(no subject)

[meatbrained]

( five + one )

how it works:

i. post a comment with the characters you play.
ii. go around and prompt other players with a 5 + 1 prompt (e.g. "Five times Hope said sorry and one time he didn't")
iii. write a fic for the prompts people leave you!
iv. enjoy your fic? we hope?

Comments

FIVE TIMES PAPYRUS CHEERED SOMEONE UP...

[beautyis]

I.

"Okay, repeat after me!"

"Um, Papyrus, I-I'm not sure if this..."

"I love myself!!" Papyrus shouts exuberantly, his voice echoing off the watery caves of the garbage dump. The two of them, they are glittering diamonds in the trashy rough, and he was determined to ensure that Alphys understand that. He knew that the reclusive scientist was shy, but not that she thought so little of herself. In Papyrus' book, everyone should think only the best of themselves, because their best is all they have to offer the world.

"I-I love myself?" Alphys stumbles over herself to echo, already panting, her nice dress soaked at the ankles.

Jogging through the water and exclaiming to the world just how much the both of them are worth is most assuredly the correct way to teach Alphys a little self love.

"I am an incredible scientist!!" he continues.

"I'm, oh, I'm n-not all that much, really..." Alphys protests between breaths.

"That does not sound like repeating!"

"Oh-- I'm an... incredible scientist," she says weakly.

"You do not sound very enthusiastic!" Papyrus comes to a stop, which Alphys is incredibly thankful for, hands now on her knees to keep herself from toppling over and breathing hard. "Perhaps there is a mental block we must surpass first! I am not a doctor, unlike some amazing and smart people, but I can attempt some... advanced psychological techniques."

"Papyrus, I keep telling you, I, I'm not that kind of doctor," Alphys corrects him, giving up on staying standing and just collapsing more than lowering into a sitting position in the shallow water.

"And I keep telling you, you are any kind of doctor you wish to be! For you are the one and only Dr. Alphys!!" Papyrus announces, gloved finger raised. Now for these advanced techniques. "Now! Raise your arms into the air! I will locate the therapeutic pressure points that link with your brain, or something like that. That's psychology, right?"

Alphys blinks, but raises her arms anyway. "I... d-don't think it is," she says, unsure about what he's going to do. Papyrus promptly pokes her in the side, and she lets out a high-pitched meep, instantly covering her mouth. "That-- That tickled, sorry, I'll--" Papyrus cuts her off by poking her again near her armpit, and she lets out a shriek of a laugh before quickly covering her mouth again. He pokes her more, rapidly, one after the other, countless pokes in quick succession, and she snaps back supine in the water, splashing as she wriggles and cackles uncontrollably at the mercy of his poking.

Finally, he stops, and she is left covering her eyes, trying to calm down, a few giggles lingering in her throat.

"Do you feel the pressure points working?" Papyrus asks. "Do you find yourself remembering how much everyone loves and cares for you now?"

"P-Papyrus..." Alphys says, voice thin from the combined exhaustion of the running and the laughing fit, a tired smile on her face. "You guys are all... s-so nice to me."

II.

Papyrus and Sans have been all over the Underground already, even at such young ages. Well, in Papyrus' eyes, Sans must be ancient. The younger brother is only five now, and Sans is...

Well, Sans is really, really old! Even if they're nearing the same height already.

In recent years, they'd been holing up in an alley in New Home, going hungry some nights and going bored all of them. Papyrus, especially, has loudly complained he has nothing to do many times, until Sans finally got annoyed enough that he's led him nearly across the whole Underground. As they passed through Hotland, Sans had to endure yet more complaints about the conveyor belt puzzles and the uncomfortable heat. As they passed through Waterfall, echo flowers repeated whines that they had to walk through the rain with no umbrella.

Finally, they are nearing their destination in Waterfall. In the past, they would lie back on the ground and look up at the twinkling crystals in the cave ceiling, making up constellations like Surface kids would find pictures in clouds. It is Sans' favorite spot, and Papyrus loves anything that is Sans' favorite. Sans is the coolest brother around. He's really smart, and he even knows some stuff that adults don't know! Not that many other monsters seem interested in science.

"Are we there yet?"

"Stop."

"Are we there yet?"

"Stop."

"Are we there yet?"

"HOI!!"

Suddenly, a Temmie materializes from nowhere, vibrating, and Sans reacts too late and trips, and Papyrus instantly reaches to grab his radius, careful, careful not to let Sans get hurt, careful not to let even one HP get knocked off, not even one, the only one. Sans stumbles and doesn't fall, but his foot plummets off the edge of the path and into the water.

"Get out of here!!" Papyrus yells, shooing the Temmie away. She quickly vibrates out of the room.

