Flower Man

"O-oh! Another flower! Thank ya kindly."

Whimsy looks very nervous as she carefully takes the flower.

"I'll take real good care of 'im, I promise. No eatin' or nothin'. Not even a small nibble!"

Whimsy turns around for a moment, fiddling with something in her hand. When she turns back to face Flowery, she's holding a brand new flower out to him.

"If you wanted to eat it, shouldn't have given to me in the first place. Idiot."

...

...well. Not quite. This seems to unnerve the flower, but Tenna can't exactly blame him for that one.

"...no. I was, just checking. "

The addendum sounds a little sheepish. No, if there was any priority in that plant's world, it was his king. He probably just...

...missed him.

It's the reason Tenna himself made a little Toriel, right?

"Hey, come on

"There's gotta be something else you wanna do, right? We could watch your favourite cooking channel! Or that musical you like so much!"

At that, the snow monster puts a paw up to her mouth, as if forgetting about something! And when she turns to the CRT and smiles in thanks, the grin on Tenna's face seemed to absolutely light up the white snow around them!

...

Until she turned away, picking up a snow-book from the ground and walking in the direction of other snow-creatures. Not looking back, not even once.

" . . . . . "

It felt a lot colder out here, he thinks.

"...She just. Doesn't recognize me, that's all. Always was a busy lady."

Nobody believed that, though. Not even him.

"...You two should. Go have fun while you can, stuff like this. Doesn't stick around long."

For once, the piece of advice seemed genuine. The likelihood of Flowery ever seeing the Asgore he grew up with were slim. This was a chance for him to say goodbye, wasn't it? As bitter and fragile Tenna was toward the half-Darkner, he did know how he felt. Ripping him away from this felt cruel, even to him.

If Tenna has the snow Toriel, then it's probably best to wrap it up here. He wouldn't want Flowery around while he's desperate for attention, would he? Or maybe he's shameless enough to not care. Whatever the case, he's happy to leave and spend some time with Snowgore. It's not the real thing, but it could be fun for a few hours.

And then Tenna gets abandoned.

Well. That's what happens to Darkners sometimes, isn't it? All that time spent serving Lightners, only to... And Toriel's always been just a little...

"Boy! Talk about a cold shoulder!" says Flowery. He couldn't pass it up. "Tough breaks, Tenny. But that's the way the snowkie crumbles sometimes. Better luck next time."

He doesn't enjoy seeing Tenna's anguish. He doesn't dislike the guy. But this is probably for the best, right? Show him it's not good to hang on them like this?

He glances over at Snowgore. It stares back at him with empty eyes. Flowery sighs.

"Hey, Gorey. Keep ol' Tenny company here for a sec, would ya? Make sure he doesn't unplug himself." He reaches up and pats Tenna's shoulder. "Hang around for a secs. Like you said, it all melts eventually."

Flowery strolls away, headed for the snowy treeline. He steps behind one of the trees, and emerges a moment later, trailed by a second figure. Another snow creation, this one of a teenaged human, their hair over their eyes.

"Look here, Tenny! It's Snis! Like a family's reunion. Don't wanna leave them hanging, do you?" he says, guiding the snow human back over. There isn't a flash of recognition in their face, not like with their snow parents. There isn't really... anything.

Flowery waits for something to happen. Nothing does.

" Hmm.. "

He whirls the glass, interested in its' contents but not particularly inspired by the sight. Guess it doesn't really matter what you drink as long as he'll be able to win free drinks for the rest of the year - and even if he doesn't win he doesn't have to pay for these at least. No better way to spare money than that!

Just as he takes a sip someone sits next to him. Yesol glances, not all that interested but decides to address him nonetheless.

Flowers love the sun, of course. But so much direct sunlight is a little much, so a nice, air-conditioned break is just what he needs to beat the heat. Plus a little hydration never hurt.

He glances over at the man sitting next to him. "Hey, honestlys, the prize isn't anything to a guy like me. It's about making memories with the boys. And nothing like memories over a fresh-hatched glass! Cheers!"

Clinking his glass against the other guy's, Flowery downs his own in one sustained gulp. A bit more processed than he likes, but it's fine for now.

"--I mean! Haha! This guy, what a kidder! He's not even in the entertainment business, folks! Haha!!!!! Family's family!! Rent? Just a joke, really!"

...

"IT'S MOVE-IN DAAAAAYYY!"

...

"...Wait a tic. Everything was automatically--?"

Yup! No boxes behind him!

"Well, what the hell. Why'd I waste all that time putting this stuff in boxes."

"Hate to see you work yourself into the garbage, haha! That's you, that's what you sound like, y'know." Comes an unfriendly reply. Fortunately for the flower, the annoyance makes him radiate a bit more heat. ... Or, maybe the heat is from some kind of discomfort. Snowriel seems to be finding any excuse to dismiss her ex-snowsband, and finding none, seems to be sternly telling him to move along. She's not interested.

"Maybe you should work a little harder, huh? Some of us can't just get by with a pretty face and a friendly disposition. You..."

He seems to trail off when he sees Snowgore stand back up, though. As happy as he was to see the likeness of his former Lightner, he knew what was coming next.

"You, wouldn't be so much of a thorn as to do this on purpose, would ya? You little prick?"

He reaches up and pat him, feeling more pleasant warmth from the Darkner's irritation. "But don't be so hard on yourself, guy. I'd say you're plenty pretty and friendly. Mostlys."

But both of their attentions are drawn by the... awkward display going on between the snow divorcees. Although Snowgore looks mildly dejected, Flowery knows it won't be enough to deter him completely. It never was. He watches as Snowgore kneels down on the ground, shuffling with the snow.

