Toriel quietly shut the door to Asriel's new room, bidding him good night as she did so. This new room was smaller out of necessity. If the royal family had taken in only one new child they likely would have just added another bed to Asriel's room and saved renovations for later. However, given that they now had three children, and the way Mary and Chara acted toward each other, they decided to get renovations out of the way now. Each child would likely want their own space eventually, and giving each of them a room the same size showed no favoritism.
So the hallway leading from the entryway now had four doors. Toriel and Asgore's room was the furthest down. Chara's room was closest to the royal couple, and Asriel was placed on the other side of Chara. That left the door closest to the entrance for Mary.
Toriel thought about everything that had happened since they'd taken in the two human children as she walked to the den. Even with monster magic to aid them it took time to turn two rooms into three smaller rooms. So while the architects and carpenters worked on the rooms the royal family gave its two newest members a tour. The barrier was the first stop, to ensure the humans knew the monsters were sincere about no one being able to leave. Chara hadn't seemed all that upset. She almost seemed to be studying the room, looking around with a level of focus that Toriel had only seen during the snowball fight.
Perhaps they would eventually become a scientist that studied the barrier, that would be an interesting twist of fate. Mary, on the other hand, looked at the barrier as though remembering something unpleasant. That seemed to be a common expression for the girl.
After that the humans were shown the rest of the castle rooms and grounds. Both children immediately took to the garden, though Chara couldn't go far and Mary occasionally got that 'remembering' look to her face. The King and Queen also introduced the pair of humans to some of their more trusted subjects. There would eventually be an official announcement of Chara and Mary's adoption, but they wanted to give the pair a chance to get settled in first. Plus, if word was allowed to spread a bit first then it might not be such a shock when the announcement did come.
The most interesting thing to happen that day, in Toriel's opinion, was the check up. Once Asgore found out that the humans were both injured the King had asked the royal scientist to make a house call. After all, if any monster in the Underground knew about human biology it would be WD Gaster. The skeletal monster had not been pleased to be drawn away from his work, but once he heard the reason he became much more cooperative. He and his assistant, a young lizard monster named Alphys, had brought over diagnostic equipment from their lab in Hotland and had set it up in the throne room by the time the tour had ended.
Chara had treated the Royal Scientist with a high amount of suspicion upon being introduced to him. Toriel had expected this due to Chara's previous behavior; the child never took anything at face value. The Queen hadn't expected Mary to react similarly though, and was quite surprised when the girl acted more wary of Gaster than Chara did. Toriel began to fear that she would not be able to convince either child to have an examination done.
However, when Chara took notice of how Mary was acting they boldly declared that they weren't enough of a baby to be scared of a doctor, and allowed herself to be carried into the throne room by Asgore.
Mary fretted while the other human was away, and peppered Alphys, Asriel, and Toriel, with questions about what would happen during the examination. Alphys's nervous answers made the girl more anxious, and the Queen and Prince rushed to reassure her that the process was completely harmless and non invasive. They managed to soothe Mary somewhat, and she was further reassured when Chara returned. Chara proudly insisted the whole thing had been no big deal; that they had just laid on table while Gaster pushed a lot of buttons and nothing had hurt at all. Hearing this, Mary was finally convinced to go in herself. Asgore stayed with her, in case her nerves returned.
Mary's examination took the same amount of time as Chara's. Curiously, the girl looked more anxious than before as she returned. Toriel suspected that this was related to the fact that it took several more minutes for her husband and WD Gaster to emerge and speak with them.
The Royal Scientist explained that Chara's leg was taking a while to heal because most of their healing spells were suited for monsters, beings made mostly of magic and little physical matter. Gaster gave Toriel a piece of paper he'd written up, detailing changes that could be made to the most common healing spells. The alterations would make the spell affect a human's physical body rather than the trace amounts of magic that resided within them. The Queen thanked him profusely, knowing how valuable the knowledge would be as the human children grew up. Gaster said that, if his calculations were right, casting the spell tonight would allow Chara's leg to heal as they slept. Then they would be able to walk on their own in the morning. Upon hearing this, Asriel had immediately started making plans for games they could all play together the next day.
Then came the news from Mary's check up. Gaster was also able to produce an altered spell for her, one that would heal her burns to the point where they would not hurt unless put under great strain. The magic should also reduce the visibility of Mary's scars, but Gaster knew of nothing that would make them vanish completely.
Toriel had expected the child to be upset by that news. While Mary did look disappointed she held herself strangely stiff, as if bracing herself for something. When Gaster offered no further assessment, besides to say that both children were otherwise healthy, Toriel could see the tension drain out of the blonde child.
As strange as the reaction was it turned out to be beneficial. Mary's relief made her settle easily in her new bed and room, and the Queen was fairly certain the child was asleep before the door was closed. Asriel and Chara would take longer, but they were also tired from the long day. So Toriel felt confident in leaving them to rest as she talked to her her husband in the den.
Asgore was sitting in his large overstuffed chair in front of the unlit fire place. Toriel's own chair rested next to his, and as she settled into it she noticed how pensive her husband looked.
"Penny for your thoughts, dear?" she asked, lightly teasing. Asgore gave her a small smile, the mere sitght of his beloved wife causing his mood to lighten. Still there was something he needed to discuss with her, and he wasn't sure how to broach the subject.
"I have not spent as much time with the two new children as you have, my dear. Tell me, what is your impression of them?"
"Well," Toriel started after a minute of thought. "the two of them are very alike in some ways and very different in others. They are both rather impatient, though they display it in different ways. Mary is bright and eager to greet everyone and everything that comes her way, while Chara is more reserved and questions every new experience. I don't believe the child would have approached Asriel or myself if their injury had not made it a necessity."
