WEEK 3

[akudamods]

On Saturday, it is relentlessly sunny. Sunday too. Monday will be the same but with a lot of wind. For now, you get a new area: Old Shinsekai, the den of depravity surrounding the police station. Will you venture into the unknown and seedy? Or retreat into the familiar pods, keep bothering your overseers?

Maybe you plan something else altogether.

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Comments

[akudamods]

[It's eerily silent in the reception room you visited before. After you say it... someone is using the CALL feature.]

[your_best_friend]

[* Well, that's, um... different. -Ish. Different-ish. It's not every day someone CALLed him. Flowey looks around, trying to locate the source of the CALL. However, that might prove fruitless. But there IS a CALL. If need be, he'll initiate a battle to more easily find where it's coming from.]

[akudamods]

[It's coming from the front desk, which the sokoban lady Receptionist he met earlier is conspicuously absent from.]

[your_best_friend]

[* Yeah, that's strange. Flowey will go over to the side of the receptionist desk the receptionist would usually sit in to see if anything is there.]

[akudamods]

Kkghh...

[Oh. I guess Receptionist wasn't absent after all. She's just a bit pinned down at the moment... by debris. She looks like she's barely conscious.

Will he spare her? ...Or is she looking a bit like a free SOUL right now?]

[your_best_friend]

[* ...Flowey stares for a second. This is a very prime opportunity. One (1) very easy SOUL to get. His power would increase. But...

* "Don't you have anything better to do?"

* His mind flashes back to the final battle against Frisk. Sure, he can take the SOUL, but... this is not a Kill or be Killed world. This person likely has family and friends. HELPing would be what Frisk would do. This person would be amusing to play with later on. This is the real world, not a video game. Any and all reminders he etched into his room to plead with himself flash in his mind.]

[* >SPARE]

[* Flowey will attempt to lift the debris off of the receptionist. Sure, his vines aren't the strongest, but Flowey is... Flowey... is...]

[* Flowey is DETERMINED.]

[akudamods]

[She's still just lying there, breathing strangely. Her glasses have fallen to the floor, and the CALL just keeps ringing, ringing, ringing.

Eventually, the annoying and familiar noise brings the woman back to her senses, and she looks up to see who's straining with the rock to help her.]

Wha-? Vessel?

[It's pretty surprising. She didn't even wind up helping him before.]

Why...

[She might have some ideas for how he can help get it off her, but she's too dazed and confused for the moment.]

[your_best_friend]

[* The ting about determination is that it can sometimes give a person a sort of tunnel vision, or turn into stubbornness. It also doesn't help when you aren't able to have any compassion or empathy. Flowey keeps telling himself this is what Frisk would do.

* To HELP, to ACT.

* Flowey continues to strain his vines, adding in a few more to see if that could help.]

C- can you move? Get out... from under...!

[akudamods]

[Right. No time to think about who's helping her. She strains a bit, it does look like she can move a tiny bit, but her legs are pinned.]

Gh! I'm trying...!

[It's a bit of a pointless effort, but she'll put her half broken glasses on at least while she's reached the point she can't budge.]

Huff... [She looks over her shoulder at the debris covered in vines. She's a bit panicked though, not quite thinking straight, so in the end she only has half of an idea.] Think of it like a puzzle... M-Maybe if we tie them or something?

[For now, she's just going to go back to trying to wiggle out.]

[your_best_friend]

[* A... puzzle...? ...That could be it...! Flowey's just been trying to brute force this,and that's the entirely wrong way to go about this. He looks back at the rock he's trying to lift up. Flowey just may have an idea...]

H- hold on, I think I g- got something.

[* With a new vine, Flowey will look up and send a vine up to the ceiling, attempting to pierce it. If he's able to, he'll create a sort of crude pulley system, wrapping the "pulley" vine around the rock. Because even the simplest machines can often be the simplest solution to a puzzle. Even before sokoban, before sudoku, before chess... people thought about how to make things simpler. Many solutions to this puzzle were thought up: Levers, inclines, pullets, even screws were solutions to puzzles. Flowey doesn't know if humans ever thought this way, but monsters definitely did.]

[* After the simple pulley is "constructed", Flowey will keep on adding more and more weight to the "pull down" side by wrapping them around with the vine. Let's say the debris is 75. A loose chair could be a 3, that garbage can a 2, that backpack a 2... Everyone will get the idea. With enough 3s and 2s and 4s and 1s, there's no way a 75 could ever be higher.]

[akudamods]

[It wouldn't be a Tookyo Games property if there wasn't a Zero Escape moment. Flowey's quick thinking is incredibly valuable here - though this system will take some time, and while Receptionist was absolutely thinking in a vaguely 'pulleys' direction, she can't help but freak out - especially after the distant rumbling starts.]

Aaah! Hurry! Please-

[But it works! When she finally manages to get to her feet, there's a bit of a limp, but she's immediately running for the door.]

Thank you so much! [BOOOM] ...I'm getting out of here!

