A big smile!!

In any case, at least the rabbit monster seemed to be starting to get that now. Kind of. As long as it stopped him from asking more dumb questions. ...As if Jeremy would pass up a chance to complain some more, or have the spine to not answer. Real great effort with that so far. He'd just blame it on the fact there was pretty much nothing else to do than sip hot chocolate and get interrogated by this annoyingly optimistic guy-- not when his options seemed to be 'sit here' and 'go back out into the cold and into certain doom or whatever'.

——— " I guess, " Jeremy gave a noncommittal shrug. " Well, that's probably the big thing, isn't it? You think it's fun. I hate every single aspect of that kind of stuff. "

He could list it out-- the social interaction, possibility of germs and contamination, giving opinions about things he didn't care about, had no passion for, had no stake in-- all things that certainly weren't inclining him into wanting to help. Nickie probably got the point long ago already.

Another huff of annoyance, " We mostly sell really useless junk. It's a hobby shop, so there's a lot of it, and it's all different varieties of pointless. Stuff like collectible action figures, and art supplies, and this unnecessarily gaudy model train display near the front of the shop... " He paused in consideration, " ...I guess some of the goods are fine. You can make practical stuff and there's tools for fixing things and whatever. " He let out a scoff, " My parents really like making me make use of the latter personally. It's annoying. "

——— " You're probably right about that. " Jeremy mused, " If someone happy did end up down here, they'd probably be really stupid, or really oblivious, or clumsy, or all of the above. They'd have to be, considering all those warnings about people never coming back from the mountain up there would have to be ignored. Same with that gaping hole leading down here. " A sardonic pull at the corner of his lips, " Lucky you, you get me instead. "

——— " Well, yeah, but it's just corny. " He retorted, " I guess it's fine if you wanna name your ice cream brand Nice Cream. Sure. I mean, it's not like I'd come up with a better name. " He wouldn't admit it out loud, but it was simple enough to be fine. Snappy and memorable, even. It worked better than a name that was completely unfitting or overly complex. There were worse things than lame, probably.

——— " ...Personally, I'm still just wondering what on earth that 'Despair ( and cheese )' sample was supposed to be. What, were you still workshopping that flavour? "

As Nickie spoke about whatever notable monsters were around, Jeremy gave a small grunt in acknowledgement. He took another sip of his hot chocolate, sucking up another of the dissolving marshmallows before they could assimilate further into chocolatey liquid. He peered into the mug. About halfway empty.

After Nickie's assessment of his own decor, Jeremy could only utter a muffled, " Of course you do. " into his mug before taking another swig.

He tried not to wince from the confirmation. As much as he disliked existing, and life, and pretty much accepted that death was a thing that could happen at any moment-- it didn't mean he was fond of the idea of getting killed. He had no expectations that it would be a pleasant experience. Quite the opposite. Which was why that was something he'd rather avoid if he could. If he couldn't, then... oh well. That would just be something to deal with in the moment.

Still, the monster had a point. Jeremy hadn't really been confronted by anyone else while he was down here so far. He could probably blame that on luck, or the fact that monsterkind was similarly as defeated as Jeremy. Which was probably a concerning state to be in, all things considered.

Hearing Nickie's rationale for not turning him in or anything, Jeremy stared at him for a moment, confusion etched on his features. He... couldn't really understand why he'd want to help some human he just met. Then again, a lot of the rabbit's philosophies weren't anything Jeremy had been able to see eye to eye on anyway. It'd just have to be a mystery forever, he figured.

Jeremy slumped on the couch with a sigh of disbelief. " Gee, don't flatter me all at once. " Not that Nickie was wrong about the kind of person he was. " I don't get why you'd even care whether something bad happens to me or not. We're basically strangers. " And despite that, here he was-- sitting in the guy's house, drinking hot chocolate, out of the cold... He could've easily been someone else's problem by now, but no. It was kind of unreal how dedicated this ice cream salesman was to niceness.

Nickie listened intently as Jeremy described the hobby shop. He was not at all surprised at how much he seemed to detest in the perfectly mundane elements of it. Of course, he would hate the various craft and skill items they sold. The monster was moderately surprised to hear that Jeremy was fine with the practical products sold there, but the neutrality didn't last long as the human went on to describe his parents' encouragement of the use of the tools.

