The Other Tales
Episode 03: Scalped
On the day he met Asriel, Samuel Underwood made a promise to himself. From that day forward, he would do everything in his power to make sure the young prince lived his best possible life on the Surface.
That included literally breaking his back so Asriel can see his favorite band in concert.
On a calm Friday morning, the two Dreemurr brothers were up to their usual antics. Asriel sat at Toriel's office desk, her laptop opened yet shut off. As to be expected, Toriel didn't realize that her laptop needed to be recharged, so it died before the boys could use it. Samuel, not wanting their morning to be ruined, stepped in to remedy the situation. He took it upon himself to snake the charger cord behind the desk and plug it into the wall outlet. This task proved to be quite difficult, given the boy's reach, but he was not giving up.
Asriel was watching his brother strain and struggle attempting to plug in their mom's laptop, and he was starting to worry about his well-being. He was no expert on human anatomy, but he was very certain Sam could break something if he kept this up. "Hey, Sam," he piped up, "if you can't do it, it's fine. You don't gotta do this."
"Hey, I said I'd help you see your favorite band perform tonight, and I'm gonna do just that," he retorted, hard pressed on winning the fight against that blasted cord.
"I know you said that, and I'm grateful, but you really should stop. You're gonna hurt yourself."
His prayers fell on deaf ears, however, as Samuel refused to stop what he was doing. He was going to plug in that laptop, no matter what. "Just gotta jam it in a little farther…" he muttered, mustering his last bit of strength to finish the job.
At this point, Asriel was really starting to get scared. "Sam, please! You don't have to do th—" he started, but he quickly stopped once he saw the computer boot up.
"Oh, you got it," he said, relieved.
"See? It wasn't a problem at all. Now let's get those tickets!"
On that note, the two boys were off to the races. They tapped and clicked on the keyboard like their hands were on fire. Soon enough, they were on the band's website, where a timer counted down until the moment the tickets went on sale.
Samuel took a moment to take in the look and tone of the band, named Daft Punk. He guessed that they were some kind of techno band, judging from their costumes. The man on the left was wearing a silver robot helmet with a black visor, and the one on the right had a gold helmet with a tinted glass front; various colored lights bordered the glass. The man in between them had a bronze robot helmet that bordered on being just a visor, which gave off some serious Robocop vibes. Each band member wore a spiffy black suit with sequins adorning the shoulders.
"What's these guys' deal?" Sam asked, still unsure of what the band's premise was.
"They're a French band that specializes in electronic music," Asriel explained. "They basically made France into the musical powerhouse it is today. They're getting pretty old, so they're doing one final tour before they retire from music forever."
Samuel let all the information sink in, and it all made sense to him. It explained why the tour was called "OWTTTS," as it could be a subtle nod to them basically saying, "We want out." Nevertheless, this was the only chance to see them perform live, so they had to take action now.
His thought process was halted when Asriel excitedly exclaimed, "Ten seconds left!" The two boys watched the screen in uncontainable excitement, waiting with absolute impatience as the timer slowly counted down. "Get the credit card ready," Samuel said, and Asriel held his mom's credit card high above his head like a sword. It was a good thing Toriel gave them permission to use it, or else they would have been in deep trouble.
After what felt like an eternity, the timer finally got zero and turned into a button that read "Buy Tickets." In the blink of an eye, that button was pressed, and the kids were one step closer to rocking out.
"Please enter a username and password."
Their faces fell at the sight of that dreaded phrase. How were they supposed to buy tickets now?
"Hey, it's no big deal, buddy," Sam assured his fuzzy friend. "I'll just make an account real quick…" Asriel watched with panic as his human brother typed rapidly into the computer. Sure, he was going super fast, but would it be fast enough to buy two tickets before they sell out?
"And… boom!" Samuel shouted in triumph, and all of Asriel's fears washed away.
"Now I just gotta confirm my login…"
His fears instantly returned. Asriel was beginning to get jittery, his eyes darting back and forth between Sam's phone and the laptop screen. He was starting to lose hope. They would never get to see Daft Punk at this rate. It would take some kind of miracle to pull it off.
