journalname | Asgore's Home

Asgore's Home

shack not accurate to game shack

Asgore's little cob house is farther away from the main group of homes on Islet #3, giving him both some distance and some more land to cultivate. There is a flower garden in front, where he grows several native flowers including bluescythe cradles and chamomile, as well as some goldenrod. Strange, that doesn't seem to grow anywhere else. There is a deep red lantern flower seedling planted very near the door on one side. Asgore has provided some simple framework for it to grow on, clearly intending for it to climb up and around the doorway, but it has not gotten nearly that big yet.

On one side of the house, there is a small herb garden, which contains parsley, mint, basil, thyme, and sage. There are also two mature tea trees, kept trimmed at about Asgore's height. The other side of the house faces towards the forest, where some blackberry bushes have been transplanted along the treeline.

Behind the house, there is a cleared area containing a few rows of strawberries, several rows each of carrots and potatoes, and a large patch of scallions. Near the treeline, there is a single cacao tree, planted near a taller apple tree.

Teas
Asgore's tea production is limited by the ingredients available at any given time. While he's unlikely to have all of these on hand at once, the blends he can provide include:

Bluescythe Tea - flower tea, contains no caffeine. Brewed from the leaves of the bluescythe cradle flower, native to Enso. Sweet and fragrant.

Chamomile Tea - flower tea, contains no caffeine. A sweet and calming drink.

Citrus Mint Tea - green tea, contains a mild amount of caffeine. Cool mint with some lemon and orange zest.

Pomegranate Green Tea - green tea, contains a mild amount of caffeine. Fruity and crisp, with crushed pomegranate seeds and dried raspberry pieces.

Mango Tea - black tea, contains caffeine. Citrusy and sweet.

Peach Tea - black tea, contains caffeine. Very good iced, if you can get the ice.

Coconut Tea - black tea, contains caffeine. Smooth and mellow; the amount of coconut flavor varies a little from batch to batch.

Blackberry Tea - black tea, contains caffeine. Sweetly tart with a slightly dry finish.

Pu-Erh Orange Tea - pu-erh tea, contains a high level of caffeine. Earthy with sweet orange tones.

Candle Flower Tea - black tea, contains caffeine. Made with the petals of the candle flower, it is fragrant and warming. Good for colds.

Unique Plants

Giant Living Chair: This variety of seedling, tinged a soft white, brings forth a large plant with a giant, dormant bud, which will bloom into one solitary flower. The flower's colour appears to be entirely up to chance, but it's large enough to seat a large-sized humanoid comfortably. The flower closes in cold weather, but the bud itself makes just as comfortable a cushion until it blooms again in spring.

Living Tables: This variety of seedling is a distinct plum colour. When rooted and cared for adequately, it produces sturdy tendrils that will latch onto anything placed into them as a trellis. The Roaka will inform Asgore that if trained correctly, seedlings of this kind will eventually weave together to create a solid mass of plant matter that can be used as a sturdy table.

Living Lanterns: This variety of seedling is a deep red, and grows to a modest height, boasting a long stem with several buds. Its one quirk is that it must be warmed with open flame close by to convince it to bloom. Once it does, though, it grows several large, red flowers that glow brightly with inner light. The flowers can be removed from the main stem and hung around dwellings, where their light will last for weeks, or the plant itself can be trained to grow and climb wherever light is desired.

Candle Flower: A bright and cheerfully yellow seedling. Thriving best at lower temperatures, the Candle Flower's orange and yellow blossoms radiate light and heat like their more mundane namesake. The flowers are also edible, and can be used to make a fragrant tea that's good for colds.

