After finally accepting that we monsters were going to be stuck in the Underground for a while, I decided to make the best of my situation- and it would be mutually beneficial to us all if I helped others make the best of their situation, too. So, after nearly three years staying sheltered in my small cave, I ventured out into what had become the monsters' home...

And I found that, while it was bigger, it was the same poor quality of living that it had been before I left. No one had thought to build as I had, they had merely taken shelter where they could find it, and grown food as best they could.

For a moment, I stood on the border of the town, if you could call it that, and stared out at it with a generally irritable, disapproving look. I did still, remember, have a quite high Lv, regardless of whether or not I was actively using it.

And then I stepped forward.

Three years is an interesting amount of time. It had been long enough that people had stopped questioning my absence, that I had long since faded from daily conversation. But at the same time, it was short enough that all but the smallest of children recognized me, knew who I was. And as I strode through the town, people pointed and shouted, quite murmurs of astonishment rippling through the crowd.

It's Dr. Gaster, they said, the Royal Scientist!

By the time I reached my destination, I had a small crowd following me around, watching to do what extraordinary thing I might do. However, I found there wasn't much I could do. The barricade that blocked the way to the rest of the Underground was still there, and, in fact, actually appeared to have been reinforced in my absence.

Muttering quite a few derogatory remarks under my breath, I gave the barricade an annoyed kick, before stalking away. The crowd split before me, then converged behind me as the people continued to follow me.

I found Asgore, Toriel, Gerson, and Dagiel, along with another fish-warrior-lady who would later become Dagiel's wife, all in one of the larger caverns. Dagiel was the only one who was facing in my direction when I approached them, and the shocked expression that covered his face would have made me laugh had I not been so irritated. On seeing his shock, though, the rest of the group turned around, and all looked similarly surprised.

I, meanwhile, stalked right up to Asgore. "You're an idiot." I spat.

Yes, you heard me right. Three years without seeing any of my friends, and those were my first words to Asgore.

The almost-happy look he had acquired on seeing me shifted to a slightly more defensive one. "Now Gaster," he began on what I can only assume was a well-prepared speech that he had thought often about in the last three years, "I understand that you're upset that I surrendered-"

"No!" I shouted, gesturing wildly. "I mean, yes, I'm still quite mad about that, but that's not what I'm talking about!"

"Then what-"

"Do you know what I've been doing for the past three years? I've been building! I've been gathering my resources, and making things the best I could! And now, when I come here, I find that in the last three years, nothing has changed! You're all sitting here on your lazy rears, thinking that any day now we're going to be freed! Well, guess what, we're not. We aren't going anywhere but this infernal pit, and you don't seem to care that people are suffering, living like this! And you have all the things, all the tools and resources available, right past that barricade, to make a freaking world of difference, but you've blocked it off, keeping us all stuck in this blasted fraction of the space available."

Asgore frowned. "Gaster, we cannot go beyond that barricade. We don't know what's out there. There could be humans."

For a moment, I could only make angry, frustrated sounds at his idiocy. Finally, "WHY WOULD A HUMAN BE IN THIS DOG-FORSAKEN PIT? They put us in here because it was a freaking PRISON. Please, PLEASE explain to my why you think ANYONE in their right mind would come down HERE!" Asgore started to protest a moment, but I cut him off, letting out another frustrated noise. "Oh, ANNOYING DOG have MERCY on me! If you're that concerned, then BUILD a FREAKING DOOR and LOCK IT. I SWEAR, you people are all TOTALLY INCOMPETENT, not to mention UTTERLY INCAPABLE of getting ANYTHING done WITHOUT ME! I honestly have NO CLUE how ANY of you are STILL ALIVE!"

I don't remember the specifics of the conversation beyond that, only that it involved a lot of shouting, insults, and swearing on my part. But, in the end, the result was enough- I convinced Asgore to take down the barricade. The monsters did want a door, first, though, and Asgore had me design a quite sturdy one. I did so, finally satisfied to be getting on to the real work.

The door was a nice one, really. Carved out of the stone that made up the purplish walls of the Ruins (I still refuse to call that place "Home"), it was a good four inches thick, and rested on a perfectly balanced mechanism that made it swing open nearly soundlessly, nearly effortlessly. And when it was locked from the inside, it was near impenetrable.

And then, once the door was fitted in place of the barricade, then I finally could set out to explore the rest of the Underground.

§

A/N

Gotta be honest, angry Skelejerk is one of my favorite things to write.

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