saver, an anime girl with cat ears, went away to show camera feeds all around New Home.
"Human. Child sized. Eight year old. Striped shirt. Brown hair," Sans began listing criteria about Chara and Alphys entered it in as it came.
One Enter button press later and a grinning demon was shown on her monitors. It only showed a bit of the sidewalk that she was on, so we weren't sure where she was.
"Where is she?" Sans' voice was barely controlled.
"Uh, just a m-moment." She typed at the keyboard and we got a different vantage point.
Sans tensed at the view of his house and he asked, "How long ago was this?"
"T-this is a l-l-live feed-"
I didn't hear her say any more because Sans, who had already put his hand on me, brought us to his living room.
A burning pain originated in my chest and I looked down to see a bone sticking through my chest and into my Soul, which had just appeared in front of my chest.
"HUMAN? ARE YOU ALRIGHT?"
Papyrus had apparently sent several bones flying towards Chara, said demon grinning right in front of me, and we had appeared right in the wrong place. Chara didn't even get a chance to swing her raised blade. My Soul shattered and we were back where we started.
I slapped away Sans' hand and shouted, "Give me a moment!"
I stumbled away from Sans and sat down against a pillar. My breathing was rough, though I didn't feel any sort of tiredness. That's something that Loading always took care of. Any injuries, anything, was healed when I Loaded.
"She knows that we know that she's in that area," I said after a moment.
"And she'll take it as a challenge to get there even faster. Let's go."
"You can just kill me in a minute," I growled at him.
Why was I so angry? I expected Chara to come around eventually and screw things up. I just hadn't expected her to straight up kill me and waste months of work. Not only would I have to act like everything was normal for that time, but now I had to deal with a demonic time-altering child with little to no regard to people's lives. Not only that, but also the fact that the only way we could prevent any deaths she caused was by killing me.
Dying hurt! Whether via the Soul getting too injured or by my physical body getting screwed up.
When had my life become so fucked up?
"Uh, earth to David?"
I stiffened and turned to my left.
"Ben?"
"Are you okay? You just turned really pale."
I had fallen asleep after helping Sans stop Chara for the fifth time or so. We had finally tranquilized her and had her stored in a cage in Alphys' lab.
She must have woke up and Reset. But when-never mind. I saw Mt. Ebott from where I sat in Ben's truck.
Ben was alive. He was alive and everything was back to normal.
"You're beginning to worry me," Ben's voice did take on some worry and I quickly smiled.
"It's alright. I just zoned out there for a minute."
One so very long minute.
My smile nearly faltered when I saw an image of Ben, soveryverydeadI'msosorryBen-
I rubbed my head and turned away with a frown.
It would take awhile for me to get that out of my head.
"The mountain looks pretty cool," Ben said, and my heart clenched.
"I think that there's a concert happening in the next town. You want to check it out?"
"Definitely!"
And so we went through Ebott without stopping for more than some chips. I drew a quick picture of it as we went away.
"What's it called?" Ben asked me as we were about to go to bed and he saw the almost finished product.
"I'm Sorry."
"Huh? For what?"
For abandoning all the Monsters for my selfish reasons. For leaving Sans to figure out things on his own. For letting you die all those times. For these things and more.
"That's what it's called," I said in a small voice before jumping into bed and pulling the covers over me, effectively cutting the conversation off.
"David?"
It had lasted for two weeks before I found Ben looking at me oddly and Mt. Ebott looming in the distance.
So it's going to be like that. Fine.
"I think it would be great to draw a picture from the top of that sucker!"
And so we went the next day.
"Huh, looks like it's going to rain," I commented at the clouds above us and gestured towards the cave, the very same one from before, right as the first drops began to fall. I had wasted a little time and caused us to begin climbing later than the time before, just so we would be closer.
I hated getting rained on.
We took shelter in there and I immediately went to the hole with him in tow.
"Wanna explore?"
Ben looked at me like I was insane and I didn't blame him. I was not one to explore or do anything adventurous like that. Fun stuff, sure. I would give that stuff a try if it seemed interesting enough. But exploring? I left that to Ben.
