The next morning I get woken up to a rather rude, but acceptable, banging on my door. I groaned and got up to answer the door.
"Good morning Blue." I greeted and yawned.
"APOLOGIES FOR WAKING YOU UP SO EARLY IN THE MORNING, BUT I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE BEST TO WAKE YOU UP SO YOU COULD TAKE CARE OF YOUR MORNING ROUTINE BEFORE WE LEAVE. BREAKFAST WILL ALSO BE READY HERE IN A BIT." he informed.
I let out a small giggle, "Hehe alright, but unless you have a book of spells I could transcribe, it seems that my morning routine has been cut in half." I noticed that Blue started to look down a bit. "Not that it is a bad thing, I do have some books in my inventory, you never know when you could use some books to read. Let's get breakfast started, then I'll take care of my dailies."
Blue nodded as the two of us made our way to the kitchen.
"DO YOU KNOW HOW TO COOK?" he asked.
"Absolutely not, but it doesn't mean I can't be instructed how." I told him.
Blue jumped for joy and raced around the kitchen to pull out ingredients we would need to make breakfast. Apparently we were making waffles. Blue instructed on the things that we would need and then told me what I needed to do to make the waffles. It was quite an experience to say the least, the batter got everywhere and for some reason I couldn't get the hang on how to properly stir, thus causing the batter to go everywhere. That's pretty much when Blue took over and put me on watch duty, which consisted mostly of watching the pan and making sure that the pancakes didn't burn. Only thing is though. I don't know what a cooked pancake is supposed to look like.
And after burning several pancakes and almost setting a fire, that's pretty much how I ended up sitting in one of the stools at the countertop. While Blue was finishing up the breakfast I almost ruined. In addition to that, Reverse was somewhere in the area laughing her now intangible coccyx off.
"OMG!!! I can't believe you messed that up so badly!!!! And I got the pleasure of watching the whole thing go down!!!! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!" she could barely speak a full sentence after that.
I growled, "Hah laugh it up. I'm sure you are enjoying this so much." I muttered.
Blue turned to me with a confused look on his face, "I AM NOT LAUGHING AT YOU. IT IS PERFECTLY NATURAL TO NOT KNOW HOW TO COOK AFTER BEING IN THE UNDERGROUND. BELIEVE ME WHEN I SAY THAT EVEN I, THE MAGNIFICENT BLUE, STRUGGLED GREATLY TO FULLY GRASP THE ART OF COOKING! EVEN THEN I CAN ONLY REALLY BAKE RATHER THAN COOK. EDGE DOES MOST OF THE COOKING." he explained.
"Apologies Blue, I was not referring to you, Reverse was making a rather rude comment about me in the kitchen. But I am glad to hear that there is a possibility for improvement." I told him.
"OF COURSE. BUT UM...WHO IS REVERSE?" Blue asked.
"Reverse is a mistake that keeps following me around like a morbid puppy. She was the one who was trying to kill everyone during the whole fiasco the other day." I waved off.
"OH! I WAS WONDERING WHERE THE OTHER SKELETON WENT! WAS THAT INDEED HER?" he asked.
"Yep, sorry about that by the way, thankfully I was able to seal her away in time, before she could do some real damage I mean." I told him.
"AND WHY DO YOU CALL HER A MISTAKE?" he asked.
"A story for another time Blue. It looks like you're almost done with cooking, if it's alright with you, I can go wake up the others and tell them that food is ready." I deflected.
Blue noticed the deflection and agreed. He turns back to the food as I leave to go get the others. I knocked on each door that had a sign on it. A few answered with groans, others answered with shouts, and even fewer answered their doors. But I came back with a full house.
We all ate a tense breakfast.
No one dared to speak. Aside from Blue and Papyrus who talked to each other but never about what happened the other day.
Reverse was still going on a tangent but I completely ignored her while the other just couldn't hear her at all. Lucky son of a b*tches.