[She'd give Flowey a lift if he needed one but she figures, X-Class, he'll be faster on his own]

[your_best_friend]

[* It's only now that Flowey realizes that there's distant booms and shaking and rumbling. There is no "moment" of pride that comes with something like saving someone's life. It was just facts for Flowey. The receptionist needed help, somebody came, they helped them, and now it's time to leave.

* Flowey swiftly burrows into the ground and will pop up a safe distance away in the direction that Receptionist was heading. Flowey doesn't know if he made it there first or not, but doesn't really care. He just...

* Stares at the police station being slowly reduced to rubble. No expression is on his face.]

[akudamods]

[She spots Flowey, but noticing he doesn't care, she doesn't meet up with him. She may have gotten out alive, but for her, that doesn't mean it's finished - she's still a Receptionist, and she has calls to make. To other precincts. To her family.

But she will remember this.]

MINI TIMESKIP

[your_best_friend]

[* Once finished watching the building crumble. Flowey will go about his own business again. It doesn't occur until a long while later that he should probably do a followup check up on the receptionist.

It may take him a couple hours, but he's determined to track her down. If/when he does, he'll pop up in front of her.]

Howdy. Huh... I should've asked this earlier, but... Are you okay?

[akudamods]

[Vessel crimes: Stalking. Help. Okay, but he saved her life, so she gets over it pretty fast. She's at Chuo Square, where some cops are assisting a bunch of evacuees from the museum. There's a grave atmosphere about the lives lost. A bunch of people are giving Flowey a stink-eye, and Receptionist is a little worried she'll get suspected of being a mole somehow, but. She's just going to ignore that.]

Hah... I drove over here to help, but they sent me home when they saw my leg. It's not that bad.

[She IS limping kinda hard though. Man, maybe she should go to the hospital?]

Your assistance was appreciated.

[...She's back to the formal tone she uses at the desk, and giving him a proper bow now that she's not running for her life. This probably means she calmed down at least.]

[your_best_friend]

[* Ah. Yes. Of course. People are supposed to hate him. He briefly glances at the others before turning back to the receptionist, eying her leg. He takes a Nice Cream out of his inventory and offers it to the injured woman.]

...

It was... what someone else I knew would do. SAVE people.

[akudamods]

Where did that - [She pauses. Right. Video games. She hesitantly takes the Nice Cream, though she's still not sure why she's getting ice cream in the first place.

But this day is so damn crazy she'll just start working open the wrapper without questioning it.]

So that's your reason, hm?

[She doesn't really get it, but she's listening. Taking a little bite. Coworkers still side-eyeing. It's a relief she's going home.]

[your_best_friend]

...

[* Flowey sighs.]

Your friends are right to fear me...

...You wanna know what I was doing before I was bought here? I was... I... Everyone else went to the surface to live with the humans back at home. I stayed behind because I knew I would ruin my Golden Ending. I...

...I can't feel love or compassion or guilt.

Heh... Maybe I should just leave you all alone... Frisk isn't here to protect you all from me.

[akudamods]

[Receptionist tilts her head as she listens to this. Only about half of it makes sense, but it sounds like Vessel wants to live among humans?]

Hmm. You're not this Frisk person, but wasn't the lack of emotion useful for doing those pulley calculations under pressure? I thought the same thing, but there was no way I was making that work.

[It doesn't seem like she cares about his lack of emotions... then again, the expression kind of slips off her face too, in a moment of dumbfoundedness.]

Besides, I thought all Akudama were like that. Incapable of feeling. You're definitely a step above all the ones who were attacking.

[Like, she's seriously questioning. "What makes one an Akudama?"]

[your_best_friend]

...Yeah, I guess so... Even simple machines like a pulley can be the solution to a puzzle. And a lack of emotions may also help in the trials... But a lack of emotion only gets you so far when you can't legitimately form friendships or family.

[* A... step up? He was just doing what Frisk would do...]

...I thought I was the only one incapable of feeling. Everyone else? ...Well, I can't claim to be the ultimate authority like I can with so many other things, but... they have friends and family. Loved ones. Hopes and dreams. Goals in life. Reasons for doing everything they do.

Listen... I've certainly ran my fair share of oppressive dystopian governments, killing people for even daring questioning my opinions, or for even having a different opinion in the first place. How long until Kanto targets you for the same thing?

[* He turns to the other police officers.]

...What about the rest of you?

[akudamods]

[Receptionist is just like Hahaha What the Fuck?.gif @ Flowey running oppressive governments. She'd take it back, saying he's a step above, but frankly it was a low bar so... yeah. Just gonna be thinking here with her Nice Cream, also is this RPG food gonna heal her or what!?

The other cops just scoff and say,]

You don't know what you're talking about. Kanto only gets involved with us when Kansai can't take care of something. Receptionist, get back home before you get tangled up in more of a mess.

[They go back to helping the evacuees before she can swallow her food. Rude!]