"We got 'em!" Samuel exclaimed.
Finally!
"Right after my phone updates…"
Oh, come on!
Asriel refreshed the website while Sam waited for his update to finish, and he was crushed to see that tickets had finally sold out. The young Dreemurr was devastated. His dreams were completely destroyed in the span of roughly thirty seconds. He started to feel a little dizzy…
"Uh oh, battery died," Sam said with mild disappointment before he looked over at Asriel, who was getting disoriented. "You okay, man?" he asked.
Asriel opened his mouth, but no words came out. He just sat there, spitting and sputtering like a dying engine, before he finally gave out and fell off his chair.
"Asriel!"
Later in the morning, after Asriel regained consciousness, Toriel sent the kids out to the supermarket. They went for baking supplies, as always: just some milk, eggs, flour, and et cetera (whatever that stuff is).
Samuel looked over to his brother, his head hung low and his cute little smile was nowhere to be found. "Dude, you really scared me earlier," the human remarked. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yeah," Asriel replied, sounding far from happy. "It's just… sometimes, when I'm upset, I forget how to breathe."
Sam felt the guilt gnawing at his stomach. He hated seeing his brother this upset, especially when he could have done something to prevent it. "I'm sorry I couldn't get you those tickets, buddy," he said. "I guess the machines finally won…"
"It's okay," Asriel said, his lips forming a soft smile. "I'm just glad you cared enough to help me out."
"No problem, man. That's what brothers are for."
As the boys wandered the aisles with renewed optimism, they stopped and noticed Sans the skeleton perusing the condiments, so they decided to go over and say hi.
Sans saw the two kids approaching and he called out to them. "hey, sam. asriel. 'sup, kids?"
"Howdy, Sans!" Asriel answered. "We're doing okay. How about you?" He took notice of the skeleton taking a sip from one of the ketchup bottles on the shelf. "Uh… are you sure you can do that?"
"oh, don't worry, kids. i'll pay for it. i just need to find the right ketchup for my tailgate party at the daft punk concert tonight."
"Whoa, you like Daft Punk, too?" Asriel asked, impressed.
"hey, when it comes to their music, you'd be daft not to like them."
This brought out a small chuckle from Asriel, in spite of how painfully forced that joke was.
It was now Samuel's turn to ask a question: "How did you get a ticket? The website sold out in, like, ten seconds."
"oh, i never go on the internet anymore," Sans shrugged. "the prince of nigeria won't leave me alone. i scalped my ticket."
Samuel raised an eyebrow, "Really?"
"yeah. some chick was selling them down behind grillby's."
"Azzy, do you know what this means?" Sam asked, grabbing his brother's shoulders. "The dream is still alive. We can still get tickets!"
The boys, with renewed hope, ran off to finish their shopping. Once they were out of sight, Sans swiped a Generic®️ ketchup bottle and chugged it.
The kids, shopping bags in tow, made their way behind Grillby's to find the lady who gave Sans his ticket. The back of the restaurant was gray, drab, and overall unappealing, a stark contrast to the warm, inviting light at the front of the building.
"Okay, Azzy," Sam said, "We just gotta find Sans' hook-up, and then we'll be on our way to see Daft Punk."
"Hey, dorks," a voice echoed from the darkness. "You guys need tickets to Daft Punk?" The voice was feminine, but it was also uncomfortably low and gravelly, like some kind of growl. Samuel was immediately able to figure out who owned the voice:
"Susie?"
A figure, presumably the Susie that Sam was referring to, stepped out into the light. She was a monster, her features purple and reptilian, and she didn't seem to be much older than sixteen. She was wearing a white t-shirt, jeans, and a denim jacket, and her eyes were hidden away behind an unkempt mop of long, brown hair.
Knowing that she had a reputation of being a bully, Sam did his best to sound intimidating: "Yeah, we need tickets. What's it to you?"
"It's like she heard what we were saying..." Asriel said to himself.
"Well, you two bozos are in luck,"Susie smirked, pulling two slips of paper from her pocket. "I got two tickets here with your dumb names on them."
"Woah, really?" Asriel asked, ecstatic.