I helped Blue clean up the table and the dishes as everyone went off to work, whatever their jobs may be. Once the dishes were cleaned Blue and I separated for a bit to clean ourselves up. He was helpful enough to give me back my original clothes, just minus my hat but that wasn't as much of a big deal. Then we left the house and went to an orange machine.
I glared at the doomsday machine before turning to Blue with a raised brow and. "I thought your favorite color was blue, Blue?" I commented.
"OH IT IS! I AM BORROWING MY BROTHER'S TRUCK SINCE MY CHOICE OF TRANSPORTATION IS A MOTORCYCLE. WHICH ISN'T THE BEST FOR TRANSPORTING AS MUCH ITEMS WE WILL BE COLLECTING." he explained as he quite literally jumped into the seat and made some adjustments to it.
I just stood there and continued to glare at the machine.
Blue looked over at me with a concerned expression on his skull. "IS SOMETHING THE MATTER?" he questioned.
I sighed and muttered to myself, "The royals will have my skull for this..." before teleporting into a seat next to him.
"PLEASE DO NOT TELL ME YOU'RE JUST AS LAZY AS HALF OF THE HOUSEHOLD AROUND HERE?" he questioned.
I gave him a confused look, "You mean using my teleportation ability?"
He nodded, "YES. HALF OF THE HOUSE REFUSES TO BE ACTIVE IN ANYTHING AND WOULD RATHER SHORT CUT THEIR WAY AROUND."
"Well I can assure you, I don't use teleportation often. I used it because I do not know how to get into this dreadful machine." I explained.
Blue tilted his skull to the side, "YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW TO GET INTO A CAR? EVEN AX AND CROOKS KNOW HOW TO GET INTO CARS. SURE THEY STRUGGLED BUT THEY KNOW HOW TO."
"First off, those two don't like those names, they like the new nicknames I gave them. Sugar instead of Ax and Cookie instead of Crooks. Those other names are horrible, I don't even want to know who came up with those names in the first place. Second, in my universe machines are considered illegal, punishable by death. If my royals caught wind that I was even near this thing, I'd be dust where I stood. So apologies that I find this machine repulsive and uncomfortable." I explained as neutral as I could but deep down I was boiling over with frustration.
"OH. I AM SORRY. I HAD NO IDEA ON ANY OF THAT." he apologized.
I shook my skull, "It is not your fault you did not know. It's not anything that would normally come up in conversation until necessary. Now. I believe we still have a bit of shopping to do, correct?" I redirected.
"YES! LET US BE OFF!" he announced as he started up the machine, my grip on my skirt tightened. "YOU SHOULD PUT ON THE SEAT BELT. IT'S NOT ONLY THE LAW BUT IT IS ALSO FOR YOUR SAFETY." he suggested and helped entrapped me in this horrible machine before making it move.
The entire trip filled me with nothing but anxiety. Which only grew as we got closer to the main population. So. Many. Machines.
If the royals were here I'd be dust over a thousand times over!
I kept my sockets closed and kept telling myself the same lines over and over again. 'This is not my universe. The royals are not here to pass punishment.' I did this until the machine stopped and the sound of Blue moving and unhooking me from the car.
I couldn't teleport out of the car fast enough.
Blue jumped out of the car as it made a beeping sound along with a click. "APOLOGIES ECHO. IF I HAD KNOWN YOU WOULD HAVE SO MUCH ANXIETY OVER THE CAR I WOULD HAVE JUST GIVEN YOU THE LOCATION OF THE MALL RATHER THAN MAKING YOU GO THROUGH THE WHOLE DRIVE." he apologized.
"It is quite alright Blue. I need to get used to this eventually. This is not my universe so it does not follow the same rules as it does for mine. It's just hard to break the habit I guess." I told him as we made our way to the large building.