"Don't do it, Gorey..." Flowery murmurs.

But he does do it. He's got a huge snowquet of ice flowers, which he holds out to Snowriel. Even with her frosty features, she looks uncomfortable. She doesn't take it, and so the snowquet falls to the ground, crumbling into powder.

Finally, he looks away. "You think I like this? I enjoy seeing him like this? I'm a little hurt you think so little of me, Tenny. I just want Asgore to be happy."

But this isn't Asgore. It's just a snowy impostor. Flowery steps forward, suddenly feeling the chill. "Asgore, oldbuddy! C'mon, don't wanna chase memories all day! Plenty of stuff you could do with the boys instead!"

And Snowgore does seem to recognize him. He steps forward, something like a smile on his face as he walks up to Flowery, and so Flowery extends his hand, and Snowgore bumps his fist against it.

"See? I'd never lie to you, my king."

He was one of the stranger humans N had ever seen, what with being all yellow and all, but well. He'd never really met that many humans, so maybe some of them were just yellow!

Ehh, he wasn't that worried about it.

His tail gently wags behind him as he marvels at how a breeze conveniently arrives to ruffle Flowery's hair...this guy is so effortlessly cool. N wanted to be like that.,,,

"Newbuddy?" He'd never heard that one before, but he really liked it! "Sure, we can be newbuddies! I'm N, like the letter, star sign uh..."

"Hah! Short and sweet. It's all in a name, isn't it, Nbuddy? And for star signs, well! It's just a thing. When/where you were born, like that. Some people think that's important, but for me... Well, a person isn't defined by that kind of thing, I think."

A rare genuine moment before he falls back on that bubbly smile. "Maybe you know where you were born built, and you can figure it out. Or maybe not. Try not to worry about it too much."

He's a flower, after all. Grown in the dirt, given life by a Dark Fountain, etc. He doesn't want to get too hung up on details.

"Listen, N," he says, placing a hand on the guy's shoulder. "It's like I said. I'm a new bloom in this place, and-"

He whips his hand away, waving away the sharp pain that shoots through his palm. "Yowch! You sure are hot, buddy. Warn a guy next time, okay? Heh, it's alright. I've been worse."

A lot worse.

Then again, if you were trying to make yourself seem "human" then maybe sources like those weren't all that bad.

"Well, you're not wrong that the Flower Kingdom is the only place where I can be exactly who I want to be, mew. I'd never abandon anyone who accepted me, flowers or not." She'd leave out her deal with Kris that they'd be taking the body to their Dark World, because that technically made that point moot. Too bad he brought it up indirectly!

"Heh, well... I'm glad. On both counts."

And he is.

Pink doesn't know much more than he does. It was kind of a long shot, and Flowery shrugs. "Eh, it's fine, princess. Still, I appreciate it. And I'm... sure everyone will be happy to see you. Orange especially."

She doesn't know, huh? He doesn't see a reason to tell her. Let her keep living that dream.

"You're alright, then? That's good. Gotta say, I didn't... expect things to turn out how they did. Especially this whole place. But I don't think it's connected, this is..." He waves his hands uncertainly. "Something else. Guess we'll find out."

He doesn't want to burden her with any more than that. Pink was never really involved with everything that happened in the Flower Kingdom anyways. Just a fortunate bystander who found her place. He doesn't want to burden her now.

He remembered doing blood types in middle school. He was entirely certain that SSS didn't exi--

Oh. Flower. That explained it. Except for the fact that flowers didn't talk, or have blood of any kind. He didn't read as a curse, either, so he couldn't be like the flowering, talking curse he'd read about after the Kyoto Goodwill Event.

He must be something else entirely, Nanami decided. The puns he decided to ignore.

The flower's bright nature and insistence on jokes and a flashy entrance was...not ignored.

There's probably specifics there, or maybe an interesting story. Flowery doesn't care; it's nothing personal. It's for the same reason that he's not going to explain his whole deal.

"All it takes is hopes and dreams. Nothing major. All you gotta do is want something enough, guy. And sometime's, someone else does it for you. Don't wanna bore you with details! Not like it can happen here."

He's pretty sure no one's gonna be opening a Dark Fountain in the middle of this city. Reasonably, at least. The only people who can do it here are... well, no point in musing on it. But if he's here (and Pink as well), there's no reason some of the others couldn't crop up. Darkners living out in the sun, imagine that.

"Uh, this island actually has a lot of restaurants! You could try checkin' those. I think there's at least one or two flower shops kickin' around as well. A-assumin' your friend is even here. He might not be. I wouldn't wanna get yer hopes up for nothin'..."

She blinks, her nervous smile turning more genuine as she takes a step back.

"Don't concern about it, princess," says Flowery, waving her away. "Gorey's a hard guy to miss. If he's here, we'll find each other. Guaranteed! Just believe in it, okay?"

That much is true. This island is full of, for some reason, humans. Asgore will stick out when/if he ever arrives. He'll just have to wait and see.

"Hey, that's great, Loveand! Nicknames for the boys, no greater sign of friendship. Never met a horse before, never mind a horse girl. Happy to meet you. You'll understand if I don't shake your hand or anything else. Hahaflowersha."

Not quite human, not quite animal. Another in-between; there sure have been a lot of those lately. What an interesting place he's found himself in.

With that, Flowery gives a little wave. "Well Loveand, great to meet, etc. But I've gotta get growing, got places to meet and people to see. You understand! Of course! But if you see a ten foot tall monster, tell me, okay? I'd appreciate it. Who knows, maybe I'd even appreciate it."