The Old College Try

[mansbestend]

Sender: Denji
To: Everyone
Subject: i write in the book and people read this???


OK so

I had a genius idea and wanna test sumthin

someone come swing at me. one guy and one girl. kick my ass if you want.

then we go eat or whatever after. i dunno.

Comments

[your_best_friend]

No, not like video games. Like real life. Monsters fight like this all the time. It's the video games that copied us.

[Flowey is 100% serious right now.]

Anyway, I'll just go ahead and start the battle. Ready?

[mansbestend]

Uh, sure.

[So, what happens? Does he turn into a-]

[your_best_friend]

[Nope. What he might see is a very confusing first for him. Welcome to the battle screen where everyone is black and white!]

This here is a battle! See that little heart of yours around here? That's your SOUL, the very culmination of your being! Usually, you move it around to avoid attacks, but you've said you wanted to be attacked for something. Got things straight so far?

[mansbestend]

[Oh. Ohhh this is weird, what was goin' on...!? Don't mind his SOUL kinda wiggling about a bit. It's split into two colors.

...He knew video games, this would be fine!!]

[your_best_friend]

[Why, yes, that double-colored SOUL is intriguing! Very, VERY intriguing! This is the first time he's ever saw a SOUL like this. But Flowey doesn't allow himself to be distracted right now.]

...I'll take that as a yes! Now... Don't move.

[Suddenly, a thin red box as tall as the movement area with a red exclamation point and a warning sound appears directly over the position of the heart. A vine shoots up and encompasses the entire area of where the warning area was a second later. It's up to Denji if he wants to dodge it or not.]

[mansbestend]

[Don't move? Okay, so what-

He twitched, fight or flight response kicking, but he bore down and took a smack with the vine. This was some old-timey stuff from the last decade for sure, all black and white but with vague splashes of color.]

Shit, you hit hard for a little flower! But okay, I get it... so I pick one of these options and take a turn, right? What's CHECK do...?

[Fuck it, he can take the chance. ACT, then CHECK.]

[your_best_friend]

Golly, taking the initiative to try things out! I like you. Okay! This would normally be the turn I attack you, but first... Did what you want to happen happen?

[mansbestend]

Right, yeah. Lemme see.

[ACT... oh! Pull!! PULL.

A sputter of an engine, then... Nothing. Then music.]

...Fuckin'...! Alright, try hittin' harder!

[your_best_friend]

[Flowey lets the human have two turns in a row, partly because he's trying to help this person do... something.]

Oooookay, buddy! Like last time, don't move!

[Like last time, the warning sound comes up, but lasts only around half the time and would deal more damage.]

[* How much HP does the human have, Flowey wonders...]

1/2

[mansbestend]

[Enjoy your sturdy punching bag, Flowey. Denji is still for the next hit, but is alarmed to feel that next whallop. The fuck!? what's this guy made of?

Uhh, maybe not ask him to go even harder... note to self. Pochita, come on, he's not gonna hurt this plant but he needs to know you're okay.

You... ARE okay... right? Please be okay.

ACT. PULL.

An engine fired. Roared. A familiar pain grew somewhere in that blackness, and then burst.]

2/2

[mansbestend]

HAHAHAH... I KNEW YOU WERE OKAY! HAHAHAHAHAAH!

[The SOUL shuddered, shifted color to a solid orange, and he just felt so... so goddamn good.]

Be glad you're not a bad guy, or I could go for some serious gardening!

[your_best_friend]

[Flowey burrows into the ground then pops up inside the attack area, basically breaking the rules, but whatever. He leans in close to examine and prod at the SOUL without doing any sort of damage and he looks very interested.]

Golly, never in all the thousands upon thousands of years I've existed, I've never seen a SOUL capable of doing what you did! This is amazing! How long have you been able to do this?

[mansbestend]

[Squish squish goes the soul. Smells like blood and dogs.]

Hehhh...? For a few months I guess, yeah. I made a promise to my best friend. Got worried when it didn't work, 'cause how the fuck was I gonna fulfill it??

[your_best_friend]

Then you can rest easy knowing that it works perfectly fine. Still, it's extremely fascinating!

[Flowey burrows into the ground and returns to where he belongs.]

You want to continue to FIGHT or do you want this to end?

[mansbestend]

Yeah, it is pretty badass, huh!?

Naaah, we're done. This form's made for killin' devils and I'm not about to take up gardening.

[He just needs a minute to relax, take a breath... the SOUL shudders and the color fades back into two tones. He felt his face becoming a weird liquid as the helmet melts off, but he can't see himself changing otherwise.]

Besides, we gotta eat!

[your_best_friend]

Fine by me! All you got to do in a battle like this is to SPARE someone whenever their name is yellow.

[If MERCY is chose, Flowey's name is indeed yellow. And if spared, the fight will end.]

[mansbestend]

[Oh, that's what MERCY is for. Name was yellow... okay, he selects it.

He gasped and patted himself when the fight ended.]

Whoa...! So all fights go like that for you? Whoever you face is a little heart?

[your_best_friend]

First off, it's a SOUL. And no, monsters just usually battle and having their SOULs be targeted. It's actually a good way to have a conversation, too. Magic attack conversations.

Up until I was taken to Kansai, that type of battling was all I knew of.

[mansbestend]

"Attack conversations"...

[Oh, Kansai. That's a few hours by train. He folded his arms.]

The hell kinda battles were you havin' out there?

[your_best_friend]

In Kansai...? Well... not me specifically, but there was this thing where me and a bunch of criminals were given incentives to murder each other and try to get away with it without getting caught. That's how I found out you humans didn't really do normal battles.

[What a bombshell!]

[mansbestend]

Uh...huh. You survived by pretending to be another daisy, I bet.

Then everyone you take out turns to fertilizer.

[your_best_friend]

Actually, I didn't kill a single person there. In fact, I SAVED someone from dying. Liv said I might've been the only Zendama there, everyone else Akudama.

The local police station was being raided by the others. I went in to check things out. Someone was trapped under rubble.

* But somebody came.

I was the one that SAVED them. I could have easily killed them and taken their SOUL, but I didn't.

[mansbestend]

Do you... usually kill em and take their SOUL? Ya make it sound like it was a tough choice to make in the rush of stuff.

[your_best_friend]

I admit I had grown bored of mindless slaughter and speedrunning killing people long before I was kidnapped to Kansai.

...

I just thought... "What would Frisk do"? And I SAVED them.

[mansbestend]

Yeah, you uh... should keep that question in your head. Shows you have a heart if you choose to help people instead of... speedrunnin killin' 'em.