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

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.

[your_best_friend]

[...]

[Flowey should feel touched at the advice. He knows he should appreciate the advice.]

[But nothing happened.]

[Flowey still has a long way to go.]

I had done everything else there was to do beforehand. But... yeah, you're right.

[The game between Flowey and the metaphorical Chara inside of him continues...]

[mansbestend]

I mean, even if you're bored of everything else. Ya might wind up likin' what comes out of it way more than the kill.

[He shrugged.]

[your_best_friend]

I have the power to LOAD to earlier SAVE points. Even if I've seen what the outcome is thousands upon thousands of times play out the exact same way? Buddy, I have the personalities and lines of dialog of the entirety of all the monsters memorized, right down to the slightest deviation.

But I also know that I don't need to RESET anymore. After all, I have the knowledge that other timelines exist! I won't be growing bored for quite a while.

[mansbestend]

Ohhhh... so you're kinda like one'a those nerds that has book knowledge of their favorite game.

I don't think I'd wanna LOAD and SAVE early points, myself. Lotta past shit can stay way back there for all I care. I'm good with a solid run makin' the best decisions I've got.

[your_best_friend]

A solid run making the absolute best decisions and ending with everyone happy? At least six thousand times for me. And then the killing happened and then the speedruns and then me just... observing everything. And then Frisk came.

Determination is a very powerful tool.

Anyways! You must be starving.

[mansbestend]

Six thousand? See, I got you pegged. You're a nerd.

[He jammed his hands in his pockets and nodded to come with him.]

Whadda you eat, anyway?

[your_best_friend]

[OKAY JUST BECAUSE FLOWEY IS AN EXPERT AT COMPUTER CODING AND MECHANICAL ENGINEERING AND HAS EVEN MEMORIZED MEW MEW KISSY CUTIE AND MEMORIZED EVERY SQUARE PLANCK OF THE CORE AND HOW IT OPERATES DOES NOT MAKE HIM A NERD, HOW DARE YOU-]

I don't really need to eat but I can enjoy food whenever. Do you know how to make some spaghetti? If yes, you're already a better chef than someone else I know.

[mansbestend]

[Mhm.]

I've heard of spaghetti, but never had it. Is it good?

[That's not gonna be the first food he'd had named for him that he had never tried, but someday someone will ask him about bread. He knows bread. He appreciates bread, especially turning it into toast.]

[your_best_friend]

If cooked by someone who knows what they're doing, yes. Same goes for any other food. Spaghetti's a noodle if there's any noodle restaurants around here.

[mansbestend]

There's a couple, actually. You want noodles, then?

Might not be spaghetti, but if you're lookin' to wreck a bowl of ramen or a plate of soba, we could do that too.