IC Contact/Voicemail

[ratingspoint]

[VOICE / TEXT / VIDEO; OPEN TO ALL]

"My, my - it seems I'm not in right now, beautiful, but don't let that stop you. Leave me something good; maybe you'll be the lucky caller that gets to talk to me when I have the time!"

Comments

action | 2/9

[deaftly]

[It hasn't been difficult to notice that Mettaton's been acting weird, but Naki was sort of hoping that would stop eventually. Since Mettaton hasn't come to him about it, Naki's finally decided to do something about it.

"Do something about it" means he's knocking on Mettaton's door, holding something in his hands.]

Hey, Mettaton! If you don't get your ass out here I'm gonna have to eat this cake by myself! And then I'll get fat. You wouldn't do that to me, would you!?

[...this is not how you ask if something's wrong, but here we go anyway.]

[ratingspoint]

[...Naki, this is actually not at all how you ask if something's wrong, and god bless you for it.

He'll open the door eventually, though; he's still dressed from earlier in the day - he'd been out to do some retail therapy that morning - and he's got one of his Rotoms buzzing around over his shoulder, trying to see what's going on. Because apparently there is cake happening, and the party don't start until one of the MTT-Brand electroghosts is there to crash it.

Mettaton doesn't seem too bothered by it, at least.]

Being made to eat all of that cake by yourself... I'm sure you'd consider that absolute torture.

[His eyebrow is arched a bit while he says it; the implicit "...okay, what is it really" is fairly obvious, though he doesn't look annoyed at it.]

[deaftly]

It totally would be. It's red velvet cake. It's so sweet it could probably kill you.

[...in other words, it's just his type.]

C'mon!

[Apparently we're going to eat this now and talk over cake. Or maybe after cake? He hasn't decided. Either way, he's heading downstairs.]

[ratingspoint]

[Either way, cake is going to happen.

Mettaton will take a moment to shush the Rotom and its...fairly obnoxious buzzy little protests, sending it back into his room with the promise that cake will be brought up later; that seems to do it, at least, and it isn't long before he's joined Naki downstairs.]

So what's the occasion? And don't try to tell me there isn't one.

[deaftly]

Well, there was a pretty good deal on cake...

[Okay, it wasn't really a good deal and it was more like "buy this much cake, get some money off!" but that totally counts as a good deal in Naki's book. Most people don't buy that much cake anyway, but uh. Naki.

Anyway, he sets the cake down at the table and moves to the kitchen to get plates, forks, and a knife to cut said cake. He's back quickly enough and taking care of that.]

...But I guess I wanted to make sure you're doing alright. You've been kinda... weird lately.

[ratingspoint]

Darling, when am I ever not doing all right? I'm feeling great, actually.

[...Better now that there's going to be sweet things, which he doesn't usually want a lot of unless he's stressed out in some way, but fuck that, it's fine.]

[deaftly]

[Here you go, have your plate. Naki doesn't look totally convinced though.]

C'mon, something obviously happened, so spill.

[ratingspoint]

[Siiiiiigh.]

I got in a fight with someone, that's all. We'll probably beat each other up a bit whenever we meet up in person and call it a day. Everything will be even.

[deaftly]

[............]

Was it the fishlady who just showed up?

[Sure, it's possible it isn't, but given the timing...]

[ratingspoint]

My, my - so you saw Undyne, too.

[This cake is fucking fantastic. Just saying.]

[deaftly]

[Well of course it is! He only gets the best!!]

Yeah. She was... something else. Even more subtle than you.

[That's totally sarcasm, alright.]

[ratingspoint]

I'd apologize for whatever it is she said, but I'm going to love myself today.

[HE CAN IMAGINE THE SHITSHOW.]

How bad are we talking?

[deaftly]

She said something about human souls before I locked it down, but she told me she was totally going to kill humans for their souls.

...Or uh, a human? I don't know. Either way, she was totally fine telling a perfect stranger that.

[He pauses for a moment.]

She eventually calmed down a bit though.

[ratingspoint]

What.

[The flattest damn "what" on the planet, and not nearly an acceptable substitute for the "JESUS CHRIST, UNDYNE, THAT'S KIND OF" that's probably more appropriate for the situation.]

Undyne is like that. Unfortunately. At least she's an experience.

[deaftly]

Yeah, that was kinda...

[Naki shrugs and doesn't elaborate. He doesn't think he needs to.]

So what did you two argue about?

[...]

Did she say the same thing to you, because uh...

[That would probably piss Mettaton off...]

[ratingspoint]

[...Ah. Well, this is a little awkward, isn't it.]

Say the same thing about what? Killing humans for their souls? Because I already knew about that, darling.

[deaftly]

Just because you know about it doesn't mean it can't piss you off.

[ratingspoint]

[Just...the most dismissive gesture, Naki.]

So we had a few words about it. Who cares? It doesn't matter here. And if she goes around killing people, it's not like that matters, either - we can't take their souls as we are now, and they won't stay dead anyway.

[deaftly]

But you're still mad about something she said. You can talk to me about it, you know.

[ratingspoint]

[And again, his expression goes a bit strange, like he's not sure what to do with his face.]

...King Asgore plans to lead us into war against the humans once we've broken the barrier. Undyne is very...excited about that idea. I'm not. Obviously.

