Short Stories/Realpolitik

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"In other news," A firm feminine voice flowed out of the radio, which sat on a nearby nightstand. "the council of Akeraiotas—locally called the 'Arista'—will be meeting with the Monster delegates within the hour. Unfortunately, our reporters on-site have not been allowed entry into the Akerai where it will all happen, so all we can do is watch and wait."

Frisk laid comfortably on a bed, listening to the radio while wrapped in a blanket. Toriel sat nearby, her large furry hands hard at work sewing a seam in a long purple robe. Beyond Toriel, though only visible to Frisk's eyes, Chara floated in a corner, listening to the broadcast as well. Frisk was the ambassador for the Monsters to the Humans, though you would never has easily guessed it, seeing as he was just barely twelve years old.

"Why do you think they're not letting the reporters in?" Frisk asked Toriel.

Toriel, a massive goat-Monster that towered over most others, briefly looked up from her work.

"I know not." She said, looking back down as she pulled a stitch through the cloth. "It worries me, though. But from what I hear, it is not unusual for the Arista to restrict reporters from entry."

"I see." Frisk went back to listening to the radio.

"For those that have missed our earlier broadcasts on this issue," the radio continued, this time with an energetic male voice. "yesterday morning, two skeletons were discovered in the area of the South Hellenes Forest just barely south of Mount Ebott up in Akeraiotas, the tiny nation tucked in the north-east corner of Washington state. Not skeletons as in corpses, but skeletons that walked and talked. Within minutes, Akeraiotan authorities arrived and closed out public access. We were informed by the authorities that Monsters were spotted around Mount Ebott, and to not panic. Later, we were informed that the King of these Monsters had contacted the authorities and had requested an audience with the Arista, which was accepted and is slated for later today."

"Now, when we say 'Monsters'," The female voice picked up again. "we don't mean the evil, child-eating monsters of folk-legends in various parts of the world. No, these Monsters are apparently quite friendly, and willing to strike up conversation—or so we've been told. As we have yet to interview any Monster, we can't actually confirm this."

"I believe our best option would be to wait for the results of the coming audience." the male voice finished. "In the meantime, we urge everybody in the area to listen to the local authorities, and to not violate the restrictions placed."

As the news reporters finished up their report, there was a knock at the door, followed by it opening.

"Sup kid." A new Monster—a skeleton named Sans—said while stepping into the room. "You ready for our meeting with the Arista?"

"Almost. What do you think, mom?"

Toriel stood up and walked over to Frisk, placing the robe on his covers. "Try this on, and we will see."

Toriel and Sans turned around as Frisk pulled the robe up to him and slid out from under the covers, revealing that he was almost naked. Quickly pulling the robe over himself, Frisk alerted the others that it was fine for them to turn back.

"How do I look?" Frisk asked.

"Hmm. It will have to do for now." Toriel said, nodding approvingly.

"You look tacky." Chara said, smirking.

Frisk let out a cool sigh, smiling slightly as he did so.

Toriel walked back over to where she'd been working and pulled up a bright-gold breastplate and two simple golden bracers. Sighing, Frisk stepped out into the middle of the room and brought his arms up, outstretching them to his sides. Coming back over to him, Toriel fitted the breastplate to Frisk, strapping it tightly to him.

"Why do I have to wear this again?" Frisk asked, grunting slightly as Toriel pulled a belt tight.

"You're the face of the Kingdom." Sans said. "That means you gotta wear the same stuff we do."

"Really? So where's your armor?"

Sans shrugged. "Around. I'll put it on when I have to."

Frisk eyed him as Toriel pulled the last strap tight.

"Okay.­ That is that. Now for the bracers." Toriel said, pulling the bracers over Frisk's arms.

Frisk pulled his arms back in, shifting his right bracer a bit so it sat more comfortably.

"C'mon. Let's hurry. Asgore and Undyne are waiting for us over in Sparta." Sans said, offering his hand to Frisk.

"Just Asgore and Undyne?" Frisk asked. "What about Alphys?"

"Alphys won't be making it. She's still hung up about the Amalgamates."

The Amalgamates. Horrific monstrosities that are the combined bodies and SOULs of multiple Monsters, twisted by DETERMINATION. Frisk shuddered thinking about them.

