It was early the next morning, and Alphys folded some papers onto her desk. As she stood up from her chair, she glanced at the ground and decided she needed to sweep up since the floor was covered with wadded-up notes.
"Where's the broom...?" she muttered to herself, but then she remembered it was in the hall closet. She stepped out of her work room and over to the closet, turning the knob.
Click, click.
Alphys frowned. Why would the closet be locked? They hardly ever used it, anyway. She tried the door a couple more times, but the doorknob refused to turn. Finally, she headed into the kitchen and pulled out a key that was in one of the drawers. She took it back to the hall closet and placed it in the keyhole, turning the knob with ease.
"There!" Alphys smiled as she opened the door, but her face immediately fell when she saw exactly what—or who—was inside. "U-Uh..."
Inside the closet was none other than Mad Dummy. He was lying on his side with his back facing her, so she couldn't tell if he was awake or not.
Alphys, forgetting all about the mess in her room, promptly shut the door. "U-UNDYNE! COULD YOU...UM...COULD YOU C-COME OVER HERE A SECOND!?" she hollered, unsure of what to do.
Undyne nearly slammed open the door from her room. "What is it? Are you hurt!?"
"O-Oh, no," Alphys chuckled a little. "I...just see f-for yourself..." She pointed at the closet.
Undyne raised a brow and opened the closet door, staring straight at the unexpected inhabitant. "Well. Okay." She blinked for a moment before shutting the door.
"I-Is he alright...?" Alphys stammered.
"I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that his date didn't exactly go as planned." Undyne muttered. "Poor guy."
"Sh-should we do something?" Alphys asked, eyeing the closet.
"Is he awake?"
Alphys leaned next to the door and heard mumbling. "I think s-so..."
"Good." Undyne stormed over to the closet to yank it open, but the door didn't budge. It was obviously unlocked, so that meant someone was pulling it back. "Seriously? You're playing this game, now?"
No response.
"You better not be giving me the silent treatment again, Mad! We talked about this!" She pulled the doorknob harder, but it still wouldn't open.
"Sorry. 'No talking to the punching bag', remember?" a muffled voice hissed.
"DON'T YOU DARE PULL THAT CRAP ON ME AGAIN!" Undyne brought a spear out. "I'LL BREAK THE DOOR DOWN, DARN IT!"
More mumbling. It sounded as if Mad Dummy was talking to someone in there.
"YOU CAN'T IGNORE ME FOREVER, MAD!" Undyne pressed her foot against the wall and furiously tried to pry the door open with her spear. The door creaked open a couple times, but as soon as she would stop, it would slam shut all over again. "How the heck is he keeping that door shut!?"
"W-Well, he does have magic—" Alphys began.
"OH, SCREW IT!" Several spears emerged from behind Undyne and struck the door all at once, completely sabotaging it.
Once the dust cleared out, it was revealed that Mad Dummy had been lying on the ground the entire time. Miniature dummies and dummy-bots surrounded him, and Undyne assumed they were the ones who had been keeping the door shut.
"Okay, now that I've finally got your attention, get up. We're going to Napstablook."
Mad Dummy completely ignored her, laying face-down and not moving.
"MOVE YOUR MOLASSES, PAL! I'M NOT PLAYING ANY MORE GAMES!" Undyne hollered, stomping her foot.
"I'd rather die than go back out there," the dummy hissed, still not looking at her.
Undyne clenched her fists. "And why is that?"
"Everyone is going to take one look at me and laugh. Nobody is ever going to take me seriously again! IT'LL BE JUST LIKE BACK THEN ALL OVER AGAIN, BECAUSE OF HIM!"
"What, Napstablook?" Undyne's mouth came wide open. Mad Dummy screeched incoherently, and she took that as a 'no'. "Oh." She blinked. Then his words began to register. "OH." Her face contorted into a deadly scowl. "What did Mettaton do now?" She growled, bringing up another spear. "I swear, if he ruined your date—"
The dummy glared at her, and his eyes said it all.
"HE DID, DIDN'T HE!?" She hurled her spear at the wall. "THAT LITTLE—! HE JUST HAS TO INSERT HIMSELF INTO EVERYTHING, DOESN'T HE!?"
Mad Dummy slammed his head onto the ground again, and his little dummies snuggled close to him to comfort him. Alphys nearly squealed and was almost tempted to take a picture, but she knew now wasn't a good time.
"Okay, look," Undyne shook her head, "I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I think I know enough. How about we head to Mettaton right now, and then we can both beat him up as much as you want. Sound good?"
"No. I'm not going out there ever again!" He grouched
Undyne frowned, but came up with a different idea. "Okay, how about if Muffet goes with you instead?" He froze and looked up at her. "Will you feel more comfortable going out, then?"
