Chapter Text
5
Ralsei hummed on her way through the school’s bustling halls. So far, her favorite part of being ‘real’ (like, really real. For real!) was the simple stuff. The way the sun shone warm against her fur. The wind. The wind! She’d never really noticed how still the air in Castle Town and most Dark Worlds tended to be until the first time she went outside and was struck by how everything and the air itself was always moving, moving, moving…
Not to mention all the noise!
Birds, cars, people tapping their pencils or claws during class. People whispering during class. People tapping on their phones during class.
She’d admit that it could get a tad overwhelming at points…and, rather annoying. Thanks to Mr. Dreemurr, it was agreed that she was allowed to wear some noise cancelling earplugs when doing schoolwork. She had them in now as she made her way to her locker. It helped her ‘survive’ the afterschool chaos that was flooding all around her. Between the footsteps and the yelling she was glad she’d decided to keep them in after the last bell rang for dismissal…wasn’t it a rule you weren’t supposed to yell in the halls?
Someone slammed their locker shut just as she reached to turn the combination on hers. Suppressing a flinch, Ralsei managed to hold her smile and beamed when her locker door swung open.
Susie and Kris had helped her decorate! A cluster of pinkish-purple, cut-out paper stars were taped to the inside of the locker’s metal door. There were also a dozen or so green glow-in-the-dark stars inside the locker itself, courtesy of Kris having “borrowed” some from under their brother’s bed.
I’ll return them once we graduate, Ralsei thought. She snickered silently.
No homework today. Ralsei was rather relieved. She didn’t want to have to worry about hurrying home after the anime club to get it done. She did suppose it wouldn’t be too hard to get it done tomorrow morning before class…that was apparently how Kris tended to do it!
With her textbooks tucked safely away, Ralsei shut the locker, and hurried outside. A crisp wind struck her snout the moment she trotted out the school’s front doors. The anime club was held over in the library. From where she stood off to the side at the top of the steps, Ralsei brought a paw up to shield her eyes from the bright, pale glare of the autumn sun. Her face lit up when she spotted a purple figure waving at her over near the trees at the edge of the parking lot.
“Susie! Kris!”
“Yooo, Ralsei! Heeeeey, Ralsei! Ralsei over here! Ralsei! Raaaaaaaalseeeeeei-!”
“I see you! I’m coming!”
Susie waved the whole time Ralsei ran up to her and Kris. Kris greeted Ralsei with a hum and a nod. Ralsei quickly took out her earplugs and tucked them away in the plastic case she kept in her skirt’s pocket. The ambient hum of the wind in the trees filled her ears with an airy drone. A car honked behind her, followed by an annoyed yell of someone who was forced to bid farewell to their friends.
“Hey Ral,” Susie smiled, “you all set for the anime thingy? Kris is real excited!” She snickered when she elbowed them lightly. Kris ducked away, embarrassed.
Ralsei adjusted her backpack and bounced on her knees. “Yup! I’m ready! I think we’ll be a bit early if we head to the library right now.”
“Hey, that just shows ‘em how serious we are about this anime biz. We’re anime pros. We’re ani-masters.”
“Oh!” Ralsei’s ears perked when suddenly she remembered, “did you check with Noelle to see if she’d like to come along?”
“I did, yeah,” said Susie, “she says she’s tried gettin’ into the, uh, Mew New?”
“Mew Mew Kissy Cutie,” Kris corrected.
Susie hummed and nodded at them, “yeah that thing. But she says she just couldn’t really get into it. Said she’d like to come along if we ever wind up watchin’ something else, though! Like uh…what’s the one you like, Kris?”
They cleared their throat before they could answer. “Neon Genesis Evangelical.”
“Yeah! What’s that one about again?”
“Big robots fight aliens, and also kids are in nightmare abuse hell.”
“Damn. That sounds sick. Ya think Ms. Alphys has that one?”
They shrugged. Ralsei giggled into her paws, “heheh! I mean…I don’t think it’ll hurt if we’re early. Ms. Alphys is in charge of it, then? Your homeroom teacher, right?”
Kris bobbed their head. Susie shrugged, “eh, yeah. She’s fine. I know that ghost guy we bumped into last week goes to it, too. That, uh…guy…with the name…the robot name…”
“Mettaton,” Kris rasped.
Susie had saved Tella after their battle with her in Asgore’s flower shop, and had found her a new home with Mettaton. Ralsei was ashamed to confess that she couldn’t quite see the point in having done so, but perhaps Susie was just that much kinder than her.