"Alright." Frisk said, taking Sans's still outstretched hand with a bit of reluctance. Instantly, a nauseating feeling came over the young Human as he and Sans both teleported to Sparta.

Once the nausea passed, Frisk looked around. Sparta, the seat of government of the tiny nation. Where Sans had teleported them to was right outside the Akerai, the capital building of Akeraiotas.

"Here we are." Sans said. "Let's head on in. Don't mind the crowd."

Frisk, confused a bit, looked around. Surrounding the entrance was a number of police officers all standing in a half-circle, keeping a crowd of people back from the entrance. Looking back at them, flashes of cameras burned their way into Frisk's eyes. Quickly turning back, Frisk followed Sans up the many, many stairs up to the front doors.

The front doors of the Akerai seemed to be of pure gold, standing at least four times Frisk's height inside the protective shelter of a roof supported by several columns. Pushing on the doors, Frisk found it surprising how easily they moved inward. With a gap made, Frisk went inside.

Just beyond the doors was a small space that separated the inside area from the outdoors. In this space, Asgore and Undyne stood waiting for them.

"There you are. What took you so long?" Undyne asked as Frisk and Sans came into view.

"Mom held me up while she finished up my robe. Seriously, do I really need to be wearing this stuff?"

"I think it best for us to make a good first impression." Asgore said, shifting his own golden ceremonial armor.

Both Asgore and Undyne were dressed in golden ceremonial armor like Frisk, though theirs was complete, featuring full-body plate for each, along with a long flowing cape—purple for Asgore, and black for Undyne, each color indicating exactly which field of government they were in.

"Alright, but then what about Sans? Isn't he joining us?" Frisk asked.

Asgore's gaze turned to Sans. "He should be. Where is your armor, Sans?"

Sans shrugged, much like before. "I like to put it on at the last second."

"The last second is fast approaching—" Asgore was interrupted by the opening of one of the inner doors.

The man opening the door bowed to the four gathered. "The Arista will see you now." He said, ushering them inside.

As the four stepped inside, a golden suit of armor with a long, flowing golden cape flashed on around Sans in a dark green burst of energy. By the time they reached the center of the grand chamber within, it looked as though he'd been wearing it the entire time.

Above much else, other than perhaps some of what he'd seen in the Underground, this room was by far the grandest thing Frisk had ever laid eyes on. Marble staircases rose up on either side of the wide room, and far above the center stood a dome with beautiful murals painted on them.

"Wow." Chara breathed, her incorporeal form floating just behind Frisk.

"Welcome, Monsters." A man on the second floor called down. Looking down from above, Frisk spotted the man clearly, standing in the center between four other Humans on each of his sides. "Please, come on up. Choose either staircase." The man, along with the eight other Humans, turned around and retreated beyond view.

Asgore, followed closely by Undyne, Frisk, and Sans, climbed up to the second level and went to where the man called down, finding a door nearby. Stepping over the threshold, all nine Humans were standing behind a long table in the center of a lightly decorated room with red carpet and white walls.

"Welcome again." The central man said. "I am Gregory, though you can call me Greg. It's a great pleasure to finally meet you."

"Howdy, er, Greg." Asgore said, bowing his head to the man. "It is a great pleasure to finally meet you as well. I am Asgore Dreemurr. King of the Monsters. This here is the Captain of the Royal Guard, Undyne Alcaeus. This is Sans Gaster, the chief judge of our judiciary. And this here is our ambassador to Humanity, young Frisk."

Gregory offered his hand to each of the Monsters as they were introduced by Asgore. When he shook Sans's hand, a farting sound emerged from the exchange, giving many of the other Humans a confused expression, and a look of annoyance from Undyne. Asgore elected to ignore it and continue on to Frisk.

"It's a pleasure to meet all of you." Gregory said, deciding to ignore the fart as well. "So, shall we get to business?"

All thirteen people in the room sat down at the long table. As they sat, Chara spoke.

"Interesting. This table is bigger than usual."

"What do you mean?" Frisk whispered.

"Usually, it only fits a maximum of nine people. This one is designed for more. I guess the isolationist attitudes of old aren't held as closely anymore, if at all."

"Usually?"

"Yeah. At least, back when I was alive..." Chara trailed off. Frisk refocused on the people around him, the Arista.