"Yeah, I was gonna go, but I have to take my cat to the vet. Turns out she's allergic to her own dander. How crazy is that?"
"Oh yeah, super crazy," Sam said, pretending to care as he gave Susie a wad of money in exchange for the tickets. "Well, thanks. Pleasure doing business with you."
"Hope your cat feels better," Asriel beamed.
"Sure… whatever…" Susie grumbled as she turned around and left for the dark.
Asriel and Sam we're just about ready to break out into song and dance, they were so excited. They finally got their tickets, and they were all one step closer to rocking out at the Daft Punk concert.
After dinner, the kids got into Toriel's minivan and she drove them to the concert venue, which was a large, open field just outside of Pottsdale. From what they could see from the outside, there was already a giant crowd inside. There was a stage near the back; it was a pointed dome colored completely white.
They pulled into a parking spot, and the kids got out. Toriel rolled down her window and they all said their goodbyes.
"Have fun and be safe, kids," Toriel said. "Give me a call when the concert is over, and I will come pick you up."
"Ok, mom!" Asriel smiled, waving at his mother as she drove off.
The boys looked at each other, and they both nodded in silent agreement. They walked on over to the bouncer at the front. He was a heavyset fellow with a black security shirt. His human face was made uglier by the fact that he had a lip piercing and his hair was done up in a Flock of Seagulls style.
"Two tickets for two best friends," Asriel said, his happiness reaching contagious levels.
"Those are fake," the bouncer said in a near monotone, barely breaking eye contact with the boys.
Asriel was speechless. They bought their tickets fair and square. How could they be fake?
"Oh, come on! You didn't even look at them!" Samuel exclaimed in protest.
"Oh, okay. Let's have a look, shall we?" he mockingly replied, grabbing the two "tickets." "Well, this one is a receipt, and the other is a coupon for instant rice!"
They were really on the ropes now, so Samuel did his best to cheat the system. "Hey, sir, if you let us in, you can have that coupon, okay? It's yours."
Needless to say, they got thrown out. After getting up and dusting themselves off, Sam and Asriel noticed Sans sitting on the ground, his back against the fence.
"Hey, Sans," Sam greeted. "They didn't let you in either?"
"nope," the skeleton replied in disappointment, though his smile never left his face. "that bouncer said my ticket was counterfeit. i even tried to take a shortcut in, but they just threw me back out. i've been sitting here ever since."
Just then, all three of them heard someone laugh at them. They turned towards the noise and saw Susie at the front gate.
"Thanks again for your chump money," she told them. "Without it, I wouldn't have been able to afford this real ticket!"
"But what about your sick cat?" Asriel asked, seemingly ignoring the fact that they had just been conned.
"I don't even have a cat! I'm more of a guinea pig kind of girl, anyway."
"Susie, you can't do this!" Samuel shouted in a futile attempt to get through her thick skull.
Susie laughed hysterically as she handed her ticket to the bouncer. "I don't even know these losers!" she lied as she walked on in. "I just like exclusivity!"
Asriel was hopelessly crushed yet again, for the second time today, in fact. Once again, he started to lose consciousness and fell over.
Samuel immediately rushed to his side and tried to console him and find a way to fix their current situation. "Hey, relax, bro," he said, shaking Asriel until he began to show signs of life. "There's still a way we can get inside."
Asriel gasped for air after hearing those words, and he spent a moment trying to get his breathing under control. Once his breathing and heart rate slowed to a normal rate, he looked up to his brother and asked, "There is?"
"Yep! We just gotta jam ourselves into that port-a-potty over there." He pointed to a portable toilet that had been loaded onto a pickup truck.
"you sure you can pull it off, kid?" Sans asked, raising an eyebrow he didn't even have. "that thing looks pretty small."
"Just trust me, Sans. I'm a world-class jammer."
The pickup truck drove through an employee only gate, and stopped when it reached a row of port-a-potties. With a little exertion, the two staff in the truck we're able to lift the toilet off the trailer and set it along the row. Happy that their work was done, they drove the truck back to the lot and got ready to enjoy the concert.