Mad Dummy didn't respond at first. He really did want to see Muffet again, but what if she saw him just as weak as everyone else probably did? He tightly shut his eyes. No...she wouldn't think that. Not after the way she tried to console him last night. And he just pushed her away...
"Fine," he whispered hoarsely, slowly picking himself up.
In as little as 4 minutes, Muffet was at the door right after Undyne had called her. Even though Muffet would've been more than willing to close up the bakery early, several of the other spiders agreed to take care of everything while she was away.
"Mad?" Muffet quickly entered the living room, where Mad Dummy was sprawled out on the floor. He glanced up at her, and she ran over to pick him up. She gave him a hug, knowing he was probably still miserable from last night. "Are you okay?"
"I feel like crap."
Muffet couldn't hold back a laugh at his nonchalance.
"It probably didn't help that he slept in the closet all night," Undyne muttered, and after Mad Dummy gave her a glare, she got the point and left the room. "Call me when you're planning on beating up Mettaton!" she called out.
"Oh..." Muffet looked down and scratched the back of her neck. "Were you...planning on talking to him?" she asked Mad Dummy.
"What am I supposed to tell him!?" He hollered. "It's bad enough he practically showed me off to everyone in his fan-club as some featherbrained numbskull to make him more popular! He didn't even think about how his little charade would make me feel! Heck, he deliberately LIED to me!"
"He told me after you ran off that he was hoping to surprise you...but...I do see how shortsighted his plan was." Muffet cringed.
Mad Dummy slammed his head on the ground again, losing count of how many times he had already done so. "Of course, you're not as upset to be put on the spot since you run a freakin' bakery. You're around people all the time!"
Muffet frowned and opened her mouth to respond, but he wasn't finished.
"For me, I just...I can't handle it! I can't handle everyone staring at me...judging me...it's why I'm so anti-social, for crying out loud!" Mad Dummy looked up at Muffet. "I didn't mind being around people during the date, since I knew I was with someone who actually liked me for who I was. Having that mindset actually made me oblivious to everyone else around me, but then when he pointed me out and put the freaking spotlight on us..." He trembled in fury.
"Oh, Mad...I'm so sorry." Muffet wrapped her arms around him. "I wish there was something I could've done to help. But...why are you so afraid of what people think of you?" She thought about what he said last night, something about not wanting to deal with being walked on all over again. "Did...something happen to you before?"
Mad Dummy averted her gaze. "I don't want to talk about it." She frowned at him, and he shook his head. "Not now. Maybe later." He turned away and started hopping to the door. "Let's just go. The sooner I talk to Mettaton, the less obvious my urge to blow him up will be. And trust me...I really want to blow him up."
"Are you sure?" Muffet raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, you have NO idea. It's been a while since my dummy-bots have seen some action!"
"No, I mean actually talking to Mettaton." Muffet was surprised he voluntarily suggested it.
"Are you kidding me? Heck, no!" Mad Dummy hollered, turning around. "I'm still trying to convince myself not to bring my knife! But...it's either now or later, and I know that the more I stick around here, the angrier I'm going to get!" He opened the door but as soon as he did, he froze in place. Muffet waited a bit, but all he did was blankly stare outside.
"...Mad?"
"Oh, who am I kidding—I can't do this!" He slammed the door shut. "I don't even want to see his smug face! I bet he'll get on my case about how I acted all 'childish' and 'immature'...GAH! What if everyone LAUGHS at me!?" It was bad enough he felt so vulnerable; the last thing he wanted was people pointing it out.
Muffet patted him on the back. "Nobody's going to laugh at you. And if they do...well, they'll just have to answer to me then, won't they, dearie?~" she giggled.
Mad Dummy smirked, feeling just a little better. He shook his head. "Alright, alright." He sighed and faced the door again. "I can do this!"
"You can do this!" Muffet grinned.
"I'm gonna talk to Mettaton!" He straightened his posture, opening the door.
"You're gonna talk to Mettaton!" Muffet clapped her hands.
"And then I'm gonna blow him up!"
"And then you're...wait, what—" Before Muffet could react properly, Mad Dummy was already halfway down the street, his dummy-bots close behind. Apparently, he didn't care about getting on the wrong side of the media anymore. "MAD? MAD!"
Just in case you're wondering, the whole "silent treatment" and "no talking to the punching bag" nonsense happened between Undyne and Mad Dummy in my story "Just a Punching Bag".
Also, I couldn't resist drawing Mad Dummy with his dummies and dummy-bots snuggled up against him: fav . me / d9s5x9h (without spaces)