"THAT IS HOW MY BROTHER AND I FELT WHEN WE ARRIVED. IT TOOK ME SOME TIME BEFORE I KEPT MIXING UP THIS UNIVERSE'S ALPHYS TO MY UNIVERSE'S ALPHYS. I ACCIDENTLY STARTED HER QUITE A BIT AT FIRST WITH MY TRAINING SESSIONS. BEING HERE DO TAKE A LOT OF TIME TO GETTING USE TO. ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU ARE FROM A TOUGHER UNIVERSE. I THINK THE ONES WHO HAD THE MOST DIFFICULT TIME WAS A – I MEAN SUGAR AND COOKIE." he said as we walked around.
"What do you mean?" I questioned.
"IT IS NOT RIGHT FOR ME TO TELL EVERYTHING, BUT WHAT I CAN SAY IS THAT THEIR UNIVERSE WAS THE ROUGHEST ON ANY OF US. THEY NEARLY GOT DUSTED ON A DAILY BASIS AND LEFT THEM PERMANENTLY SCARED IN MIND, BODY, AND SOUL." he explained with a sad expression.
"I see. Thank you for telling me and respecting their privacy." I said.
The two of us shopped around for quite some time, looking at bedroom items, proper toiletries, clothing, and more.
The clothes that this place offered weren't really anything I would wear. Blue tried to help but none of the clothes felt right to me.
"WHAT KIND OF CLOTHING DO YOU NORMALLY WEAR?" he asked.
"Normally darker clothing, things that allow me to move around well enough but at the same time are comfortable to lay in as I read."
"AND WHAT YOU ARE WEARING IS UP TO THAT STANDARD?"
I nodded, "It's airy and allows me to hide my hands as I use them to cast spells."
"HMMM. OH! I HAVE A PERFECT STORE IN MIND THEN! COME WITH ME!" he said as he suddenly grabbed onto my hand and pulled me out of the store we were in.
The two of us ran off as another store came into view. It was decorated in orange and black as a large grim reaper with a scythe. It also had the name on the store sign.
"Spirit Halloween?" I questioned.
"YES! THERE ARE MANY CLOTHING THAT I THINK WOULD FIT YOUR STYLE AND NEEDS WELL! I DO HAVE TO WARN YOU, THIS STORE HAS A LOT OF NAKED SKELETONS, BUT NONE OF THEM ARE REAL SO DO NOT PANIC WHEN YOU SEE THEM. RAZ, RUS, MUTT AND SUGAR ALL PRETTY MUCH DESTROYED THE DISPLAY WHEN THEY SAW THE SKELETONS. IT WAS QUITE A SCENE."
"Understood."
We walked into the store and sure enough there were a ton of fake skeletons around. But overall the store was very well decorated. Blue stuck close to me as we wandered the store's isles.
It was mostly just ridiculous costumes until we got to a section that was anything but ridiculous.
"Oh. My. Stars." I ran over to the most beautiful dress I have ever seen! I reached in and touched it. It was so soft!!!! I looked for one my size, only to lay my eyelights on another! And another! Holy sh*t there's a million of them!!!!!
I'm pretty sure my eyelights morphed into stars as I raced around that section of the store grabbing every piece of clothing I could find that would work well.
After leaving the store with the outfits we wandered around to find some extra clothing like simple shirts and pants, but none of them were as exciting as Spirit Halloween was.
"NEXT WE MUST PICK OUT SOME BEDDING FOR YOUR BED, THEN WE MUST PICK OUT SOME DECORATIONS FOR YOUR ROOM!" Blue instructed as he pulled the both of us into a new store.
This store was filled with beds and blankets. A few looked pleasing but it would be better to look around before casting judgment.
Bleu and I walked around for a bit looking at blankets. He would get excited and show me different colored sheets and blankets. I wanted to hiss when he brought up a bright blue blanket, but I restrained myself from doing so.
Eventually we got caught between two different types with two different colors. One was a dark blue plaid while the other was a faded black.
"Hm. I'm not sure which one. What about that section over there?" I pointed to a different part of the store.
Blue looked where I was pointing, "HM IT MIGHT WORK." he said as the two of us walked over to the section.
Most of it was filled with colorful blankets with strange designs, most had some form of cartoon animals on them.