Suddenly, the boys and Sans burst from the end stall, some deep blue water splashing out.
After everyone got up and silently celebrated that Sam's plan worked, Asriel turned everyone's attention to the white stage. The band was putting the finishing touches on their setup. The silver and gold robots were up on stage, but the bronze one was nowhere to be found. They had a synthesizer with a microphone on each side of the stage, and there was a synth pad in between them.
The silver robot walked to stage right and stood behind his synth. "Thank you all for coming out tonight," he said into the mic. "Just give us a few minutes to recharge Dennis's batteries, and then we will get started."
"Nous allons jouer plus de chansons avant d'être morts," said the gold robot. None of the three could speak French, so they assumed he was just repeating what the silver one had said.
Samuel turned to his brother and said, "Hey, I thought there were three band members."
Oh, there are! That's Dennis in the middle," Asriel answered, pointing at the synth pad that the gold bot was currently tending to. "He was always better at expressing himself through music, so he uploaded his brain onto a synthesizer. Now, he communicates perfectly, through beats."
Samuel was enraptured by this bizarre feat. The idea of a man transferring his consciousness into a machine was intriguing. To him, it seemed to be the only way a human can achieve immortality. Of course, he would never go through the process umself, but it was still interesting to think about.
Actually, now that he thought about it, he was pretty sure he knew someone who went through something like that…
Before Samuel could figure this mystery out, he was distracted by the sight of Susie doing something by the t-shirt cannons. He brought this to the attention of Sans and Asriel, and the three of them ventured forth to confront her.
"Hey, Susie! What do you think you're doing?" Samuel shouted at the purple monster. By the time the three had reached her, she had taken off her jacket and was holding it above her head like a net.
Susie turned to the group with a smirk and said, "I'm gonna catch all the shirts that come out of this cannon, and then sell them to some old people." Man, she must be really stupid if she thinks she can say all of this without someone doing something about it.
"Oh yeah, that's just great!" Samuel exclaimed sarcastically. "First you steal from us, now you're gonna steal a bunch of t-shirts?"
Asriel, not wanting any more conflict today, tried to comfort Sam. "Come on buddy, just calm down. Let's just go enjoy the concert."
"You can't steal from a cannon," Susie commented, letting out a small chuckle. Sure, she was a jerk, but they had to admit, her logic was flawless.
Sans, who had been holding his anger in for far too long, approached the bully with a deadly glare. "you know what, kid?" he began. "i've had enough of your nonsense. it's time a kid like you gets what they deserve…"
The short skeleton's eye sockets went completely dark, and a threatening aura surrounded him. Asriel and Samuel took a few steps back in preparation for what was surely about to happen next. The boys looked on in wonder and excitement. They weren't entirely sure what Sans was going to do, but one thing was for sure: Susie was in for a bad time…
*burp*
Remember when the boys were rooting for Sans? Yeah, that was gone now. All that buildup, just for Sans to let out a burp? Just about everyone in the area felt some level of disappointment over this unfortunate turn of affairs.
Susie took this opportunity to avoid the inevitable onslaught of karma for a little longer. She turned to the direction of a group of security guards near the front gate and shouted, "Hey, bouncers! I'm being assaulted by toilet stowaways!"
Every security guard in the near vicinity turned towards the three perps. In an instant, they instantly bolted in the opposite direction, the bouncers in hot pursuit. While she was still in earshot, Samuel made one last threat towards the reptilian menace: "This isn't over, Susie!"
"It could be," she snarkily rebutted, "if you'd learn forgiveness!"
Things had definitely gone from bad to worse for the Dreemurr brothers (and Sans, too). They pushed their way through the crowd in order to shake the guards from them. But, no matter how much they snaked around the massive group of concert-goers, the guards always seemed to be gaining on them.
Fortunately, their luck seemed to turn around, as the gang spotted a door leading into the side of the stage. They quickly let themselves in, and the security guards ran past none the wiser.
"Okay, I think we lost them," Samuel said, catching his breath.
"kinda dark, huh?" Sans stated the obvious. The room they fled into was pitch-black, and the kids quickly went to feel their way along the walls.
