Chapter Text
Raising a child was decidedly not one of Martlet’s specialties.
On the first day, she became self-conscious about how much she had let herself go since Chujin’s Falling, even though Clover politely ignored it. Her house was a mess, inside and out, and the fact that she was the one who was willing to let Clover stay over just made her feel more ashamed. The cowpoke even helped her clean, making her feel more guilty. By the time the preliminary stuff was done, Martlet had to haul the human to a bed to make them rest, and once that was accomplished, she made her way outside her house and took to the skies - she had a mission, and only the local Librarby could assist her in it.
Thus, there she was, anxiously going through all the books on parenting she could get her hands on, only to find something… seemingly out of place.
She had been going through old audio-assist recordings, wanting to be thorough, only to find an oddly shaped square. She recognized it as a Floppy disk, but something was off. It was nearly all black, save for white writing on it that read “SGS’ Ask Me Anything Please Don’t Go”. Strange naming convention aside, she was tempted to throw it back, but… it seemed oddly compelling. Despite her better judgement, she ended up keeping it, bringing it up with her to the Librarbian.
“Are you a mother?” The Librarbian innocently asked.
“Uhhh-“ the blue bird hadn’t expected having to lie this early! “Uhm, I’m just looking after a f-friend’s kid, I-I’m very new to it all, so-“
“Oh! Babysitting? I see how it is, I can see it in your eyes that you’re serious about this, huh?”
“Uhm… sure!”
“Glad to hear!” The Librarbian remarked. “Lemme say this, I got a friend that I babysat for, too. Just love her kids, such sweet darlings. Heh, they can’t get enough of Gyftmas, either! Hah!”
Martlet nervously laughed alongside the Librarbian, starting to remember why she didn’t come here often.
“Ahh, oh well, let me check those items out for you.”
The Librarbian went through her books, only to stop and be confused at the floppy disk.
“Hm? What’s this? I don’t remember this…” She picked it up, inspecting it and grimacing. “Eugh, some kid must’ve dropped some shovelware in here to get rid of it. You keep it,” before handing it back to Martlet, whose social awkwardness prevented her from just throwing it away. After that ordeal and her books were checked out, Martlet speedily returned to her home, dumping her new books on the couch, and only then realizing she still had the floppy, but nothing to use it with.
Except… that…
It seemed sacrilegious to return to Chujin’s lab, but… it had the only computer Martlet knew of. And it wasn’t like Ceroba was going to be using it for… anything else. So, why not?
With one hastily written note explaining her absence, Martlet took off once more…
—•—
Ceroba was honestly more accepting of Martlet’s question than the bird had expected.
“Really?” She asked. “I know that’s, like, a super big ask of you…”
“No, you’re fine,” Ceroba clarified. “Clover already showed me that if I let myself be ruled by the past, I will always walk a dark road. And that begins by facing what both my late husband and I have done. Even if what happened there… well, I was going to have to face the reality of it anyway.”
“I mean, I get that, but-“
“Martlet.”
The fox took in a deep breath, slowly exhaling, and leaned forward to look the bird monster in the eye.
“What you’re doing for Clover is brave. What we’re ALL doing. If you feel that you need to use Chujin’s lab to help Clover, then by all means, go ahead. I also… raised a child, so I can help as well if need be.”
Raised. As in, used to… The pain in Ceroba’s voice was evident, and Martlet winced, knowing she just reminded the widow of what she had lost.
“…right. Thanks, Ceroba.”
The fox straightened. “Any time, Martlet. You, me, and Star are all in this together now. It’s only fair.”
Of course, by the time Martlet started down the stairs into Chujin’s lab, the second thoughts really ramped up.
This isn’t a good place…
Do you really need this?
Is this worth it?
Martlet shoved these thoughts down. It was for Clover, so of course it was worthwhile, and starting henceforth, she was going to take this seriously!
…as long as it involved copious amounts of outside help and positive reinforcement.
It took Martlet some time to realize she needed the computer to be on before it accepted the disc, and a few seconds more to remember where the I/O tray was. Slotting it in, she then realized she had to figure out how to use a computer. Staring at a screen, trying to figure out how the mouse worked in a dark basement-turned-makeshift lab wasn’t exactly how she envisioned this day going, but it had a worthy cause to its name, and the bird monster was too far in to back out now.