So we found ourselves in front of Toriel's place and I had a doozy in making sure that he didn't get killed by those white projectiles. And from keeping him from committing first degree frogicide. Flowey wasn't there as far as I could tell. If he was, he didn't appear.
"Can you see this?" I touched the Save Point, bringing up the File Saved screen.
"Uh, yeah? It-File Saved? Wha-hey!" I pulled him over to it and shoved his hand at it.
The File Saved screen appeared and I sighed in relief, even as he jerked his arm out of my grip and took a few steps back.
"Begin explaining, now," Ben demanded, rubbing the area I had grabbed him. I had gripped him rather hard.
"You know how videogames work? Well we are now in one. Welcome to our own personal Hell."
"David," Ben said carefully, "You've been acting very weird lately. Then there's this underground place with those mutant frogs and those traps that you solved in no time. What's going on?"
I sighed and waved for him to follow me as I moved away from Toriel's house. We could knock later.
I sat under the dead tree and Ben joined me a moment later.
I explained some of what had happened. The Save Points. Sans. Toriel. Monsters. Chara, especially Chara. I didn't go into too much detail. I didn't really need to.
"Alright, I get it," Ben interrupted me.
"Let me guess: you think I'm nuts?"
He hummed a bit before saying, "Not really. You've never come up with some stupidly complicated story like this before. You don't play pranks of this caliber. And I'm pretty sure those who draw are already a little nutso from putting the pictures in their heads out into the world already, so you're not insane. So let's go. We'll figure things out later. Right now I want some of that snail sponge cake!"
I looked at his hand, the one extended to help me up, and thanked every deity out there that Ben was so reliable. That he knew me so well. And that it was a hobby of his to try new foods.
He pulled me up and I knocked on Toriel's door.
I was glad that she was too surprised by two Humans on her doorstep to notice my bad acting at being surprised. I had been with the goat woman long enough that I knew her very well.
But it was a one-way street. The lady that I had stayed up with for late nights assisting with negotiations no longer existed. Maybe she never would.
"Hi, my name is David. This is Ben."
Toriel nodded a greeting to the two of us and invited us inside. We sat and talked for a little while. It was mostly Ben and Toriel talking with me enjoying the various types of food, most of snail origin.
I had acquired a taste of snails, being around Toriel for so long.
"-David's an amazing artist!"
I had zoned out and only heard that last part.
"Ah, I'm just an amateur-"
"No way! You've had a few shown in art galleries. I think I still have a-yup, right here." Ben had pulled out his phone and was showing Toriel pictures he had taken of some things I had drawn. I hardly ever bothered to take pictures of what I drew. I didn't need to. They were already up in my head and unlikely to come back out.
"Oh? You drew that?" She turned the camera towards me and I saw that it was not something I had drawn.
"No. That's a picture of a sunset in Tennessee, I think. I'm pretty sure those are the Smokey Mountains."
I couldn't tell without getting closer, but I was pretty sure.
"Even so, these others are very nice."
I smiled and thanked her for her compliment, despite it being the fifth or so time of her doing it throughout the various timelines.
We talked about various topics for awhile before I asked what else there was in the underground.
Toriel went quiet.
"There is much to the rest of the underground. It is vast and beautiful. But you will be in danger if you go there."
Yeah. I knew that firsthand.
"What's the issue? Aside from slightly murderous frogs."
Toriel's mouth quirked a little at my description of the Froggits.
"Asgore will be waiting for you and will collect your Soul so he can break the Barrier."
We had already covered the Barrier topic. Already knew that one needed an exceptionally powerful Soul, blah blah blah.
"Why doesn't he just go ahead and use one of the Souls he has collected to go get some more from the surface and free the Monsters that way?"
Toriel's face tightened at my words and I knew why. We had had that discussion before.
"Because he is a foolish and weak leader."
"Then why don't we go and persuade him. Worst comes to worse, you can all just wait until we die of old age and collect our Souls then."
I was a little confused at their horrified looks.
"What? Monsters live super long, right? We could chill down here for the rest of our lives and our deaths could help you escape. But let's cross that bridge when we get to it. Right now, we can just go and keep Asgore from killing us outright."
