Undertale: The Cutting Edge
A fanfiction by tashhhh
39. Author's Note
Work on the Ruins Trading Tunnel resumed in full swing the following morning. A 180cm-wide cylindrical blade with serrations cut into the stone beneath Snowdin Forest. The muscular red guy stood by the scaffold that held the drill in place and monitored its progress. A system of conveyor belts and lifts hauled dirt and stone out of the pit, while other workers were manually carving a staircase into the wall of the pit.
Sans observed the workflow going according to plan. He nodded to the other team leader. "so, if you guys are all set here, i've got another thing to take care of. i'll be in touch later on today. meanwhile, if any o' the rowdy forest dwellers give you any trouble, you know who to call... right bro?"
He looked to the perimeter of the work zone where his brother was dealing with the red Ice Cap kid.
"AYE-AYE SANS. NO TROUBLE ESCAPES THE GREAT PAPYRUS."
"I'm not trouble, I'm just an innocent little kid!" the Ice Cap kid protested.
"THEN WHY DID A BAG OF DOG TREATS FALL OUT OF YOUR HAT?"
"What?! That's not mine. I was just holding it for a friend... "
Sans left the troubles behind and went to pick up two large shipments of pastries from Muffet. He transported them to the Ruins shipping room in two trips.
*bzip
"AAH!" Coco the Froggit shrieked in surprised when Sans teleported into the room. "Oh, hello Sans. You haven't seen Dummy anywhere, have you?"
Sans disappeared and came back again 3 seconds later.
*bzip
"RIBBIT!" Coco jumped, just as startled the second time.
"i don't think so, sorry."
Coco and Buffet brought the boxes out to the area by the cafe. Sans trailed behind. Excitement and hope spread among the monsters gathered there. Buffet warned the children that only one treat per monster would be allowed.
One little yellow Froggit child was so delighted at the sight of his chocolate-and-sprinkles-covered spider donut, that tried to savor the moment as long as possible before taking a bite. Toriel walked by. Momentarily distracted by her black shadow rippling over him, the little Froggit recovered his attention and was about to eat his pastry.
"I'm still so hungry…" the Whimsum child next to him solemnly pined while looking down at the floor.
The little Froggit hesitated, looking between his pastry and the other child. "Here, you can have mine."
Toriel approached Sans, who was going over a paper with the chief of the Whimsum Construction Team. He paused their discussion. "hey tori. you look better today."
"All thanks to you, my friend," she replied with a soft chuckle.
Sans scratched the back of his skull. "nah… i couldn't have done anything without frisk. she's the real star."
"Heh…" Toriel trailed off as her eyes widened. "Sans where is Frisk?"
"oh, frisk. she's fine. i just left her with asgore this morning while i was–huh?!" he stepped backwards as uncontrolled embers erupted around Toriel's feet, while sparks flew from her clenched fists.
"You LEFT HER with ASGORE?!"
"tori calm down," Sans tried to reassure her. She began to hyperventilate.
"YOU"
"it's cool, they're buddies."
"YOU LEFT HER with"
"tori it's ok."
"ASGORE."
"he's not gonna hurt her."
"BUT SANS"
"he gave me his word." He looked into her eyes with a serious expression. Toriel struggled to compose herself, closed her eyes, and sighed.
"...I don't care. Go back there right now and check on her."
"ok," he said and began to walk away.
"Wait! Sans!" Toriel blurted out, stopping him in his tracks again. "… If you're sure she's safe, then, as long as she safe, could you keep her away from this place for a few days?"
"you're saying you don't want her to come back to the ruins now?"
"Well, it's dark and dreadful here right now. Besides, it's her weekend and she's not supposed to be working right now. I don't care if it's an emergency. That child needs a break!"
"that she does," Sans agreed.
He popped into Asgore's house. The sounds and smells of savory cooking filled the house. He strolled across the hallway towards the kitchen. "heya, just touched base with tori again. what've you guys been up to… um?"
Asgore was carrying Frisk who was lying limp in his arms. "S-sans, I can't move… everything is really sore… my entire body feels like soup."
"There there, I'm sure it will get better. You just need some rest," Asgore reassured her.
"Ah, Asgore! The onions are burning!"
"Oh!" He placed her on the counter so she could watch over his actions as he stirred the caramelized contents of the sizzling frying pan.
"The pie should be set by now so we can put the onions on top."
"Alrighty." Asgore opened the oven and took out a half-baked snail custard. He sprinkled the fried onions on top and put it back in the oven.