Inventory
(1) Stickspray: The Storyteller will inform each member of your team that despite its cheerful exterior, this is no mere spray can. It can be filled at any mana pool once it runs dry, though once it is, the liquid within acquires some unique properties. Specifically, once sprayed onto any sprayable surface, it becomes a powerful adhesive with the strength of superglue times ten. Nothing short of desecrating the surface in question will successfully unstick whatever you decided to stick to it. So, on that note, be careful not to glue your fingers together.
(1) canister of salt
(1) wood saw
(1) coil of rope
(1) toothbrush
(1) jug
(1) teardrop-shaped pendant
(1) knapsack, embroidered
(1) backpack
(1) pink hand-knitted sweater that reads "MR. DAD GUY"
(1) framed family photo
(1) small box of Golden Flower Tea
(2) helpful books about cacao
(1) helpful book about growing apples in the tropics

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[All the people Asgore's ever had over here for tea have vanished from the islands. Even Alexei has done that once already. That's sort of sad, isn't it?

But life goes on, he supposes. It has a way of always doing that.

He's quite sure Alexei already knows the way here, so he sets about preparing the tea instead. With a gesture, a silver-white flame springs to life in the fireplace despite the lack of any wood, and he fills his pot with water from one of the barrels. He shall have to go down to the well again later.

He doesn't know what Alexei wants to talk about. Maybe he won't even talk about it. It was such a spur of the moment thing, and look what it took for Asgore to tell anyone about the things he's lost his right to. Either way, this isn't exactly going to be a light and pleasant social call. He's decisive in selecting one of his tea tins, scooping out the correct amount.

It's a chamomile day.]

[Usually, it's never anything good or pleasant when Alexei meets with people in person. It isn't entirely due to lacking social skills, though that certainly is part of it, but rather because it's safe to say that if the Commandant is visiting you the news is bound to be either very good or very bad, and there's been far more cause for the news to be very bad lately.

This is...well, he's not altogether sure what this is going to be, to be honest. Perhaps it's a bad idea; perhaps he won't say anything of value. What matters is he has nothing that can be held against him here, there's no one that will be made some sort of sick liability if he actually tells them something important; it's what he keeps telling himself, anyway, and it's going to have to be what sees him through for the time being.

He does know the way there, however; he'll knock, and as usual he isn't doing terribly much with his face but at least he isn't seeming too worked up about things.

Perhaps he'll say something, perhaps he won't. He'll see.

It's been a long time, either way.]

[Whether through the recent company he's kept, or because there's such a wide variety of monster appearances, Alexei's lack of expression doesn't seem to register much with Asgore.]

Good afternoon, Alexei. Please, come in.

[There's a fully-grown vine table and two...weird flower buds that you can use as chairs? Literally the vast majority of the furniture in here is just plants. Luckily, the mug of tea he offers is pretty normal.]

Make yourself comfortable. The buds are meant to be sat on.

[...As someone who has been badly making furniture to vent his frustrations with the world for the past good while, he can sort of appreciate the plants. They're weird, but no moreso than anything else on the islands. He tips his head a bit in acknowledgement before accepting the mug and letting himself settle on one of the weird...flower things.]

I do appreciate this a great deal, Asgore, it's kind of you.

It is no trouble at all.

[Asgore pours himself a cup and takes a seat on the other flower bud. It supports even his weight easily; truly well-made furniture, this!]

In the last world I visited, people would often do the same for me. It was...comforting, I suppose. A luxury a king can rarely afford in his own kingdom.

Edited 2020-01-07 01:12 (UTC)

I understand. I've never been nobility, much less royalty, of course, so perhaps it's not comparable, but... I wasn't particularly able to speak to anyone in even my own position. It was always too much of a liability, it never ended well for those close to me.

[And that's awkward, and the tea is a very nice distraction for a couple of moments.]

It's good to not have to concern myself with all of that here.

It was a position of power, all the same.

[He gets it. Asgore doesn't quite like the sound of...well, nearly complaining about his responsibilities. But...at the same time, it is true.]

I admit, I have also found it a relief.

I can imagine. Our Emperor is...gone, he has been for almost a full ten years now, and we haven't been able to name a successor. Things were easier under his rule, when I had some sort of guidance, someone to look up to.

I don't know if he would have known what to do in the times we were facing when things changed for us, but I do wish I could have asked.

[Asgore looks down, a pang of guilt flooding him. He had been that, he knows, for the monsters under his rule. He'd been the ruler for longer than the vast majority of them had even been alive; it must have been such a shock when he died.