Because it was a deeply kind thing to do!
…just…the thing was that Tella was NOT kind during their adventure through the Blooming Waste. Not at all. And much like King or Carol, Ralsei just didn’t feel much in the way of kindness towards her after how she’d acted. She felt quite awful for it! She didn’t like to say she hated anyone, because it wasn’t good to outright hate people, and as the Princess of the Dark, shouldn’t she be more patient and understanding…?
…it also just felt so, so easy to let herself decide to hate people nowadays. Maybe it was because she was ‘real’? Or maybe it was a side effect of the daily shots Tenna and Toriel helped her with? She had noticed that she had begun to feel a lot more clear-headed in the weeks that followed the Roaring, for one reason or another.
Clear and free. Lighter.
Maybe ‘brighter’ was a word for it?
Either way, Ralsei was just relieved to know that Tella wouldn’t be at the club. Mettaton himself seemed like a nice enough person! Maybe Ralsei would feel a bit better getting to know him without Tella being there?
A few groups of students ambled around outside the library as they approached. Susie held the door open, letting warm air out into the crisp afternoon as Ralsei and Kris ducked under her arm to slip inside. Ralsei then froze when she saw the door to the computer lab.
“Ah.”
There was a quaint “closed, sorry!” sign taped to the door. Just as soon as they entered the library, Ms. Boom cleared her throat over at the front desk. “Ehem! Sure hope you kids weren’t comin’ for the computer lab today!”
“Eh…yeah. What’s wrong with it?” Susie side-eyed the lab’s door as a loud clunk rang out inside.
Ms. Boom’s eyes crinkled when she laughed. “Wah hah hah! Ohh, nothin’ awful. Just our new volunteer gettin’ himself tangled up while he was clearin’. Berdly’s helping him out.”
Ralsei realized that the staticky drone coming from behind the door was, in fact, a voice. Someone was ranting on and on inside the computer lab. It had a grainy, gargled sound to it that Ralsei noticed made Kris bristle uncomfortably. Her brow furrowed. The lab’s door cracked open. A feathery blue head popped out and whipped over towards Ms. Boom.
Berdly cleared his throat and strained to speak politely over the now clear screaming that was ringing inside the lab. “Erm, Ms. Boom? Might I perhaps call for some back-up? I…I fear that I may have made the situation…worse, somehow…”
Ms. Boom chortled again. She sat up with a rickety creak from her chair. “Gah hah…sure thing, kid. You kids need anything before I head in there?”
“We’re here for the anime club,” Ralsei explained, “is it still happening today?”
“Ohh, that ain’t my department, I’m ‘fraid. When Ms. Alphys gets here to get it set up, s’pose you’ll have to ask her,” Ms. Boom said, glancing around and towards the stairs, “I don’t think there’s enough space for you all to get situated. Might have to head back to the school and find somewhere there, if I’m honest.”
“Well, that’s alright. Maybe we’ll have it in…Ms. Alphys’ classroom?”
Susie’s snout twitched. “Eh. Kinda cramped. And boring. Hey, why don’t we go over to Castle Town!” Her face lit up. She looked at Kris, who nodded, and gave a thumbs-up of approval.
Ms. Boom called over her shoulder as she went to slip into the lab, “ya gotta run that by your teach, ya know!”
“We KNOW, thank you!!”
The old turtle’s gravelly laughter joined that of the email’s wrathful screeching. Before he shut the door, Berdly waved at them. Kris motioned to blow him a kiss. He caught it and clutched it to his chest with a dramatic flourish.
“And for my dearest player two…!”
Berdly blew a kiss of his own Kris’ way. They caught it, looked at it, and pretended to throw it over their shoulder. With a crinkled beak and a dire glare, Berdly slinked backwards. A hauntly tone ebbed in his voice, “ever the tsundere, my dear Krisanthemum…I see…I SEE HOW IT IS!!”
The lab door shut with a pointed BANG. Ralsei blinked in the (not without the muffled screaming) silence that followed. “...so, uh. Are we just waiting for Ms. Alphys, or-”
She jumped with a squeak as the door behind them flung open. In scampered a spiky yellow blur. Alphys barreled past and immediately skidded to a stop when she saw the sign on the computer lab door.
“Oh my g- WHAT! Oh, no n-no! Shit shit shit…!”
She had an armful of cables, cords, and several thick DVD box-set cases clutched against her chest. Her crested head whipped around wildly. Her breath rattled in heavy, heaving pants.