Gregory pulled a bronze orb out of a small, ornate bag and placed it in the center of the table. Frisk looked closer at it. A circuit board-like pattern decorated its surface, where at the top, around the 70-degrees mark, was a circle containing a symbol of a hammer inside a fan-shape.

*Wait... that symbol...*

"Asgore," Gregory began, snapping Frisk out of his thoughts. "according to our oldest records, your kind was sealed within Mount Ebott by the Arista of the day, specifically Alexis, Korinna, Rhodōpis, Tephra, Nikolaos, Prokopios, and Xanthos. Is this correct."

"It is."

"Can you enlighten us as to how this was done?"

Asgore wasn't sure what to say. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"We have been watching Mount Ebott for many, many years now. We found that, beginning at a certain point, darkness engulfed everything, even if we shined light directly into the darkness. It was eventually taken to being called 'the threshold'. The Oracle commanded us to never enter in through it, or we would surely die. We recently took another look, and the threshold is gone. I assume it had something to do with the seal, but we're not even sure what *that* is."

"The seal? The magical barrier."

"Magical? You mean magic actually existed?"

The three Monsters looked shocked. Did they not know about magic?

"Please understand," Gregory continued, "the last recorded documentation of this... magic was over 400 years ago. We all just assumed that it wasn't... *actually* magic. Can you... show us this magic?"

The four people of the Monster's council looked at one-another. After a second, Undyne summoned one of her spears and placed it on the table, Asgore and Frisk summoned fire in their hands, and Sans dropped a bone on the table.

"Incredible..." Gregory whispered. "And this, 'barrier', you called it, was another thing of magic?"

"Yes." Asgore said as the four magicians dispelled their conjurations. "It was a specific branch known as shield magic. A very powerful spell, at that. It trapped everything on one side of it, being the Underground."

"Fascinating. How did you break it, and what took you so long?"

The Monster's council looked uncomfortable.

"Is... something wrong?" Gregory asked.

"No," Asgore said quickly. "nothing is wrong. It's just that..." he breathed in deeply, then heaved a great sigh. "the only way to break a shield magic spell is to overpower it. Fire off an energy output that equals the amount of energy the shield holds. In the case of Cerberus—the Barrier—that energy was the total energy found in seven SOULs. The seven Arista that conjured the Barrier gave their all when they created it, and were no doubt exhausted for the following days. To destroy it, we would need to equal that energy level."

"Well, with so many Monsters down there, it should have been easy, right?"

Asgore shook his head. "It wasn't. Something about Monsters is that one Human SOUL is equal to a thousand Monster SOULs; and unlike a Human, when a Monster uses up all its energy, it dies. We would have needed to sacrifice about 7,000 of our own people just to kill Cerberus, and that wasn't something I was willing to do, especially because I knew that Humanity would simply destroy us if they learned they couldn't contain us. I needed another option, one that would ensure our freedom and survival."

"Asgore..." Undyne interrupted.

"No. I'm sorry, but I must get this off my chest." Asgore looked back to Gregory. "The way to do this was to absorb the SOULs of at least seven Humans and become an entity with unfathomable power. And to do that, I needed to first collect the Humans' SOULs... by killing them."

The nine Arista sat up in their seats.

"You killed seven Humans?" another member of the Arista asked.

Slowly, Asgore nodded.

*Wait, he did?* Frisk thought. *But I only counted six SOULs. What happened to the seventh?*

The nine Arista looked at one another, then all one-by-one suddenly shot their gaze to the bronze ball sitting on the table. After a few seconds, Gregory spoke again.

"When did the last one enter the Underground?"

"I... I am uncertain. More than 50,000 days, at least."

"That's more than a century."

Asgore nodded solemnly. Undyne, Frisk, and Sans all sat quietly, each unsure of what would happen next.

"In light of this..." Gregory began again. "I suggest we all keep this between us. Even though it's been more than a century since the last murder, it probably wouldn't do your kind much good to let this come out." The other members of the Arista nodded. "If I might ask now, though, what exactly do you plan to do with your 'unfathomable power'?"

"I didn't absorb the SOULs. We never even claimed the seventh, which was to be young Frisk's here."

"You never absorbed them? Then, where are they?"

