Flowey looked down at the two figures below. They sat in the mud, chatting happily to each other with their set squares and other measuring equipment abandoned and strewn around in the silt.
"Don't call to her will you?" Gerson brought his head close and whispered. "Last time she spotted me with this stuff." He gestured to the seagrass slung over his shoulder. "She went on some hair-brained rant about 'scientific protection' and confiscated the lot! The nerve!"
Alphys was now talking very passionately about something while patting down on the top of a bucket full of wet sand. She pulled the bucket away carefully, revealing the new sand castle underneath and clapped her hands together excitedly.
"I don't know where she's suddenly getting all these stupid ideas from, but I'm sure as heck not going without my sea tea! OW!" Alphys squealed at the same time that Gerson yelped; Undyne had lept onto her sand castle and completely flattened it. "I forgot how low the roof was here..." He lifted his yellow cap and rubbed his head. "So, was there a reason you came looking for me?"
Flowey's clicked his full attention back to the turtle monster. Oh right, the distraction of the two girls had almost made him forget why he'd come here in the first place. "Yes. Papyrus wants to invite you to his costume party on July the 20th."
"Oh, that's nice of him." Gerson started down the narrow path leading away from the ledge they both stood on. "Was there any reason he couldn't give me the invite himself?"
Flowey lifted an eyebrow. "He's giving out invites in Hotland right now, so i'm doing Waterfall."
"Ah, so it must be quite the guest list then!" Gerson rested a hand on the slimy cave wall.
Flowey put on a smile. "Yeah, he's been working pretty hard on it." He ducked underground and surfaced slightly closer to the old turtle.
Gerson carried on walking down the passageway, then stopped to study some indentations in the walls. "Not many monsters know about this passage ya'know. The last time I can remember seeing anyone go this way, besides myself of course, was when ol' king Fluffybuns addressed the remains of the monster kingdom in that room back there. That was right after our exile..."
Flowey cringed at the nickname, but decided to ignore it. He could see why this path was unused; it was uncomfortably narrow for regular sized monsters, the entrance was hard to find and it came out at a dead end... unless the user was willing to jump down a 15ft cliff. Imagining Asgore climbing his way through here was more than a little amusing, but also pretty hard to believe. He'd never taken Gerson for a liar though.
"I'm surprised you found me here." The turtle monster continued, eyeing him with a big smile. "You should feel privileged! Wahaha!"
Flowey smiled back, for real this time. "I have my ways." He said, looking around at the cliffs on either side. A small spark of curiosity lit up in mind. "Do you know all the secret rooms and passages in Waterfall?"
Gerson let go of the walls and put his hands in his pockets with a small shrug. "All? Nah, but I know a fair few. That doesn't mean i'll tell you where they are though, I need to keep SOME secrets! Wah heh heh..." He coughed into his hand then pounded his fist against his chest while the coughing fit died down. "So, was that all you came to tell me? Because I really need to get going..."
Flowey's eyes flicked awkwardly. "You haven't told me if you can come yet."
"Oh, right." The turtle monster recovered his composure. "Well... i'll see if I have space in my calendar how's that?... Where abouts is this party taking place anyway? At what time?"
"It's the first house when you enter Snowdin, you can't miss it." Flowey recited politely. "It will be on all afternoon."
"Thanks i'll keep it in mind." Gerson turned to hurry out the narrow passageway, calling back a quick 'good luck' before vanishing behind a corner. For such an old turtle, he could move remarkably quickly.
Flowey watched him go, then let out a long sigh; Waterfall wasn't looking promising. Out of all the monsters he'd asked so far, Shyren was too shy to accept, parties were too 'dirty' for Woshua, Napstablook thought they would just pull everyone down and Aaron was... Aaron.
After Papyrus' attempts to get a list together out of Undernet profiles, they'd quickly realized that it wasn't going to work... they didn't even know who most of these usernames belonged to. In the end, they'd scrapped the whole thing and just gone with an 'invite everyone and hope' approach.
How very Papyrus.
He turned back to the cliff's edge, the two girls had stopped messing about by now. Alphys was busy gathering together her equipment while Undyne admired the fruits of their effort - a bridgeseed puzzle, and a pretty good one at that. Undyne had expressed her distaste for puzzles before, but working alongside Alphys, she seemed to have forgotten all about it.
Seeing the two together brought about some... conflicting emotions. Flowey shook his head of it and turned to gaze at the patch of seagrass overhanging the cliff instead. He shouldn't really be spying on people.