"Ultimately, I think they are both using these different traits to hide something about themselves, something painful. Chara hides by keeping everything close to the vest, while Mary distracts and avoids."
"You have no idea what it is they might be trying to conceal?" Asgore asked. Toriel shook her head.
"In Chara's case I have no idea. The one statement they made about their past was used to dodge the issue completely. In Mary's case it may be connected to her father. I believe he may have died in a fire."
When her husband pressed for more details, she recounted Mary's reaction to open flame and what she had told Asriel about her family. Asgore nodded thoughtfully, it was a plausible theory. The fact that Mary was taken care of by 'siblings, in a way', sounded a bit like an orphanage. Monsters had such establishments in place in case a child's parents ever 'fell down'. None stayed there very long though, there was always a monster family willing to care for an extra child or two.
"There is nothing else you can think of?" Asgore asked.
"What exactly are you getting at Gorey?" Toriel asked, head tilted slightly in confusion. The King sighed.
"Something...strange...came up during Mary's examination."
"Is that why you took so long to follow her out? Is Mary alright?" The Queen asked in alarm.
"Yes, to both. As near as Gaster can tell Mary is perfectly healthy, aside from her burns. Gaster described it more as a discrepancy than a problem."
The King noticed Tori was getting frustrated with his vagueness, and hurried to recount the conversation he had with the Royal Scientist earlier that day.
"Fascinating."
That was the first thing Gaster had said after Mary exited the room. Normally the skeleton monster's voice shook with the effort of using it, which is why he preferred to speak with his hands. The excitement in Gaster's voice made the tremors much less noticeable though.
"What is that you have found?" The King questioned.
"Are you aware of the differences between monster souls and human souls, your majesty?"
"I know that humans have much stronger souls than monsters, almost ridiculously stronger, and that human souls look different than monster souls."
"That is correct, and that is why the differences between the two children are so interesting." The scientist pulled out several papers that had been spewed out by the scanners he'd used on both Chara and Mary. He laid a few down in front of Asgore on the exam table.
"This is a basic scan of Chara's soul."
Asgore took it, briefly reading through the stats. He noted that Chara's ATK was higher than he would have expected., before turning his attention to the depiction of the human's soul. It wasn't as different from a monster soul as he had first assumed it would be. The shape was the same, though the broader portion was on the top rather than the bottom. The soul also had a different color, a bright red rather than a typical monster white.
"According to past research, the color of a human's soul is significant. It displays the trait that is most used to carry them through life. Chara's bright red indicates Determination, a trait that can lead a person to accomplish almost any goal they set for themselves. I could study the astounding affects of Determination to the end of my days, but that is not what this is about."
Gaster then laid a different set of sheets in front of Asgore.
"This is the scan of Mary's soul."
Asgore noticed that Mary's DEF was significantly lower than Chara's, even though her ATK was nearly as high. That was a bit curious, but what was truly strange was the appearance of the girl's soul. Mary's soul had the same orientation of a monster soul, the broader part facing down, and the color was a shade of pink so light it was almost white. Had the paper itself not been white, it would be hard to tell that her soul had a color at all.
"So, Mary's soul displays traits of both a human soul and a monster soul?" Asgore looked at Gaster in obvious confusion.
"So it would seem. Mary's body also contains much less physical matter than Chara's, though not as little as a typical monster of her size. She also has more than just trace amounts of magic in her, almost as much as a young monster."
"So, is she a human able to use magic?" Asgore couldn't help but think of the barrier's creators.
"I do not think so. If she were wholly human she would not have so little physical matter in her body. I believe the extra magic is needed to hold her physical form together, though it is possible she could be trained to perform small magic spells. I would suggest caution though. If her magic is needed to maintain her form then attempting a powerful spell could harm her greatly."
"So...what do we do about this?" The scientist just shrugged at his king.
"I am going to continue to study the data, as it seems Mary may be a unique being or part of some unknown species. I look forward to delving into the new data." The lights of the monster's eyes shone bright with excitement before turning solemn. "I will of course be discreet, and share this data with only Alphys. What you do with this information is entirely up to you."
With that, Gaster took the papers detailing the needed spell alterations and went out to deliver them to the Queen.
For a long time both monster were quiet, taking in all the implications of Gaster's discovery.
"This doesn't change anything." Toriel stated firmly. "No matter what her true nature, is Mary is still a child in need of our help."
"I agree Tori, I just wanted you to know, to get your thoughts on the subject."
"Perhaps this is what she was trying to hide from us." Toriel mused.
"Perhaps." Asgore agreed. "If that is the case, then how do we proceed?"
"I think we should leave it be for now. If Mary doesn't want us to know she is different, then she won't take it well if we directly confront her. If we give her time to know and trust us, then perhaps one day Mary will tell us about it herself. In the mean time, she shall just be one of our children." Asgore took her hand with a smile.
"I agree, and we shall give them all our best."
Toriel smiled back and squeezed his hand. She had a feeling that, so long as they had each other, they could handle whatever challenges lay ahead.
A.N.
I'm back! Finally got a new chapter out for this story, and I hope it was worth the wait.
I was quite surprised that reviewer MaydayMarbear was one of the only ones to bring up the fact that Mary's soul does not look like a typical human soul in chapter 2. I was kind of worried that I hadn't made that reference obvious enough, so I decided to bump this scene up a bit. (It was originally planned to happen later in the story).
I'm thinking the next chapters won't be quite as linear. I'm going to try for some 'slice of life' chapters to show what life is now like for the royal family and how everyone gets along with each other.
Also, my head cannon for Gaster's voice comes from comics and videos dubbed by SuperShadic X250 on Youtube. Here is a plug for the most recent one they did involving Gaster: watch?v=wzxPhv10HGQ