When we got towards the end however, my eyelights ended up on a bedsheet that worked perfectly for me. I tried reaching it but sadly my height was holding me back. "Da*n thing is too high." I muttered. I was about to use my magic to get it down but Blue stopped me.
"WE SHALL CALL FOR ASSISTANCE FROM THE WORKERS HERE." he said looking around for a worker.
"Why? I can just levitate it down with my magic." I questioned.
"SADLY ONE OF THE RULES FOR THIS UNIVERSE IS THAT MONSTERS ARE NOT ALLOWED TO USE MAGIC IN PUBLIC. ONLY LICENSED MONSTERS CAN USE MAGIC, IT IS MOSTLY FOR HEALING MAGIC THOUGH." he explained.
"That's ridiculous! Magic is part of Monster anatomy. That's like telling a human not to use their arms or talents." I basically growled out.
"I DO AGREE WITH YOU, BUT THAT IS THE TRUTH HERE. OH! EXCUSE ME HUMAN! DO YOU MIND HELPING US REACH AN ITEM?" he asked a worker who looked like they'd rather die.
"Sure." they grinded out, which made me glare at them. "What item are you wanting?" they asked. Blue and I pointed to the bedsheets at the top of the shelf. The worker was just barely tall enough to reach it, they stretched up to grab it. But in the effort the item was pushed back more to the point where they couldn't reach it.
They pushed it back.
They did that on purpose.
I know it.
I glared at the worker. If they did that in my Underground, they would be arrested almost immediately and terminated from their job for wrongful treatment towards customers.
But then again they would be dead the second they were in the Underground. Being that they were human and all.
"Oops. It will take a bit for me to get a ladder to get that down. Oh well." they commented, not even apologizing in the slightest. I wanted to growl at him.
Blue seemed to have gotten an idea, completely ignoring the worker's racist comment and effort. "ECHO! I KNOW HOW TO GET IT DOWN!" He put down our items and locked his hands together. "I WILL LIFT YOU UP ENOUGH TO GRAB IT!"
A smirk appeared on my face as I put down my stuff and jumped onto Blue's locked hands. He effortlessly pushed me upwards and I was able to grab tightly onto the package. "Got it!!" Blue lifted me up a bit higher to get it off the shelf and to prevent anything else from falling down. Once in the cleaner I jumped down with the prize in hand.
"THAT WAS AMAZING! MAGNIFICENTLY WELL EXECUTED IF I DO SAY SO MYSELF!" Blue jumped around.
A smile appeared on my face as I held in my hand a solid black bed set up that was decorated with white outlines of spiders and spider webs. It was perfect.
We put back the items we weren't going to buy, Blue picked out a few things for himself and for his brother before we both left the store.
Though there was one question that kept repeating in my mind.
"By the way, how are you paying for all of this?" I asked.
"OH SINCE MONSTERS USED GOLD AS CURRENCY IN THE UNDERGROUND, WE HAVE BECAME RATHER WEALTHY WHEN WE BROUGHT IT UP TO THE SURFACE. IT ALSO HELPS THAT MOST OF US AT THE HOUSE HAVE WELL PAYING JOBS." he explains.
"What do you all do?"
"I AM A POLICE CHIEF AT EBOTT POLICE DEPARTMENT.
SANS IS A PHYSICS PROFESSOR.
RED IS A MECHANICAL ENGINEERING PROFESSOR BUT ALSO WORKS AS A MECHANIC YOU WOULD HAVE TO ASK HIM WHY HE DOES.
M'LORD IS A BIG TIME LAWYER.
BLACK IS A FASHION DESIGNER THAT SELLS A TON OF CLOTHING THAT MANY FAMOUS PEOPLE AND MONSTERS BUY.
SUGAR DOESN'T WORK DUE TO HIS INJURIES, BUT HE GETS DISABILITY ACCOMMODATIONS.
COOKIE WORKS AT THE NEARBY ANIMAL SHELTER, HE WOULD MUCH RATHER WORK WITH ANIMALS THAN PEOPLE.