Well he wasn't about to give up yet. So... besides the dozens of identical mold monsters skulking around the place, who had he missed? He wracked his brain and a vague name came up, 'Temmie Village'. He'd definitely seen this place mentioned on a sign somewhere in Waterfall.
Flowey turned back to the girls and was about to ask Undyne about it, but the room had gone quiet - the girls had moved on. Oh well. He ducked underground and attempted to locate Gerson instead, but the signal given off by the seagrass he carried had grown faint. He followed it until it was too low to trace, then surfaced in a dark room, far too dark to even make out the walls; luminous grass underfoot formed several paths but he couldn't tell where any of them led.
There was the sound of movement nearby. "Gerson are you there? I need to ask you something."
"hOI!" A high and shrill voice answered his call, it didn't belong to any monster Flowey remembered encountering before. "FlOwr such a CUTE!" The monster exclaimed and rushed closer.
Flowey jerked back on instinct, he could just about make out its cat-like silhouette. "H-howdy." He said cautiously. "Do you maybe happen to know where Temmie Village is...?"
The monster jumped up and down excitedly "yayA! FoLLOw TEM!" Then ran off before Flowey could say another word. Its footsteps were soft and moving quickly out of audible range, he rushed to follow them before he lost them completely.
They didn't travel far before the footsteps stopped. Flowey surfaced to find the monster waiting in front of him, now in the light he could see that this monster looked to be a mix between both a cat and a dog.
"welcom to... TEM VILLAGE!" It declared, its body shaking as though filled with barely contained excitement.
"Thanks." Flowey gave it a smile and a small nod, then peered past into the room beyond. It appeared to be a pretty standard cave... not very village like...?
"hOI! im temmie!" A second, identical monster came from around the corner to stand beside the first. "and dis is my friend-"
"hOI! im temmie!" Then a third appeared to stand next to the second. "FlOwr such a CUTE!"
They moved in closer, all three began to vibrate intensely. "SO CUTE! tem GON... DIE!"
"D-don't touch me!" Flowey raised a vine defensively, wary of all this sudden attention... but the Temmies just kept moving closer.
He was completely surrounded.
"awawawah! TOO CUTE! Must... pet... FlOwR!" Said the nearest, whose face had somehow now detached from her body and was drifting slowly to the right.
She extended a paw towards him which he batted away with a vine, but then the other two Temmies extended their own.
"Stop it! He protested as their paws reached him and started roughly petting his petals. "I'm not CUTE!" This was just humiliating...
"Hi." A fourth Temmie appeared, there was something... different, about this one. "Would anyone like some Temmie flakes?"
The three immediately turned away from Flowey.
"yAYA!"
"FOOB!"
"GiV FLAKES!"
They rushed to the fourth who set a cereal box down on the ground and began digging through it, fishing out scraps of brightly colored paper and making excited noises as they shoved them into their mouths.
The fourth Temmie approached Flowey. "Hi." It said casually with a pleasant smile. "I'm Bob."
"Hi..." Flowey said warily, his attention drifting across to the Temmies eating only a few feet away.
Bob seemed to understand. "Don't worry, they won't bother you now." He reassured, then sat down and started staring at nothing.
Flowey wasn't convinced, he took a moment to calm himself down and get his mind back on task. Now that he was here, he had to at least TRY to invite someone to Papyrus' party... so, he supposed that he didn't really have much of a choice but to trust Bob anyway...
"Say..." He studied the monster's expression, but there was no indication that he was paying any attention. "Would you, maybe be interested in coming to a costume party?"
Bob didn't respond. Oh well, worth a shot...
Flowey shot a final glance across at the Temmies who'd tried to pet him. They had stopped eating now, and were standing around together looking a whole lot calmer. Thank goodness...
He decided not to waste any more time on them and check out the rest of the 'village' instead. There were several more 'Temmies' scattered around but non paid him any mind. Besides them there wasn't really all that much here... on one wall a painting hung depicting a Temmie riding some sort of dragon monster, beside another stood a statue with 'TEM' written across the base and there were a couple of signs advertising a 'Tem shop' either side a small side cave.
Flowey approached a Temmie at the far end of the room who seemed to be strongly focused on a painted egg for some reason.
"Howdy." He said, trying to look confident despite how doubtful he felt.
The monster practically exploded with excitement! "tem... WATCH EGG! eg... wil HATCH! tem... PROUD PARENT!"
Flowey backed his stem away... this whole thing was feeling like a bad idea...
"Greetings."
