A gentle breeze blew past the long pillars which ran down up to the top of the cave, an opening out to the top of Mount Ebott in the surface world beyond. It was accompanied by a gentle beam of sunlight whose rays were carried down into the deep darkness, into the Underground.
The light gave warmth, nurturing growth to a familiar bed of flowers that lay at the very bottom of that iconic small space filled with crushed stone and strewn rubble.
It was here where the First Human fell, followed by seven others, like angels fallen from grace.
But no longer.
It was here in the centre of that bed that there lay a particular flower unlike the others. It twitched, bent, breathed, and craned itself around, it was full of curiousty.
It shot up at the feeling of the breeze and hid at the sight of strangers. It had a will, a certain determination to live.
This wasn't just any other flower, it was Flowey, Flowey the Flower!
The uncreatively self-named denizen of the Underground.
Yet again he was dozing off into an uncomfortable sleep and tilting to his side, his poor stem unable to handle the weight of his 'head' against his 'body'. He was trapped in this movement cycle for what felt like forever. He was whining with the familiar sounds of annoyance unable to properly get comfortable, his frustration building.
With a strained grunt he lifted himself up by his stem further, his petals which had enclosed him opened up to reveal his signature face: A simple set of black, inky eyes with a circle mouth. He took a brief gander at the light up beyond the reaches of the pillars once more as he had hundreds, if not thousands of times previously.
As he started to relax his steam and lean back down against the soil, the half-awake flower thought about how this had become a regular occurrence, since, well… since…
He didn't want to think about it.
There was nothing left for him to think about or consider anymore.
His control over this world, this 'game' as he had put it, had ended.
His story had started a very long time ago.
Having lived previously as the son of Asgore and Toriel, heir to the throne, Prince Asriel Dreemurr.
Asriel had lived an quiet, unhappy life in solitude with his family.
That was until the day they arrived, the first fallen human.
Despite the monster's history with humans, the royal family happily took in the human child and Asriel came to view them as an integral part of their family in all but relation. Asriel finally felt purpose, love, and belonging. The two shared the best years of their childhood together, growing and learning.
That was until the human fell ill, not the result of some mysterious disease but rather a calculated plan to grant Asriel their power with which to go to the surface and gather the SOULs of Humans.
But the plan was not to be, as the Prince Asriel, having absorbed their human sibling had refused to harm the humans.
He suffered a sudden tortuous death at the hands of the humans and returned to the Underground only to pass in the garden of his father.
...and that was it, for a long time.
Then, after decades of nothing he suddenly had woken up for the first time, discovering himself like this, a flower, totally unrecognizable from his former self.
Terrified and alone, he had to grow up fairly quickly to learn the rules of the Underground in this new form: discovering himself to be a being of immense Determination. Beyond being just a simple flower he had the ability to control time, making decisions and undoing them. At first, he tried to reconnected with his family, he did his best to befriend the denizens of the Underground and solve their problems using his immense power. Did what he could to return to his former self.
Naming himself Flowey the Flower, he took on the cheerful façade of a plant monster from the Ruins that was a best friend to everyone.
For a time he made them all happy, as happy as they could be. He had no way of releasing the Monsters to the surface as they had dreamed, freeing them from their imprisonment underground.
But none of these possibilities ever succeeded, and after a time the idea of even attempting them didn't even truly satisfy Flowey.
Flowey had an empty, SOULless existence that despite his best efforts persisted within him. This led to an attitude of pure pessimism which slowly transformed him into a shrewd and vile creature.
After a time, he became an enemy to all living things in the Underground, he began to see the inhabitants as his play things. He found great amusement, although temporary, to toy endlessly with the lives of those he once cared about; and he did so simply to test the constraints of his powers.
Openly, he had come to view himself as a god, but within himself he viewed this existence as Hell.
Without his Human Sibling, reduced to plant that couldn't feel, and he couldn't even really die.
What was the point of living?
Death was but a long time of cold darkness with no afterlife for him followed by this.
Life has no meaning. Is what he came to conclude. All life, much like himself, was some grand experiment and devoid of any meaning.
After a while doing all he could do, Flowey had grown bored and came to the conclusion he had seen all life had to offer him.
Thinking about it now, in the present, he realized just how much he had taken for granted. How many chances he had if he could only go back and undo his actions.
The flower shuddered at these thoughts, he hated thinking about them, he hated thinking about himself. The little flower had no greater contempt than what he held over himself for everything that's happened. This was the root for his disdain for others, he suffered and he made them join in that suffering too.
But after everything that happened he had eventually come to regret it greatly, although how much this was his own 'feeling' or just what he thinks he should feel was still a matter of debate in his mind.
He had no real feelings, only his thoughts.
