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Tiredmom22: Seems like they’re recovering. It’s hard knowing how to navigate it, but it seems that you’ve gotten that down.
Sushi_2_Go87: It was the same with Clara for me, listening and support goes a long ways. Though I really do think you should still consider taking Kris to a therapist again at some point.
BirdsOfJoy: I’m telling you, if you brought kris over to Greenfield they’d have a great time and it’d be a good opportunity for them to meet other humans!
Cinnamum482: Yeah, but I don’t want to give the ex an in with the whole divorce agreement.
Toriel sighed at her personal laptop. It’d been something she’d invested in a while ago that has been nothing but helpful.
Though these days she’s been hitting nothing but dead ends with trying to get some support for Kris.
She’d initially picked up this pastime as part of her research with Kris back when they were first adopted. Something that bloomed into a nice community that she could engage with, without having to worry about Asgore following her onto here.
She wanted to do right by them, and many people did say that cross-species adoptions tended to be more trying than should monsters be placed exclusively with monsters, and vice versa.
Joining an online support group for single mothers raising children (adopted or otherwise) had in fact been quite helpful, not to mention a great place for advice.
She wasn’t always the best at times with following all the advice, but she had definitely taken a lot of it with regards to Kris’ growing depression. Trying to be supportive without overstepping, giving them space to grow into their own person. She’d gotten some great advice, and it seemed like it might have been paying off.
Kris had made a new friend.
Their first friend in a very long time, after Dess vanished.
And some days, she desperately wanted to take her internet friends up on their offer, for a roadtrip to the nearby Greenfield (a much larger town that had a human population), or even Mesa city. To go out and see about introducing Kris to real humans their own age.
But getting back to her worries at hand, she was starting to grow concerned that her choice to not move to a place more suitable for Kris was now having real consequences. She’d read about it, and she didn’t want to become a source for her child to develop species-dysmorphia from being truly cut off from other humans.
Some days it wasn’t hard to wonder if not moving away had done more to hurt or harm Kris. Some dark part of her mind thought that perhaps that’s why Asriel left town for college, that things had been a reminder of Dess.
It’s not that her few internet friends hadn’t offered to help with a move. It was a rough divorce, and something that she’d initially overlooked was a throwaway clause.
It said that neither party could not move more than a set number of miles away from the other, or at least not without mediation and negotiation (or alternatively if the divorce terms themselves had changed and one got full custody). The two of them had agreed to this with their lawyers because at the time it’d made sense, they didn’t want to uproot both of their children.
But now, years down the line, it wasn’t as if the thought didn’t cross her mind. Move away to one of the cities, one of the few that had an actual human population.
She didn’t want to give Asgore the opportunity to sue for full custody. She wasn’t sure if he would or not, given that at first he’d done well to move on from the divorce. That being said she didn’t realize that he’d not quite moved on, and as of late was becoming a touch too obsessed with trying to get back together with her.
And while she was loathe to admit it, she didn’t want to try approaching Carol over that. Not that Carol could realistically do much. She was the Mayor, sure, but that had limits to what she could legally do. Not to mention that the two had a rough relationship to begin with. They were only acquaintances at best because their husbands were best friends, and their children were friends.
Though in hindsight she wasn’t sure how that clause got into the divorce agreement in the first place, and she didn’t want to take things back to court again.
She heard a knock at the door.
“Coming” she shouted over to the door, hurrying over. She hadn’t been expecting anyone
Walking over, she opened the door without checking
“Hel-“ she started, before noticing who was actually at the door
“Hello.” Carol stated.
“… Hello.” Toriel responded back, mood instantly killed.
“Look, can I. Come in?” She said.
There was something about the way that she said it, that gave Toriel pause.
Carol sighed at the table. Toriel stood next to the table, holding her own tea.
She’d made some for Carol, which had remained untouched for now
“Is something the matter?” Toriel gently asked. She was still on guard, but all the same this had seemed uncharacteristic for her.
“Rudy’s not doing well.”
“So I’ve heard.”
This got a very nasty look from Carol, before she pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed again.
“The Doctor’s said he’s not got much left.”
“Much left?”
“He might not make it to the festival”
This was enough to get Toriel to stumble a bit from where she’d been standing herself. She was never one to drop a good cup of tea though, and recovered quickly.
“It’s that close?” Toriel asked, quieter than a church mouse.
“I wish I could be optimistic about it, and it’s not that Rudy couldn’t buck this illness, but…” Carol said before sighing.
