It's been a long day. And before that, it's been a long, strange, and terrible two weeks - if word on the street is to be believed!! Everything went nightmareish, in the way of nightmares that couldn't quite decide on a genre, so they just made a whole marathon of horrors to suffer through until waking up. Already a new contender in the contest of Papyrus's least favorite nightmare!
And to make matters just that extra bit more incredible (in a negative sense of the word), waking up entailed coming to, standing back near his townhouse - where he'd been before things went strange - only to immediately collapse into a pile of dust and stand again as... a ghost.
It also turned out that ghosts, or at least brand new ghosts who haven't figured out how to possess anything, can't pick up sending stones to answer them. So while he saw the stone flashing in his pile of dust and dusty clothing...
...Well, it's over a day later, and it's turned out that tales of death's loose grip are entirely true! His bones have once again knit together, and after a few hours of scrabbling his way through the forest, he's made his way back into town, back into possession of his things, and acting on a guess and a hope.
He holds his sending stone, and thinks very hard of Mettaton - whether that means a distantly appreciated TV star, a newly in-person friend, a robot, a ghost, or someone in between.
Mettaton had been very worried ever since the Nightmares ended. He hadn't seen Papyrus in the Safe Zone. As soon as everyone was able to return home, he tried to reach out to him through the Sending Stone but no answer. Was he alright? Had he escaped? Was he still upset with him for what had been told? He never got a chance to apologize, to try and explain things more in depth.
What if he never got to see the skeleton again? What if it was his fault?
Mettaton's time in the two Nightmares he experienced had been thankfully brief. Nothing overly traumatic happened to him. Which only added to the guilt that he couldn't save his new friend. The one person from his world.
He's currently holed up in his apartment room, moping about on his bed when he sees the glowing light coming from his Stone.
The robot shoots out of bed, rushes over, and places a hand on it to gently pick it up. Please, oh please, let it be Papyrus...
It's Papyrus that responds, yes. His voice can't be called soft, especially not at the volume he responds (and really, not even when he does try to speak quietly, not with the scratchy roughness of a voice that's so shaped by his typical volume). But for all his loud urgency, there's worry and concern in his tone.
"I, uh, I hope I'm not waking you, or interrupting anything urgent! But. I... needed... to make sure, you were okay..."
With every word his voice loses some of the urgency and volume, until he's trailing off in a bit of uncertainty about how best to proceed in this conversation. For all his fretting as he struggled with a ghostly existence, he didn't quite practice how this phone call might go. What an oversight!
He's never minded how loud Papyrus was, especially right now. Mettaton clutches his Sending Stone in both hands, trembling slightly as both a wave of relief washes over him and a few tears gather in his eyes.
His voice is gentle yet emotional and the skeleton can likely hear the smile behind it.
"No... No! You're not bothering me at all! In fact, I'm very glad you reached out."
It means he's safe. He's alive-ish. And that there isn't any bad blood between them. He hopes.
"I'm okay, darling. I got out mostly unscathed... but I've been worried about you. It's so good to hear your voice again... How are you fairing? Is everything alright? I... I tried to reach you the other day but I must have caught you at a bad time."
It's unusual for the bot to ramble like this but it just shows how concerned he was.
cw, allusions to his experiences in the Stranger, the Flesh, and the Buried.
There's a muffled clatter as Papyrus sags against a nearby wall, heavy with relief to hear that Mettaton's glad to hear from him.
Not that he ever doubted it or anything, but, after that terrible half conversation... With some of the things Mettaton hinted he was thinking...? Papyrus hasn't been, entirely, sure whether some kind of bad feelings might have been festering. Sitting, soggy with shed and unshed tears alike, unresolved and unaddressed as soon as either of them wanted to, to go by that last comment.
"Oh no, did you?" Papyrus says in dawning, unhappy realization. "I wasn't... um, able to pick up the stone. At the time. I didn't manage to get out unscathed... I was really unfortunately scathed. And other problems, unrelated to fire."
He's rambling a little himself, but he manages to cut himself off before dropping that he died so early in the conversation. That just doesn't seem like an over the stone-phone story. It helps that he doesn't also really want to talk about fire, as relates to fireplaces, kitchen stoves, or soup just this minute. He also doesn't want to think about a red-eyed, waxen shape melting out of resemblance with Sans in the middle of attacking him, or... the ground swallowing him up and chewing.
With a rattle of bones, he shivers and shrugs the whole topic off his mind. Later! Later. There's something else to get back to first.
"But!!! More importantly, I did not have any more problems with, uh, terrible books! Terrible books that... Well, d-did you look at, that book? Because I think I need to apologize, but explaining my apology... I don't know where to begin."
"Oh, darling... I'm so sorry..." His heart sinks at the news that Papyrus wasn't as lucky as he had been.
Mettaton knows not to press the skeleton about anything that may have happened. People were extremely traumatized by the events. It would be up to Papyrus whether or not he felt like discussing any of those. Instead, Mettaton wants to be a positive force in his life right now. To give him strength and to know he's not alone.
The robot thinks back on the book, moving to take a seat as his makeup table. "I stepped on it. Pierced it with my heel."
There's a pause.
"... I knew whatever was written in there was a lie. So... you don't need to apologize, Papyrus. I know... deep down, you would have never doubted me."
He can't help but gasp at that description - pierced it, with his heel?!
...After all those experiences, it's a little too easy to imagine it stabbed clean through, ink spilling out from its damaged pages like blood from some of the more unfortunate humans. Hopefully books don't go through ghost phases before returning. Or, moreso, hopefully that nightmare book stays in the past, where no one will ever try to go back for it.
