No One is Happy with This (Undertale)

46 ~ The CORE - 2.0

The next morning, when you get up (to the lovely alarm clock of Flowey screaming at you), your nose is still really clogged. You have a little bit of a congestion headache, but it quickly goes away when you blow your nose and get some water.

Today is Saturday, so you don't have school, but thanks to Flowey, you're still up bright and early. As usual, Toriel, Gaster, and Papyrus are all already up.

But going from the excess of papers with strange sketches on them spread all across the kitchen table, you don't know if Gaster ever even went to sleep. Judging by how engaged Papyrus is in whatever-it-is, he might not have even gone to bed, either.

"What's going on here?" You ask, setting Flowey's flower pot on the edge of the counter and turning to the pantry to get some cereal.

"I have decided," Gaster says without looking up, "that I'm going to build another CORE." He seems focused on the paper in front of him, barely paying attention to you.

"Another one?" Flowey snorts. "The first one was already confusing enough."

Gaster mumbles something that doesn't quite sound like the Common language. "Well currently, Ebbot Town is getting power from the nearest power plant, which not only happens to be a good deal away, but it's also a human power plant. Which means we have to pay one heck of a price to get it. Building another CORE will benefit the monster kingdom greatly."

You think about that for a minute. "But doesn't the CORE run off the lava in Hotland? There's not much lava on the surface."

Gaster actually glances up at you now. "Firstly, it runs on geothermal energy, not the magma. Secondly, 'CORE' unit simply stands for 'Central Optimized Resourced Energy' unit. It doesn't have to run on that. In fact, this one is going to be based of hydroelectricity. There's a good waterfall off Mt. Ebbot that will serve the purpose nicely."

"So what are these?" You pick up a few of the papers to move them so you can sit at the table.

It's Papyrus who answers. "Ideas! We've been coming up with ideas for the CORE-2.0 all night! And all morning! Except for the sunrise. We stopped to watch that."

You smile a little.

Flowey seems less impressed. "Ideas?" He snorts. "These just look like scribbles."

"They are merely concept sketches. Nothing is to scale, it is simply to express a basic idea." Gaster is giving Flowey a dark look.

"Yeah, children's ideas." Flowey shoots back. "These drawings are so bad, I can't tell if that's a building or an animal. Or maybe even a tree! You guys suck at drawing!"

Gaster gets that dark, vicious look on his face. "Yeah? Well at least we can draw! You don't have any hands, or leaves, and you're too limited in that pot to summon vines! You can't even pick up a pencil, weed!"

Flowey lets out an incredulous splutter. "Weed?! I am a flower, you Royal Science Jerk! Flowers are beautiful parts of nature; I thought you were supposed to be smart, being a scientist and all!"

Gaster lets out a huff. "If it were true that you were a flower, you are a buttercup, of the Ranunculus family- commonly seen as a weed, not to mention highly toxic. That hardly seems beautiful."

You just start eating your breakfast. Flowey and Gaster keep going back and forth, insulting each other, and, honestly, Gaster's insults are a lot more impressive than Flowey's. But, in the long run, they're not actually trying to physically harm each other yet, so you don't intervene.

And luckily, you don't have to. Papyrus does, instead. He thrusts the paper he was drawing on in Gaster's direction. "Here, Dad! What about this?"

Gaster's whole countenance changed immediately. His expression softens, a spark of paternal pride lighting in his eyes as he accepts the paper, and looks over it.

Then he turns to Papyrus, gesturing at the paper. "These are stabilizers, right? And this is the safety catch?"

Papyrus nods to his questions.

Gaster smiles. "Well. I'm not sure about putting the secondary overflow there, but the rest of it looks pretty solid. Definitely merits further research; we can put this with the others."

Papyrus practically glows with pride, and he lets out a happy Nyeh Heh heh! as he goes to set the paper on a small stack.

Sans wanders in about then, blinking sleepily. He just takes one look at the papers, then looks up at Gaster. "gonna build 'nother core when the lab's finished being rebuilt?"

Gaster nods.

As Sans gets some breakfast for himself, you give him a funny look. "How did you know it was for the CORE?" You ask.

He just shrugs. "helped design the first one."

"Really?!" You and Papyrus both look astonished.

Gaster answers. "Yeeeaaaahh, I remember that! You were the one who gave me the idea for the first working prototype! Those were good days."

Sans just makes a kinda strange noise. "actually, speaking of way back when, i had a kinda funny dream last night."

"Oh?" You can't help but notice how Gaster's attention has gone from decided between the conversation and the design he's working on to fully on Sans. "About what?"

Sans blinks a little and rubs the back of his skull. "we were in snowdin, havin' a snowball fight. but you were... weird."

"Let me guess." Gaster is grinning. "I was wearing a white lab coat, and didn't have the cracks in my skull."

Sans just nods.

Gaster laughs and grins, striding around the table to sweep Sans up in a hug. "That was your first time in Snowdin! You remember! Ohhhh, this is great! Maybe you'll even remember everything!" And then, still holding on to Sans, Gaster moves back around the table to throw his other arm around Papyrus's shoulders. "And maybe you'll remember, too, Papyrus! Hah, I thought all those years were gone, but maybe they're not!"

You only watch and grin as the little family is fully swept up in excitement. It's hard not to be happy for them- not that you would want to be unhappy.

But they're all so excited, Gaster and Papyrus matching each other in enthusiasm, and even Sans bouncing a little, grinning widely.

You only watch, until Flowey interrupts with a loud "Can you guys cut it out? All of this sappiness is gonna make me sick!"

§

A/N

Ahhh, finally, home in my own bed! Science camp was nice and all (that's kinda sarcasm, there.), but nothing beats my own bed.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it! Comments and votes are my Favorite Things, and every notification I get makes my day!