"Hey, guys! I think I found a light switch!"
Asriel flicked the switch, and the room quickly lit up. There were wires and fuses everywhere, all connecting to a large control panel in the center.
"This must be the sound booth!" Samuel concluded, enraptured in the setup of the control panel. "Dude, this is perfect…"
"Uh, Sam, I don't think you should be touching those," Azzy said, worried that his brother was destined to mess something up while he was near the master controls.
Everyone's attention turned to the sound of a cheering crowd, and they approached a window to get a good view of what was happening outside. As it turned out, they were directly above the stage, and Daft Punk was just about ready to begin the last concert of their career.
"You are all a terrific audience," the silver robot said, emotionless as ever.
"Il n'y aura pas de rappel. Nous sommes très vieux," Frenched the gold bot.
Both robots raised their hand up high, the silver one exclaiming, "It is time for us to blow your minds… One More Time!"
The crowd made a round of applause, and Asriel's eyes lit up at the sound of those last words. "'One More Time' is my favorite song…"
"Hey, look! There's Susie!" Samuel pointed to the back of the crowd, where Susie went back to stealing t-shirts. The time, however, she gave up waiting for the cannons to go off, so she resorted to reaching inside the cannons and grabbing the shirts herself.
Sam rushed over to the control panel. "Which one of these buttons fires the cannons?" he asked no one in particular.
Asriel turned to his brother with a concerned look and said, "Sam, don't worry about it. The concert's about to start, and they're about to play 'One More Time.' Let's just enjoy it."
"Oh yeah, sure thing, buddy, right after I blast Susie in her stupid face!"
Samuel pulled on a lever, which caused something to pop off the sides of the stage. Somehow, the crowd and the band did not notice.
"No, that's not it…" he muttered as he began to press just about every button within his reach in an attempt to fire off the t-shirt cannons. During this rush, he flipped a switch that caused a hatch to close up the front of the stage.
Asriel immediately began to freak out once he saw the robots look up towards the window they were looking through. He rushed over to Sam and tried to pull him away from the controls. "Sam, that's enough! Stop it!" he cried, tugging at Sam's arm, to no avail.
Just when the situation could not get any worse, Sam's open arm slammed down onto a giant red button in the center of the panel. Everyone in the room stopped in horror as everything began to rumble beneath their feet. Then, before they knew it, an unknown force pushed the three to the floor and refused to let them back up. Struggling to his feet, Samuel lumbered his way over to the window. As he and everyone else huddled at the window, they saw the concert venue and the crowd get smaller and smaller. Just then, all of the gravity of the situation hit them all at once:
This was not a stage.
It was a rocket.
And Samuel just launched it.
As the rocket ship continued it's ascent into the upper atmosphere, Samuel stood at the controls, stunned and silent like a deer in the headlights. Asriel was taking the situation just as well: "Nice going, Sam," he uttered with contempt. "You were so obsessed with Susie, I didn't even get to hear my favorite song."
...Okay then. Honestly, he should be more upset by the fact that they were currently being flung into space at a thousand miles an hour, but whatever. Missing the opportunity to hear "One More Time" was obviously a very terrible offense.
Before Sam could apologize or make a rebuttal, the trio was interrupted by the sound of Daft Punk entering the cockpit.
"What are you doing here?" the silver one asked while the gold one brought Dennis inside. "Why have you launched the rocket prematurely?"
As if by instinct, Asriel began his stint of profuse apologies: "Oh, golly, we're really sorry, guys! We didn't mean to ruin your show! We're just your biggest fans and—"
The silver robot sighed. "It does not matter. We are all in the rocket now. I am Thomas, and this is Guy-Manuel, and this is our band leader, Dennis. At least… we think it is."
Guy-Man knelt down to Dennis and said to him, "Dennis, tu es là ? Dites bonjour à nos nouveaux amis."
Whatever he said, Dennis did not respond. It just sat there like the unplugged machine it was.
Thomas eased the awkward silence Dennis had created by saying, "In some ways, it is more like him not to respond."
Well, since there was nothing better to do, the boys decided to introduce themselves. "Well, hi, I'm Sam, this is Asriel, and that guy over there is Sans."
