No One is Happy with This (Undertale)

72 ~ Demonstration of Power

Soon enough, you're back in school. Unfortunately, it looks like Toriel failed to convince Gaster to come teach sciencey things. You had kinda hoped he would have come; you think it would be fun learning from him. You have no doubt a class taught by Gaster would completely dispel the normal boredom of sitting in school all day.

But alas, Gaster is not a teacher at Ebbot Middle School.

A few weeks into January, though, you see Gaster's prediction was true- Elise has most definitely got a baby bump. She's also unendingly happy, and doesn't appear to be capable of any facial expression other than a smile. You ask her if she knows if it's a boy or girl yet, and she tells you she and Matt are waiting to find out so it's a surprise. You ask if they've chosen names, yet, and while she confirms that some ideas have been tossed around between her and Matt, she refuses to tell you what they are.

And then you walk into school one day to hear it announced on the intercom that everyone will be meeting in the gym for a school assembly.

When you walk in you see half the gym is taken up by folding chairs, and the other half is occupied by three folding tables, each with an assortment of equipment on it.

You think you know where this is going. Someone is going to be giving a demonstration.

You are surprisingly unsurprised when you see Gaster walk in and stop behind the tables, surveying the provided equipment. A hush falls over the room as he reaches forward and picks up a handful of papers, eyes skimming over them. You see him snort, his expression changing to one of contempt, and you can guess that it's some kind of script on what he's supposed to be follow (why he didn't read it earlier and come in more prepared, you don't know, but hey, it's Gaster.)

Eventually, he looks up, gaze finding Toriel, who's standing at the back of the room. "Come on," he says to her, "you can't seriously be expecting me to do this. When I agreed to come put on this demonstration, I did so with the intent of maybe fitting some useful information into these kids' heads, not helping you stuff them full of even more pointless crap. There is no way on this dog forsaken planet that I'm ever going to teach this stuff." Then, ignoring Toriel's protest, he tosses the papers over his shoulder where they vanish into a black puddle on the floor that immediately vanished itself. "Sans!"

"yeah?" Sans' voice comes from... somewhere in the gym, you're not entirely sure where.

"Remember that project we were talking about a few days ago? The one with the Magic-infused nitroglycerin and the snail shells?"

"yyyyup."

"Can you grab that stuff for me?"

"sure."

There's a slightly awkward two minutes where Gaster is just standing behind the tables, waiting for Sans. Awkward, that is, for the audience; you're not sure Gaster is even capable of awkward.

Then Sans is walking in through the large gym doors, pulling a cart with an insulated tank on it, the kind you see used for storing hazardous chemicals. There's also a big crate on the lower shelf of the cart that presumably has snail shells in it, and several other boxes with other supplies.

As soon as all the supplies are laid out on the table and Gaster has managed to convince Toriel to stop protesting his deviation from the script, the Royal Scientist seizes upon his tools and, with a mildly disconcerting grin, begins his demonstration.

After a quick explanation that Magic-infused nitroglycerin is a highly explosive material, even more so than normal nitroglycerin, he proceeds to blow a hole in one of the tables. It's not an especially huge explosion, but it's startling nonetheless, and now one of the plastic tables has a hole in it, the edges still dripping with molten plastic.

Everyone stares at the table.

Then Gaster just shrugs, his grin returning quickly. "I mean, you can buy a table like this for, what, ten bucks? Not a problem. Anyway! As I was saying..."

And he continues on with the demonstration.

Despite the occasional interruption from Toriel to get back on track, please! Gaster's demonstration takes the entire school day. And hoooo-boy, is it an exciting one! He proceeds to cause a variety of explosions, each brighter, more colorful, more awesome than the last.

And then, at the end of the day, just for the heck of it, he blows up all of the tables, laughing maniacally like a super villain as you and your schoolmates cheer him on as loyal henchmen (henchchildren?). At that point, still laughing wildly, Gaster allows Toriel to escort him away, leaving behind a still-burning pile of tables, which one of your teachers, a water elemental monster, steps forward to put out.

Then you're all being led out of the gym, on the premise that apparently plastic releases toxic fumes when burned, or something like that. You don't know.

All you do know is that you really wish Gaster was a teacher at your school.

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A/N

I was gonna write another story here about a small mouse versus the villainous Writer's Block, but guess what got in the way...

Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it! Comments and votes are my Favorite Things, and every notification I get makes my day!