So of course, she thinks that makes me a coward and that it means I care more about humans than I do monsters.

That's all it is. Predictable, manufactured drama from someone who doesn't know what she's talking about.

[deaftly]

...Oh.

[He's quiet for a moment while he thinks about that. It's not really a lot to take in, though it feels like it should be.]

I'm sorry. That you were upset by that. And yeah, I'm pretty sure you're going to say that you're not and you weren't, but still. It sucks that it happened.

But I guess that's something that's not going to change either. You've got a different idea of what's important than she does and that's not something that people change easily.

[ratingspoint]

[He actually laughs a bit at that, and there's surprisingly little bitterness behind it.]

I don't think "upset" is the right word. I'll probably beat her with a chair or something for a while and that'll be the end of it.

Like I said, we're not really hateful people. Shame it can't be broadcast, though, the ratings would be beautiful back home.

[...He's still working out this whole "things we probably shouldn't say to people" thing.]

[deaftly]

As much as I'm sure people would enjoy watching you beat her with a chair, it's probably best if you don't broadcast that.

[SIIIIGH]

...I guess I'm not used to that. I hate a lot of people. I don't know what the fuck I'd do if I couldn't hate people. I kinda go to one extreme or the other, I don't really have a lot of people I don't feel anything about. So it's... strange to me, I guess.

[ratingspoint]

...They say our souls are made out of love, hope and compassion. We actually can't fight if we hate people, and we can't fight back very well if people hate us strongly enough.

[...]

So actually, it's exactly a case of "we can't hate people."

[deaftly]

That's... uh. That's kinda creepy...

[ratingspoint]

Darling, it's my soul you're talking about.

[one of these days

one of these days you will learn to not ask him about homestuck undertale]

[deaftly]

That doesn't make it any less creepy, but I don't know shit about souls so uh... Sure.

[fuckin' undertale]

[ratingspoint]

It's really only a problem when it comes to people showing up with a desire to kill or be cruel to us, anyway. Most don't.

[...]

Of course, I kill people all the time with very little difficulty, so - as always! - I'm an exception.

[deaftly]

Well yeah, I'm not surprised by that. You're pretty damn unique.

[He sounds amused by that, alright.]

[ratingspoint]

Well, what else would you expect?

[Anyway.]

Don't worry too much about Undyne. Maybe she'll figure herself out. Maybe she won't. It doesn't matter too much to me anyway.

[deaftly]

Alright, but let me know if she pisses you off again. Or uh, sort of annoys you, or whatever you want to call this. And don't think you can keep it from me either!

[ratingspoint]

[Oh.]

...Was it that obvious?

[deaftly]

Pretty damn.

[YOU'RE NOT AS SUBTLE AS YOU THINK YOU ARE...]

[ratingspoint]

And here I'm supposed to be the one who can act worth a damn.

[deaftly]

Guess you need to work on that, huh?

[...]

Shit, wait, no, don't do that. You're supposed to tell me when something's fucking you up!

[ratingspoint]

[...]

You're really concerned, aren't you.

[deaftly]

...Yeah, alright. I am. One of my friends did this whole "weird and sad" period for like, a month. So... I dunno, I don't want that shit to happen again?

[ratingspoint]

[Ah, that's probably the person Naki is always texting all the time...probably checking in on them, that makes sense.]

Ohhhhh, no, no. You don't have to worry about anything like that from me. I'm the last person to wallow around in my misery! If something is upsetting me enough, I get up and do something about it - depression isn't a good look, sweetheart, I keep busy and work through it.

I'm used to having an unrelenting schedule, remember. I have no idea how anyone is comfortable moping around for more than a few hours, much less weeks. I can't do it, personally.

[deaftly]

Well, yeah, I'm not really worried about you being weird and sad, more like "weird and kind of pissed off"...

Just... You can talk to me if something's bothering you, alright?

[ratingspoint]

...You really are sweet sometimes.

[Also, he's not promising anything and this cake is still fantastic, goddamn.]

[deaftly]

Ugh. I'm not sweet, I just--

[SHUT UP oh my god he's going to eat his cake and sulk!!

...He does notice that you didn't promise though, but maybe you'll at least keep it in mind??]

[ratingspoint]

Very sweet, gorgeous. Don't worry, it's endearing; people love that sort of thing.

[You're also really easy to distract, apparently, so that is also a plus as far as he's concerned.]

[deaftly]

You're an asshole.

[...]

Just remember that, alright? And if you don't talk to me about it and I notice something's off, I'm just gonna pester you again. So.

[MAYBE WITH LESS CAKE NEXT TIME. Nah, probably not.]

[ratingspoint]

[He's quiet for a moment at that, though he's still poking at his cake and he doesn't seem displeased; this whole thing...it's kind of weird, but it's a nice sort of weird, maybe.]

...All teasing aside, you really are being pretty great.

Thanks for that.

[deaftly]

Well yeah, I'm fucking awesome.

[SHRUG]

You don't have to thank me for it. I'm always going to do what I can for the people I care about.

[ratingspoint]

And I'm going to thank you if I appreciate it? This isn't hard, darling.

[deaftly]

Oh. Yeah, well.

[...Shut up, that makes too much sense.]

[ratingspoint]

Don't think too much about it. I know when I owe people something, even if it's just gratitude.