"O-Of course I wouldn't! Not... Not like that," Papyrus insists, his free hand waving as if to shoo the memory away, even as he grips the stone and this conversation all the harder.
"I... was confused, hearing all that, but my reactions... You don't understand. You didn't look in that book. Which I'm glad of! Very glad you didn't. But... it was only partly lies. Parts of it were... descriptions... of everything we were doing."
He can't even pick an adjective for the descriptions. Lies seems too... flimsy, to really encapsulate the way it kept introducing worse ways of seeing the situation.
"Everything I said, and you said, all... written before you even showed up. It felt like someone gave me a script, which I couldn't help but act out... Even when I wanted to do something or say something else." He tries to laugh. "If that's what acting is like, I don't think I ever want to go on stage!"
Mettaton listens intently as Papyrus explains what went on that day, remaining silent so he doesn't feel rushed or anything.
So the book was the issue. That's why he keep guarding it. Why he seemed so paranoid. Mettaton frowns to himself, thinking of how to respond. It's obvious Papyrus deeply regrets what went on that day but...
"Acting has more freedom," he begins, "You get to pick who and what you want to be. You aren't forced into it."
The glambot closes his eyes for a moment, letting out a sigh. "I had some suspicions the book was telling you things. Although it wasn't my intention, I'm glad I was able to knock it from your hands when I did.
"I don't blame you for how you acted. That place... messed with us all. And... with you being a friend, I don't mind you knowing the truth about me. Which is to say, if you do have any other questions about that, I can answer them for you."
Papyrus hums uncertainly at that reassurance about acting, wondering how much it's true. But there's certainly a big difference between being forced to act, by something else moving you around, and feeling pressured to act, in hopes of achieving one's goals. A very important difference.
"I... I appreciate that! And I was very glad to be freed from, whatever was happening. Maybe I didn't seem it, but, that's just because, I just couldn't quite trust it was over, at the time..."
In the privacy of his townhouse now, leaning against the door, he's glad they're talking by stone rather than face to face. Even as he puts on a brave smile, the better to convince the world and himself that he's now completely past that lack of trust, that he's sure it will stay over... Well, he needs to work on that smile! It doesn't feel very convincing yet.
"But if you're sure, I was wondering... Well, a lot of things, I don't know very much about ghosts. Is it always very difficult for ghosts, to... be visible, and touch things?"
It is a very important difference. Fake it till you make it, essentially. Which is sort of how Mettaton started off. He's happy to move past that particular subject though, as Mettaton's curiosity has been saited.
The glambot smiles and Papyrus can likely hear it in his voice as he answers his question. Not many monsters interact with ghosts or even know when a ghost has picked a body for themselves. Although that's his old identity, there is something nice about being able to talk about it with someone he trusts.
"At first, yes. It's very difficult. Then once you get the hang of it, it comes more naturally."
A shared life motto, then! Albeit it isn't so much faking it as practicing, right? Filling a space in one's life and habits for helping the real thing exist as it should have existed all along! ...Well, there's multiple reasons he's felt admiration for the TV star, and seemingly embodying things that Papyrus wanted for himself is only some of them.
"More naturally, huh...? So it's not the sort of natural that anyone works out in a day. Of course not, that makes complete sense..."
He trails off, catching what he's saying to himself, and shifts the topic immediately.
"I mean, the kind of difficulty that makes a physical body all the more appealing! You said, Alphys... made your body, for you?"
The question is in a tone of making sure he remembered correctly. He's been thinking about what he heard Mettaton saying, over the last day and before it, but also, he was distracted and distressed during much of the conversation. He's not totally sure he caught everything important - and besides, it'd be much nicer to hear it again now, with way less panicked urgency filling everything.
That is a good way of looking at it. Practicing, not faking. But sometimes practicing isn't enough and you need to force yourself through being unprepared. The first time Mettaton had the camera turn on to broadcast to the Underground, he wasn't prepared β however, as time went on, being the lovable, entertaining, inspiring robot that he is today became easier and easier.
The glambot raises an eyebrow as Papyrus mutters to himself but when that line of questioning is dropped, Mettaton moves on as well.
"Mn, less that it didn't feel natural and more... it didn't feel right. Does that make sense? Not all ghosts want to become corporeal. Some are fine remaining as is. Others try to find inanimate objects to possess.
"As for me, I knew... exactly what I wanted. I wanted to be human. Or as close as I could be, given the circumstances. So when Alphys and I became friends, she helped me come up with the design for this body."
Oh, that's all certainly true enough, Papyrus wouldn't outright disagree. The clumsy first efforts before there's been any practice to lean back on, when all one has is guesswork and hearsay and maybe some helpful guide to read over... That does take forcing oneself through uncertainty, buoyed only by whatever bravado one can muster as a disguise.
But he values the distinction in calling it all practice, or challenging oneself, or insisting that one's growing already - never using the words "faking it." That's too close to implying some things about him might be lies, and that... well... Whatever he was before, that's lost in the past, the sort of past one really can't and shouldn't go back to! The him here and now is what matters - and the him he'll soon be matters nearly as much.
"Oh?" Papyrus says, surprise in his voice at Mettaton's clarification, swiftly overtaken by realization. "Ohhhhhh. I... remember, watching your broadcast... You sounded so passionate about protecting humankind."
For that matter, he remembers idly wondering - in between phonecalls at his flower friend's behest - whether that performance had helped convince some of the monsters to go help stop Asgore at the barrier. The killer robot segment, and Mettaton's pleas to the human not to let the king have their soul, since the war would mean... destruction.