" I see. Not a hobby human yourself, then? That's fair enough. Shopkeeping isn't for everyone, either. At least you know that now, so when you're older, and you're thinking about jobs, you can steer clear." He was mostly teasing.

" That's so sad." Came the rabbit monster's response. He didn't know what else to say to something like that. Rumors about how the humans felt about the mountain were few and far in between, but Nickie knew enough to know they avoided it, and what it would mean if someone ended up there. Of course, Jeremy had a point. There would always be those who were clumsy or foolish. But for the others...

Nickie laughed a little in response, an amused and puzzled expression on his face. " Did you really get the impression I was anything but corny? " He liked the silly name. He liked that it was simple, and told monsters what he and his product were all about right on the tin. What else was he going to call it, Blue Bunny or something? That would just be absurd.

Besides, he was the older brother to several younger siblings, with a big enough gap to always be the lame adult to them. There were way worse fates than being lame.

" Oh no, that flavor is exactly what the label said. It tastes like despair, I'm serious. I don't know how I managed to make it, honestly. At least the cheese flavor comes through. Small blessing, that." He probably wouldn't bring it to the menu full-time, unless there was a market for it. Maybe there was out there, somewhere. He didn't think Fire would make it to the menu, but sure enough, the fire monsters sang its praises when they tried it. That said, at least fire was a flavor he could partially understand. Despair seemed like it wouldn't be good for anyone. It wasn't the worst one he'd made, though. He shuddered thinking about the ones at the end of the row he'd set out on top of his cart.

His ear twitched, but he didn't feel a need to reply. He was used to being a lame older brother. It almost made him smile, even, the familiarity of it all.

" I mean, you're just a kid. Someone should look out for you. Do I need to know anything else about you other than that you're alone, in a dangerous place, for probably a sad reason? " Nickie thought about his sisters again. What other choice did he have? He had to help. The part of his SOUL that did what it did best—empathize—brought up every memory from when he was small, and he was alone, and he was afraid. Frankly, Nickie could hate the kid—he didn't, of course—but even that still wouldn't stop him.

" You're right. I don't really...have a plan or anything, and I'm not sure what you should do. But, I guess you have my help, whatever you decide. If you just want to stay, you're welcome here. Got a lot of siblings, so one more mouth to feed wouldn't be any trouble, and I can't imagine any of them would be bothered by a human." Kindness runs in the family, it would seem.

"...Or if you wanna keep moving through the Underground, I could tag along, keep you company. Maybe it would keep other monsters away that might try to....I don't know. Capture you, or something." He still doesn't want to say the word, but he knows it's obvious what he means. He doesn't want to think about that for longer than he has to. It was too scary, it was too sad.

This was a great opportunity for feedback, but boy, was he starting to feel a little embarrassed! Perhaps that was why business was so slow! He definitely needed more market research!

"nah."

...

"i love it. can i stash some in my freezer?" He chuckled, rocking just a little on the front of his feet, or what constituted them, anyways.

" Oh, super! I am so glad you like it! And absolutely! Not really much of a market for them, so I am glad you like it enough for more." Though it could be argued this was true for all of his flavors.

He nodded, taking the suggestion seriously. " I can play with the texture! It'll be tricky, but I am always up for a challenge. If you think that would make it even more yummy, that is." He had played with textures before with other flavors and found the prospect of doing so again to be more exciting than scary or bothersome. Beside, if it meant that Sans would enjoy it more, who was Nickie to deny the chance to do so. He smiled at him.

——— " I disagree. " Jeremy hummed in response, " A miserable situation is still a miserable situation, so what's the point comparing when it's still miserable either way? Cold or hot-- even if something's less bad than another thing, it still doesn't change the fact that it is a miserable thing. And personally, I find both pretty unbearable either way, and would rather not deal with either of them in the first place. But obviously that's not reality, which makes it extra miserable that being too hot or cold can't be avoided. "

He was going to have to bite his tongue just to stop going in circles at this point. He still disagreed with Nickie's perspective on it, vehemently, but it was clear being good to people was important to the rabbit monster. Not like Jeremy cared about changing the guy's mind or anything; he was just stating how he saw it, bleak a view as it was. Getting that out was pretty much the goal, and that was done... so whatever.

