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The Outer Realms -- Chapter 21

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Chapter Twenty-One:

A Visit

—----

“It was a delightful visit;-perfect, in being much too short.”

― Jane Austen, Emma

—-

Morabito stretched as he watched Cyberberry play with the stuffed rabbits belonging to Katagma. The toddler played what he called ‘Attack of the Bunnies’, in which there are Hero Bunnies, and Villain Bunnies trying to take over the kingdom and marry Princess Bunnabella of the Bunny Kingdom. He was watching as Sir Bunnalot fought Bunnalad for the hand of Bunnabella, when he heard his phone go off.

It was from Occultatum.

Sighing, he got up, walked a small distance away from the show and answered the phone.

“Yeah?” Morabito answered.

“Alright, it should be time for the overgrown tangerine’s friends to come over. Their magic signature is already allowed in and recognised as non-hostiles. Go ahead and have them come over.” Occultatum stated.

“On it.” Morabito said.

“How’s Cy doing?”

“Oh, good, he’s playing with Kata’s rabbits.” Morabito sighed.

“The Bunnabella thing again?”

“... I’m not going to ask how often that has to be in order to be a thing.” Morabito frowned, “I’ll talk to you later.”

“WATCH OUT, BUNNABELLA! AAAAAHHH—” Cyberberry tossed Bunnalot at Morabito’s feet, making explosions and growling noises with his mouth, “HE’S GOOOOONE!!!” The toddler then made his voice higher, an imitation at a woman’s voice, but not quite there. “NOOOOOOO!!! I was going to marry hiiimmmm! What will my neighbors think!?!?!?”

He could hear Carrot cackling at the toddler’s storytelling, the taller skeleton pressing his face into a pillow to stifle his wheezing. Morabito hung up the phone and shook his head. Bunnabella should’ve chosen a better fighter.

“Hey, Carrot, the time is up, we can go get your brother and friend to bring them over.” Morabito exclaimed. “Though, we’re going to have to take Cy on the trip, Occult will kill me if we leave him here.”

Cy looked up at Morabito in confusion, pausing his playing – looks like Bunnabella was going in for revenge before the pause.

“CURSE YOU, DWAGON! TENS OF HUNDREDS OF– OF MORE TENS OF CURSES! GRRRRR!!!”

The toddler genius took a second to twist the bottom of an orange mechanical crayon, extending the thinned crayon like an equally impractical sword and put it in Bunnabella’s hand, then waved it towards Morabito. “GET BACK IN YOUR CAAAAAAAVE!!!”

Morabito looked over at Carrot who had finally decided oxygen was no longer an option but a necessity. They both made eye contact and he glanced down at Cy. Carrot nodded, grinning like a madman.

“Grrrrrr.” Morabito growled playfully as Carrot slowly tiptoed behind Cyber. “Never! Not in your life!”

“BACK, I SAY!”

“Not until you come with me!” Morabito lowered himself to Cy.

“RAWR! NOW SHE’S MINE, ALL MINE!” Carrot exclaimed, scooping up Cy and Bunnabella, “SHE WILL ALWAYS BE MIIIIIINE!!!! NYEHEHEHEH!”

“NOOO!!!” Morabito exclaimed like a defeated villain, “NOT THE KING OF DRAGONS!”

“YES, IT IS I, THE KING OF DRAGONS!” Carrot cackled, “I WILL REIGN OVER THIS KINGDOM FOR THE REST OF ETERNITY, AND THERE IS NOTHING YOU, A MERE DRAGON PEASANT, CAN DO ABOUT IT!!!!”

Morabito pretended to fall defeatedly, as Carrot spun around with Cy in his arms, both him and the toddler giggling gleefully, and Morabito also started laughing. Truly, the Saga of Bunnabella’s Adventures will have to continue later on.

Carrot sighed, letting Cy climb from his arms to his shoulders, the bunny plushie in tow. He clicked his tongue, then spun on his heel towards the closest exit. “Alright! We gotta return to the mines now!”

Morabito rolled his eyelights, “But we have to visit your Queen first, before we get the others.”

“We get to meet a Queen?!” Cyber exclaimed.

“Yep!” Morabito nodded.

He opened a shimmering gold portal and nodded towards it for Carrot to go through and then went in himself.

—-----

They were in the Judgment Hall of the Queen’s Castle. Cyber looked around, leaning in Carrot’s arms to look here and there, blue eyelights as wide as saucers.