COFFEE IS AN ARTIST, SOMETIME HE WILL HELP BLACK WITH DESIGNS AND DRAWING THEM OUT.
PAPYRUS WORKS AT THE MONSTER EMBASSY HE ORGANIZES EVENTS AND MAKES SURE THE MONSTER HUMAN ISSUES ARE HANDLED IN A CALM DEMETER.
EDGE WORKS AS A MASTER CHEF AT ONE OF THE HIGH CLASS RESTAURANTS IN TOWN.
MY BROTHER IS A PROFESSIONAL GAMER BUT WORKS ON COMPUTER REPAIRS FROM TIME TO TIME.
MUTT OWNS HIS OWN DRUG STORE, WE DO MAKE SURE HE DOESN'T BRING ANY OF IT HOME WITH HIM. THOUGH SOMETIMES HE DOES MANAGE TO SNEAK IN A FEW THINGS HERE AND THERE, IT IS RATHER ANNOYING AND APOLOGIES IF HE DOES SOMETHING TO OFFEND YOU.
RUS WORKS FOR THE POLICE FORCE UNDER THE SEARCH UNIT. HE CAN FIND ANYONE ANYWHERE, IT IS QUITE STARTLING HONESTLY.
THEN RAZ IS A COMMANDER AT THE POLICE TRAINING PROGRAM."
Wow.
"Looks like I better find myself a job then." I commented.
Blue shook his skull, "THAT WON'T REALLY BE NECESSARY AT THE CURRENT MOMENT. WE STILL NEED TO INTEGRATE YOU INTO THIS UNIVERSE BEFORE WE CAN FIND YOU A JOB TO KEEP YOURSELF BUSY. BUT IF YOU WANT WE CAN LOOK AROUND SOME TIME TO SEE WHAT INTERESTS YOU."
"That would be nice, thank you."
Blue enthusiastically nodded and pulled us towards a new store. "NOW IS TIME FOR DECORATIONS!" he exclaimed.
We went from store to store picking out any and all small items that would make the room feel more at home. Which deep down it would never be.
I shook those thoughts from my skull as Blue picked up some books that he thought would be interesting. All the while I gathered a few notebooks that would serve useful for my spells, note taking, and for talisman writing. In addition to the notebooks I got some candles, writing materials, and a few basic items needed for most of my spells.
"WHY DO YOU NEED BOTTLES EXACTLY?" Blue asked, looking at the vials in my hands.
"When I do a certain spell, I put the ingredients or other items in these containers, then seal them up. It's more for relaxing than anything serious, especially when I don't have most of the ingredients anymore." I let out a small sigh, missing my shelves filled to the brim of books, ingredients, and other items of many kinds. All of which took forever to gather and collect.
I once again shook my skull as I continued to gather items.
We left the store shortly after.
We ended the day with food shopping. Blue mentioned that I can pick out anything I want to eat. Of course I wasn't picky as to what we ate, so Blue and I just wandered around picking dinner meals along with different types of snacks. I did make sure to pick up some spices and herbs, though most of the herbs were in seed forms which wouldn't do any good unless doing a fertility spell.
I guess I can try growing them, but it can't be that hard when they grow in the wild so easily back home.
Once that shopping was done we made our way back to the car. I feel more comfortable in it now that I know I won't end up getting in trouble.
I froze in my tracks.
Blue walked forward a bit but stopped when he noticed that I stopped moving. "IS EVERYTHING ALRIGHT ECHO?" he asked.
I didn't respond as I kept looking right at the figures just an aisle down.
It was Queen Toriel.
It was her.
She was here.
Blue looked over in the direction of the queen. "OH. FEAR NOT ECHO, MS. TORIEL IS VERY KIND AND CARING. IF YOU WANT WE CAN SET UP A GET TOGETHER LATER. IT HAS BEEN A WHILE SINCE OUR LAST TEA PARTY."
I practically snapped my skull off my spin as I looked back at Blue. "You have tea parties with the queen!?!?" I shouted.