"I do not know. To tell you the truth, I, Undyne, Sans, Frisk, and a few other Monsters were gathered in the palace one moment, and the next, the SOULs were gone, and the Barrier was destroyed. I remember waking up, but not going to sleep. It is... I do not know how best to explain it, please forgive me."

"I see... then let's not dwell on it further. Instead, let's move on. No point continuing here when there's nothing to continue with."

*Move on? Seriously?* Frisk thought, stunned by Gregory's words.

"Thank you." Asgore said, bowing his head slightly.

"So," Gregory began again. "you've worked hard to reach the surface. Now that you're here, what do you want?"

"Peace, and a home on the surface for my people." Asgore responded.

"That's good to hear. I'm sure everyone will be thrilled to hear you want to live in peace. As for a home, is the Underground not to your liking?"

"The Underground has been our home for a very long time, and I'm sure my people would enjoy the blue sky far more than the dark rocky ceiling that currently rests above their heads."

"I see..." Gregory said, scratching his chin. "Well then, I'm sure we could see about helping you out with that."

"I... wait, what?" Asgore said, stunned by the ease.

"Well sure. It's something that can easily be done. We just so happen to have a vast bit of space in the middle of our nation that hasn't been worked in any way whatsoever." Gregory smiled. "Mount Ebott might have been your prison, but now it should serve as a solid foundation for your new home."

Asgore looked at his fellow Monsters and Frisk, then back over at Gregory. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me just yet." Gregory said, raising his right hand a bit. "I haven't told you the price for this."

"Price?" Asgore asked.

Chara grunted. "I knew he was going to pull something like this." She said, gritting her teeth.

Frisk glanced over at her. Her eyes seemed to be on fire as she stared daggers at Gregory.

"Yes, price. We're not just going to give away all that land. You will be allowed to come up and live on the land around Mount Ebott, but all foreign affairs, as well as all legislative, executive, judicial, and martial activities will be dealt with by us."

Chara's face paled. "He's demanding everybody's jobs..." she mumbled.

Asgore, too, was stunned. After about a minute of silence, he opened his mouth.

"You're asking us to surrender our sovereignty to you..." he said.

"Is that a problem?" Gregory asked.

Asgore closed his eyes, breathing in deeply. Slowly exhaling, he opened his eyes back up.

"No." He said definitively.

Gregory smiled warmly, extending his hand as he rose from his seat. Asgore rose as well, shaking the politician's hand.

"Then it is agreed." Gregory said. "Welcome to the surface."

The three Monsters, along with Frisk, exited the room. Sans and Undyne first, followed by Asgore and Frisk. Silently, they all walked back down the steps of the massive, ornate room, and out the front doors. Immediately, reporters, blocked off by the police, began shouting questions. Nobody answered, however.

Stepping down the front steps together, Sans and Undyne vanished, with Sans reappearing moments later.

"You two ready to go?" Sans mumbled. Asgore and Frisk both nodded, prompting Sans to grab them. The nauseating feeling briefly returned as they were all teleported back up to the summit of Mount Ebott. Turning around, Sans walked into the gaping maw of the mountain.

"Frisk." Asgore said as Frisk turned to follow Sans.

Frisk looked back, staring up into Asgore's sullen green eyes.

"Thank you."

Frisk cocked his eyebrow. "What for?"

"For coming here and befriending my people. And above all, for freeing them as well."

"But I didn't destroy the Barrier."

Asgore shook his head. "Perhaps not, but I know that its destruction is tied to you somehow. I know not how that may be, but I thank you regardless." Asgore walked passed Frisk, also proceeding back into the mountain.

Frisk looked up at the cloudless, nearly-noon blue sky. "I wish I could tell him about Asriel..." Frisk mumbled to himself.

"You know that wouldn't help anybody." Chara said, her phantom form floating near the mouth of the cave.

Frisk sighed, then looked out at the towering cityscape of Sparta in the distance.

"Yeah, I know." Frisk then walked into the cave as well.

Walking through the short tunnel, Frisk soon arrived in the throne room up at the top of the Elysian Palace. Stepping over the threshold, a sudden burst of noisy celebration shocked Frisk into focus.

"Thank you, Frisk!" the small crowd within shouted.