It took another few minutes before she found the system file icon (it was on the taskbar), and she finally found the floppy disc… at least, she thought, until she realized the disc was more of a storage thing. Clicking on it only brought up a near-empty page with a single “.exe” file named “BESTDE4LEV3R”. And like any prominent and critical-thinking computer user, she clicked on it immediately to see what it did.
For a moment, command shell prompts opened and closed very quickly in rapid succession. Then nothing else happened. Martlet frowned. Maybe that Librarbian was right in that shovelware prediction-
And then a hand came through the screen.
—•—
Ceroba liked to think of herself as a very established person. Liked to think that she was very calm and rational, decisive in times of crisis, and well-adjusted to boot.
The previous day had more or less proven that all wrong.
The disastrous way she had handled herself with Clover was nothing short of abysmal. The fact that the cowboy had even spared her after all that was a testament to the human’s Mercy, and only further served to shatter the worldview she had constructed around herself. The veneer she had about her fell apart, the curtain she put up had fallen down, and what she truly was was laid bare: an ugly, despondent SOUL, unable to truly see through the fog of grief, weaponizing her weakness in a misguided attempt to save her daughter from her own hands.
Even if what she had planned to do worked… it would have cost her everything. And terrifyingly, Ceroba wasn’t sure if she would’ve cared or not.
And yet, Clover spared her anyway.
Somehow, he had seen it all and still showed Mercy.
After that… well, Starlo and Martlet awoke after she had beaten them senseless, which already warranted her apology, but the true test was when Clover wished to give up their SOUL. That, in of itself, spawned a long argument… One that was still undecided. The only thing the three monsters had managed to convince Clover of was to give it more thought, more time, more planning. It would be a challenge to keep the deputy hidden, but between them and everyone between the Wild East and Lower Snowdin who had a positive experience with Clover, it was worth a shot.
But perhaps the most important thing was that Clover showed Ceroba that she needed to change. She had let the chains of yesterday bind her, but only now did she throw them off to live for tomorrow. Of course, now she had to deal with the residual pains that those cuffs had given her. It was to be a long and arduous process… and it was a challenge she would gladly face head-on.
The only challenge she wasn’t expecting was the terrified shriek of Martlet in Chujin’s lab.
“AAAAIIIEEEE!!”
Almost mechanically, the fox monster turned from washing the dishes to hoofing it over to the trapdoor that led down to the lab, only for Martlet to burst out of it and nearly charge right into her. Ceroba grabbed the panicking bird by her shoulders and forced her still.
“It’s coming out!! It’s coming out of the screen!”
“Woah, woah, hold on Martlet, slow down! What is- what’s going on!?”
Martlet pointed a wing finger at the trapdoor.
“There’s a f-freaky hand coming out of the computer!”
Ceroba blinked. “…what.”
“It’s TRUE!! It was all weird and staticky, and had no color and-!”
“H3Y !!”
Both monsters’ attentions were drawn to the bottom of the staircase, and the being who was standing there.
Ceroba knew monsters came in all shapes and sizes. It was how things were. But even she faltered for a moment at the small figure staring up at them.
With salmon-and-yellow colored glasses, red cheeks, and a completely monochrome black and white for everything else, the monster(?) looked like an out-of-place salesman. And last, Ceroba knew, salesmen typically came to your door, not through your basement.
There was a moment of silence before the salesman seemed to collect his wits faster.
“WHAT’S THIS?? YOU AREN’T [Frozen chicken] YOU’RE [Unthawed chicken] ! MY MIS[Stakes have never been higher!]”
“…rrrright.” Ceroba drawled. The salesman even spoke strangely. She could parse what he was saying through what seemed to be random advertising lines in his speech… she thought. He started walking up the steps as if it were a normal thing he did, barging into others' homes, and Martlet backpedaled toward the wall.
“I WOULD H0PE THAT MY [Presents under the tree] HAVE NOT [hatched] [a nefarious plot]”
“W-well, you did sorta come out of a computer screen… C-Ceroba’s, anyway…”
The salesman suddenly threw his hands up in exclamation.
“W aIT! YOU’RE [answer is… CORRRRECT!] MY [Homemade storefront site] MY [Workout ready body] MY [Shoot for the Sky!]… It’s all gone.”
For the briefest moment, it seemed like the salesman was about to break down, even his glasses changed to static. But then, they returned to their normal color, and he looked up at the two monsters with a wide, unnatural grin.