Blue nodded, "MS. TORIEL DOESN'T USE THE TITLE AS QUEEN HERE. SHE IS NOW JUST A NORMAL MONSTER LIKE ALL OF US. SHE ADOPTED THE AMBASSADOR ALONG WITH A FEW OTHER MONSTERS AND HUMANS. SHE IS ALSO A SCHOOL TEACHER AND CARETAKER. WHEN A MONSTER GETS INJURED, MOST OFTEN THAN NOT THEY CALL FOR MS. TORIEL." he explained.
"No way." my jaw was almost touching the ground.
Blue nodded as we walked back to the car. "WHAT WAS YOUR TORIEL LIKE? IN MY WORLD SHE WAS OUR QUEEN WHILE OUR KING GAVE UP HIS TITLE."
"My world had both King Asgore and Queen Toriel. They ruled the Underground with immense power. They were the most powerful Monsters in the Underground. Their knowledge and skill in magic and in war was unmatched. They were beings you never want to get on their bad side."
"SURELY THERE WERE SOME GOOD MOMENT YOU SAW OR EXPERIENCED."
"The only thing that they did was tearing families apart for the sake of Monsterkind." I hissed.
Blue looked like he was going to ask what I meant but I threw my things into the car before teleporting back to the house.
I'd have to make it up to him, but I really didn't want to because of the memories flowing through my skull. Which just made me even more on guard and even upset. Not to mention I didn't want to be caught by the queen being around a machine.
"Even when you know she isn't YOUR queen." Reverse finally spoke up.
"Shut up. My queen or not she is still a queen and has a lot of control over Monsters. It's my duty to follow her rules and orders." I muttered through my bed pillows.
"You're such a drill sergeant you know that."
She wasn't lying. Every rule, procedure, grace, pretty much everything about me was drilled into my skull by the royals. Same goes with the others. We were pretty much just their tools that needed refinding before being used.
"Leave me alone. Go try and kill one of the others or something."
"That gets boring after a while. It's not as fun when they don't respond. Not even a flinch!"
"Then find something else to do and not bother me." I hissed out.
There was a long silence in the room, for a second I thought that she had left and I could enjoy the silence of my room. But luck was not on my side at all today as a soft but loud knock would be heard.
"ECHO? I HAVE YOUR STUFF FROM THE STORE. I CAN LEAVE IT OUT HERE FOR YOU IF THAT'S ALRIGHT." Blue's voice came through the door.
I let out a quiet sigh but didn't move. In fact I kept completely quiet.
"Wow! Look at you ignoring the annoyance! I'm proud of you!~" I could practically hear the smirk on her face. I wanted to glare at her but that would mean I would have to see her in order to do so.
"I AM SORRY ECHO. I DID NOT MEAN TO UPSET YOU EARLIER. I WILL JUST LEAVE THESE OUT HERE. LET ME KNOW IF THERE IS ANYTHING I CAN DO TO HELP." Blue said as I could hear shuffling coming from the otherside of the door. Then the sound of footsteps getting quieter and quieter.
After a few minutes I slowly brought everything in then, deciding that I needed the distraction, I started to decorate my room. When I got my bed set up I heard Edge calling out that dinner was ready. I walked out of my room and went towards the kitchen. I ate with the others but they mostly talked to each other. I wasn't interested in talking to a handful of them.
I did take notice of a few eyelights that kept glancing over at me.
After I had my fill I thanked Edge for the meal and excused myself to get ready for bed.
My room is where I ended my day. Conducting a few protection spells to make sure a few skeletons don't decide to get ahead of themselves and pop in. Sadly this will not stop Reverse from entering. I also made sure to light a safe candle before dressing for bed and slowly drifting to sleep.
Note. A safe candle is a candle that can be left lit while unattended, but this does not mean you can leave a candle unattended in real life. Even ones that are contained in glass, those can overheat and shatter if not watched. Not to mention things can get caught in the flame and catch fire. DO NOT LEAVE A CANDLE UNATTENDED TREAT IT LIKE A CHILD.