"big fan," Said said to remind everyone that he had not been written out of the story yet.
"In any case," Thomas continued, "despite the catastrophic nature of our grand finale, it means a lot to see fans so devoted to our work that they would follow us into the sun."
Thomas had a point. Sure, Sam messed up, but at least they get to spend some time with Asriel's favorite band and… wait a minute. What was that last part?
"What? This thing's headed towards the sun?!"
There it is.
"Well, yes," Thomas said with a shrug. "This is our final show, after all. And it is the name of our last tour:"
"One-way Trip to the Sun," Guy-Man replied, the abbreviation of the tour name flashing on his helmet.
Asriel grabbed his head in sheer bewilderment as he shouted, "That stands for something?!"
"We thought you were our biggest fans," Thomas said quizzically.
"I only heard of you guys, like, a week ago!"
Now that Asriel's fan status has been reduced to nothing, Samuel changed the subject back to their current dilemma. "Don't worry, guys," he assured. "We can still get home. Why don't we just use an escape pod?"
"You ejected the escape pods," Thomas replied.
"Okay, uh, well, can't we turn the rocket around or something?" Samuel said, his confidence fading with each passing second.
"There is not enough fuel."
"One-way Trip to the Sun," Guy-Manuel repeated.
Samuel tried to formulate and vocalize another possible means of escape, but the weight of the situation was beginning to make such a thing difficult. He felt his throat tighten as he spoke, and he was not forming coherent sentences anymore. Before long, he could not even speak as the increasing stress and guilt left him gasping for air. And soon enough, Sam's eyes rolled back in their sockets and he fell backwards onto the floor.
To complete this role reversal, Asriel quickly bent down and tried to shake Sam back to consciousness. "Get up, Sam! You can't just suck air until you pass out!" he shouted.
"But you heard him, Azzy," Samuel wheezed, his breathing quick and uneven. "I ejected the escape pods, man."
"Sam, you've been fixing problems all day. You can fix this too!"
"doesn't look that way, kiddo," Sans commented, optimistic as always.
"Listen to Sans," Sam gasped. "We're doomed. I doomed us all."
Asriel, overcome with all the negative vibes being thrown about the room, pushed Samuel back onto the floor in a fit of fury and screamed, "Okay, fine! I guess we all just give up now, huh? Hey, Thomas! Guy-Man! What should we do until we cook to death in the impossible heat of the sun? Read? Play party games?"
"Oh, I don't know," Thomas replied, still expressing zero emotions. "We were just going to jam…"
Samuel's eyes widened at the sound of that last word. Somewhere within the confines of his human mind, an idea struck.
"Yes," the silver robot continued. "Just like… rock legends, flying into the sun, jamming."
Now the plan was coming together. Life sprung back into Sam's eyes as his brain continued to work overtime. Yes, he was almost there. It was on the tip of his tongue now.
"Nous aurons une dernière «jam session» avec Dennis." Guy-Man added, giving the sentient synth an affectionate pat.
Suddenly, Samuel sprang up and excitedly shouted, "That's it!"
Thomas nodded and replied, "Yes, that's about it, isn't it?"
"No, Dennis! We gotta jam ourselves into Dennis! We'll use him like an escape pod!"
Guy-Man thought about this for a few moments, an ellipsis flashing on his helmet. He turned to Thomas and said, "Ça pourrait marcher."
"But Dennis is our band leader."
"Oui, mais il n'a pas signé le contrat. Il ne voudra peut-être pas aller au soleil avec nous."
"Good point. Let us ask him." Thomas knelt down to pet Dennis like a dog as he softly said, "Dennis, will you be the vessel that will send these three casual fans back to Earth?"
Dennis's response was a short two-note piece. The notes were played in descending order, making it sound like a negative response.
"That's a yes."
Before the gang could celebrate the apparent good news and get to work on their means of egress, Asriel had one major concern: "Sam, that thing's only half the size of the port-a-potty! There's no way we can fit inside!"