——— " Okay. " Jeremy shrugged, " Fair enough. I still don't think that's how it works most of the time, but I guess I can agree to disagree. "

Until proven otherwise, that would pretty much be his working theory. Simple. So far, Nickie was one of the sappy ones who actually bothered treating people like that. But Jeremy figured that was a minority. That probably wasn't going to change as far as he was aware, so why argue about it more? Oh well.

Jeremy huffed in response to Nickie's indignation about his business practices. " No thanks. I already got to be forced to run my parents' dumb shop all the time. So I'd rather not pile on another one where I have to start from the bottom. " He blinked at Nickie, expression bland, " I get they were free samples. I'm just saying, making me your tastetester or whatever basically gave me the equivalent of a full one, just with a bunch of flavours at once. Most of them weren't really that good anyway, but that's probably just me. "

...Okay, well, that bit about cheering up a more agreeable human was definitely a factor. Jeremy didn't laugh, but the roll of his eyes lacked bite.

——— " Well, you have a point. Good luck with that. You're definitely not going to find one of those anywhere around me. " Other than likely needing to wait a while to even run into another human down here in the first place. But even someone as negative as Jeremy hesitated on beating the monster over the head with that. Yeah, no, moving on.

——— " ...Sure. " Yeah, he was still going to judge the names whether Nickie approved of that or not. Whatever. " I mean, given the way you name ice cream, that kind of checks out that you think that. I guess there really isn't much else to name stuff after down here, though. "

He paused in thought, glancing down at his half-finished mug of hot chocolate, " It doesn't just have to be after the King, though. Is there seriously no other important person to name stuff after for you guys? Some hero or inventor or some historical figure? I dunno, humans tend to name stuff after those kinds of people too. Or make up names that sound good but don't actually mean anything. Or mean something in other languages, but even then some of those are so old that the meaning gets lost to time, or the language evolves, and blah blah blah... "

Visibly, Jeremy hadn't reacted much to Nickie insisting people's happiness wasn't meaningless. He was still gazing down into the mug after another sip, not really looking at the rabbit monster. He released a slow, quiet breath, letting the air briefly fog up the inside of the mug.

——— " I guess I can't really relate to that. That's great for you that making others happy matters and actually has that much meaning. Don't let me get in the way of that. It'd be pretty pointless to do that to yourself too. "

A slow blink, and Jeremy raised his stare towards Nickie, " ...No offence, but your taste in decor looks like the spirit of Christmas itself threw up everywhere. "

After asking that question, he could already tell the air had somewhat shifted-- something heavy lingering unspoken between them. He watched Nickie carefully as he tended to the fire, while Jeremy sat there and raised the mug up to his lips again. Just because what else was there to do? For a moment, he was almost ready to let it go unanswered just to ignore whatever seemed to be going on in the blue bunny's head, but he was patient enough to let Nickie take his time gathering an answer. Not like Jeremy was in a rush to head back out into the cold anyway.

Listening, he was already aware of the gist what happened... in the same foggy way stories were told of things much too old, and long ago past, where you couldn't be sure of the facts when it was moreso a legend, a fairytale-- not history. Proven wrong now, at least. But the details certainly didn't matter more than that bit about what the King said. He could read between the lines.

——— " ...So, I'm basically a walking target. Great. " Jeremy sighed. Just his luck, really. Stuck down here with a bunch of monsters driven by the dream of leaving this place, only that freedom hinged on his expense. Or his SOUL. He raised a brow, hiding a wince, " Anything as in, like, killing me? Or turning me in? Which is pretty much the same outcome, I'm guessing. "

So no sliding scale of misery, understood. Just, misery about everything, and even if one thing was worse than another, it being worse didn't stop the other from being miserable. Boy, Nickie should've been taking notes. It was going to be hard to remember all of this. He nodded in understanding, even though he really didn't feel too much like he understood. He was trying, nonetheless, but Nickie would be the first to admit he just wasn't the brightest about a lot of things. Certainly not about the intricacies of being miserable.