“OH WELL. THAT’s [cutthroat] BUSINESS FOR YA!1!!”
He threw back his head and cackled, while Martlet and Ceroba shared a look. Either this guy was clinically insane, or he got over things quickly. Then, he walked up fully, revealing the true depths of his shortness… it was a bit hard to look at, considering Clover.
“WOUL d YOU [fairest maidens] DIRECT ME TOWARDS THE NEAREST [Landfill: Do Not Enter]? I HAVE [Deals] AND ESTEEM CUSTOMER TO [Swindle]”
“W-wait, hold on!” Martlet exclaimed, holding out a hand as if to stop the salesman. Ceroba looked over with an arched eyebrow, and even Martlet was surprised she took initiative.
“D-do you even know how you got here?!”
“UHH…”
He looked embarrassed for a moment.
“I MAY HAVE MADE A [This Phone Number Is No Longer In Service] WITH A VERY DE4R [amigo temporal]. I GAVE THEM [Going-out-of-sale offer!] WITHOUT KNOWING THE [many adverse side effects!] BUT IT WAS ONLY FAIR.”
“Well, cool… but I let you out! Which means you owe me a favor, ‘cuz that’s how that works!”
At the mention of a “favor”, the salesman perked up. “A FAVOR!?”
He rushed up to Martlet’s side.
“[le gasp!] NOW THAT'S SOMETHING I CAN WORK WITH! YOU GOT [Guts], THE PERFECT [Gullibility] AND EVEN [Hyperlink Blocked]”
He… seemed excited, at least.
“…okay,” Ceroba sighed. “Can we put a name to your face, at least?”
“AH, WHERE ARE MY [Knives]-
“IT’S ME, EVERYBODY’S [Number1RatedSalesman1997]
“SPAM
“SPAMTON G. SPAMTON!”
“Number one…?” Martlet began.
“Rated salesman…?” Ceroba finished. “But… we haven’t heard of you before.”
Spamton looked between them both, only to realize that they were both being serious.
“…OH FOR THE LOVE OF [$#!*]”
—•—
Flowey was frustrated.
Clover had, somehow, managed to claw defeat from the jaws of victory once more. Every time the cowboy got close to the flower’s goal, he seemed to muck it up in some grand fashion. The only real difference this time around is that Clover had gone all the way through to the end of the crazy fox lady’s charade, and the three hooligans managed to convince him to think about throwing his life away. Now, the only outcomes were that he goes with his martyr complex or he lives out his life in the Underground, both of them being things Flowey already knew several times over. Stuff like that just made him pre-emptively RESET just to try again, maybe bash in Clover’s skull a few times before starting anew to work out his annoyance.
One problem: he couldn’t.
The moment he pulled up the RESET button, it… Bugged was the easiest way to explain it. It no longer glowed, now sitting like a dimmed lightbulb whenever the flower summoned it. No matter how many times he tapped, pushed, or smashed the button, it would not RESET. He could still SAVE and LOAD, but he couldn’t go all the way back. He was effectively locked into this timeline for the moment, and moving from the initial shock and anger, he started to think rationally.
First and foremost, whatever was going on was not tied to Determination; he still had the button, the button itself just wasn’t working, not to mention the SAVEs. Second, he had already taken a trip to Alphys and Asgore; the former hadn’t done any weird experiment, and the latter hadn’t absorbed the SOULs on a whim, so that ruled out outside interference he theoretically knew of. This left him with two explanations:
One, the RESET button had limited uses. Highly doubtful.
Two, another force in the world changed and somehow disrupted the button. Also doubtful.
But what else did he have? It wasn’t like he knew of the button’s machinations. For all he knew, it never really said anywhere that there was a “limited use” disclaimer. At the same time, there also was a non-zero chance that something else happened entirely, a “what if” on a scale not even the flower could’ve predicted. While both had the same effect, what worried Flowey the most was the latter… if there was a new variable at play that could hamper him, he needed it gone. But what could it be? What new thing had been added…?
His mind turned to Clover. The brat still trusted him. Whatever this new variable was… if Flowey could get Clover to help him with this case… well, it certainly would beat doing it alone. Besides, what Clover was gonna do was still up in the air… who was to say a good ol’ fashioned “please help me out” couldn’t give the flower enough time to sway the kid to the cause again?
Without a RESET, it was worth a shot.