I stood and put on my seabag while Ben, thankfully, mimicked me. As one, we looked at Toriel with an expecting gaze and she froze like a goat in headlights.
(If you didn't laugh at that, you have no Soul.)
Toriel sighed at our determined looks.
"I will go with the two of you. But in the morning. It's late now. We can leave after some breakfast."
We agreed and Toriel went to bed a little while later. We set our sleeping bags out and stayed in the living room. Since it had only been about five or so hours since we had got up, we relaxed on our sleeping bags and talked.
I told him some stuff I did in the timelines before the one we were in. Described Chara in detail. Told him what it felt like to die.
Best slumber party, ever. I assure you.
We napped some a few hours after laying down, just to get some sleep.
We were before the door that led into the rest of the underground.
"Are the both of you truly sure-"
"Yes, Toriel. We are very sure," I said, tone serious. She had tried to dissuade us plenty of times and questioned our ability to protect ourselves.
After I sent a Froggit packing without getting a scratch, she didn't question that any more.
Toriel pushed open the door and we heard a surprised sound from the other side just as Sans came into view, hand raised to knock.
Toriel immediately got in front of us.
"These two are under my protection. We need to pass by."
Balls of flame appeared in Toriel's hands and Sans held up both hands lazily.
"No worries. I really don't want to capture anybody. Too much work."
The flames in Toriel's hands flickered a little in surprise.
"That voice. You're the one who tells me the jokes!"
"Huh. I thought your voice sounded familiar. Don't worry. Anyone with an amazing sense of humor like yours must have a good reason for protecting these Humans. Want a hand?"
The flames died and Toriel's stance relaxed somewhat.
"That would be appreciated. Perhaps you can talk down your brother?"
"I'm sure I can make him relax," Sans said, turning and beginning to move down the path at a lazy pace.
We introduced ourselves, though my introduction was completely faked by both sides. We recognized each other. I was just doing it for Toriel's sake.
Toriel and Sans exchanged jokes and Sans asked a few questions about the surface, most of which he already probably knew the answers to.
Sans persuaded, with my assistance, us to stop at Grillby's. Inside, Ben and Toriel began talking about various recipes while Sans and myself waited at the bar to pick up our ordered food and bring it to the booth we had selected.
"She came down here and started killing everyone in Snowdin, waiting on you."
I closed my eyes, feeling an ache when I thought about the various Monsters I had seen being killed. Most were peaceful. They didn't deserve it.
"I thought I could break the cycle. I thought I had my friend back and I didn't want to lose him again."
"I get it," Sans pulled out a ketchup bottle he had and squirted some in his mouth. "If I was in your position, I would've done the same."
I was happy that he didn't condemn me for my actions. I had been worried about it the whole way there.
"When did she appear?"
"Two days from now."
"Let's set up a trap. Stop her in the Ruins."
"Done that before. Doesn't work."
"Then let's enlist Alphys' help. You said she did experiments on-what was it you called it?"
"Determination. It's something that only Humans have."
"And you think that this has something to do with her ability to Reset and Save?"
"I'm pretty certain."
Sans had told me about the mysterious, and dangerous, stuff in a past timeline.
I blinked at a sudden idea.
"What if I'm injected with Determination? You said it's some sort of liquid. We've established that Chara has a better grasp of Saving, Loading, and Resetting than I do. Especially since I do not have the ability to Reset. Maybe she naturally has more Determination than me?"
Sans considered this, then shrugged.
"I'm willing to try it. When did you Save last?"
"Back in front of Toriel's house. I haven't been able to get to another one without making it obvious."
Sans grunted and accepted the food that Grillby passed to us. We brought it to our table and discussed random topics with Toriel until she excused herself to the restroom.
The moment she walked away, I leaned closer to Sans and said, "Ben has also Saved. I've already filled him in on about everything."
Sans accepted this with a nod and munched on a fry, thoughtfully.
"How are we going to get away from Toriel so we can do all of this?"
Sans tapped the side of his skull for a full minute, thinking silently.
"I've got an idea."
God help us all, Sans has an idea. He's working. The world must be ending! Discuss it in a review. I want to see what y'all think his idea is.