“Oh shit, there’s not really space for us to get set up, uhh…” her tail smacked the floor with a heavy thump. She growled in frustration, “I guess we can just do it back in my room again. T- that was kinda…awkward. And the glare from the windows made it r-really hard to watch anything, so…uhh…fuck…!”
She huffed. Ralsei and Kris stared at her while Susie blinked once, before she quietly cleared her throat. Alphys whirled to look at her, eyes bulging.
“...hello, Ms. Alphys,” Susie waved politely.
Alphy’s already light yellow scales paled towards a bleached sandy-gray. Her mouth fell open. Her jaw hinged up and down slowly a few times as flecks of sweat started to form on her scaly brow. Her jaw then snapped close like a mailbox lid snapping shut.
“Uh. H-hi, kids! Uhm…sorry…if y-you heard m-m-me say…anything…uhm…” she shuffled her feet and awkwardly adjusted the bundle of cables and DVDs in her arms. “...please don’t uh…nevermind. Hi! A-are you kids all here for, uh, the anime c-club?”
“Yes,” Ralsei said brightly, “will it still be happening today, even with the computer lab being shut down?”
“I! I would hope so, yeah! Hah…” Alphys glanced at the lab’s door with an only mildly utterly hopeless, crestfallen expression, “...we uh…m…maybe need to uh. See about getting m-my classroom, uh, uhm, s-set up? For? Things, uh…”
“Oooooooooor…we know a place that’s GREAT for watchin’ stuff!” Susie said, smiling when Alphys tilted her head curiously. “Ya know about Castle Town, right?”
“Oh! Uh, a bit?” Alphys’ snout curled when she scratched at her neck gingerly. “That’s, uh…over by the school, y-yeah? I see students walking that way sometimes in the m-morning, or, you know, a-a-after school. Uh. I! I’ve seen the, uh! The castle! Like, over the trees, I mean! It’s very…cool…?”
“Yeah! And there’s a REALLY cool TV studio there with a bunch of places we could watch stuff!”
“Oh! Uh?! Is? That? Allowed…?!” Alphy kept smiling with her eyes wide and worried and wet. Was she…about to start crying? Oh dear.
“Sure,” said Susie. She put a hand on Kris’ shoulder. “Kris’, like, uncle owns it! He’d be fine with it.”
“Y-y-your uncle owns a…okay!! Sure, yeah! Why the h-HECK not?!”
Alphys then hurried over to a nearby table and promptly dumped all the things she was holding on top. Huffing with relief, she turned back around, wiped her brow, and gruffly cleared her throat. “W-we just, uhm…need to wait, j-just for a bit! For everyone else to show up, okay?”
“Sure,” Susie shrugged. She walked over to the table and took a seat.
Ralsei followed her and Kris and did the same. She glanced at Alphys and frowned slightly at how she flinched when Susie walked past her, but held her tongue. In the meantime it seemed like it would be fun to do some reading while they waited. Kris clearly had the same idea, and beelined for the section with all the Goosehumps books.
“Which one’s that, Kris?” Ralsei asked when they returned to the table.
Susie was leaned back in her chair. She stretched and craned her neck to look when Kris held the book out for them to see. “Ohhhh, ‘Creature Blood 3’! Yeah that one fu-” her eyes darted towards Alphys, who was nervously clutching her phone and tapping away at the screen in a fervent panic, “-yeah that one’s really cool. Yeah.”
Ralsei decided to try one of those ‘Crittermorph’ books that Noelle had mentioned reading the other day. The cover caught her attention right away: it showed a cat monster child transforming into a green lizard. It was edited with actual photos, so the kid’s face was stretched and tinted green at several points throughout the sequence, an effect that made her fur bristle. She could see why Noelle thought it was so frightful! She was too curious not to give it a go, though.
“...what’s it with stories of weird stuff happenin’ to kids’ bodies?” Susie mumbled at one point while they all read in comfortable silence.
“Hm? What do you mean?”
She shrugged. She sat with one claw tucked under her cheek, while her other held the Goosehumps book open as Kris turned the pages. “I mean, like…werewolves.”
“Werewolves,” Ralsei echoed, nodding, not quite following along, but still doing her best to listen.
“Like! Getting turned into something else, or growing super giant, or whatever. That’s, like. Scary. But it’s all over the place in books and TV shows. And it’s also kinda…well…fun. I dunno. Sorry. I’m thinking out loud.”