That was how Mettaton handled becoming corporeal. He wouldn't revisit who and what he used to be, leaving his old life behind. But fighting the human, receiving the calls from his fans, that showed him he was wrong. That he should embrace all aspects of himself and not be afraid to tell others who he really is.
And most of all, to have Blooky and Shyren at his side again, the three of them performing like they used to.
"Yes. Things from the surface would wind up in Waterfall, and I'd bring them home. I loved what I saw, what I heard, what I learned of the humans. I was never happy as a ghost... so, I knew what I wanted to become. It's not uncommon for a ghost to want a corporeal form. Have you bumped into the angry training dummy in Waterfall before?" Mettaton asks the last part curiously.
If Papyrus ever realizes that the first (sad) caller had been the other ghost in that neighborhood, he might very well shout encouragements Mettaton's way to go reconnecting with Napstablook. An almost estranged relative and friend, who'd become a fan all over again, independent of knowing all these astonishing secrets...?
And he could even do so eagerly, feeling confident in the certainty that nobody else knows of any skeletons in Papyrus's metaphorical closet to go dragging out and shoving in his face. The Great Papyrus remains free to decide who he'll be, going forward.
"The training dummy that works with Undyne sometimes...? But of course! I visited Undyne often, for training into the royal guard! We had a few attack demonstrations in her yard, and a few spars."
Not that they got too carried away with flinging attacks the dummy's way, in part because Undyne decided that tackling Papyrus was more fun during his visits, for some terrible reason. But it was nice to see that Undyne had other employee maybe-friends who she sometimes let loose with, be it in shouting threats, flinging attacks, or both.
Napstablook likely knew. It's not like Mettaton's voice changed much when he switched forms. The ghost would have left Mettaton be though, as they didn't want to be a burden.
Thankfully, Papyrus knew all of the glambot's hidden depths now. Which meant Mettaton feels way more at ease about not needing to show boat all of the time around him and be a bit softer in his interactions.
"I believe so. The particularly angry one is the one I'm speaking of. That's my other cousin, Mad. She went on to inhabit another body after meeting Frisk, one she's quite happy with."
Mettaton hates that it's from Alphys's ridiculous anime but knowing his cousin is happy is helping him associate the doll with her instead of the original thing.
had to check she didn't show up pre-Asriel fight in the dummy body
Well, Papyrus is no stranger to keeping secrets over what one felt ready to acknowledge and address. Even he and his brother play at that game, talking around the things that there's really nothing to be done about, since - why dwell on them?
Some of those things, though, they disagree on how much can be done, and what to do. Like Sans worrying over Papyrus's decision to make friends with a worrying flower, or Papyrus wanting to at least go through the motions of cleaning, and preparing puzzles, and going to work. That's where the jokey deflections and pleasant innuendo phrasings sometimes get put aside, or at least become the subjects of bickering and arguments.
...What a thing to get the teensiest bit homesick about.
"Wow, incredible!" Papyrus gushes instead, focusing on different things about back underground.
"But... I guess she must have done this in that weird time before the last things I saw, and your mysterious future? I could swear I saw that dummy by Undyne's house, the last time I visited."
On Papyrus's last day underground, that is - when he escorted the human to trick Undyne into agreeing to hang out with them.
Unaware of Papyrus's inner struggles, Mettaton hums in thought. That's right, they are from different points in time, aren't they? What a strange concept...
"Then you are a day or so behind me, I'd say. Or a week? I'm not entirely sure when she snuck into Alphys's lab, to be honest."
Something he'll need to ask next time she's around. If she returns.
"Was there anything else you'd like to ask?"
The switch-specific things tripped me up a bit, but it's fun!
So many questions are being raised right now, from whether that was part of why Alphys left their training early, to what exactly this cousin might have - stolen? While unexpectedly haunting a lab for a time?? Why are ghosts now committing ghost crimes.
"That... That wasn't the question I meant to ask. But now I really want to know, was there some prototype of your body lying around, or something??"
Imagine - two of Mettaton. They can get back to the more heartfelt questions after he gets this out of his skull.
Mettaton waves his hand dismissively. "Oh, no. Not a robot body. Just a giant, life sized doll from that ridiculous series she likes. Alphys, I mean. Mad had no idea what Mew Mew was prior to fusing with the doll."
What a relief? What a shame? One of Mettaton is probably enough for any world, merchandise aside.
"Ghost life is so much more complicated than I ever knew..."
Even moreso than he's realized over the last day, with his odd disembodied experiences and the struggles to interact with much of anything, besides a few other dead people in passing. It's a definite relief to be reunited with his bones, now.
"Fusing with it... I think, you said something like that. Wh-When I was, uh, saying some accusatory things... You fused with your body?"
He lets out a soft chuckle at Papyrus's comment. "It's complicated even for us."
A pause as he thinks how to best describe what ghosts go through.
"I did. Essentially... You find an inanimate object and possess it. If it clicks with you, feels right, and your SOUL is at peace, you'll fuse with the item you've chosen. Does that make sense?"
But what of the possibilities of a stunt double, or backup dancers in some of his performances...?
"Y-Yes, I think so... It's not an inanimate object anymore, then. It's your body."
Kind of like Mettaton had said, multiple times, insistent and increasingly unhappy when the words leaving Papyrus's mouth had seemed not to believe it. He makes sure to emphasize the belief in his voice now, and further ask:
"And, you're now so corporeal... that you're not going to be incorporeal or invisible, ever again?"
It's a good argument. And while it's not a dream Papyrus necessarily holds, being a backup dancer for Mettaton is surely a dream for someone. Maybe those hypothetical persons will even get MTT TV merch that resembles them, someday!
