Royal Slip

Corporeal

Mettablook floated into Dr. Alphys' lab, with King Asgore with apprehension. It was his eighteenth birthday, and he was finally going to become 'Mettaton'. The name change just to make him sound more intimidating.

Alphys, of course, was nowhere to be seen. So Mettablook floated straight up through the ceiling and ended up on the second level right next to the lizard monster.

"Ahem." As she usually was, she was watching some sorta crappy cartoon. Or what she liked to call, 'anime'.

She glared at him. "W-Watching anime h-here..." Yuck.

Mettablook, unfortunately, could not do anything about this. Very early into their relationship, Alphys had demonstrated a shocking ability. Literally. She had actual electricity magic.

King Asgore had joined them on the upper level by then.

"Alphys."

The short yellow monster looked up at the king. "Y-Yes, Y-Your Majesty?"

"There is a time for everything, and that-" The king gestured to Alphys' shitty angsty gore shonen. He clearly disapproved, and it was of something other than Mettablook for once! "-is not now."

Alphys glared at Mettablook, apparently blaming him for every problem in her life, and shut off the anime. She stood up. Mettablook held back a laugh, he hadn't realized she was sitting down because she was THAT short. Well, he wasn't much bigger, but who the hell cared.

"I just want to get my present, I've already waited a year." Mettablook couldn't keep the excitement out if his voice.

"A-And you can wait another..." Alphys muttered under her breath. Mettablook started to say something but Asgore addressed him before he could get the words out.

"Mettablook, you do know the implications of this, yes?"

Mettablook had a feeling there was an actual important answer to that question, but right then he couldn't think of it. Well... Maybe this could work?

"...I'm going to be totally awesome?"

Asgore sighed, sounding exasperated and disappointed at the same time. "As a corporeal entity, you will no longer be immune to physical attacks."

Mettablook winced. He knew that was a long shot, damnit... He should've thought of that. He'd be vulnerable, wouldn't he?

The king chose that moment, whether purely coincidental or entirely intentional, to crack his knuckles. Mettablook tensed. Vulnerable to worse punishment than he'd ever received...

He turned around and floated over to where Alphys was connecting wires to the physical form they'd created. There had to be a magical shock to force combine Metta's SOUL entirely with it, making him corporeal forever.

And of course it would hurt.

He started examining the body, trying not to hear what Asgore was now saying to Alphys.

"So, Alphys, how'd you like to design me some new branding irons?" Yikes. Asgore's branding irons... Mettablook had never paid attention to them. He couldn't be branded. But soon...

"I-I mean, I g-guess I could..." Alphys' tone was thoughtful. None of the disdain she had when talking to Mettablook. Almost more like... Did she have a crush on Asgore?? "J-Just tell me what you h-have in mind?"

"Our current ones are just standard steel, which has led to some severe heat warping," explained Asgore. "I'd like them to be able to get significantly hotter, to be more permanent, more noticeable, and most importantly more painful. The current shape works just fine."

Mettablook got more on edge every word Asgore spoke.

Alphys had stopped configuring the body and readying it for Mettablook, and was taking notes. "Sh-Shouldn't be too hard... I'll get them to y-you in a few days." She glanced at Mettablook and connected one last wire. "It's ready, ghost."

Not a ghost for much longer, bitch.

Mettablook floated right up to the body and hesitated. Oh, maybe it would be better to just stay a ghost... So many things could go wrong, plus he'd be more vulnerable if it worked...

"Do it." Asgore commanded. Mettablook had no choice. The king was not to be argued with.

He floated into the robotic body, eyes shut tight, like one would do with possession.

He felt a few seconds of electrical pain right in his SOUL and suddenly everything felt different.

He opened his eyes.

His vision was sharper, and it seemed as though his photoreceptors picked up every small movement. He could tell everything he saw was being stored as data in his memory files. He could hear every sound, and a background program was analyzing and identifying every single one.

The tapping of Alphys' claws. Asgore's breath. Electrical whirring from my own systems. A mouse squeaking in its hole. It's the same mouse I yelled at for stealing my cheese earlier, its squeaks have the exact same frequency.

Alphys, without warning, disconnected the wires holding him in place. Mettaton stumbled forward, barely managing to stay on his heeled feet. His legs shook, threatening to give way. He'd never had to hold himself up like this, he was so heavy!

It was a good thing he had a training program that would run until he could function on his own.

He raised his arm, finding it was just the same feeling as when he'd been able to levitate objects as a ghost, which he'd apparently lost upon becoming corporeal. The same movement. Only it was heavier now.

Asgore was watching him in a curious manner.

"How does it feel?"

"L-Like..." Mettaton looked for the words. "Like nothing I've ever felt before... Solid. Constricting. Heavy."

"One would imagine." Asgore's tone reflected his expression.

"Y-You'd better be glad we DID use the Echo Flower nectar, th-then..." Alphys smirked smugly at him. Mettaton had thought it was a dumb idea to use the blue flower's nectar to lighten him. But now, he realized, if they hadn't used it, he would be so much heavier.

"C-Can you run the test program?" Alphys moved close to him, inspecting his body to make sure all looked right.

Mettaton turned on the test program that would cue him which feature to activate and when. It served to both teach him about his own features and to show Alphys how well he worked.

He started to stumble through the test program, the first thing being to walk in circle.

"I-It could be a while before he's r-ready for any human killing, Y-Your Majesty..." Alphys directed the statement at Asgore as she took notes on her clipboard.

"We do not have control over if and when a human falls."

No humans had fallen for as long as Mettaton could remember... He'd be fine. Probably. He hoped with his entire SOUL. Because if he wasn't ready when the human fell...

"What'll happen if I'm not ready?"

"Depends on how badly you disappoint me." Asgore's message was clear. Don't fail.

Mettaton wouldn't. He couldn't.

He would NOT let his king, the only person he'd ever cared to impress, down.