Ralsei lowered the book while shaking her head. “No no, Susie! It’s alright. It is a bit interesting, isn’t it? I guess maybe it’s something where…I’m not sure how well I can put it, but when you’re growing up and your body starts to change, it can be scary and confusing. So it’s fun to read or watch it happen in a story so maybe it’s…not…so scary?”
Because Ralsei had never grown up before. She didn’t exist, until one day she did. And she was ‘born’ already knowing how her one week of life was supposed to end. And beyond that, she didn’t have any reason to think about herself or her body, or what might be done to it, or how it might change, for worse or for the better.
Her fur was so soft, now. She’d always been fluffy, but now when she dried and brushed it each night after her shower, it had a special, shiny silkiness when she ran through it with her comb. She felt lighter on the inside, but outside she also noticed that her shirts were starting to hug her when she was getting dressed each morning. And she liked how they hugged. It felt good, being weighed down by her own body as it grew into one that she could grow up in.
I’m going to grow up, she thought with warmth and wonder. Her gaze fell on Kris’ bandaged left wrist. And I get to do it with my friends, too.
It should’ve been impossible.
It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. The ending was set in stone before it even began…but now Ralsei looked at Susie as she smiled and made no effort to hide that she was picking at her nose, and the weight of knowing that this was real felt impossibly light.
I am real. I am alive. I get to grow, and change, and decide what I want to be, and what I want to do with myself. I can be a princess. I can be whatever I want.
The front door swung open. In floated a bright orange ghost with thickly-framed, sharp white eyes. “Okay we’re not late. Cool, cool, cool. Oh? What?!”
The ghost immediately spotted and drifted over to the sign on the computer lab’s door. “Grr, FOR REAL?!”
“Maddy, dear. We’re in a-”
“I know! I know, I know, I know. I know…sorry…hey, Alphys.” Maddy waved at her while Mettaton drifted inside and politely shut the door behind him. He smiled and bobbed on his way over to the table. A faint shimmer of pink light followed behind him when he moved, in contrast to the brown-orange haze that followed Maddy.
“H-hi, Maddy! Hi Mettaton. Yeah, sorry, b-but I think we’re gonna, uh, have to have the club s-s-someplace else today. Uh…Susie…are you SURE it’ll be alright for us to do this o-over at that, uh…studio?”
“It’s fine,” Kris rasped. They shut the book, got up, and went to return it to the shelf. “Tenna’s okay with it.”
“Oh,” Alphys blinked, “if y-you’re, uhm…sure!!”
“Sorry, but am I understanding that we’ll be headed over to some kind of studio for club this week?” Mettaton raised a nubby hand to tap at his ‘chin’. His lone visible brow arced curiously. “I was not aware we had such a place around town, is all!”
“It’s over in Castle Town,” Susie explained, scooting back her chair, “and, yeah, it’s Tenna’s TV studio. There’s a bunch of rooms with screens ‘n stuff. And, like, DVD players, or whatever.”
“That Tenna guy owns a TV studio?” Maddy asked. The ghost blinked once, stared, then suddenly cleared whatever a ghost had for a ‘throat, “UH, by the way! My name’s Maddy, she/her. And you kids know this guy, yeah? Yeah?” She elbowed and side-eyed Mettaton, who scoffed and rolled his eye.
“Yeah,” Susie nodded, “we bumped into each other last week.”
“That’s how we learned about the club!” Ralsei smiled. She had just returned the Creaturemorph book to its shelf along with Kris. “My name is Ralsei. She/her!”
“Oh! Yeah. I’m Susie. She/her,” Susie said, before she nodded at Kris. “And this is Kris, and they use they/them.”
Kris waved a silent ‘hello’.
“Nice to meet ya! So you kids into Mew Mew Kissy, then? We were watchin’ that last week, but because of the FREAKIN’ GLARE, I think we’re gonna, like…rewatch the episode, but the subtitled version this time. Is that cool?”
“Sure,” Susie said, “sounds fun.”
Alphys was in the hurried process of gathering her things while they all chatted, and made their ways to the door.
“Does your uncle visit his studio often, Kris?” Mettaton asked. He glared at her when Maddy snickered.
Kris shrugged. Susie glanced down and answered for them, “Tenna goes to Castle Town sometimes to hang out, but, like, not everyday, ya know?”
“Oh, of course, of course! I imagine that he is quite busy.”
“Not really? He’s just, like. Chill.”
Mettaton blinked at this, “chill?”