But he never gave them good guidance. It's better this way. Anyway, this is not about him.]

I'm sorry to hear that. Rulers are only people themselves, but...it is still good to have someone to look to.

It is. I know that I was...never really good enough, personally.

[Ah, but that's... He sets the cup down and promptly folds his hands in his lap like maybe that will give him some sort of center, like if he keeps his hands occupied otherwise maybe it will keep him from simply dropping whatever he's holding at the moment because this is...]

My apologies. It's not particularly fair to think of things in such a way, I'm well aware of it.

[Mmmm, golly. Asgore looks away, his claws clinking lightly against his own cup as he fiddles with it.]

Yet it is...easy to do.

...Yes. It's...

[He can feel his hands going tight, and when he breathes it's deep but it's nowhere near calming.]

...I saw them on Monsun. Some of the people who have died because of me.

Oh.

[Asgore knew Monsun in its earlier days. The reasons he's avoided it recently no longer seem to apply - but still, he's pretty sure he made the correct decision. No good ever comes of that place.]

I'm sorry. I...

[.....]

I saw something similar here, once. A favorite trick of the islands, perhaps.

Perhaps. But knowing that doesn't make it easier, does it? I'm...sorry.

[It isn't pointed, though. Perhaps an odd attempt at empathy.]

They weren't angry with me... They didn't blame me for what happened, even if it was my fault.

They wanted me to come with them.

[...]

I've done enough to know that I won't ever see them again. If there's any justice in death, people like me don't go wherever they are.

It... I suppose it's been troubling me more than I thought.

Ha. Oh, mine just killed me.

[He says it with good humor. The dead only come back again, after all, and he deserved it. Really, with how little it seems to matter, he deserved more than just that.]

I thought much the same, when I was...at home. But when I did die, I only found myself in all of these different worlds. After everything, I suppose all I can do is to try and do better now. There is hardly anything else. [He pauses, covering it with a sip of his tea.] I must admit, it seemed easier in Beacon. I knew where I was going then.

[Mm. He'll at least pick his own tea up again as he mulls that over; he feels a bit less like he's going to drop it, at least.]

I've done some things that there isn't much coming back from.

[It isn't cold, but there isn't much behind it? It's kind of blank, but it's steady.]

I knew that what I was doing was unforgivable. But I believed it was for the best, given what I knew. It's good that they never knew about any of that; it was after their time.

I'm...not a terribly good person, in the end.

[Oh.

The familiarity of all that makes Asgore uncomfortable, to the point where it's certainly showing on his face, and in the sudden hunch of his shoulders. Most of it could have come right from him. That, he's beginning to suspect, makes him a bad person to give advice after all. He never intends to come back from what he's done.]

I...I know this must sound insincere. People say things like that so often, but...I do understand how that feels. The things I have done...it is not right that I should be able to go on afterwards. Yet, that is what I must do.

It doesn't sound insincere at all.

[It isn't much warmer, but Alexei's charisma has never been the warm sort. It is firm, however, and decidedly less blank; there's no sense of obligation behind the words, they're about as genuine as he tends to get.]

If I thought you were the sort to be insincere with me, I wouldn't have bothered telling you any of this. I've had enough of dealing with people who simply tell me what I want to hear to my face.

[He takes a sip of his tea, then; this seems to be settling him a little, at least.]

You don't have to tell me what you've done, should you choose not to. It isn't as though I'm entitled to the knowledge. But I'm likewise here to listen at any time.

Ah, well.

[Asgore folds his paws together, then unfolds them, then folds them again. He'd been so frightened to tell people in Beacon, but that was a different time. They'd known him as someone better.]

What I have done is unforgivable. I am still not quite sure why those from my home have not told people here about it. I...suppose I am concerned they fear retribution themselves. My people have done nothing wrong, but their king's actions could still be taken as representative.

[It's obvious to him that Muffet doesn't approve; he can't imagine how anyone would, once humanity became people to them, and not some distant faceless enemy. But perhaps she fears what people would think of monsters in general.]

[Oh, that's...hm.

He debates saying anything for a moment, but when he finally does his response is calm. Measured, despite the subject matter.]

