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The sun beat down on the dry earth. It seemed to suck up every molecule of water, for even the ducks in the lake seemed burned out. Clouds passed by every few minutes or so, covering the sun like a shoji screen, light filtered through them like mineral water. In short, it was real hot, uncomfortably so.
That didn’t keep anyone from enjoying the summer day, however. The surface, in all it’s massiveness and glory, seemed to always be bustling with people. Mostly human, but the monster population had been steadily growing higher and higher ever since the barrier had broken, thanks to Frisk.
Speaking of, that little human was currently at school, kicking her Lelli Kelly shoes against the metal legs of a desk. Since Frisk lacked parental figures, Toriel tearfully decided to truly set them up as a family. And with family, came education. Frisk decided she didn’t want to be homeschooled (for it seemed quite chaotic in such times), so she begrudgingly agreed to go to school. Some days Alphys picked her up, sometimes Papyrus, sometimes even Mettaton! It always felt like Frisk had bunches of different parents to choose from every day. That freedom felt nice, just like the gentle breeze going through her hair right now.
Frisk grumbled. Her teacher had told her to shut the window and let the school AC do its job. Maybe that teacher should do HIS job, huh!?
Sighing, she passed her small backpack around her body, unzipping it with a jangle of a few keychains. Frisk dug her hand inside, reaching out and presenting a bedazzled pink-and-black binder. She made sure to wave it a little bit in the sunlight so all the plastic gems would sparkle, briefly casting pink shadows around the room like a makeshift disco ball. Monster Kid beamed by the seat next to her. Monster Kid was allowed to use some awesome, state-of-the-art human technology since he lacked arms. Frisk was always a bit jelly, so this moment of pride felt dashing!
Yesterday, Mettaton had done a once-over of Frisk’s school supplies, convinced she had lost all her pencils again because ‘they were too boring’. Seeing the uniform-required blandness of it all, he absolutely made sure to spend an hour with the human to bedazzle everything in MTT-brand sticker sparklies. Papyrus, armed with a selection of glitter glue and the want to hang out with his favorite celebrity, had eventually come in and joined the arts-and-crafts hour. (and burnt himself on the hot glue gun. A pity-faced Mettaton had dramatically shoved his entire arm into a sink full of cold water. Papyrus seemed pleased.)
Seeing a familiar red racecar sticker on the corner of Frisk’s binder, Monster Kid feverishly grabbed a pencil with his mouth and wrote a quick note, blowing it toward Frisk. She took it, unravelling the crumpled paper.
YO! Frizk, did u hear that Papyrus is gona preform with Mettaton?
Frisk squinted at the horrific handwriting and gasped, squealing just quiet enough so that the teacher wouldn’t overhear the two of them. As frantic as Monster Kid, Frisk snatched one of her pens from her bag, writing something just as unintelligible back.
NO I DIDN’T!! do u think we can catch the rerun after school.. AT MY HOUSE OBVIES!!
She bit her lip, trying to aim the note into Monster Kid’s mouth. The strange sight caught the attention of their instructor, and therefore a good scolding about passing notes.
Outside of the school, and past the burning sun, a couple thousand hushed voices filled a massive stadium. Freezing cold AC blew through the crowds, temperatures so low it would have made everyone chilly if half the crowd hadn’t already bought a Mettaton sweater back at the merch stand. Everyone was leaking glitter everywhere with their bustling. Rest in peace the clean-up crew.
Mettaton’s rise to fame on the surface was as to be expected. Turns out, most humans here also love sparkling, dramatic singing sensations. They certainly had a surplus of them. They already had a robot one too, even before the monsters were freed. But that was in Japan, and Mettaton already had personal beef with her, so he didn’t mention that twin-tailed original when he didn’t have to. He didn’t sing with a stupid ‘synth’! He wasn’t some off-brand Voca-Lily or whatever those holograms were called! Harrumph!
Humans adored him so much that Alphys had been working overtime to get him a bunch of human brand deals signed. Eventually, he’d gotten a entourage formed and excitedly prepared to go on a debut tour of the surface, stringing Alphys and Undyne along with him. Mettaton and Alphys especially had given closure to either party that they weren’t leaving each other, not for nothing. Plus, Mettaton didn’t trust any of these new human mechanics to touch his wires! If he malfunctioned during a show, he obviously had his backup rectangular body- but he would rather have a trusted friend fix him than an unfamiliar human magician. Alphys was the only one who was allowed to know him inside and out.