"I can't believe this," Sans says, righting himself and wrenching his arm away from his brother's grip. He pouts, and right then, he looks so young. Just a kid, really. Not so far from Papyrus' age, after all, isn't he? He's so small, isn't he? "This is the worst day. I don't even want to look at constellations anymore. I just want to go home."

It wasn't often Sans ever even mentioned "home", not in the way he surely means it now. Always been so careful not to want what he can't have, not in front of Papyrus.

Papyrus suddenly covers Sans' eye sockets with one hand, exclaiming, "Guess who!!" Sans sputters and recoils away from the sudden hand, pushing it away from his face in annoyance.

"Papyrus! I know it's you!" he says. But when he looks back at his brother, he sees a smooth young skeleton in his place, wearing dark shades.

"Wrong you are, dear brother," Papyrus says, affecting a cool, deeper voice. "It is I, the Bone Daddio. The swinging hipster cool cat of the nineties. The skeleton about town. Other skeletons want to be him, every monster wants to party with him."

Sans can't help it. It's so silly and out of nowhere, he can barely suppress one laugh when, suddenly, more burst out from him.

"Are you a cat or a skeleton?" he says between laughs. "You really should get your story straight, Mr. Bone Daddio."

"I'm a skeleton cat! Meow!" Papyrus paws at Sans' face as Sans erupts into yet more laughter.

III.

Undyne seems distracted during her cooking lesson, today. She is mashing tomatoes with fervor, relentlessly beating them down with a fork. Which wouldn't be so unusual, except she's being strangely quiet as she does so. She grumbles and tosses the fork onto the floor, opting instead to punch the tomato mush into submission. Nothing but the mush-- CRACK, mush-- CRACK, mush-- CRACK of her fist impacting with the bottom of the plastic bowl. Good thing it's pretty thick and has this protective layer of tomatoes in it.

Papyrus' smile falters. "Undyne?"

"WHAT!?" Undyne exclaims throwing the bowl into the air. It lands, graciously right side up, on the floor.

Papyrus blinks his eye sockets, then says, "Undyne, is something the matter?"

"No!! I'm just..." Undyne starts, but sees the concerned look on his face and second guesses herself. She grits her teeth and grumbles, finally shouting, "Ngaaah! Fine!! Papyrus, I think I really messed up with my... my friend, Alphys!"

"Oh, your crush," Papyrus instantly responds.

"NO!! MAYBE!! YES!! SHUT UP!!!" Undyne clenches her fists and stomps once, hard, on the ground. It leaves a dent in the linoleum. "I called her and really embarrassed myself on the phone... So I freaked out and threw my phone into the waterfall!! I looked and looked and couldn't find it! Now she can't call or text me ever again and I can never show my face to her to tell her what happened because I'm a huge ass!"

"Oh, I have her number," Papyrus says. "I can call her right now and tell her!" He gets out his cell phone and opens up his phone book. Undyne screams and wrenches it out of his hand, throwing it out the window of her house.

She pants heavily, pose feral, staring wild-eyed at Papyrus like she's still processing what she just did.

"Um," Papyrus says, now phoneless. "I will find that later. For now, you must clear your head, Undyne! You are thinking too many scared thoughts and you are lashing out!" He picks up the bowl of tomato paste and fork from the floor. "I know! I will teach you something, much like your cooking lessons for me!" He then promptly slingshots the remains of the tomatoes left on the fork at Undyne's face.

Undyne freezes, not even breathing anymore, tomato paste slowly running down her forehead, past her eye patch.

Then, she grabs a handful of tomato mush out of the bowl still in Papyrus' hands and flings it at his skull.

Into the night, a food fight of spectacular proportions commences. Shaken soda sprays against saucepans used as shields. Teabag bombs are fashioned and thrown. Crackers are tossed frisbee-like across the kitchen.

At the end of it, splattered and spent, the two collapse against the upturned dining room table, breathing heavily.

"You're," Undyne says, each word punctuated by a shaky breath, "such, a nerd."

Papyrus looks up at her with a grin, exhausted.

She's already grinning back, fanged smile like a relieved shark's.

IV.

Frisk reminds Papyrus, in some ways, of Sans. They never quite tell when something is wrong, and, in contrast with Sans, Papyrus is only just starting to learn to find the warning signs. They come home from school with the same blank face as ever, only, when they set their backpack down, they hover around the door, standing completely still, for several moments more than necessary. They just stare at their backpack on the ground.

Papyrus always greets them when they come home. Today is no different in that regard, at least.

"Hello, Frisk! How was your day at school?" he asks, apron on, 'Kiss the Skeleton Cook' emblazoned on the front in Comic Sans.

"Fine," Frisk says, and doesn't look at him as they start to walk away from their backpack and into the dining room, routine back on track. They don't offer more detail, more explanation. Papyrus's smile falters.

"I cooked you your favorite tonight, since Toriel will be late tonight! Spaghetti, served by your very own Papyrus!" He doesn't miss a beat. "How does that sound?"