“You lead the way,” Morabito said, “Last time I met a ‘Swap Queen variant, I ... .uh… I’d rather not talk about it.”

He would never talk about the first time he met Outerswap’s Queen. Not even if he was threatened with death itself. Not even if he was being tortured. Never. NEVER. It was better to be safe than sorry.

Carrot blinked at him, then shrugged, “Alright, buddy, you don’t need to stress it,” he lifted Cy so he could properly sit on his shoulders and turned around from where they were initially facing, continuing down the hall towards the Queen’s throne room.

At least it was called a throne room, but Queen Toriel had customized the place to balance all of her personal hobbies while she was technically working. Carrot didn’t understand how she could stay focussed with all her interests in the same place as the mandatory tasks that bored her, but whatever she did to keep herself centered in the world was a necessary confusion.

At least she kept the place tidy and sorted. Carrot had once thought everything was sorted in alphabetical order too, but upon closer inspection, she wasn’t that uptight. Unlike the sentient kaleidoscope in place of Outerswap’s Royal Archiver, Underswap’s Queen Toriel actually had enough sanity to not be pretentious like that. Cookbooks stayed on the shelves in no particular order aside from topic, notes and official documents stayed on the desk in the corner, a few books from the Surface about bird watching remained with them, along with spare pictures of Chara, and knitting supplies… Carrot didn’t recall where they used to be, perhaps in the Queen’s personal quarters now, since he knew it was a way she coped with stress and trauma whenever baking wasn’t an option.

The Queen herself was organizing paperwork that she seemed less than half interested in. She also seemed to have not slept for the last few days. Already, her white fur appeared to have acquired a gray tinge to it, and the slight bags under her eyes looked to have doubled, like she completed a week’s worth of work without a wink of sleep and lived off Snowdin convenience store candies the whole time through.

All of this to say that even though she continued to dress in accordance with her role, she looked like shit.

Carrot sighed, catching Bunnabella as Cy let out a gasp at the sight of the new room and dropped the stuffed animal inadvertently. He didn’t let the toddler down like the kid probably wanted him to.

“Special delivery! Someone called for a slacker, a toddler, and a joykiller!” Carrot announced, handing Cy back the bunny plush, “You look like you’ve been busy, Queen Fluffball!”

The Queen in question stood up from her desk immediately, not quite processing who exactly was present in her throne room until she turned around to look at the lanky Judge. She gasped in excitement, then relief. “Papyrus! I’ve been so worried!” she put a paw to her chest as she exhaled a breath that she felt as though she had been holding for the past few days.

“Yeah, nyheh… I figured. Sorry about that.” Carrot gave her an apologetic look, then once again had to grab Cy’s ankle to keep him from leaning over too far and falling off his shoulders.

Cy covered his mouth, “Dat’s the Queen?”

“Yep”, replied Carrot, “That’s the Queen. Wanna say hi?”

“Yeah!” Cy said, almost bouncing on Carrot’s shoulders.

Carrot carefully lifted Cyber off of his shoulders and placed him down onto the ground on his feet. Toriel watched with immense curiosity and amazement at how adorable the little skeleton was. He hid behind Carrot’s leg for a second before mustering up the courage to walk up a few steps and give a small bow.

“Nice to meet you, your fwuffyness.” Cy said politely.

Toriel gave a small curtsey and giggled, “Nice to meet you too! And who might you be?”

“I’m Cyberberry! My big broder has a librarary and and and–”

The toddler began bouncing where he stood, the little antenna on his head standing upright. Carrot kneeled down to give him a pat on the head. “Relax, buddy, you don’t need to rush.”

Morabito couldn’t help but snicker at the toddler’s enthusiasm and excitement. The Queen seemed to agree with Morabito's joy on the matter.

“Aw, don’t worry, he’s just excited.” she walked over and also patted Cyber on the head, “I take it you had fun with Carrot, right? He didn’t cause any trouble did he?”

Morabito shook his head and watched as Cyber continued to talk the Queen’s ears off.

“Wanna hold Bunnabella? She fights dragons!” Cy stood up on the tips of his toes to show his bunny plush to the Queen, and Carrot noted the soft sparkle in her eyes that she always had towards children. It was sorrowful and nostalgic, but ultimately peaceful.

If only Chara were here.

“Sure, dear.” she smiled and held the doll close to her chest. “Must be a very strong warrior, like our head of the Royal Guard.”

Cy nodded enthusiastically.

Toriel stood up and looked over at Carrot and Morabito, “So I take it, you both are here to take Undyne and Sans?”