"Then I'm very glad you've gotten what you wanted!"
He means it, sincerely! As happy as he's been to admire Mettaton's box form, and more recently his human form, it's so much more important that Mettaton is happy with that.
"But, um. A-About that..."
His tone goes a little like he's going to break the news that someone fell down, then trails off, as Papyrus hesitates on what exactly to say.
Delightful! Maybe more toys will grace his bedroom table one day.
As for now, he takes advantage of speaking through a sending stone rather than in person to wipe at sweat surreptitiously, then worry at the side of his jaw with a gloved hand.
"I'm alright!" He rushes to clarify, again, as if Mettaton's forgotten in the course of this call. "Things are... okay. It's just that, well, umm. You've... probably heard about how... death, doesn't completely work right, around here?"
His heart sinks. He can guess what that means. Why Papyrus of all people had to go through that, he doesn't know, but it fills him with sorrow.
"How are you managing...?" Mettaton asks softly, his wording specific so Papyrus doesn't need to outright tell him what happened. The glambot already knows.
He can't honestly say that he's doing well. It's something of a stew of bad memories, some all blended together, some distinct chunks of time still standing out. Several new contenders for worst nightmare! It's not great!
"But! All my bones feel like new. Newly constituted, or something. As of... a couple hours ago."
He wouldn't be the Great Papyrus if he couldn't try to put some spin on it, for his own sake and Mettaton's, with as much sincerity as he could blend in with the positive thinking. That is, before he gets into the other bad news.
"And, um... How much, else, have you heard about... those sorts of experiences? Here."
At least his body feels good. Still, dying is... well, he can't even imagine it. Mettaton frowns, looking down at the Speaking Stone, imagining Papyrus's face.
He'll need to take him out on a date or something. Hopefully cheer him up more...
"I've never really looked into it, honestly. I only know you come back but not any other details..."
Papyrus, still leaning against his door, is glad not to need to keep a convincing smile up for any of this. He's still trying to a little, to keep some sense of humor in his voice, but not that much.
"Yes, it was... about a day. And also not anywhere near where it happened?"
That detail is still puzzling him, because surely, surely it's not a matter of wind having gusted his dust clear into the woods. And they weren't even woods near where he'd been before everything went back to normal. Very strange.
"But! All my pains suddenly disappeared, and yet, I didn't stop... being aware. It was just as if all my bones dropped away... taking basically all sensation with them. I was... um."
This is the one part where he'd like to be talking in-person, the better to better reassure Mettaton, but that would make it harder to brush over his own death-like experience and any complicated strong feelings he might be having about it. Mettaton doesn't need to see tear tracks on his skull, he needs to hear this very important warning, before it catches the robot by surprise:
"I was a bit... intangible. And floaty. For a day."
How strange... Did the spot of revival have to do with the strange fear domains...? Mettaton remains silent as he listens to Papyrus.
What the skeleton describes is a bit surprising. He amused the person who died would be unconscious through all of it. To be aware though is... a tad horrifying β if he hadn't been born a ghost, that is.
The glambot hums softly in ironic but sympathetic amusement.
"Yes...? Or something ghost-like, at least," Papyrus hedges, uncertain still about some of the fine details of what it is to be Mettaton's sort of ghost as opposed to what was, from what he could tell, the human literary tradition of dead people ghosts. "I didn't try fusing with anything, but it was educational... But, that's only part of what I was getting at!"
There's a little bit of a thudding noise, as Papyrus stamps the ground in frustration with himself, and being concerned about someone being concerned for him.
It's nice! Just like the way offering flattery had made a nice back and forth. Caring and being cared about. Who knew friendship could be so impactful? But it's also distracting him.
"I meant to be letting you know, gently, that... Please, be careful not to die! Not only would it be the normal distressing," he concedes this much of how he's maybe been feeling, if it helps underline his point, "but, for you, it would... You'd be... a ghost again, like you didn't want."
And also...
He really doesn't even want to risk thinking it aloud. But Papyrus's body is his body, his bones are alive. Mettaton's body... was originally an inanimate object, he said. One that's only alive now because he fused with it. Would that... be enough, to revive the same way? Or is there a risk that, by dying, Mettaton would be... stuck as a ghost, whether forever or at least until someone could repair his body again?
Oh, Papyrus. Mettaton closes his eyes and smiles, touched by the skeleton's concerns. He understands completely why he would be worried about that, now knowing what the robot originally was and for experiencing death himself.
Mettaton assumes that, if that were to happen to him, his robot body would reactivate once the 'respawn' period was okay with β but it is still very much a concern.
"I promise to stay safe, darling. I... I truly appreciate you looking out for me like this..."
"Good! I-I mean, of course!" he exclaims, flustered enough to respond to both things at once, and tries again. "Of course. I... It's the least I could do."
It's an important warning, one that he felt the need to get out for a few reasons, after all. Apologies made with words like 'sorry' are good, but apologies with helpful, concerned words are better.
(Apologies with actions are even better still, but starting here, with the sending stone, was easier than looking Mettaton in the eye while apologizing. That the stone meant he could do it all the sooner was the best rationalization he could come up with, for delaying meeting up in person again.)
(Not that... it seems to have been needed. It seems rather like all his apologies have been accepted and understood. It's a such a huge compounded relief, on top of finding himself alive again, that he lets himself slide down the door until he's sitting on the floor about it.)
How could Mettaton not forgive him? It was fairly obvious Papyrus hadn't been himself in that strange library. What he's hearing through the Sending Stone... That's the Papyrus he knows.
