Flowey's Friendly February (& March) Catch-All

[friendlyflower]

Who: Flowey & Bigby, Eleanor, Nico Robin, others to be added
What: Quests (Bounty: Frightening Freeze; Light Construction; Tough Luv; others TBA) and more?
Where: Icefall Lake, Heavy Downmoor, the coast
When: February through March
Warnings: Violence (canon-typical, including battling, and maybe beyond), Flowey's warnings (child injury & past death, disassociation, angst)

Comments

story of undertale....... im sorry for summarizing several parts in narration this was long enough

[friendlyflower]

'ADAM' reminds him a little of Determination. It's hard for him to imagine humans needing to be even stronger, but maybe that's just the cost of a world without monsters and the powers of souls.

"Golly, and I thought I had problems," he quips. "Sounds like it was worse than it looked from the outside."

He can't and won't offer pity. He won't want it from her. At the least, it's clear he listened wholly. Some days, he also wishes he could go back to simpler times, even though they weren't always so great.

Flowey continues to hop through the cave. It helps that he isn't looking Eleanor in the eye when he speaks next. "Why was I a flower? Because I died! Hee hee."

He might as well start from the top. Once upon a time, there were humans and monsters. Then came the war, and monsters lost badly, and got sealed underground with a spell. Too bad, so sad. And then a human fell down into the world of monsters...

It occurs to him that unlike the other times he's told this story, Chara is actually here. They spend most of their time around the Bay lurking in the shadows, which suits them just fine. Still, even though he doesn't know if Chara has met Eleanor, Flowey doesn't find it appropriate to share their secrets without their permission. So he keeps it vague.

"... they were my best friend. When they fell ill and passed away, I... took their soul. I used it to cross the barrier and show them the golden flowers they loved so much from their hometown. Just one last time."

He owes it to her to be at least a little honest about the plan, though. "That wasn't just it. I thought... if I could just gather a few souls, monsters could go free. It would only take six more. But then the humans thought I had killed my best friend, and started attacking mercilessly."

He still remembers Chara's anger and grief. They urged him to destroy them all. Their hatred for humanity was all-consuming.

"I chickened out. I could have wiped them all out with a wave of my hand. But I took my best friend's body and went back underground, and then... everything went white."

That would have been the end of the story. But many years later, a certain royal scientist began experimenting with souls to try and find another way past the barrier.

"The next thing I knew, I woke up in my father's garden. I couldn't feel my arms or legs. I couldn't feel anything at all. I had been transformed into a flower!"

He elaborates: he didn't know it at the time, but the scientist had experimented with a vessel. Something that could absorb human or monster souls. Something without a soul, but still had the will to live.

"I guess enough of my dust-- remains, that is, was on that flower she used that it brought me back to life." He grins. "My mind and memories, at least. My soul... my ability to feel love or compassion... it was gone. In their place, I had humanity's greatest power. 'Determination'. The power to change fate. To turn back the clock and start from that garden again, no matter how many times I died, no matter whether I saved everyone, or..."

He trails off there. That's another question entirely. He lets it hang in the air, focusing intently on gathering for the next several moments.

[notyourbloodymessiah]

Eleanor lets it. She's not quite as sharply-witted as Flowey, even if his quip had squeezed a chuckle out of her earlier. What a fucked up pair they made, huh? Two lost souls (never in the literal sense). Time travel, though? She's aware of it as a hypothetical because the game where it isn't retcons her out of existence. She wasn't aware that dying like that could do it, but she supposes that's merely the logic his world runs on. Not hers.

She knows of monsters from stories, of course. The troll under the bridge, the wolf following the girl, the dragon in the mountain. That sort of thing. Granted, she's not really supposed to, but that's never stopped her before.

In another life, one far from her own comprehension, Eleanor Lamb would have been much the same. Following in her father's footsteps to become not the kind-hearted girl Flowey is speaking to now, but an angry, vengeful force. That could have been her, had her father not chosen compassion. Compassion for the Little Sisters, and for the survivors of Rapture. She can't imagine ever losing those feelings at all, even if that could very well have been her fate.

She tosses aside another rock, wincing when it makes a sharp sound colliding with the wall. "...I suppose we were both stuck with bodies we didn't want, huh?"

They're not that different. Not really. She's not sure what else to say, beyond that. He killed everyone out of boredom at least once, she can tell that much from how he avoids saying it. It's strange to imagine, given how funny he gets about the subject now. Not that she'd really blame him (for in another life, that would have been her).

"Thank you. For telling me that."

She's not going to say she's sorry. There's nothing to be sorry for.

[friendlyflower]

"Sure, but at least you're a cute seal now!" he says, bouncing back as always. "And I bet I'm getting arms and legs back once I evolve! Probably some cool toxic thorns and stuff, too!" (He will not be getting that.)

He feels a little lighter for not being seen as pitiable or repulsive. His hops are a little higher than before. "It was a fair trade. Now I know your dark lore and you know mine!"

[notyourbloodymessiah]

"Ha! Perhaps you will."

She watches him bounce along much like a rubber ball, bobbing her head in time with his movements with a soft smile. Flowey's right: she is a cute seal now. And while some of her abilities are still abnormal, she isn't some genetically-modified freak anymore. She's Eleanor the Brionne, spending time with one of her friends. A friend she knows the dark secrets of, too.

"I trust you won't tell anyone?"

[friendlyflower]

"Aw, shucks! Who do you take me for?" he says. "Of course not! And that has little to do with the fact that you could spill MY secrets as well. We're pals!"

'Pals' insofar as he can't feel any sort of attachment, really... but she's less annoying than other guild members, that's for sure.

come on flowey we were getting somewhere!!

[notyourbloodymessiah]

It's not like she's going to be around advertising that everywhere, either. Well. She supposes they've been friends for long enough to be pals. Huh. She likes that.

Her face softens into a smile. "All right." It feels nice to know that something like that isn't going to be immediately told to everyone, too. "Do you think we have enough rocks to head back now?"

wrapped

[friendlyflower]

"We've got plenty!" he agrees. Fortunately, all the talk didn't disorient him enough to forget the way out.

It would've been nice to have met Eleanor during a simpler time, he thinks. Maybe instead of being stuck as Flowey, he could've met her when they were both young and innocent. But there's nothing left to do about it now. All of that is in the past, and all he can focus on is the future.