U-Undyne didn’t know anything about wires or circuitry, but she was decently versed in magic! Think of those cyan glowing spears! And magic was a half of what Mettaton was made of, so she was allowed to come along. Plus, Alphys was pretty insistent on bringing her along. Couples, couples! So persistent!
Speaking of persistent, the persistentest skeleton of all was hurriedly rushing around backstage.
Mettaton’s debut concert, the one that would certainly mark him star of the surface as he had been on the underground, weird sixteen-year old cyan-haired hologram ladies be damned. He was already wearing exactly what was in the dress code, an ebony suit and a glittery pink bowtie. It seemed perfectly fancy for such an occasion, and he had been as proud as pansies to display himself like this on stage. Even without his battle body, he felt confidence flow through his soul! How the two of them had even gotten to such a point of friendship in which Papyrus was considered a guest star was befuddling enough, but peeking through that curtain, seeing the sea of people.. it made him giddy!
Once they were on the surface, Papyrus had volunteered, after Frisk declined, to be ambassador. Quickly, he gained a beloved reputation. By.. most! This fame brought Mettaton’s attention him, much to Papyrus’ delight. The two quickly bonded, with Papyrus fangirling all over him their first meeting. Mettaton had gushed to Alphys about how amazingly different the skeleton was unlike his shorter brother. Sans was just glad Papyrus had another friend and that his UnderNet account had been skyrocketing in followers. As always, his brother was so ‘cool’. He was proud of him. Adjusting to the surface was far from easy, even for him.
Papyrus was only going to be on stage for the duration of one song. He had never been on stage before, let alone in front of thousands of people. However, to his luck, he lacked stagefright. This didn’t mean he was going to be perfect up there!
To his luck, Mettaton had taken up to training him to dance the correct steps in front of a couple people as practice. At first, it had been easy. Despite the couple missteps here and there and the embarrassment of Asgore’s clone commenting on almost everything, but the later practices had gotten increasingly more complicated. Plus, it was hard to focus on where his arm was supposed to go when Mettaton’s pretty face was so distracting! Who wouldn’t be distracted by such a polished faceplate? When Papyrus had told him that in his usual manner of honesty, Mettaton was very grateful robots couldn’t blush. He decided to swap back to his rectangular form for the remainder for their practices, although the thought of Papyrus being so enraptured by his glorious looks made his mechanical heart swell.
Dancing here, in front of such a massive crowd, was the real challenge. He could do it! The great Papyrus could put his mind to anything. He straightened his bowtie as crew members ushered everyone to get in place before the curtains fell. He sensed the quiet of the audience, quieter than before, and swiftly took Mettaton’s cold, metal hand. For his audiences’ appeal, he had applied himself to his newer body. Tight black sparkling pants melded along his legs, an equally sparkly pink suit sitting across his chest, perfectly tailored for him. He looked beautiful.
The velvet curtains withdrew themselves, a beam of pale pink light blasting onto the pair. The stage was long, almost like a catwalk, with tiny studs of LEDS at the sides. The crowd roared upon seeing the monster ambassador and their favorite entertainment robot, glowsticks waving ecstatically through the audience. Above, implanted into the roof of the arena, was a black disco ball that displayed rays of colored lights, occasionally illuminating the lucky fan. Everything in here shimmered.
(Papyrus instantly noticed a single, yellow sphere glowing in the crowd. He beamed; Sans had told him he was going to come to this show! Just.. he didn’t expect a lightbulb instead of a glow stick, but okay.)
The music kicked up, one of Mettaton’s older singles, his own battle theme, an electric melody that pierced through the screaming of the crowd and replaced every noise with glamour. It was such a good song to start off with, and with Papyrus of all people! It was time to see if all that practicing paid off!
As the speakers blasted, the thrumming rhythm of Death by Glamour in his ‘ears’, Papyrus remembered his steps, smiling with glee as they twirled across the stage. Him and Mettaton looked so dashing here in all their dazzling, dancing glory. He couldn’t see the crowd from up here; everyone was cast in shadow, the only sign that there was a crowd at all was the sea of twinkling pink lights. Everyone waved their glowstick to the beat in unison, souls thumping to the music.