“I… if I’m going to be honest I hate that there’s not really anyone else in town to talk to about this, but how have you moved on?”
“For one thing, I suppose it’s easier to move on if Asgore isn’t dead,” Toriel replied.
“But all the same, you just keep moving forwards Toriel. I know we don’t see eye to eye, and haven’t in a very long time, but I still respect you,”
There was a pause, as Carol considered her words.
“I had everything planned, everything was going so well, and now he’s, he’s” Carol started.
She took a deep breath, to try to calm herself. Toriel couldn’t help but keep silent and watch in morbid fascination. It was incredibly rare to see the Iceberg crack, even for a moment.
“He’s not going to see it. He’s not going to see any of it,”
“And you’re certain that Rudolph won’t pull through?” Toriel asked.
It was odd in that Carol was a realist, but also very much an optimist about the situation with December. To see her be so pessimistic about this, was like stepping into an ice bath.
“... I’m sorry. Have you told Noelle?”
“No. I don’t know how I’m going to tell her. And the other plan’s fallen through”
“Other plan?”
“I just.”
Carol stopped to take a deep breath, tea practically being forgotten on the table.
“How do you handle not being in control? Letting the pieces fall where they may?”
Carol was not one to beat around the bush. Though it was a stark moment of self-reflection for her to even acknowledge that she’d gotten severe control issues after December’s death.
She knew how Carol felt about her, and how she’d figured that ‘Toriel was living in denial about the situation with her ex-husband’. But all the same, Carol was in her own denial, having taken great strides to make sure that nothing in her house had changed since December’s death, as if December would waltz back in one day, saying something about being fashionably late.
She wasn’t sure if it was Noelle, or Carol, who still put up the missing person’s posters. It seemed more like the later, Noelle seemed rather adjusted as a teenager.
“The last time I did anything like this, because I had to, was December, Toriel. The last time.”
Toriel frowned, as the conversation started taking a turn.
“And there’s not a single day where I don’t think about that. Everything else, everything else has been for the betterment of everyone, and I had control. I have control.”
“Carol…”
"I don’t understand how you can keep up with things as your family’s falling apart, and you’re not even trying-“
“Carol…” Toriel said again, this time annoyed. She didn’t like the implication that the family she had with Kris was coming to pieces.
“I’ve been trying so hard to keep my family together and yet”
She cut herself off before taking a deep breath.
“Things don’t happen without me. Thing’s don’t change, without my saying so”
This was enough for her to slump forwards in her chair and bury her face in her hands. She wasn’t crying, but was visibly having a moment to try to calm down.
“And now, now Noelle will be all that I have left. I’ve lost so much with December, and now, now I’m losing Rudy too.”
There was something to the desperation in her voice that was enough for Toriel to let this instance slide. Sure, she was still peeved about Carol just inviting herself in, but it was very clear that she really did need someone to confidentially lend an ear.
That and perhaps the imminent death of her Husband was now shaking her from her years-long denial about losing December that created the wedge in the first place. Her single-minded determination that no, Dess wasn’t dead, she was just missing, and the rest of the town be damned she was going to find that girl somehow. That she’d find her alive and unharmed.
The fac that she’d chosen her, and not Alvin, was surprising. But Carol had forgone going to church for a while now. She wasn’t going to press her on that.
“Thank you. For listening. Please. Don’t speak of this to anyone. I don’t know…” Carol trailed off.
“It’s alright. I won’t share this with anyone” Toriel replied.
There really wasn’t anyone else in town out to get the Mayor position from Carol. She was very good at it, even before throwing herself into it to avoid dealing with the grief. It wasn’t a large town like the city was, and Carol was also proud enough that having any kind of rumor that something was cracking under the ice…
Toriel was still (mostly) good at keeping promises.
“Carol, may I ask a favor?”
“Yes?”
“I… Never mind…” Toriel said, hesitating.
Some part of her wanted to ask Carol about the clause, if there was anything she could do as Mayor. Any resources about navigating that without having to go back to court.
Now clearly wasn’t a good time for it.
“if you remember what you were going to ask. I’ll lend an ear. Or help. Whatever’s best.” She responded, before taking her tea in one go.
After gently setting the teacup down, she stood up, and briskly walked out the door, as if nothing had happened.
Frankly it was still impressive to see her be able to do that, even now.
She huffed to herself. She had to tidy up things a little bit before sans swung by. She could think more about all of this later.