" Then you already know all about how it's hard work. I am doing my best to make this work out for me. And market research like that is fun. For most monsters, anyway." Human tastes must be very, very different. Part of him found that prospect incredibly exciting. The thought of being put to the test to find new inventive flavors that humans would like. There were already a dozen new ideas for flavors bouncing around his mind. Maybe later, he would go to Waterfall to dig around in the trash for a new cookbook—human cookbooks were great for generating ideas when one could be found!— and he'd test out some ideas from that. Sure, he might not yet have the audience for it, but nothing wrong with being prepared! And maybe Jeremy would be willing to give him pointers...

He was getting himself off topic.

" What do your parents sell anyway? You don't seem to be very fond of it." Like he seemed fond of anything.

" I can't imagine so! Though, to tell you the truth, I can't imagine very happy humans end up here anyway." He'd never heard of it happening, at least. But then again, how many humans did he know? Just this one, really.

" Wait, what's wrong with Nice Cream as a name? It's ice cream, and I write compliments on the wrappers, so it's nice! I think that is a very solid name!" He huffed, and it was unclear whether he was feigning annoyance or genuinely offended. In either case, he didn't pursue the topic further.

" I am sure there are monsters like that that we could name people after, but I am not big on history. There is our royal scientist, and we have a celebrity too, who the royal scientist invented—he's a robot—but that's just current stuff. But maybe someday they'll name places after them."

Nickie paused to look around the decor, Gyftmas-related or otherwise, and smiled to himself, considering Jeremy's words. Ribbons and garland, snowflakes and ornaments. It was all just so cozy.

" I guess it does look like that. I like it."

He nodded to confirm Jeremy's accurate conclusion, thumbing along the hem of his shirt in apprehension. " Either, or. Whatever they might have to do. Not everyone is like that, of course. I mean, you not already knowing tells me that a lot of us just don't have the wherewithal to try." Hard to have HOPE these days. Nickie couldn't blame the monsters who were so content to give up that they'd let a human just walk on by. Not to mention just how much stronger humans were. There was a reason Nickie sold Nice Cream all day instead of joining up with the Royal Guard.

" Well..." He trailed off, turning his gaze to the mantlepiece. His dark blue, almost black leporine eyes flitted around the knick-knacks and pictures in their holiday frames. They seemed to zero in on one picture, where two identical rabbits were making angels in the powdery snow, all smiles and laughs, frozen in place by the nature of photography. This human could not be much older than the twins, and like any good monster, Nickie was forced to empathize with the situation. If the positions were reversed, he would HOPE humans would look so kindly on him, and his family, and all monsters.

Nicke watched in eager anticipation for the skeleton to eat the confection. In fact, it was only after several minutes of staring at Sans pressing the Nice Cream to his teeth over and over before Nickie remembered that it was in rather poor taste to just stare at someone while they ate and he quickly busied himself in rearranging his cart's contents. After a few more seconds, once the awkwardness had passed for him internally, he looked over again.

" It's okay! I know there are a bunch, but we can narrow it down if that helps! Do you know what kinds of flavors you like?" Nickie smiled, preparing himself to explain any flavors he might have questions about.

——— " I guess that's a similar enough comparison. " Relevant too, kind of, considering that was the whole reason they walked all the way to this winter wonderland town so poor furless Jeremy could have a jacket and stand the cold.

Jeremy sighed, " It's pretty natural to just get used to things when you're around it all the time. I doubt any amount of time staying in a place like this will make me think snow is cozy, though. I don't particularly enjoy being cold. I'm sure I'd end up used to it though, same way I'm basically always miserable. Wouldn't be a huge difference, being miserable and cold. Fine for you if you still want to believe that, but I'm sure the sky would be the same way sooner or later if you do end up seeing it. "

He wasn't exactly knowledgeable about the history of monsters or anything, but it was clear they were down here for a long time. Not like Jeremy was trying to make this guy lose hope or anything, but the way he saw it, he was just being realistic. Assuming they'd get out of here in the first place, and even that was an unlikely goal, given how long that clearly hasn't changed. But that was if monsters were anything like humans in that way, at least. Fall into a pattern enough times, or see the same things over and over again, and it all just becomes part of the backdrop. Boredom. Tedium. No one could ever be satisfied with something for long, and that was, itself, so pointless too.

Whatever. Jeremy could be wrong too. Maybe monsters would be different. Better... or something. He had no expectations either way, and it didn't concern his input either.