Were my emperor here, I wouldn't say anything, either. Despite what his orders may have cost both the Empire and me personally, it isn't something I would tell others. I couldn't tell you why, precisely, but I suppose a large amount of it might be that it's our cross to bear, and once someone else knows it's impossible to return to a place where they don't.

That knowledge isn't something that's mine to give to other people, I suppose.

[He hesitates briefly before just deciding that enough has already been said, there's no sense in not saying what's on his mind now.]

Do you remember Yeager, by any chance?

Perhaps so. I would not - [well, no, he'd kinda mind] - I would not be upset with them if they did, I suppose. I do not want them to feel...complicit.

[He's made them so already, in many ways. If they want to finally punish him for that, well, that's their right.]

Yes, I remember him. I cannot say I knew him very well.

Most people didn't. He was the sort that liked it that way, so it's hardly your fault.

[Yeager was a weird man like that; even Alexei can't say he knew him very well.]

Yeager was one of my subordinates before the war. Not directly so - his captain was someone else - but that brigade in particular was my personal project. I have no shame in saying they were my favorites, for many reasons; they were good people.

Things didn't turn out for them as I would have wanted during the war itself; I consider what happened to them to be my fault. Yeager and one other person were the only survivors of the incident. I don't regret what had to be done to save their lives, but my behavior toward them after all of that was... [...He's actually still not sure what to consider it.] ...I suppose it was reprehensible, though I admit I don't fully see why.

I know unforgivable actions toward both of them were taken in the ensuing ten years, however. For some reason Yeager never told anyone about me, though he would have been well within his rights to. He remained close to me instead, and sought me out from time to time. I don't understand why.

[Asgore listens, paws folded together. He wonders if Yeager understood the things Alexei didn't, either. He's met enough odd humans by now that he knows some of them just...don't work the same way. Wesker probably wouldn't have understood why whatever happened was reprehensible, either.]

Perhaps he was grateful to you for saving his life? Even if you did not treat him well afterwards, that is no small thing.

[...Oh, god.]

No, believe me. Neither of them liked that very much.

Oh.

[Well, he supposes that happens too.]

Then perhaps he just understood. That is always still possible.

[He doesn't regret having done what he did for them, but damn did they hate it.]

I know that...Raven, I suppose he's called now - he was the other one I saved. I know he came to understand eventually. Why everything had to happen the way it did, why I felt the way I did about all of it. I don't know if he agreed with me or not; we didn't speak about it much. Not very deeply. But I do believe he understood me.

I don't know if Yeager did or not in the end. I suppose it hardly matters now... He isn't alive anymore, back where we came from.

I'm sorry to hear that.

[Though not quite so horrified as he might have been, a while ago...by now, that's just come to be something that happens sometimes.]

But perhaps you may yet see him again someday. That does seem to happen.

Perhaps I will.

[...He is entirely too polite to say that he's sure he will, because Terca Lumireis is weirdly big on their particular concept of Hell and he's pretty sure they'll run into each other there, but. Details...]

If there truly are multiple worlds that can pull the dead to their shores, then it seems foolish to rule it out.

It seems to happen much more frequently than I ever would have imagined. A good number of my companions in Beacon had died - and now some of them will be going home.

[It's sort of a strange thing to contemplate: that even after this, it's entirely possible that anyone you know who's died might simply swan in from a different dimension one day, perfectly fine. Of course it's still probably very unlikely - but hasn't a lot of this been?]

[Mm.]

I don't know what I plan on doing, if given that option myself. It doesn't seem right for me to return, after the things I've done.

[Maybe he'll just...leave and go back to being dead, should that be an option, but that seems a bit morbid to say.]

I appreciate having been brought here, however. I've learned a decent amount, and met people I wouldn't have otherwise. I don't regret that.

Edited (html is hard) 2020-02-02 13:54 (UTC)

I understand. Perhaps you could travel - I had thought I might do that for a while, with some of the others. There are many worlds out there, and many things to see.

[He's technically immortal, after all, so he's got time.]

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Asgore's Home

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