"It may be the least thing you can do but it helps me more than you realize." The glambot's tone is light, a certain fondness to it. "Would you like to... get together sometime soon? I'm sure after such a harrowing experience, you could use a spa day of sorts."
The notion startles him into laughter, baffled and cheerful, fading into fond enthusiasm.
"That's... That's a wonderful idea! My bones do feel new, but also... Completely untreated by any skin lotions! I haven't even changed into a cleaner outfit yet..."
In fact, come to think of it, this outfit that he rescued from where he'd collapsed... It seemed clean, but it was coated in his own dust there, wasn't it? No wonder he's feeling strange, all moody and melodramatic. He's wallowing in bad experiences nearly as badly as Sans. What a terrible thing to let slide as a family habit.
"Do you like the sound of that, darling? It'll be my treat! We can get you new outfits, bone lotions, massages... All sorts of things!" Mettaton clasps his hands together excitedly despite Papyrus not being able to see.
"Oh my god, do they have bone lotions here?!" Papyrus exclaims it with astonishment clear in his voice.
It's entirely possible, he's realizing, because there is that whole contingent of skeleton sailors that bring food from... somewhere, and someone might be selling some to cater to them specifically. Even back underground there hadn't been so many skeletons around to have much for specialty products like that.
"I mean, normally I would get skin lotion, or anime powder, or some other MTT-product..." This, he doesn't manage to keep a straight face through saying. "But I suppose I should start with something more skeletal. Fresh bones probably need prep time, before graduating to skin lotions..."
He may be getting caught up in the details of his old beauty routine, but his tone is all agreement - he does like the sound of this idea.
"They might! I haven't actually checked... but I'm sure we could come up with a concoction!"
Mettaton is more than happen to listen to Papyrus brainstorm, pleased to hear he likes the idea. He's already plotting as well, trying to figure out what would be good to put in lotion to help with bones.
The glambot thinks outloud. Seems the skeleton is rubbing off on him slightly.
"Calcium powder, maybe? Hmmm... Do a vanilla and cream scent... Nice and mild and unisex~"
Papyrus manages to get this out with only a little stammer, startled at the idea that they're not just planning a shopping and spa trip, they're brainstorming the development of new MTT products. Bone lotion, with scents that emphasize that pearly whiteness of his bones? And not only that, something of a sexy scent, to go by that mention of something being unisex...?
Well, it's a lot of ideas to take in at once! Enough that he pushes himself to his feet, paces briefly, then starts making his way to his (limited) wardrobe.
"Uh, don't tell me... Is there a spa? Or is this more of, a home spa day plan...?"
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Backdated: early in the day of November 2nd - shortly after the October event
And to make matters just that extra bit more incredible (in a negative sense of the word), waking up entailed coming to, standing back near his townhouse - where he'd been before things went strange - only to immediately collapse into a pile of dust and stand again as... a ghost.
It also turned out that ghosts, or at least brand new ghosts who haven't figured out how to possess anything, can't pick up sending stones to answer them. So while he saw the stone flashing in his pile of dust and dusty clothing...
...Well, it's over a day later, and it's turned out that tales of death's loose grip are entirely true! His bones have once again knit together, and after a few hours of scrabbling his way through the forest, he's made his way back into town, back into possession of his things, and acting on a guess and a hope.
He holds his sending stone, and thinks very hard of Mettaton - whether that means a distantly appreciated TV star, a newly in-person friend, a robot, a ghost, or someone in between.
no subject
What if he never got to see the skeleton again? What if it was his fault?
Mettaton's time in the two Nightmares he experienced had been thankfully brief. Nothing overly traumatic happened to him. Which only added to the guilt that he couldn't save his new friend. The one person from his world.
He's currently holed up in his apartment room, moping about on his bed when he sees the glowing light coming from his Stone.
The robot shoots out of bed, rushes over, and places a hand on it to gently pick it up. Please, oh please, let it be Papyrus...
His voice is soft as he answers:
"Hello...?"
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It's Papyrus that responds, yes. His voice can't be called soft, especially not at the volume he responds (and really, not even when he does try to speak quietly, not with the scratchy roughness of a voice that's so shaped by his typical volume). But for all his loud urgency, there's worry and concern in his tone.
"I, uh, I hope I'm not waking you, or interrupting anything urgent! But. I... needed... to make sure, you were okay..."
With every word his voice loses some of the urgency and volume, until he's trailing off in a bit of uncertainty about how best to proceed in this conversation. For all his fretting as he struggled with a ghostly existence, he didn't quite practice how this phone call might go. What an oversight!
no subject
His voice is gentle yet emotional and the skeleton can likely hear the smile behind it.
"No... No! You're not bothering me at all! In fact, I'm very glad you reached out."
It means he's safe. He's alive-ish. And that there isn't any bad blood between them. He hopes.
"I'm okay, darling. I got out mostly unscathed... but I've been worried about you. It's so good to hear your voice again... How are you fairing? Is everything alright? I... I tried to reach you the other day but I must have caught you at a bad time."
It's unusual for the bot to ramble like this but it just shows how concerned he was.
cw, allusions to his experiences in the Stranger, the Flesh, and the Buried.
Not that he ever doubted it or anything, but, after that terrible half conversation... With some of the things Mettaton hinted he was thinking...? Papyrus hasn't been, entirely, sure whether some kind of bad feelings might have been festering. Sitting, soggy with shed and unshed tears alike, unresolved and unaddressed as soon as either of them wanted to, to go by that last comment.