——— " Sure. It's different if someone chooses to be annoying or if they just are. It doesn't matter. The outcome is still the same. Life stays awful, people are awful, dealing with it is awful. No matter what anyone does or doesn't do, it'll still be awful. I still think it's awful. There's no changing that; choices or otherwise. "

Jeremy listlessly stared at the marshmallows floating around in his hot chocolate as Nickie kept going on about being nice and all the stuff he refused to see as anything other than pointless.

——— " It's not like it means anything to go out of your way to make it nicer for people either. " He shrugged, " No one owes anything on an inherent level. Existing is just a state of being, and there's nothing that makes it worth kindness or the lack of it. People don't need to choose to be kind or cruel or indifferent, or anything else. They'll just pick either one suits whatever justification they come up with, and it'll still have basically no impact to anyone or anything else when it's all said and done. "

He'd blinked at the insinuation that he'd be able to debate philosophy with monsters apparently smarter than this guy. Not like Jeremy would go that far, but... well, Nickie himself certainly hadn't convinced him of anything thus far, so. Sure. He was just going to ignore it, though. He didn't really like being complimented, inadvertent or not.

——— " You kind of suck at doing both. " Jeremy commented, sipping his drink again. " Then again, I guess the latter might be impossible anyway. And you basically gave me a bunch of ice cream for free, even though I wasn't going to buy any to begin with. "

——— " ...Hm. You have a point there. " At least that was something he could agree with. Why bother doing anything that could go wrong when time did all the work naturally? It was pretty much how he viewed that kind of thing to begin with, hence why he hadn't done anything stupid. Because he wasn't a reckless idiot.

At that bit about the names, Jeremy couldn't stop himself from rolling his eyes. " Okay. I guess you can think that way about it. I'm still going to judge them. "

He could admit there was a practicality to that kind of naming convention, though. Privately. In his mind and not out loud to the insufferably cheerful rabbit man. Still, the climate of each place would be pretty evident either way upon setting foot there, from the sounds of it. Names didn't need to convey that, but they didn't not need to either. Whatever. It was information he knew now, useless as it was.

...Something was different when Nickie started speaking about New Home. Jeremy was perceptive enough to realize that, even if the evasive descriptions hadn't already tipped him off to it. The human only stared at Nickie for a brief moment, brow raised before he gathered a response to that.

——— " Ummm. Okay...? " He shifted in place a little, already feeling the awkward weight of something big left unsaid.

Jeremy slowly blinked at Nickie's reaction to his little rant about the holidays and how much he disliked the dumb traditions and decorating he'd had to suffer through since he was born.

He exhaled again, frowning, " Obviously not. I just mostly point out how it's impractical and meaningless on an objective scale. It's just being realistic. Besides, it's not like my opinion should matter to anyone. It's just as meaningless as anything else is. But it's the really dumb ones who need to take other people's dumb traditions and trash them just to trash them. I don't care enough for that myself. I'm just saying, I think if the point of decorating is to celebrate something and make it look nice, then it renders the entire thing pointless if it's all just there the entire year and makes it any other normal thing that's not different from a tablecloth or a picture frame or whatever. "

...It was still nagging at the back of his mind. Apparently he couldn't just ignore that earlier thing that bothered him about what Nickie said. Sigh.

" Heh, at least better to be cold and miserable than hot and miserable, though! If you're cold, you can always put on more layers until its a little more tolerable. When it's hot, though, you'll still be warm in just a single layer. Every time I go to Hotland, I end up sweating my tail off. So, there must be some kind of degree to the miserableness, you know?"

He couldn't deny the fact that everything grew old with enough time. The nature of people—human or monster—is to forget to appreciate the little joys here and there. The beauty and delight of snow falling, the total blueness of the sky, the holiday decorations, the stars that twinkled above. Everything became mundane and expected over time. Nickie tried to be mindful of it, but of course. He wasn't perfect either.

Still, he wanted to believe in the sky being something magical and important enough to keep him from taking it for granted.

" It does mean something. I don't care about some big cosmic difference or what matters in the end. What matters, at least to me, is that people, all people, do deserve to be treated kindly, because they are people. I think people who don't agree with that usually just want an excuse to pick on someone or hurt someone who they don't value. I don't know a lot, but I certainly know that."