"Good," Frisk says, pulling themself onto a chair at the table.

One word answers... Contemplative backpack staring contests... Not looking at Papyrus' handsome face... Something is amiss.

"Did anything happen at school today??" Papyrus asks, unsure.

Frisk doesn't say anything at all. A few seconds pass. Then, finally, they respond, "Toriel taught us about cone snails."

"Oh really? What about cone snails?"

"...I don't remember," Frisk says simply.

Well! There is something Frisk is not saying, and Papyrus is apparently not getting it out of them. There is only one thing to do. Papyrus reaches for Frisk's head to reassuringly pat it, about to say something about their day turning around with the new things he tried in his latest attempt at spaghetti, but his gloved hand only gets as far as raising.

Frisk flinches bodily, away from his hand, making a small noise.

Papyrus' hand freezes. Several seconds pass in excruciating silence.

Papyrus slowly lowers his hand. "I do not know what is wrong, Frisk," he says, somewhat hesitant, "but I will always be here to cook you spaghetti and read with you about Fluffy Bunny and remind you how amazing and wonderful and kind and unique you are. You do not have to tell me anything." He gently, carefully, reaches out his hand again, low this time, offering it to them now to take in their own, if they wish. "But I care very much about you, and I hope that I can do something to help you."

Frisk looks up at his face at last. Almost curiously. Tentatively, they reach out their hand to take his.

"Thank you," they say in a small voice. "Where is my spaghetti?"

More magical words have never been spoken. Papyrus rushes to serve them his very own spaghetti, the noodles a little too al dente and the sauce somehow flavorless. They eat every bite they're given.

V.

"Hello, echo flower!"

"Hello, echo flower!"

"Can you guess what I am going to do today?"

"Can you guess what I am going to do today?"

"Wrong!! Good guess though!"

"Wrong!! Good guess though!"

"I am going to see the captain of the Royal Guard to ask her a life-changing question!"

"Yeah? Are we talking 'how's the weather down here', or life and death?"

Papyrus blinks his eye sockets at the echo flower before him. "That is not what I said at all! Are you broken??"

"Back here, dummy," a voice from behind and below says. Papyrus turns to see a golden flower smiling smugly up at him.

"Oh!" Papyrus exclaims, and quickly crouches down so the flower doesn't have to crane up so far to see him, as tall as he is. "It's you! Flowery!! I haven't seen you in a while! I was worried!"

"You really are an idiot," the flower says. "I keep telling you, my name's Flowey. Flowey the flower. And you're wasting your time worrying about me."

"You would never be a waste of time, Flowey!" Papyrus quickly says, with the right name this time.

"Yeah, yeah." Flowey looks away from Papyrus, looking annoyed. "What kind of life-changing question could an airhead like you come up with, anyway?"

"Oh!" Papyrus suddenly remembers, and shimmies in place excitedly. "I am going to ask Undyne to let me into the Royal Guard! I am going to capture a human and become famous! It will be very good! I will have a suit of armor, and a cape, and look very dashing as I save the day! And then, finally, I'll be on the fast track to... popularity!!!" He even starts to tear up, clasping his hands together as he thinks of his inevitable future.

"Ooh, yeah, gonna graduate from dog petting to child killing," Flowey taunts. "That sure sounds fun! Anything to get an audience, though, right?"

"No one is going to get hurt!!" Papyrus protests. "Flowey, why do you always assume the worst out of everything?"

Flowey glares at him, taken aback by the sudden question, instantly going on the defensive. "You're the one who's blindly optimistic! What do you think really happens to those kids the Royal Guard sends to Undyne or Asgore? They all knit daisy chains and sing together??"

Papyrus' brow knits. "You sound really worried. Is that why you only talk to me?"

Flowey stares at him, incredulous. He doesn't say anything for a moment. Finally, he says, "I have no idea why I even talk to you."

"Because we're friends, of course!" Papyrus says with no hesitation. "I know you say a lot of things you don't mean, because you are perhaps trying to be? Cool?? But deep down, you enjoy speaking to me almost as much as I enjoy speaking to you!"

Flowey rolls his eyes, but doesn't say anything.

"Do you want to hear what my plan for asking Undyne is?" Papyrus asks. Flowey eyes him at length.

"Nah," he says, sounding almost dejected. "I'm done here."

Papyrus is standing, facing the echo flower. There's no one behind him. He never turned around, never knelt down, never spoke to anyone else. He's been quite alone, in fact, his only company these magical flowers. But they are quite fun to talk to, aren't they?

"Wrong!! Good guess though!"

"Wrong!! Good guess though!"

"I am going to see the captain of the Royal Guard to ask her a life-changing question!"

"I am going to see the captain of the Royal Guard to ask her a life-changing question!"

"Yes, today is finally the day! I will become a part of the Royal Guard!"