"Wha— Whoa!" Frisk looked up at a large banner that was strewn over the opposing doorway, with massive red letters plastered across its surface, reading what the Monsters below had yelled. Between Frisk and the Monsters stood a large table, with a number of pies, along with other articles of food, lining its surface.

"Are you surprised?" Asgore asked, approaching Frisk. "I hope you were."

"Did you plan this?"

"Yes, though it was not just me. Everyone wanted to do something to show their gratitude to you."

Frisk looked back out at the Monsters that had gathered. Toriel, Papyrus, and Alphys, among others, had all gathered in the throne room, more recently joined by Undyne, Sans, and Asgore. The flowers that normally laced the floor had been replanted into planters that now hung from the walls and ceiling, or simply in midair for a few, leaving the floor's tile bare.

Try as he might, Frisk couldn't grasp words to express the happiness welling up inside of him. He figured that his face displayed his feelings for him, since Asgore walked up beside him, pat him gently on the back, then addressed the crowd in his stead.

"Monsters of the Underground." Asgore began. "Thanks to the brave actions of this young Human, Frisk, we no longer have to refer to ourselves as Monsters of the Underground. Now, if we so choose, we can refer to ourselves as Monsters of the Surface."

The Monsters broke into applause. After a few seconds, Asgore raised his hand to quell the noise.

"Although our freedom from this prison may have been a few days ago, I pronounce this day of celebration to begin!"

The Monsters roared back into cheering as they separated off to talk with one another or collect a bit of something from the central table that some called "Human food".

With the burden of focus lifted from Frisk, he thanked Asgore and made his way over to Alphys, who was talking with Undyne.

"Alphys." Frisk said when he arrived, his golden armor not making it especially easy to maneuver in the crowd.

"O-oh, Frisk." Alphys said. "You won't believe what I found on the surface. W-well, you might, but still!"

"What was it, a new anime?"

"W-w-what? No. I-I mean, th-that would have been great to find, b-but no. I c-couldn't go to any of the other cities."

"Well then what was it?"

"Mount Ebott is at the center of a massive basin. The fact that the Underground hasn't flooded in all this time is unbelievable. I-I mean, doesn't all that water go somewhere?"

Frisk shrugged. "I dunno. When'd you learn that?"

"O-oh, while you all were in that meeting. Sorry I w-wasn't able to go, w-w-with all th-that's been going on..."

"It's fine, Alphys."

Alphys suddenly perked up. "B-but you all look so cool in your armor!" she blurted out. "I w-wish you could have seen mine. I-I mean, i-it's pretty much the s-same, but with a white cape. It's so cool."

"I'll bet." Frisk said. "Maybe it's a good thing you didn't come. The Arista effectively demanded that we give up our sovereignty to them."

"Wh-wh-what!? S-s-s-seriously?"

"Yeah. My job is gone since foreign affairs is taken. Asgore's is gone since legislation and execution are taken. Sans's is gone since judication is taken. Undyne's is gone since we can't have a military anymore. All that's really left is..." Frisk trailed off at that last bit. "Wait, they didn't take our ability for scientific development."

"S-so?" Alphys asked, a bit confused by Frisk's sudden trailing.

"Alphys," Frisk suddenly said, "how are you feeling?"

"Uh, er, f-fine, I guess. Wh-why?"

"How would you feel about continuing your duties as the Royal Scientist?"

"Wh-wh-what!? M-m-m-me? N-no, no, that wouldn't be a good idea." Alphys backed away a bit.

"Why not? You're perfect for the job."

"Because I screwed up, remember? The Amalgamates?"

"Alphys." Frisk said, grabbing Alphys's shoulders firmly so she couldn't look away. "Trust me. The Arista has stripped the Kingdom of all its powers. We don't have anybody or anything except you now. You can do this."

"I can do this..." Alphys mumbled. After a second, she stared Frisk back in the eyes. "Right. I can do this!"

"That's right. Now go tell Asgore."

"I can do this!" Alphys said again, going off to see Asgore.

"That was a nice thing you did." Somebody said from nearby.

Frisk looked over, seeing Undyne leaning against the wall.

"Oh, hey Undyne." Frisk said. "Yeah, I don't really know what came over me, honestly."

