Undertale fanfic : Stories From the Surface (30)

Chapter 30 : A Title What Title




Papyrus didn’t come to Toriel’s house on his own that often, but when he did he usually left with some new knowledge such as how to heal or how to add magic to otherwise non-magic ingredients. Today, the boss monster had agreed to show him how to make pie like she had shown his brother.
Frisk was also there to help out any way they could, and the radio was playing in the background.
“INCREDIBLE”, Papyrus commented, “YOU’RE THE ONE WITH FIRE MAGIC YET YOUR LESSONS INVOLVE LESS FIRE THAN UNDYNE’S!”
“I am much more careful than she is”, Toriel replied, to which the skeleton agreed.
Frisk fetched all the necessary ingredients for the crust from different parts of the kitchen to the countertop, then Papyrus weighed them. The radio went from music to a news broadcast.
“Oh, I almost forgot”, Toriel said, “you will need different gloves to be able to make the dough without getting the ingredients in your joints. Sans had a similar problem. Is it alright?”
Papyrus hesitated. Then the radio started talking about the so-called “first inter-species wedding” coming up, which the skeleton concluded was his acquaintance’s. The mayor of the nearby human town was being interviewed.
“So, you already agreed to do the ceremony but the real question is : will this marriage be legally binding in any way?” the interviewer asked.
“Surprisingly, yes”, replied the mayor.
“Really?”
“Well, the law doesn’t explicitly say you can’t marry another species. The reason why you can’t marry your pet cat or whatever animal you find is because it can’t consent. Adult monsters and humans can consent so nothing is currently preventing them from marrying each other. Our legal system didn’t take monsters into account at all… and for once this detail turned out to be in their favour, kind of.”
“WELL THAT ANSWERS HISHA’S QUESTION”, Papyrus commented.
On the radio, the mayor continued :
“Also, if any other mixed couple is listening and wish to get married, I advise them to come to my town hall and tie the knot before anyone makes it illegal for them to do so. Plus, being married to a legal citizen will allow you to get citizenship yourself, so that’s a plus.”
“I did not know we could get citizenship this way”, Toriel said.
“WE’VE BEEN TRYING TO GET IT THE OTHER WAY”, the skeleton informed her. “THE HUMAN POLICE MIGHT HAVE AGREED TO TRAIN US BUT WE STILL NEED TO BECOME CITIZENS. IT’S… A SLOW PROCESS. AT LEAST SANS HELPS OUT WITH THE PAPERWORK.”
“This is nice of him”, the boss monster commented.
“MY BROTHER MIGHT BE A LAZYBONES BUT I CAN TRUST HIM FOR AT LEAST TWO THINGS : TELLING OTHERS HOW GREAT I AM AND DOING THE PAPERWORK EVENTUALLY. AND ALSO PAY THE BILLS.”
Frisk considered pointing out that it was actually three things ; however the topic of conversation went back to baking before they had the chance to say anything.

Asgore went back home from work at the school’s garden (someone had to make sure the Papyrus-shaped hedge remained that way) and made himself some tea. While waiting for it to brew, he checked if there were any voicemails on the phone.
There were a few for Ambassador Frisk (mostly invitations for pro-monster events), but they weren’t here today. Then the last message played Hernandez’s voice.
“Hello! I’ll try to make this quick. So the bad news is : the map I showed you was inaccurate. The poor human was off by quite some distance on a lot of the locations. Good news is : thanks to documents left by actual monsters, we might have the true location of another monster settlement. And, well, we haven’t been able to check ‘cause it’s pretty far and- Well you know. Our team is still trying to find more things in Dusty Cave. Yeah, we’ve called it Dusty Cave… for obvious reasons. My sister is near the probable location of the other settlement though, so she plans on bringing her own team there. I took the initiative to give her your number so she can keep you updated too. Have a nice day, Mr.Dreemurr!”
Asgore slowly put the phone down and poured the steaming hot tea into his cup. The possibility of finding survivors outside of the Ebott area filled him with hope ; the possibility of having to destroy yet another Barrier filled him with dread.
He hesitated five whole minutes before sending a text about the news to Toriel and Frisk, typing carefully with one finger. He also informed them of the messages for the ambassador in the same text.
He guessed all he could do now was wait and see for any future news.