Samuel flashed a knowing smirk as he said, "Don't worry, bro. You just leave that to me." As he tore through the synth, pulling out various wires and scrap metal, Dennis was not having any of that. It was emitting a fast, loud, chaotic synth beat, as if it was screaming in agony. Once the inside of Dennis was hollowed out, the brothers and Sans climbed into it through a hatch on its side. Thomas closed the hatch behind them, and by some miracle, the three of them were able to fit inside with almost no extra space. Sandwiched inside the music box like origami puzzle pieces, Samuel gave Daft Punk the okay, and they carried Dennis into the airlock, while Dennis cried out and carried on musically the entire time.
Closing the chamber door behind them, the robot figures bid their band leader one last farewell. "Goodbye, Dennis," said Thomas, a tinge of sadness in his synthesized voice. "Tu es un héros," Guy-Manuel added.
Dennis, with what little power it had left, let out one last melody of protest.
"We love you too, Dennis."
In an instant, the airlock opened up, and Dennis was instantly sucked back into Earth's atmosphere. As the three stowaways got as comfortable as possible, a speaker planted inside of Dennis blared to life with a quick wave of static. It was Thomas' voice that came from the other end:
"And now, as per Samuel's request, we will play you boys out."
Shortly after, the sound of the two Frenchies creating their electronic magic filled the small metal box. Even without the infectious beats that Dennis would have provided, the song still brought forth an upbeat rave fit for the music gods. Almost immediately, Asriel's eyes sparkled with excitement as he said, "Wait a second, this… this is 'One More Time!'"
"Hey, I had to get you that concert somehow, buddy," Samuel replied with a smile.
Asriel blushed and said, "Aw, thanks. You're the best!"
And so, the three of them let the outrageous funk of Daft Punk take them away as the cold, metal box tumbled its way back to Earth. Meanwhile, back at the concert, the large crowd that had been there for hours was all but gone due to the blastoff. In fact, the only person still there was Susie, dragging along a wagon filled with t-shirts. She let out a chuckle, humored by those three idiots who tried to stop her. Thankfully, those nosy nudniks were nowhere to be found.
Before Susie could continue with her gloating, she noticed something twinkling from the corner of her eye. Looking up, she saw a bright light streak its way along the setting sky. Her expression of intrigue turned into one of fear when she realized that the strange light had stopped moving and was slowly getting bigger and brighter. In a stint of quick thinking, Susie ditched her collection and ran for cover. Taking refuge behind a dumpster, she had to shield her eyes as the parking lot was illuminated by the impact of a giant fireball.
Once the action finally died down, out from the charred remains of Dennis crawled Sans, Asriel, and Samuel, with very little injury besides the massive amounts of soot covering their bodies. It was quite miraculous, when you stop to think about it. For a group who had just re-entered the atmosphere in an obsolete synthesizer, they walked out of the whole ordeal without a scratch.
Susie's wagon of t-shirts, however, were an entirely different story.
Hey guys. Sorry this one took as long as it did. Life just loves to mess with you, doesn't it?
I have another episode in the works as we speak. I'm currently shooting for one a month. If I can do more, great! If not, well, okay. Regardless, I can guarantee that the next episode will be an unexpected one, but I'm sure you will still enjoy it!
See you next time! - spucubed
CODE COMING SOON...
In the endless void of space, Daft Punk's rocket ship had just zipped past Mercury, and was now on a direct collision course with the sun. Thomas and Guy-Manuel stood at the window, watching the glowing ball of light slowly approaching. The temperature inside the cockpit had already reached an uncomfortable degree, and it would only get hotter from this point forward.
As the sun began to take over their view of the outside, Guy-Man turned his gaze towards his partner, who continued to hold his blank stare forward.
"Hé, Thomas."
Thomas snapped back to reality for a moment and looked over to his gold-hued companion. "Yes, Guy-Man?" he replied.
"I think we made a terrible mistake," Guy-Man said, his robotic voice heavy and morose.
Thomas hung his head and said, "I could not agree more, friend."
Their regret was immeasurable, but there was nothing they could do. And so, Daft Punk stood there for the rest of the journey, watching the sun slowly engulf their view.
Their fates were sealed. The time of their rapture was now upon them.