That was not the voice of a Temmie; he spun around to face the source. A blue mushroom he'd previously thought inanimate was looking him up and down, it's expression hard to read with its eyes shaded beneath its cap. He felt a small surge of relief to find a different kind of monster here.
"How-"
"To others we might appear as kin." The mushroom interrupted him. "But you and I, we aren't alike, are we?"
The relief quickly vanished, confusion filling its place. "What do you mean?"
The monster brought itself to its full height. "How is it that you may roam freely, unburdened by the shackles of your roots while I am trapped here forever by my hyphae?"
"Oh..." Flowey felt his hope dashed once again, just another monster it would be pointless in asking...
He looked around at Temmie Village again and bit his lip. Ugh, this whole stupid little errand had been a complete failure. He should just leave the village... and then leave Waterfall.
The mushroom narrowed it's eyes and leaned in closer. "It's not just that though, is it...?" It continued. "There is darkness behind your eyes..."
A small shiver ran down Flowey's stem which mingled with his frustration. Really? More judgement on his soullessness? Had this been another time, or another person, he might have seen some potential, but not here... not now...
The mushroom pulled its head back and lowered its cap to cover its eyes. "You are not welcome here."
"Don't worry, i'm not coming back." He crooned scathingly and ducked underground.
He dug away in no particular direction, anger and frustration boiling at the pit of his stem. Pointless, pointless! Wait... why WAS he so angry? He had a right to be irritated sure, but was this really rational? Maybe... maybe he'd gotten a little too invested in this little task. He stopped for a moment. Why? Why hadn't this thought occurred sooner? All he ever thought about was fulfilling goals he set himself, but when those goals turned out not to be achievable... huh. He never used to get this easily upset when a plan didn't go how it should, so why now? Why did this matter so much to him, when it really shouldn't matter at all?!
He pulled himself above ground and found a nearby pool. He gazed into its dark, calm waters at the other Flowey who gazed back. This wasn't a new thing either, this had been going on for a while and he'd not even thought about it, not once. He didn't understand, he'd thought himself rational, tempered, small things never used to bother him that much.
I don't understand, what's wrong with me?
A second figure appeared to join his reflection. He recognized her, though they had only met briefly before.
"Hello Flowey, I didn't expect to find you here. I suppose fate has a funny way of bringing people together, doesn't it?"
"Yeah, I guess." He said without looking up.
The clam monster lowered herself into a cross-legged sitting position and stared up at the false stars above.
"This is my favorite meditation spot, are you here to mediate too?"
"No." He shook his head and watched her reflection in the dark water. "I was actually here to help out a friend... but it didn't go to plan."
"Well i'm sure this friend of yours appreciates the effort, even if things didn't turn out as you hoped they would."
The thought of what Papyrus would feel had never even crossed his mind. Whatever the skeleton thought, it didn't really matter to him, he just did this because it was 'the right thing' to do... and because it was 'something' to do.
"Yeah..." He said, cracking a smile and watching it spread across his reflection's face. It never mattered at all, this was silly.
"Oh." Pearl suddenly jolted from her serenity. "Suzy wanted me to tell you something."
Flowey's attention perked up and he turned to watch her intently. He'd all but forgotten about Suzy, having not seen her for several week. The expression on the clam monster's face told him that this wasn't a lighthearted message she carried.
Pearl took a moment before speaking. "She seems to have grown fond of you. You showed her kindness when most monsters stay away... even if that might have just been because you didn't know about her family circumstances. Either way... she appreciated having a friend for a little while."
Flowey narrowed his eyes, 'family circumstances'? He remembered the things she'd told him about her mother and felt another small shiver run thought his body. "She told me a little..." He said then shook it off. "Did something happen to her?"
Pearl took in a breath of air and let it out slowly. "Well, I think it's only right that I clarify things for you. Suzy's mother... suffers from a sickness of the mind. Most of the time it isn't noticeable, she carries on day to day just as well as you or I would, but at any moment she can change and become like a completely different person. Without the support of her father, Suzy is left to care for her mother mostly on her own." She paused, the corners of her mouth crept into a small smile but the sadness in her eyes betrayed her feelings. "Suzy wanted me to tell you that she might not be able to see you again for a long time... and hopes that you would understand."
Pearl held eye contact for a moment longer then returned to her meditation. Flowey watched her take in a few shaking breaths before returning to normal, then looked away. He was supposed to feel something, wasn't he? Of course he was... yet more pointless sentimentality. He was starting to wonder why he even bothered...