He gave a little huff and crossed his arms. Again, here he was wishing he were smarter, so he could word it all better. It was never a skill of his, debating with someone. Sure, he had all the passion a monter could have, but none of the much-needed skill in rhetoric or communication. All he could do was feel compassion for monsters and humans like a twinge in his chest so painful he had to make it known. Usually, he just channeled into cooking and writing little compliments on the wrappers of his Nice Cream.

" Hey! You go start a business by yourself, and then you tell me how it goes for you. I'm doing my best out here! And I wasn't giving away full things for free. Those were just samples to test new flavors. I want to be innovative with my Nice Cream; I want to make sure my menu has a whole bunch of different tastes on it, because we have a lot of different monsters down here. I certainly don't keep Fire on my menu because I enjoy it.

" As for the cheering people up thing....Well, I don't really have practice cheering up humans, that is for sure! Mostly ghosts, and overworked, underpaid line cooks. But, I betcha I can get there someday. Just, maybe with a more agreeable human."

Theoretical impeding plans to dump one's body into the icy rivers of the Snowdin section of the Underground now negated, Nickie gave a good-natured chuckle—though that word could be applied to almost everything the rabbit monster did—and turned back to look at Jeremy, nodding to him.

" Have at it. I certainly didn't name them, though I am sure I probably wouldn't have done much better. Pretty easy to just name the place after what it is. Home, Snowy, Watery, Hot. I suppose they could have been named after the King—I hear places named after people are common with humans—but we only have the one King, and so many places down here. That wouldn't be good either." Guess those were the only options, according to Nickie.

" Making people happy isn't meaningless. Down here, we do a lot of stuff for happiness' sake. Or, I do. Or, I do them for the sake of others' happiness. Which, I guess, in turn, does make me happy too. If my little siblings' eyes still light up when they see the tree lit up each night and they're happier for it, gosh, but I can't help but feel that joy too. A lot of monsters are like that. Being happy, having HOPE, it's really important. It's kind of what keeps us going, you know?

" 'Sides, this isn't really holiday decorating if it looks like this all the time, like you said. Then it's just normal decorating! It's just our taste in decor."

The rabbit monster's gaze returned to the fire, risking worrying a hole into his lower lip as he pondered how to respond to the question he was asked. He pushed at the logs with the poker quietly. They popped and crackled under the intense heat, and ashes fell to collect at the bottom of the fireplace. Eventually, Nickie set the fire poker back into its slot and stood, turning back to face Jeremy and taking his place again on the arm of the couch.

" Well...it's not so much the place, but what's in the place. Or who, I guess."

Nickie folded his arms over his chest and sighed, looking down at the fuzzy beige carpet-covered floor beneath his feet. " Okay, so you know how monsters are trapped down here? Well, to make a long story as short as I can, there was a war between humankind and monsterkind, and we super lost, so we got forced Underground, right? You can imagine the kind of hopelessness that folks get when they think they're stuck in a place forever.

" But, our King said that with enough human SOULs, we could be free. It's given monsters a lot of HOPE. There are a lot of monsters that would do just about anything to see it happen..."

He scratched at his cheek, nervously.

"hmm... advice. that's one rocky road." The skeleton considered out loud, ever so slightly smirking. Sans had taught before, but it was by necessity and wellbeing, not by choice, especially nowadays... But, this was a pretty bad case of joke lameness. "how 'bout i lend you one of my joke books later." He gestured with his thumb back in the direction of the town of Snowdin. "gotta dozen of 'em."

Sans glanced at the cart, and considered for only a brief moment, and spoke his order, direct and sharp.

" That would just be super duper! Thank you! Hopefully, telling jokes and puns is something I can pick up through a book. Brute forcing it has not been going well for me. As I am sure you noticed, haha!" Even a little self-deprecation doesn't get him down.

" Oooh! Good choice! I think I really captured the essence of the condiment with this one. One Ketchup Nice Cream coming right up!" Nickie slid open the lid on top of the cart and, in a flash, retrieved the Nice Cream from the ice box, passing it over to the skeleton. He was all but beaming at Sans in eager anticipation of watching him try the treat.