"Oh no, did you?" Papyrus says in dawning, unhappy realization. "I wasn't... um, able to pick up the stone. At the time. I didn't manage to get out unscathed... I was really unfortunately scathed. And other problems, unrelated to fire."
He's rambling a little himself, but he manages to cut himself off before dropping that he died so early in the conversation. That just doesn't seem like an over the stone-phone story. It helps that he doesn't also really want to talk about fire, as relates to fireplaces, kitchen stoves, or soup just this minute. He also doesn't want to think about a red-eyed, waxen shape melting out of resemblance with Sans in the middle of attacking him, or... the ground swallowing him up and chewing.
With a rattle of bones, he shivers and shrugs the whole topic off his mind. Later! Later. There's something else to get back to first.
"But!!! More importantly, I did not have any more problems with, uh, terrible books! Terrible books that... Well, d-did you look at, that book? Because I think I need to apologize, but explaining my apology... I don't know where to begin."
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Mettaton knows not to press the skeleton about anything that may have happened. People were extremely traumatized by the events. It would be up to Papyrus whether or not he felt like discussing any of those. Instead, Mettaton wants to be a positive force in his life right now. To give him strength and to know he's not alone.
The robot thinks back on the book, moving to take a seat as his makeup table. "I stepped on it. Pierced it with my heel."
There's a pause.
"... I knew whatever was written in there was a lie. So... you don't need to apologize, Papyrus. I know... deep down, you would have never doubted me."
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...After all those experiences, it's a little too easy to imagine it stabbed clean through, ink spilling out from its damaged pages like blood from some of the more unfortunate humans. Hopefully books don't go through ghost phases before returning. Or, moreso, hopefully that nightmare book stays in the past, where no one will ever try to go back for it.
"O-Of course I wouldn't! Not... Not like that," Papyrus insists, his free hand waving as if to shoo the memory away, even as he grips the stone and this conversation all the harder.
"I... was confused, hearing all that, but my reactions... You don't understand. You didn't look in that book. Which I'm glad of! Very glad you didn't. But... it was only partly lies. Parts of it were... descriptions... of everything we were doing."
He can't even pick an adjective for the descriptions. Lies seems too... flimsy, to really encapsulate the way it kept introducing worse ways of seeing the situation.
"Everything I said, and you said, all... written before you even showed up. It felt like someone gave me a script, which I couldn't help but act out... Even when I wanted to do something or say something else." He tries to laugh. "If that's what acting is like, I don't think I ever want to go on stage!"
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So the book was the issue. That's why he keep guarding it. Why he seemed so paranoid. Mettaton frowns to himself, thinking of how to respond. It's obvious Papyrus deeply regrets what went on that day but...
"Acting has more freedom," he begins, "You get to pick who and what you want to be. You aren't forced into it."
The glambot closes his eyes for a moment, letting out a sigh. "I had some suspicions the book was telling you things. Although it wasn't my intention, I'm glad I was able to knock it from your hands when I did.
"I don't blame you for how you acted. That place... messed with us all. And... with you being a friend, I don't mind you knowing the truth about me. Which is to say, if you do have any other questions about that, I can answer them for you."
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"I... I appreciate that! And I was very glad to be freed from, whatever was happening. Maybe I didn't seem it, but, that's just because, I just couldn't quite trust it was over, at the time..."
In the privacy of his townhouse now, leaning against the door, he's glad they're talking by stone rather than face to face. Even as he puts on a brave smile, the better to convince the world and himself that he's now completely past that lack of trust, that he's sure it will stay over... Well, he needs to work on that smile! It doesn't feel very convincing yet.
"But if you're sure, I was wondering... Well, a lot of things, I don't know very much about ghosts. Is it always very difficult for ghosts, to... be visible, and touch things?"
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The glambot smiles and Papyrus can likely hear it in his voice as he answers his question. Not many monsters interact with ghosts or even know when a ghost has picked a body for themselves. Although that's his old identity, there is something nice about being able to talk about it with someone he trusts.
"At first, yes. It's very difficult. Then once you get the hang of it, it comes more naturally."
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"More naturally, huh...? So it's not the sort of natural that anyone works out in a day. Of course not, that makes complete sense..."
He trails off, catching what he's saying to himself, and shifts the topic immediately.
"I mean, the kind of difficulty that makes a physical body all the more appealing! You said, Alphys... made your body, for you?"
The question is in a tone of making sure he remembered correctly. He's been thinking about what he heard Mettaton saying, over the last day and before it, but also, he was distracted and distressed during much of the conversation. He's not totally sure he caught everything important - and besides, it'd be much nicer to hear it again now, with way less panicked urgency filling everything.
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The glambot raises an eyebrow as Papyrus mutters to himself but when that line of questioning is dropped, Mettaton moves on as well.
"Mn, less that it didn't feel natural and more... it didn't feel right. Does that make sense? Not all ghosts want to become corporeal. Some are fine remaining as is. Others try to find inanimate objects to possess.
"As for me, I knew... exactly what I wanted. I wanted to be human. Or as close as I could be, given the circumstances. So when Alphys and I became friends, she helped me come up with the design for this body."
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But he values the distinction in calling it all practice, or challenging oneself, or insisting that one's growing already - never using the words "faking it." That's too close to implying some things about him might be lies, and that... well... Whatever he was before, that's lost in the past, the sort of past one really can't and shouldn't go back to! The him here and now is what matters - and the him he'll soon be matters nearly as much.
"Oh?" Papyrus says, surprise in his voice at Mettaton's clarification, swiftly overtaken by realization. "Ohhhhhh. I... remember, watching your broadcast... You sounded so passionate about protecting humankind."