At once, as the music began to spike, the two began to dance with more intensity. Mettaton tossed Papyrus up for a brief minute, a shake in his step as he hit the floor again. The intensity of the spotlights made his sockets burn with the need to squint, but he pushed through. With trembling phalanges, he grabbed Mettaton’s hand and twirled him around in a circular motion. He looked magnificent like this, the other half of his face momentarily visible with the winds of twirling. His eyes, despite being made of glass and metal, seemed to be sparkling with magic. What lovely magic it was, something so captivating Papyrus would gladly spend hours analyzing every glitter and gleam that glinted off of them.
The audience roared with anticipation as the song was near the end, dying down as they continued to dance. Right foot, left foot, twirl, step back and jump. Right foot, left foot, twirl, step back and JUMP!
In an instant, the song ended, and Papyrus’ waist was being held solely by Mettaton’s steel-plated arm, white glove gripping his suit’s cinch to hold him in place. The pose, despite the fact they practiced it so many times before, felt strangely possessive like this. With this intimate of a proximity in front of all these people, it was hard to keep his poise. Especially with Mettaton’s face so up close, that almost endearing expression on his faceplate. Papyrus mimicked it in something he realized to be genuine love, his own hands wrapped softly around Mettaton’s neck.
The booming applause was drowned out by his own thoughts. A quick glance toward the sea of shadows told him that everyone had enjoyed their performance, earning a flutter from his vibrating soul. It spun in his ribcage like a whirligig, over and over.
Mettaton looked overjoyed, lips ever-so-slightly parted. He glanced at the crowd around them. Even the audience, despite their roaring, seemed to all be holding back their breath as if they knew something he didn’t. Looking down at the skeleton in his hands, he instantly knew what they were waiting for. A true showstopping entertainment robot never gave up the chance to appease to his crowd- especially when what they wanted was his dream, too!
All five spotlights reeled themselves back onto the stage from the crowd, pointing at the duo. Papyrus felt his magic bubble, a light shade of orange painted across his cheekbones. Mettaton, looking heartfelt, leaned only a few inches from the skeleton’s face. With the audience hushed and awaiting, Papyrus could just barely hear him plead for purchase. And, as if a starting gunshot had gone off, either men tightened their grip.
With a gentle clink of bone and metal, the sword sliced through the air.
The Knight’s eye slit widened in terror at what he had done, red streaks leaving their mark in the frozen air. Nothing seemed to move until Susie cried-
“T-TENNA?!”
Tenna’s SMPTE color bars shone like a last message. Unmoving, he collapsed and plummeted far into the snowbank. Empty arm sockets leaked static-patterned blood, a thin trail that came with him and out of sight.
I couldn’t register what Susie had said, however angry she seemed. It wasn’t like I could properly face her, anyways. Every emotion I felt reeled my mind back a moment more. I couldn’t believe what memories had resurfaced. Everything and everyone from that place was supposed to be blocked, put away for my knighthood. Nobody here was from my world, and the ones who were were ones I know I could never, ever trust again. They aren’t apart of this, and it would cause me such unimaginable guilt to confess my role to any of them.
That memory fizzled as quickly as it had come, suddenly clouded by thick darkness. My skull seemed to be clogged full of it.
I felt the spinal bones inside my shadow-coated armor grind together painfully. I couldn’t believe it when the helmet began to cry, ebony crystals dripping onto the black earth. I could hear, ever so faintly, the cries of a lone deer. Perhaps, it was resonating with me or sobbing on my behalf. Either way, it was meaningless. I turned, unable to breathe.
With that, I began to take the man on the throne away.. before Susie cut in.
The doctor spoke to me as I backtracked, the helmet’s power flowing through my bones. His voice infiltrated my skull, reverberating its endless commands in Wingdings. This lady was not who I was instructed to take. Courtesy of my delay, I had messed this up already. I could see it in Kris’ eyes. I was suffocating.
I can’t handle this anymore; what had I just done? I took a quick glance toward the snowbank. I couldn’t even see the man’s red tailcoat, nor his lilac head. He seemed so charming, so lively, so unfathomably familiar that it physically hurt my structure. Doctor’s orders. Doctor’s orders! He was destined to be decapitated. I have no choice. Nobody has a choice anymore, not with me enforcing the prophecy.
This is my destiny.
The helmet on my skull shook, making my neck curl forcibly. With my palms glued to my front, I felt it split open with darkness, a howl releasing from the helm. My ribcage practically screamed, white-hot darkness pouring through my bones like molten magma as it shot open, shadows dripping from the plates.
I, the antagonist..
Doctor, O Doctor, O brother of mine…
Are you proud of me now?