The moonlight shone through the window, casting a pale square on the floor. It would've been more obvious had it not been for the lit lamp on the nightstand. It was quiet and cooler than usual for the season.
Frisk thumbed through the books on their bookshelf, wishing they had more about—
"Come on, just pick something already!" Flowey yelled from the nightstand.
The flower tended to be belligerent when he was tired. At least, more so than usual. Frisk grabbed a novel and sat down on the bed. The nightstand was next to the head of the bed, so it was easy for Frisk to hold the book so both of them could see.
The novel was about two brothers and branched off into two "timelines" about a fourth of the way through; in the first, the younger brother was killed by the main villain, while in the second he was saved by the older brother at the cost of the latter's life. It wasn't exactly for children, but Frisk had figured they could handle it after everything they had gone through in the Underground.
Flowey was silent as Frisk opened the book and started reading.
On the fifth page, Flowey suddenly said, "These guys are reminding me of Sans and Papyrus."
Frisk nodded in agreement.
After Frisk turned the page, Flowey spoke up again. "It's weird how Papyrus thinks that he isn't important. Told me so himself more than a few times."
Frisk looked at Flowey, curious.
"One time, I decided to see what would happen if Papyrus, and only Papyrus, died. So I killed him… Made a whole tree limb drop on him while he was in the forest. It didn't kill him right away, so I had enough time to take off his scarf. I had to make sure it wouldn't turn to dust with the rest of him. Once he did… I made sure the scarf was stuck under the tree limb and was covered in his dust. And then I waited. And waited. …And waited."
Frisk laid the book down. Flowey had been living with them for a few months, and not once had he talked about his past runs.
"Eventually he was found…by none other than Smiley Trashbag. After a while, he was found by the Dogi. I thought he would cry after finding his brother's dust. He was definitely upset. Of course, he had buried his face in Papyrus' scarf, so it was hard to tell."
Flowey had a nostalgic smile on his face, but his petals were drooping. He looked almost…sad?
"Smiley Trashbag didn't even show up for the funeral. Undyne did. Most of Snowdin did. Heck, even Gerson and the River Person showed up. But not him. At least, not until everyone but Undyne had left. That time, I actually heard him crying. Not as much as I would've thought, but still. I don't know what they put Papyrus' dust on. After the funeral, Smiley Trashbag stayed in his room most of the time."
"How could you tell?" Frisk asked.
"I looked in through the window. I couldn't be there all the time, though. I can only stay stretched like that for so long, and I didn't want to risk him seeing me. Besides, he was boring to watch most of the time. All he'd do was lie in bed. He'd get up whenever Undyne came to check on him, though…for the first two weeks. After that, he'd tell her to go away whenever she barged into his room. A month after the funeral, she stopped coming. I saw her stop by the door to the house a few times, but she didn't go in. The rest of the Snowdin townsfolk kept checking on him, especially the dogs.
"Back then, I was more patient, so I could stand waiting a while for his reaction. And he had occasional moments that made my wait worth it. For example…I kept hearing him say things like 'When is it going to end? When is it going to go back?' I was so confused at the time. I didn't think he knew about the resets. But that was about as interesting as it got. The day Undyne stopped checking on him, he stopped doing or saying anything. He just lied in bed all day and night. In hindsight, I think he was waiting for the reset. If I had waited a few more days, maybe he would've… Well, anyway."
Frisk shifted around, feeling like they should say something but unsure what to actually say.
"I was in Snowdin forest when I got an idea: what would've happened if Papyrus came back? Obviously, I had to reset, but it was a compelling idea. After I reset, I knocked out Papyrus, stole his scarf, and trapped him in a cave deep in the forest. To fake his death, I used the dust of a few Moldsmals. The setup was the same as before; dust under a tree limb, his scarf caught under it… And I had to do all of that without getting spotted by Alphys' cameras. I knew where all the blind spots were, but it was still wasn't easy. It all went the same after that. The only difference was that the fish guy pointed out that there wasn't as much dust as there should've been, but he assumed that was because some of it was blown away. I had to keep checking on Papyrus to make sure he didn't die or escape early. It was harder than I thought it'd be, but that was what made it fun.