"Well whatever it was, it was the right thing. She's been pretty bummed out after the whole Amalgamate thing became known. Maybe you just felt that she needed to hear it."

"Maybe." Frisk said. He then looked back over at Undyne, seeing that she was chewing on something. "What've you got?"

Undyne looked down at what was in her hand. "Don't really know. Human food for sure. The tray said 'salmon'."

Frisk coughed. "What?"

"Salmon."

"Really..." Frisk nodded slightly. "Well, I hope you enjoy it."

"Oh I am. It's *really* good!" Undyne, to give more emphasis to her statement, shoved the rest of what was in her hand into her mouth.

Frisk moved on, heading off to mingle with other guests as the celebrations continued.

As the hours wore on, Frisk eventually grew tired of the rambunctious celebrations and stepped outside to have a moment to himself. The sun was setting at this point, making it so Mount Ebott cast a great shadow on the Aiōn Woods to its east. Sparta and Mount Keep were already beginning to merge into the darkness of the sky, and a few stars were coming out as well.

"How are you feeling?" Chara asked. She had been quietly observing the celebrations all day, and Frisk figured that she, too, was quite tired of them.

"Good enough." Frisk said, sitting down near the precipice. "Just... disappointed is all."

"Disappointed?"

"The Monsters spent all that time trying to escape the Underground, and when they finally do, they're pretty much gutted by backroom politics. That thing with Alphys... that was the best I could think of; some degree of defiance against the Arista's stupid demand."

"I feel you there..." Chara sighed. "Even after all this time, after a complete change in nation, the leaders are as corrupt as ever."

Frisk perked up. "How were they before?"

"Not as they should have been. The members of the Arista of my day were almost entirely corrupt, though-and-through. All of them, except Agathé, were self-serving hypocrites, throwing away the precious principals of the Thiakāreexé too Politismoo. I wanted to hold to it, but... um..." Chara's face shifted a few shades redder, as if it were mimicking the sunset behind the mountain.

"But what?" Frisk asked.

Chara shook her head. "Nevermind. Just know that Humans have always been this way. Selfish, self-serving, hypocritical..." She looked down as she started listing off the traits again.

Frisk didn't have to guess why she trailed off; he could feel the reason why.

"Just like you saw Asgore be in those recordings..." he said. "and just like how Fl... Asriel had become those things, too."

Chara looked away.

Frisk sighed, looking back out east.

"Maybe..." he began, "maybe that's just how we all are. Or how we all can be. You've talked about that Thiakāreexé too Politismoo before, maybe its purpose is just to show a guideline on how people should behave, just like other books from other cultures."

Chara looked back over at Frisk, though he didn't notice.

"Everybody has the potential for evil, but the existence of these books shows that everyone also has the potential for good."

"You're just saying these to try and cheer me up, aren't you." Chara said.

Frisk shrugged. "Maybe. Is it working?"

"Not really. Though you have given me much to think about.

"So long as it distracts you from being depressed like that."

Chara, smiling lightly at Frisk's attempts to cheer her up, floated down beside him.

"The way you spoke of your Arista before," Frisk started again after a few minutes, "it sounded like you knew them."

Chara chuckled lightly. "Yeah, I was actually training to be one."

"Really? You, a politician?"

"Yeah." Chara said. "That all ended the day..." Chara went silent again for a few seconds, her humored smile dropping slightly. "the day I fell into the Underground."

"What happened?" Frisk asked.

Chara shrugged. "I tripped on a root and fell in."

"No, I mean what happened before that?"

Chara remained silent.

"It's okay." Frisk said after a minute. "If you don't wanna say, that's fine. But if you're ever wanting to talk about it, I'll be willing to listen."

Chara smiled warmly at him. "Thanks, Frisk."

Frisk, who had been warmly smiling back, dropped his smile a bit.

"Wait..." Frisk said suddenly, "you were wanting to be a politician."

"Yeah, and?" Chara said, confused by Frisk's sudden change.

Frisk's eyes brightened. "I have an idea." He said, standing quickly.

"What!? What is it?"

"There has always been that one thing that's haunted me all my recent life." Frisk turned southward to another towering city in the distance, backlit by the reddened sky.

"You want to fill me in?" Chara asked, staring out in the same direction.

"You're gonna help me force the Arista to clean up the crime in Athens!"