Morabito rubbed the back of his head, “Yeah.”

“I went ahead and scouted out the area,” Carrot started, “While there are threats, we have thorough boundaries of defense already set up. The chances of death out there are second to none so long as we stay with the right people, Morabito included. Dream was in critical condition, but his health improved drastically thanks to the help we received from someone who knew the person responsible for it. We have yet to hear back from Ink, though. At this point I doubt we will.” “Mmm…” The Queen hummed in heavy thought, “I suppose it can’t be helped. Their activity was always sporadic…” She looked down at the stuffed animal in her hands, giving it a gentle squeeze, the fabric and faux fur a soft texture on her filed claws. The doll was old and smelled of ancient paper with just a tinge of something else. But despite its age, it was in pristine condition.

“Are you still sure you, Sans, and Undyne want to do this, Papyrus?” Queen Toriel handed Cy back the plushie, giving him an admiring smile before turning to Carrot and Morabito, her tone gaining a slightly more stern tone. “I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you too.” Carrot stuffed his hands into his hoodie pocket, letting his shoulders go slack. “You won’t lose any of us.” “Do you swear?” The tallest skeleton’s body seemed to stiffen as if he were struck by a subtle bolt of lightning, eyesockets widening for a moment. Even though the chances of harm and death were… bleak according to what he saw so far, he gathered that intel from the environment of Outerswap’s Library and Occultatum, nothing else. Truthfully, if his calculations did not hold up, any casualty would be on his head. And considering all the horrors the multiverse held, all the possibilities he hadn’t even thought of yet, his idea of chances will never be set in stone. They would constantly fluctuate.

Damn his negligence, but it’s not like his highness will really know. He’d just have to work overtime to ensure Indigo and Undyne’s safety. “I swear it.”

“I swear too,” Morabito spoke up, “I’ll ensure that we double any defense we can to ensure that your subjects are as safe as can be.”

The Queen seemed to relax a bit, but her clear skepticism remained. “Alright then, you all may go.”

Carrot scooped up Cyberberry and put a hand on Morabito’s shoulder, teleporting them all to Snowdin.

—-----

Truthfully, he could have sent them straight inside his house, but Carrot wanted to take his time. After all, the cycle of time varied wildly between the inner multiverse and the Outer Realms, and the day-night cycle of Outerswap was practically nonexistent. The length of a single day in that place stretched on for dozens and dozens of hours. Three days in Underswap didn’t compare in any way to half a day in Outerswap from the Outer Realms.

Everything on Snowdin looked normal until they passed the convenience store, which wasn’t locked down and barricaded the last time Carrot was here. The rate of crime in Snowdin was nearly nothing at all. He wouldn’t have questioned it if he saw the same sight in Hotland and New Home’s cities, though.

He ended up shrugging it off and proceeding to his house, leaving Morabito to keep an eye on Cyberberry.

Carrot fished the keys to the front door from one of his short pockets and unlocked the doorknob. He didn’t go in, though. He recognized Edge’s claw marks on the wood of the door, which he knew were always made by complete mistake and indirect aggression. Indigo pretended not to mind it, but Carrot knew his brother better than to accept that. This door needed replacing.

Much to Morabito’s confusion, Carrot took a step back, then effortlessly kicked the door off its hinges, the old slab of detailed wood falling flat on the floor with an all too loud CRASH, and the first thing Carrot heard was Edge’s scream coming from the living room, which was a badly-disguised yelp.

To Carrot’s surprise, Edge had a gaster blaster summoned and aiming at the door, Undyne was there with a spear, shaking nervously, and Alphys had her axe at the ready. The colossal lizard growled, lowering her weapon once she noticed who it was, “WHY THE HECK WOULD YOU DO THAT, PAPYRUS!? THAT’S YOUR FREAKING FRONT DOOR, MAN!”

Carrot shrugged, “It needed to be replaced anyway.” He grabbed another candy stick to hold between his teeth.

Edge de-summoned his weapon, flopping back onto the couch like a deflated balloon, “I can’t fuckin’ believe you did that, Paps, you idiot!”

The orange-hooded skeleton walked over to the couch and placed a pillow on Edge’s face, stifling any other curses. “Careful, bro, there’s a child here.” The Underfell skeleton roughly smacked the pillow away, eyesocket twitching, “Wait, fer real? Since when did you of all people get a kid?” “Oh believe me, it’s not mine.” Carrot replied nonchalantly, then plopped down on the empty space next to him.