"After a month had passed, on the day Undyne stopped checking on Smiley Trashbag…I let Papyrus go. I had to make it seem like he had escaped on his own, obviously. They would've figured out what had really happened sooner or later, but that reaction wasn't what I was trying to get. Anyway, I followed him through the forest. I was genuinely worried that he would die. Not out of concern for him, mind you, but because it would've made all my efforts pointless. He hadn't eaten the whole time he was in the cave, and the blizzard that had started up only made getting back to Snowdin harder, so it was definitely a valid concern. I think he knew that too. He ended up collapsing from exhaustion in front of Doggo's station. Fortunately for him, Doggo was still there. He carried Papyrus back to Snowdin. Everyone was so happy that Papyrus was alive. Especially Smiley Trashbag. …I've never seen him cry so hard and so much, before or since. I tried to do the same thing with him the next time I reset. It was…a lot harder than I thought it would be."
Frisk smirked. As horrible as the memory was, they knew exactly what Flowey was talking about.
"It was interesting to realize just what kind of effect those skeletons had on the town. There was a lot more to them than I thought. Especially Papyrus. I could probably talk about him for days."
"Why'd you tell me about that, er, 'run?'"
Flowey looked thoughtful, as though wondering that himself. "…I don't know. I guess I just felt like it."
Frisk put the book on a shelf in the nightstand. It was late enough after listening to Flowey, and Toriel didn't like it when they stayed up too late.
"Goodnight Flowey," Frisk said before turning off the lamp.
Several minutes later, when Flowey was sure Frisk was asleep, he begrudgingly mumbled, "Goodnight Frisk."
Frisk, who was actually still awake, smirked.
0~*~0
"Hello Samuel."
He didn't need to look to know who it was. "Rick."
The slender man gave a lopsided smile. "Nice night out, isn't it?"
Samuel glared at a monster dog walking a normal dog on the other side of the street. "It could be better."
"Yeah, friggin' monsters."
"I see them every day," Samuel snarled. "I'd relocate if I had the money."
"The sign doesn't keep 'em out?" Rick said, motioning to the 'No Monsters Allowed' sign that hung in the window of the closed restaurant.
Samuel crossed his arms. "The monster haters do."
"They treating you well?"
"Yes. My restaurant's the only public place they can meet and not risk getting kicked out, so they know to be nice to me and my staff. Well, most of them. Honestly, they scare me sometimes. But they're my main customers now, so I can't complain much."
The two men stood there in silence for a while.
"By the way," Rick said, "didja hear they're tryin' to pass a law that'll make it illegal to refuse service to monsters?"
Samuel put his hand over his face and groaned.
"You know, like they did with blacks a long time ago. Blacks are actually the most vocal about these anti-discrimination laws after the monsters. Said that—"
"Yes, but black people are people. They have the right to be treated equally. Hell, everyone's descended from Africans if you go back far enough."
"Really?"
"Yes, but that's not my point. The monsters aren't human. Some of them aren't even sentient."
"The skeletons are kinda human-like—"
"There's only two that I know of. And they're more monster than human."
There were a few minutes of silence before Rick spoke up. "I've heard that monster SOULs are made of hope, love, and compassion, and that human SOULs don't need those to exist. The second part's definitely true."
"But that doesn't mean that all monsters are good."
Rick, surprised by Samuel's comment, raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"There's a very specific reason as to why I hate monsters as much as I do."
"W-Why?"
"All I'll say is this." Samuel turned to look Rick straight in the eye. "Do you really think that they managed to seal every single monster underground?"
With a flourish, Samuel turned and walked away, leaving Rick to stare after him in shock.
Author's note: Is anyone else having issues uploading files to the Doc Manager?