For that matter, he remembers idly wondering - in between phonecalls at his flower friend's behest - whether that performance had helped convince some of the monsters to go help stop Asgore at the barrier. The killer robot segment, and Mettaton's pleas to the human not to let the king have their soul, since the war would mean... destruction.
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And most of all, to have Blooky and Shyren at his side again, the three of them performing like they used to.
"Yes. Things from the surface would wind up in Waterfall, and I'd bring them home. I loved what I saw, what I heard, what I learned of the humans. I was never happy as a ghost... so, I knew what I wanted to become. It's not uncommon for a ghost to want a corporeal form. Have you bumped into the angry training dummy in Waterfall before?" Mettaton asks the last part curiously.
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And he could even do so eagerly, feeling confident in the certainty that nobody else knows of any skeletons in Papyrus's metaphorical closet to go dragging out and shoving in his face. The Great Papyrus remains free to decide who he'll be, going forward.
"The training dummy that works with Undyne sometimes...? But of course! I visited Undyne often, for training into the royal guard! We had a few attack demonstrations in her yard, and a few spars."
Not that they got too carried away with flinging attacks the dummy's way, in part because Undyne decided that tackling Papyrus was more fun during his visits, for some terrible reason. But it was nice to see that Undyne had other employee maybe-friends who she sometimes let loose with, be it in shouting threats, flinging attacks, or both.
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Thankfully, Papyrus knew all of the glambot's hidden depths now. Which meant Mettaton feels way more at ease about not needing to show boat all of the time around him and be a bit softer in his interactions.
"I believe so. The particularly angry one is the one I'm speaking of. That's my other cousin, Mad. She went on to inhabit another body after meeting Frisk, one she's quite happy with."
Mettaton hates that it's from Alphys's ridiculous anime but knowing his cousin is happy is helping him associate the doll with her instead of the original thing.
had to check she didn't show up pre-Asriel fight in the dummy body
Some of those things, though, they disagree on how much can be done, and what to do. Like Sans worrying over Papyrus's decision to make friends with a worrying flower, or Papyrus wanting to at least go through the motions of cleaning, and preparing puzzles, and going to work. That's where the jokey deflections and pleasant innuendo phrasings sometimes get put aside, or at least become the subjects of bickering and arguments.
...What a thing to get the teensiest bit homesick about.
"Wow, incredible!" Papyrus gushes instead, focusing on different things about back underground.
"But... I guess she must have done this in that weird time before the last things I saw, and your mysterious future? I could swear I saw that dummy by Undyne's house, the last time I visited."
On Papyrus's last day underground, that is - when he escorted the human to trick Undyne into agreeing to hang out with them.
I still need to play the Mew Mew fight orz
"Then you are a day or so behind me, I'd say. Or a week? I'm not entirely sure when she snuck into Alphys's lab, to be honest."
Something he'll need to ask next time she's around. If she returns.
"Was there anything else you'd like to ask?"
The switch-specific things tripped me up a bit, but it's fun!
So many questions are being raised right now, from whether that was part of why Alphys left their training early, to what exactly this cousin might have - stolen? While unexpectedly haunting a lab for a time?? Why are ghosts now committing ghost crimes.
"That... That wasn't the question I meant to ask. But now I really want to know, was there some prototype of your body lying around, or something??"
Imagine - two of Mettaton. They can get back to the more heartfelt questions after he gets this out of his skull.
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"Ghost life is so much more complicated than I ever knew..."
Even moreso than he's realized over the last day, with his odd disembodied experiences and the struggles to interact with much of anything, besides a few other dead people in passing. It's a definite relief to be reunited with his bones, now.
"Fusing with it... I think, you said something like that. Wh-When I was, uh, saying some accusatory things... You fused with your body?"
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He lets out a soft chuckle at Papyrus's comment. "It's complicated even for us."
A pause as he thinks how to best describe what ghosts go through.
"I did. Essentially... You find an inanimate object and possess it. If it clicks with you, feels right, and your SOUL is at peace, you'll fuse with the item you've chosen. Does that make sense?"
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"Y-Yes, I think so... It's not an inanimate object anymore, then. It's your body."
Kind of like Mettaton had said, multiple times, insistent and increasingly unhappy when the words leaving Papyrus's mouth had seemed not to believe it. He makes sure to emphasize the belief in his voice now, and further ask:
"And, you're now so corporeal... that you're not going to be incorporeal or invisible, ever again?"
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"Exactly." On both fronts. "I can't return to being a ghost. I'm like this forever. Which is what I wanted."
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"Then I'm very glad you've gotten what you wanted!"
He means it, sincerely! As happy as he's been to admire Mettaton's box form, and more recently his human form, it's so much more important that Mettaton is happy with that.
"But, um. A-About that..."
His tone goes a little like he's going to break the news that someone fell down, then trails off, as Papyrus hesitates on what exactly to say.
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"Thank you, darling. That means a lot to hear you say."
The pause is worrisome though. Mettaton's tone remains gentle, hoping to ease any worry the skeleton has.
"What is it? Is everything alright?"
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As for now, he takes advantage of speaking through a sending stone rather than in person to wipe at sweat surreptitiously, then worry at the side of his jaw with a gloved hand.
"I'm alright!" He rushes to clarify, again, as if Mettaton's forgotten in the course of this call. "Things are... okay. It's just that, well, umm. You've... probably heard about how... death, doesn't completely work right, around here?"
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His heart sinks. He can guess what that means. Why Papyrus of all people had to go through that, he doesn't know, but it fills him with sorrow.
"How are you managing...?" Mettaton asks softly, his wording specific so Papyrus doesn't need to outright tell him what happened. The glambot already knows.