“He is actually insane…” Morabito mumbled.

“He’s just like taty!” Cy smiled.

“CY?!” Muffet exclaimed from the top stairs of the house, she practically ran over and swiped him out of Morabito’s arms while also dragging the mobster into the house. She was close to squeezing the baby as she nuzzled the giggling toddler and dragged the mobster by the back of his shirt. “Oh I missed you~!”

“Hi auntie Muffy!” Cyber squealed. “Taty says ‘hi’!”

Morabito wasn’t happy about the situation and thus stayed silent, not wanting to end up dead and gone like Edge would probably be if Cy picked up on the f-word.

“Whose baby is that?” Undyne asked as she desummoned her spear.

“Oh this handsome little man, is the adopted brother of Occultatum!” Muffet held out Cy who waved at the couple. “Doesn’t he look just like Indie?!”

The skeleton in question, as if on cue, leaned right out of his bedroom door with the most discombobulated look on his face. Did they bring another Sans from another universe to his house? He’d heard Papyrus’s introduction of chaos, as his little brother always was like that, but bringing random people home wasn’t always his thing.

Indigo cleared his throat, attracting the attention of everyone downstairs as he leaned over the railing. “I heard my name? What business requires the attention of the MAGNIFICENT SANS, PRODIGY OF THE ROYAL GUARD? MWEHEHEHEH!!!”

“Look! They’re practically twinsies!” Muffet exclaimed as she held up Cy a bit higher so Indigo could see.

“Well if you dial back Sans to when he was a toddler, yeah they could be.” Undyne mused.

“OH MY GOD HE’S ADORABLE,” Indigo shouted, jumping over the railing and landing on his feet right behind the living room couch. The armored skeleton’s blue-purple eyelights dilated, then shifted into the shape of stars. He looked about ready to self-destruct from the amount of cute aggression he was feeling, but refrained.

He and the child locked eyes, staring into each other’s souls as if scanning the other skeleton for weaknesses, impurities, anything that constituted a worthy challenge— and then the toddler grabbed Indigo’s face, sandwiching his cheeks between two tiny hands covered completely by sleeves that were way too long for him.

“Hi! I’m Cyberberry!” Indigo breathed in, his eyelights returning to their normal shape, “Folks, I think I’ve met my match. This infant has defeated me! My life is flashing before my eyes!”

He feigned weakness, his face slipping out of Cyberberry’s grasp as his body sank to the floor dramatically enough to put Napstaton’s antics to shame.

“I’m melting! MELTING! OH, WHAT A WORLD!!!”

Cyber could only giggle little ‘mwehehehehs’ at the act, to the point he was brought to tears.

“That’s my Cy! The cutest baby in the multiverse!” Muffet grinned. “Oh. I should make him some outfits to look like you and Edge! It would be so cute!!!”

Edge shot up from the couch and stared at Muffet in pure horror, but Morabito stopped him from saying anything with a sharp glare as if to say ‘don’t you dare’.

Undyne nodded with Muffet’s idea, “Oh yeah that would increase the cute factor by at least 200%. You got my full support in this endeavor! What about you, Alph?” The draconic lizard huffed, more out of uncertainty than any intended aggression, “Meh…? He’s cute, but I don’t know what else to say. I’m still new to all this multiverse stuff.”

The scientist gave her a supportive pat on the shoulder, “That’s okay, babe, just wanted to include you.”

“So uh,” Edge began, “How soon do you guys haveta go?”

“Whenever they’re ready to head out, we can go.” Morabito shrugged.

Muffet nodded, “Yep! So, ladies, what do you think?”

“I’m ready, I already have all my documents, and my computer!--” before Undyne could finish, Alphys cut her off.

“Nope! You’re forgetting this.” the draconic lizard held out her axe.

“I can’t carry that!” Undyne exclaimed, “I don’t have all my anime magical girl muscles yet!”

Indigo sighed from behind them, “I’ll carry it. I have all the muscles in spirit!” “Happy you’re here, Sans!” Alphys nodded, then unceremoniously dropped the axe in his waiting hands. Indigo struggled with its weight for a moment, then settled for balancing it over his shoulders. No matter how much he trained, no amount of weight lifting seemed to beat the might of Alphys’ axe. Indigo didn’t register how Alphys thought Undyne would manage to take this thing with her, but he didn’t feel like questioning it. In fact, he walked straight out the hole where the front door once was with it.

He’s… gonna have a talk with Papyrus regarding that.

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