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[pleasereset]

If anyone comes across a building called Pay for Exchange, don't go in it.

[Asriel's voice sounds shaky and clearly upset with something. Maybe he should've switched to text, but he thinks it's too late now.]

They... they sell copies of people - people you can swap bodies with for a day. And they'll make copies of anyone who goes in their store, real actually alive copies too.

[Asriel's still sick to his stomach that he found "himself" for sale, but clearly the people on this colony didn't exactly see why it was a problem to sell living, unconscious bodies. But he's too scared to go back...]

J-just stay far away from it, okay? They don't ask you or anything, and they don't have any problems making a copy of you and putting it up for sale.

[ooc: Info for Pay for Exchange and what Asriel saw found here!]

Comments

[mttbrandlegs]

Be important like I was at home. Be anything at all like I was back home, I suppose.

[It's so selfish, and yet he's not really ashamed of it.]

Let's not dwell on that though!! Like I said, I shouldn't have brought it up!

[...]

...Have you ever tried laying on the ground and thinking about nothing?

[He doesn't want to say "and feeling like garbage" if only because that seems a little too negative. He's trying to steer the conversation he'd just dovetailed into Awkward City to a more positive mindset.]

[pleasereset]

[Asriel can't say he understands how Mettaton feels, just existing at all sometimes feels like an overwhelming experience. He kind of wishes this life they had right now was a little happier.]

Anytime we leave the ship, it seems like something bad happens. And being inside the ship... it's kind of like being in the Underground again, huh?

[But to Mettaton's question, Asriel answers it with a shake of his head.]

No, I can't say that I have.

[mttbrandlegs]

[That's uncomfortable to think about. Mettaton loved the Underground and all the monsters in it, but...given the choice, he would take the surface. With everyone he cared about, including his fans! But the surface all the same.

Rather than say that, he focuses on Asriel's answer.]

That's a shame, truly.

[Mettaton moves slightly apart from Asriel, then flops back onto the deck with a loud CLANG, his arms splayed out.]

You should do it with me! It's a tradition in my family, you know. Laying on the ground. [A beat.] ...and feeling like garbage.

Would it surprise you to know that doing this kind of thing is actually therapeutic? It sounds awful, but it really is not. If you feel bad to start, then that's fine. But if you stare up for long enough, sometimes things become less complex. It's easy if you lose yourself, and maybe things begin to abstract, and you don't feel so bad. Because everything is wide open space, stars and galaxies, and that's when you feel so small that you can't imagine your problems to be as bad as you thought. Right?

[Does he sound a little crazy? Absolutely. Is it an abstract idea, loosely influenced by blook magic? You betcha.]

[pleasereset]

[To be fair, garbage can be kind of nice sometimes? At least to a society of monsters that live off the stuff.

... It had to be better than the crushing fear and sadness he's been feeling lately.]

Let me try, um...

[He mimics Mettaton and just... flops down in the same way.]

So you just gotta... stare? And think of space an' stars?

[mttbrandlegs]

Yes! Something like that!

[Mettaton made it sound so complicated, but Asriel caught onto the idea decently quickly.]

Just stare. Let your mind wander. Think about nothing and everything...

[He smiles a little, his eye half-lidding. He has so much to think about, honestly. Homesickness. Missing Blooky, who he would always do this with before abandoning them.

Guilt. Mm, no. He doesn't want to hold onto that feeling. So he lets it go, focusing on the metal curvature of the ship, not enough to really hone in. Just enough to distract.

Papyrus.

...heartbreak. No, he drops that line of thought too.

Frisk. Asriel.

There. That's what he wants. That makes him feel better. They aren't actual family, but...he feels like they are. His dear little human, and his wonderful little prince. They're such good friends.]

[pleasereset]

[Think about nothing and everything...

Asriel folds his hands over his chest, keeping his eyes on the ceiling above. It doesn't really work at first, his mind drifting to all the little details of the ship. How confining it is, how the metal blocks out a void of darkness and stars.

This probably isn't what Mettaton meant.]

I don't think I'm getting it...

[But he tries again. It's not about the ship, right? He's just gotta think about nothing. Think of something bigger than what he is and where they are. He thinks of a blue sky stretching across, filled with clouds of different shapes. He tries to imagine them in a grassy field, covered with flowers and trees. If he thinks hard enough about it, he remembers the scent of them. He remembers a cool breeze.

In this memory, there's no human village. No threat or danger.

Just them, and the surface that Asriel keeps dreaming about returning to.]

[mttbrandlegs]

Just relax, honey.

[Mettaton speaks quietly, encouragingly. It's not something you just pick up, even if it seems easy. But once you do...once he finds his zen, so to speak, everything begins to fade around the edges.

The magic behind it is simple and subtle. Somehow it starts to look as if the stars are finding their way into the ship, appearing on the ceiling and hiding the metal.

Like he said. It's quite therapeutic.]

[pleasereset]

[It's a little hard to relax like this. But as Asriel tries to lose himself in this daydream, he scoots himself a little closer...

And a little closer...

Until his head bumps against Mettaton's stomach. Even without recent events, Asriel's always been a little affectionate and clingy. Chara got the same treatment whenever they'd spend time in the garden, laying there and talking about the surface and all the things they wanted to do when they got older.

This is much better.]

[mttbrandlegs]

[Perhaps it is testament to how close they've grown at this point, but Mettaton just smiles a little when Asriel bumps against him. It's almost automatic how his hand finds its way to the top of the young boss monster's head, gently petting the fringe of fur there and only bumping his tiny horns once or twice.

He likes this. This is a good way to be, and he's happy that Asriel is sharing this moment with him.

Suddenly, his homesickness doesn't seem entirely overwhelming anymore.]