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He can't honestly say that he's doing well. It's something of a stew of bad memories, some all blended together, some distinct chunks of time still standing out. Several new contenders for worst nightmare! It's not great!
"But! All my bones feel like new. Newly constituted, or something. As of... a couple hours ago."
He wouldn't be the Great Papyrus if he couldn't try to put some spin on it, for his own sake and Mettaton's, with as much sincerity as he could blend in with the positive thinking. That is, before he gets into the other bad news.
"And, um... How much, else, have you heard about... those sorts of experiences? Here."
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He'll need to take him out on a date or something. Hopefully cheer him up more...
"I've never really looked into it, honestly. I only know you come back but not any other details..."
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"Yes, it was... about a day. And also not anywhere near where it happened?"
That detail is still puzzling him, because surely, surely it's not a matter of wind having gusted his dust clear into the woods. And they weren't even woods near where he'd been before everything went back to normal. Very strange.
"But! All my pains suddenly disappeared, and yet, I didn't stop... being aware. It was just as if all my bones dropped away... taking basically all sensation with them. I was... um."
This is the one part where he'd like to be talking in-person, the better to better reassure Mettaton, but that would make it harder to brush over his own death-like experience and any complicated strong feelings he might be having about it. Mettaton doesn't need to see tear tracks on his skull, he needs to hear this very important warning, before it catches the robot by surprise:
"I was a bit... intangible. And floaty. For a day."
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What the skeleton describes is a bit surprising. He amused the person who died would be unconscious through all of it. To be aware though is... a tad horrifying β if he hadn't been born a ghost, that is.
The glambot hums softly in ironic but sympathetic amusement.
"So you were a ghost?"
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There's a little bit of a thudding noise, as Papyrus stamps the ground in frustration with himself, and being concerned about someone being concerned for him.
It's nice! Just like the way offering flattery had made a nice back and forth. Caring and being cared about. Who knew friendship could be so impactful? But it's also distracting him.
"I meant to be letting you know, gently, that... Please, be careful not to die! Not only would it be the normal distressing," he concedes this much of how he's maybe been feeling, if it helps underline his point, "but, for you, it would... You'd be... a ghost again, like you didn't want."
And also...
He really doesn't even want to risk thinking it aloud. But Papyrus's body is his body, his bones are alive. Mettaton's body... was originally an inanimate object, he said. One that's only alive now because he fused with it. Would that... be enough, to revive the same way? Or is there a risk that, by dying, Mettaton would be... stuck as a ghost, whether forever or at least until someone could repair his body again?
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Mettaton assumes that, if that were to happen to him, his robot body would reactivate once the 'respawn' period was okay with β but it is still very much a concern.
"I promise to stay safe, darling. I... I truly appreciate you looking out for me like this..."
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It's an important warning, one that he felt the need to get out for a few reasons, after all. Apologies made with words like 'sorry' are good, but apologies with helpful, concerned words are better.
(Apologies with actions are even better still, but starting here, with the sending stone, was easier than looking Mettaton in the eye while apologizing. That the stone meant he could do it all the sooner was the best rationalization he could come up with, for delaying meeting up in person again.)
(Not that... it seems to have been needed. It seems rather like all his apologies have been accepted and understood. It's a such a huge compounded relief, on top of finding himself alive again, that he lets himself slide down the door until he's sitting on the floor about it.)
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"It may be the least thing you can do but it helps me more than you realize." The glambot's tone is light, a certain fondness to it. "Would you like to... get together sometime soon? I'm sure after such a harrowing experience, you could use a spa day of sorts."
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The notion startles him into laughter, baffled and cheerful, fading into fond enthusiasm.
"That's... That's a wonderful idea! My bones do feel new, but also... Completely untreated by any skin lotions! I haven't even changed into a cleaner outfit yet..."
In fact, come to think of it, this outfit that he rescued from where he'd collapsed... It seemed clean, but it was coated in his own dust there, wasn't it? No wonder he's feeling strange, all moody and melodramatic. He's wallowing in bad experiences nearly as badly as Sans. What a terrible thing to let slide as a family habit.
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It's entirely possible, he's realizing, because there is that whole contingent of skeleton sailors that bring food from... somewhere, and someone might be selling some to cater to them specifically. Even back underground there hadn't been so many skeletons around to have much for specialty products like that.
"I mean, normally I would get skin lotion, or anime powder, or some other MTT-product..." This, he doesn't manage to keep a straight face through saying. "But I suppose I should start with something more skeletal. Fresh bones probably need prep time, before graduating to skin lotions..."
He may be getting caught up in the details of his old beauty routine, but his tone is all agreement - he does like the sound of this idea.
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Mettaton is more than happen to listen to Papyrus brainstorm, pleased to hear he likes the idea. He's already plotting as well, trying to figure out what would be good to put in lotion to help with bones.
The glambot thinks outloud. Seems the skeleton is rubbing off on him slightly.
"Calcium powder, maybe? Hmmm... Do a vanilla and cream scent... Nice and mild and unisex~"
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Papyrus manages to get this out with only a little stammer, startled at the idea that they're not just planning a shopping and spa trip, they're brainstorming the development of new MTT products. Bone lotion, with scents that emphasize that pearly whiteness of his bones? And not only that, something of a sexy scent, to go by that mention of something being unisex...?
Well, it's a lot of ideas to take in at once! Enough that he pushes himself to his feet, paces briefly, then starts making his way to his (limited) wardrobe.
"Uh, don't tell me... Is there a spa? Or is this more of, a home spa day plan...?"