Still in the bed of flowers in current time, Flowey swayed himself by his stem to one side that allowed him a respite from looking at the Golden Flowers that reminded him of his own form. Preferring now to look at the ceiling of the cave, its natural contours still an amazement for him, though familiar he could always look and see something new in the face of the rock that he hadn't before.
Despite his horrific actions, despite becoming a flower, despite everything he was, and still is in his being a child.
He still could look upon things with a curiosity he couldn't help.
As each day bleed into the next, resting here on the flower bed, he continually went through this daily ritual of introspection. Promising to stop thinking about the past but never actually doing that.
That terrible time of experimentation with everyone in the Underground, of making decisions and creating outcomes - It could only last so long.
One day it came to an abrupt end: While working on a new way out of the Underground, everything was to change suddenly. The arrival of a new human from the world beyond who had an appearance most familiar to him, a form and dress sense not unlike that of his former sibling.
Once present, he figured this must have been like his sibling: the First Human, reborn just as he had. Human SOULs were much stronger than that of Monsters, or even Boss Monsters' SOULS, and their sibling's SOUL was filled with an immense Determination that they didn't know of at the time, but felt it when they merged briefly. This human gave off that very same aspect and Certainly, for one to climb Mount Ebott knowing of the legend, must have come for an unpleasant purpose too? Just as Chara had.
The prospect of the Humans' arrival equally and terrified him. One present, filled with the most Determination, it cost him his abilities, namely the ability to SAVE and LOAD. But armed with the knowledge of his countless experimental manipulations, he was an expert on the Underground and its inhabitants.
Flowey quickly set about carving a dangerous path for the Human, filled with many trials and tribulations for them to face in anticipation of their demise. If they were able to conquer them all, he knew this human was more than just a simple human, maybe even their sibling.
One problem: this wasn't his human, they were different. Much different.
In contrast to his own sibling, this human was a creature of compassion and curiosity, incredibly careful and trusting.
He took it upon himself to lay down the law and try his hardest to remind the SOUL of who it was. This had to be them! a lapse in their judgment perhaps - but no matter what he tried, he couldn't win.
This new human was innocent, befriended all of Monsterkind, even Flowey and…
…and eventually…
Gahh!
Flowey flipped back against the flowers, thudding his head and top petals against the dirt. He was starting to think of that whole breaking the barrier thing again, about becoming his old self,
Gross. Embarrassing. Weak…!
Flowey knew, that better or worse, as Asriel, he did the right thing. While it led him right back to this form, he knew the others could live happily.
Especially the human, Frisk. Now safe on the surface, probably engaged in a better life.
If I have to suffer, then it was probably worth it… After all, it's only fair, isn't it? I deserve this.
With the freeing of the Monsters from the Underground sometime ago, Mt. Ebott gradually became abandoned as Monsters left to seek out a new life on the surface world.
This didn't happen overnight and at first it seemed that only a chosen few really desired to leave for the world above. But in time things began to change: first went all the Monsters of New Home, then those around the Core and Hotlands, then from the outlying settlements like Snowdin.
From what Flowey considered the most forgettable scum like Froggits, to the Temmies. They all were gone eventually. Gone. All of them.
It wasn't that it was suddenly a good idea to just live with humans but as time went on it became obvious that there was nothing to be gained by staying below alone. Whatever the humans were like was but speculation as they never bothered to explore or introduce themselves to the Underground the way Monsters had to the world above and the remaining Monsters often conflicted on the details of what they were like much to Flowey's frustration.
The bustle of life in the Underground came to a stand still and grew quieter with each passing day.
That left Flowey, formerly Asriel Dreemurr, stripped of everything and alone here, unable (actually, more unwilling) to join with those in the world above.
His tired eyes flicked and darted across this patch of flowers, all looking just like him.
Doing so he couldn't help but recall first waking up in this form: confusion and pain, the lack of emotion. At least it was all still new to him then. Now, after years of this existence, it was like a heavy weight that kept his head down.
Nothing different for me, I'm still alone, same as I always was.
Flowey had spent a long time mulling it over, with nothing but time on his 'hands' he was forced by his own intrusive thoughts to re-play his life over and over again in his mind wondering if maybe this existence was worse than before.
He couldn't help but think about that Human, the very last one, the one who befriended all of Monster kind and despite everything befriended even him. Their time together was short but it was the best time of his life and for that short while they were together, he held them close and could feel once more, even if it was brief.
He was starting to feel similarly about them as he does about his human sibling Chara before them.
Oh, Frisk, how I miss you.
I hope you're thinking about me.
I'm thinking about you every day.
I hope you never have to see me like this again.
✦‿︵‿︵‿୨ ✿ ୧‿︵‿︵‿✦