“Yeah, like. He’s just a guy, ya know? The Darkners at the studio still call him, like, ‘Boss’, but it’s more like uh…uhh…Ralsei? What’s the word when people are being polite and fancy and stuff just ‘cause they gotta?”
“Formality!”
“That one! That thing!”
“I see,” Mettaton hummed. He frowned with an annoyed huff when Maddy giggled. “My BAD, Maddy dear, for asking about the man whose studio we will be using to watch Mew Mew Kissy Cutie this FINE and FAIR fall DAY!!”
“I didn’t say nothing.”
“LEAD THE WAY, CHILDREN!!”
Ralsei and Susie shared a confused glance. Susie shrugged it off and took the lead once they were outside and Alphys was through the door. She led the way down the street back towards the school. Directly across the parking lot going in was a clear path that led into the golden-orange woods. Packed dirt led inwards and wound gently to the left, where it then began to slope upwards. Where the trees grew thick and the shadows glowed deep, a pair of lantern posts was erected every few paces leading up until they reached the black gate that opened into Castle Town.
A plush cat was lighting one such lantern as they approached. Ralsei squeaked out in greeting and waved, “oh, hello Seam!”
“Ah, greetings, Princess Ralsei.”
She tried not to smile too hard at how happy it still made her feel. Seam half-bowed to her, and then half-nodded in greeting to everyone else. “And Kris, Susie…and some newcomers, I see. Pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
“H-hello! Nice to, uh…meet you!” Alphys was once again struggling to carry everything. Mettaton noticed and bobbed up to help.
“Here, darling. Let me at least take these.” he pulled the box-sets from her arms and gathered them neatly into his own.
“T-thank you…”
“We’re headin’ over to the studio to watch anime,” Susie explained to Seam.
They laughed a husky, dirty chuckle. Their button eye twinkled in the already fading afternoon sun. “Ha ha ha…oh, very exciting. Well, I shan’t keep you all. Oh…by chance, did any of you happen to spot a certain little salesfellow on the walk over…?”
“The email guy?”
“That’s the one, yes.”
Susie grimaced, “ehh…he’s uh…caught up…back at the library.”
Seam’s stitched mouth pressed into a tight line. They hummed, “mmm…so I suppose it is safe to assume we’ll be waiting on him when it comes time for dinner tonight.”
There came a rustle from the leaves above where they were standing. A wicked shadow lunged down, howling with wild laughter as a devilish clown landed with a heavy thump. Though he still stood in the shadows cast by the trees, the jester’s stark white pupils were visible like a pair of twin flames.
“Uee hee hee! Oh no, my little salesboy’s gone and got himself in a pickle, pickle, ey?”
When he laughed again, the star-like, cross-shaped flames of Jevil’s eyes twinkled darkly. Ralsei glanced over her shoulder to see Maddy whispering to Mettaton, who mumbled something back with a small shrug.
“...but that’s a crazy fucking clown?? You sure you still wanna-”
“Yes, I’m sure. Are you sure?”
“Dude, I’m not the one here tryna get a date with a TV dilf. I just wanna watch anime and chill. I can do that at home.”
“HUSH!”
“That is literally what your whole plan is, though.”
“MADDY!!”
“So it would seem,” said Seam with a sing-song lithe, “I assume you wish to go and check up on him?”
“Hee hee…and while I’m there, I can hit him with some books!”
“Uh,” said Ralsei, “don’t you mean hit the books…as in read some?”
“No,” Jevil said.
“...okay…!”
He then suddenly screamed out one note of a high, horrid laugh. He whipped around and ran right along the treeline, cackling as he barrelled through the pale grass back the way they’d all just walked. His voice was a hungry animal's howl. A hound of war was on the loose.
Seam watched him go with a mild smile. They then said flatly, “I suppose I ought to go and make sure he doesn’t hit anyone else while he’s at it. You all do enjoy your little show, yes?”
As they walked after Jevil, Kris mumbled quietly, “...he runs like a Fruggle…”
“Yeah,” Susie agreed, “okay. Anime time.”
She turned to look at Alphys. Alphys’ glasses had slid partway down her snout. She was looking in the direction of Seam and Jevil with an expression of abject befuddled horror. Her mouth hung open, twitching slightly when Susie cleared her throat softly.
“...Ms. Alphys? You…good?”
“HA HA! Uh! Yeah! Yeah, I’m…I’m fine! Yeah let’s go uh, go watch anime! Yup! Okay…!”
She laughed awkwardly the whole way as they passed through the gate, and entered Castle Town.