"You should set an extra flame on the ceiling," Frisk suggested.
Asgore looked up at the ceiling of the room in confusion, hesitantly raising his finger.
"No, I meant, the ceiling of the oven."
"Oh! Of course."
Sans rubbed his chin thoughtfully and said, "a private cooking lesson, eh? i guess it is good to be the king after all."
Frisk asked him, "Do you want to help?"
"i mean, you guys look like you just finished."
"We still have to chop some herbs for garnish," she said with an inviting smile.
So Sans stood at the counter (using a stool for height), holding down a rolled-up bundle of red leaves with his right hand, and held the Real Knife in his left hand. His fingers lightly shook.
"You're nervous? Don't worry. Just make sure you're fingers are out of the way before every single cut."
"uh, ok…" He gripped the knife firmly, about to chop through the leaves.
"Wait!"
"huh?" He froze. Trying to help him, she fell forward and caught herself with her palm on the edge of the counter. Asgore made sure she didn't fall off.
"You're holding it in a battle stance, like it's a weapon. Careful, you don't wanna activate this thing's Attack." Regardless of her difficulty moving, she scooted closer and helped him find a proper cutting grip on the knife. "There."
"ooh." He suddenly felt a lot more confident. He chopped down over the cutting board and felt the blade catch on the individual layers of the stacked herbs. They fell away in ribbons from the rest of the bundle.
"huh." He sounded pleasantly surprised at how easy it was as he sliced up the rest. "i didn't think i could do this with weak hands like mine."
"Of course you can if you have the right tool! It shouldn't take much force at all. Let the knife do all the work for you!"
Sans remembered how Frisk had struggled to prepare vegetables with a pair of scissors. "i can see why you're so happy to get this thing."
Later that day, Undyne was returning to her home, ready to settle down for some evening relaxation after the day's training session. She saw that the training dummy had returned to its usual spot in her front yard. She sighed.
"After all that, I still never got to see Frisk. Well, she's probably got more important things to do right now. I'm sure we'll get to hang out later…"
Just as she was contemplating aloud, Nabstablook floated through the wall to cross her yard on his way home.
"oooh… that's cool Undyne… I didn't know that you're also friends with the human."
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Author's Note. November 2, 2019.
Hi this is tashhhh. Thanks for reading Undertale Cutting Edge!
Thank you to every single person who gave me feedback during the writing process. I'm especially grateful to my family and friends in my personal life. I'm sometimes distant when I'm working on a project. Instead of calling you on the weekends, I write and draw. Yet you put up with my obsessive behavior. Thank you.
Now, I'm not sure if I've said this enough times… but this entire fic is a COMIC script.
Undertale: Cutting Edge or UTCE will begin being published weekly starting on Friday, November 8th! I will be cross-posting the comic to two platforms. One is my deviantart account, which you can find here: tashhhh4
The other is my personal website, which will also be published on the same day: /
Whoops, looks like the links got trashed by FFN's program. Well, you can find them on my profile.
As for the continuation of the story… in the grand scheme of things, I plan to write sequels to about 2 or 3 times the current length. I can't guarantee I'll ever actually get that far. It's likely that another project will take priority. Despite all the work I've put into it this story, it is ultimately practice for the thing that comes next.
However, even if I do continue to write the continuation of Cutting Edge, I most likely will not be writing a complete text version like I did with this fic. Writing it all out as a novel helped me learn the craft of story-writing by focusing purely on the verbal aspect without having to think about the visual aspect just yet. But by doing so I've grown as a writer, and may not need that crutch anymore. When I sit down to write the next major arc of the plot, I am hoping to do it much faster than I wrote this fic, and to skip straight from outlining and scripting to paneling and drawing.
Please enjoy this annoyingly vague teaser.
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Ring… Ring… Ring… Ring…
*click
"hey. is anyone there? well, i'll just leave a message. i hope this is the right person.
"i'd better get to the point before ya hang up on me… your kid is fine. she's gotten herself lost in a place that's not easy to return from. so, uh, don't expect her to come home anytime soon. but, even though she's stuck in a weird place, she's really doing quite well, all things considered. so hey, whatever you're going through right now, don't give up ok? who knows… maybe you'll see each other again some day?"
"Sans who are you talking to?"
"no one. … oh, whoops. this thing's almost outta batteries. i better cut this short. i can't really say much more without even knowing if this is going through properly. but if you wanna know more, just give me a call."
*click