Don't cross the river if you can't swim the tide

[mettatonvevo]

Who: Mettaton, some closed starters, and YOU!
Where: All around the mansion
When: Throughout the event
Rating: PG-13 unless something happens, upon which this will be changed
Summary: Mettaton is in the no-air-no-problem club, buuut those RESETs are giving him a bit of a run for his money. All well! There’s places to go and things to do, and he’s not gonna let a little water and time shenanigans stop him. …yeah…
The Story:

A.

[It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s…. what the hell is that. A rectangular submarine??? If you’re attempting to swim through the halls, have your door open to stare at the water, or if there is a window in your room to the hallway, you’ll catch sight of this robot in a different form propelling himself through the water. Maybe he’s carrying food in a water-tight container. Maybe he’s transporting someone’s pets or other things that need to be moved. Maybe he’s coming to “save” you! (Save being the operative word, depending on if you actually want to see him… and if he’ll be helpful or not.)

Either way, he’s here now. Or passing by. Wanna say hi?]

B.

Swimming through the mansion can be a bit tiring. Especially with the magic reinforcement that is partially behind his water-proofing, is draining his charge pretty quickly. So here he is, chilling out in some random empty room. Don’t worry, he doesn’t breathe; no air is being lost. Maybe he stumbled into your room or maybe you’re stumbling into whatever room he is relaxing in. Either way, here is a dripping wet robot at your disposal. ;)

C.

[Listen. A lot can happen in 5 minutes, right? I bet even MORE can happen if you repeat the same 5 minutes over and over and over and over and over….

Our lovely robot is stuck in a rather persistent RESET that is determined to make Mettaton repeat the last 5 minutes of his life. Why not keep him company and/or get trapped in it yourself! The world is your resetting oyster now that the water has leaked out of the mansion.]

D.
Wild card! Got an idea for your character and Mettaton? Throw it up here and we can go, ha, wild!

((ooc: while one of these prompts is specific for the resets, any prompt can have them involved if you want! Either indicate it in your subject or put it in your description and we can play around with it!))

Comments

Closed Starter: Sans (allusions to animal death cw (don't worry no animals die))

[mettatonvevo]

[He’s running low on energy and thinks that, perhaps, he won’t be able to move for a little while. This wouldn’t be a problem if his child’s rabbit, Bun, wasn’t rapidly running out of air. Rabbits breathe faster than humans, and he’s noticed the amount of air rapidly decreasing in the room. He doesn’t know what to do. Mini keeps tugging on his arm and pointing to the door and he doesn’t know how to explain this. Death is unknown to them, and he feels this is a heavy conversation to have on top of everything else happening with this event. Never mind that getting Bun this far was already a challenge. Mini beeps quietly and Mettaton puts a gentle hand on their head.

He looks to the door. Suffocation or drowning. Either way, he loses.]

ooweee

[punful]

The thing is, in most other circumstances, Sans would generally avoid this entire situation like the plague, if the plague was a thing that could affect skeletons at all. But as it is, Sans isn't completely heartless, except in a literal sense. Letting an innocent animal die because he doesn't want to deal with an awkward conversation is pretty far over the line.

So, whatever. He can make it quick. Mettaton is literally across the hall, and room 22 is currently empty, so it's just a matter of dropping 4 off over there and then--well--actually walking over to Mettaton's room. Real pain in the coccyx, since skeletons and water don't mix too well, and staying upright is a challenge. But it's not far. Simple enough.

He wonders if, a year ago, he would have even bothered to stick his neck vertebrae out for Mettaton and his freaking pet rabbit, then decides not to wonder anymore.

He knocks on Mettaton's door.

[mettatonvevo]

If Sans expects Mettaton to answer the door, he is going to be disappointed (or happy?) that he doesn't see that bot immediately; no, when the door opens, if Sans looks down at his feet he'll see a tiny Box Mettaton, beeping excitedly at his presence. Mettaton stands a little behind, having gotten up to get the door himself but his child got there first.

Hello, Skeleton! I am M&M or Mini! You are part of the reason I am alive!

They beep insistently, touching his shins.

You're bone! You're really bone! Skeletons are bone!

They turn to look back at Mettaton, excited.

BONE!!!

Mettaton smiles, walking over and reaching a hand out to Mini, which they immediately take, still beeping in their completely incoherent way to anyone other than him.

"Hello, Sans. Mini is excited to meet you, it seems."

The tiny bot beeps an affirmative. The big bot, for his part, feels awkward standing near Sans again after their last disastrous conversation, but it is a necessity. "Thank you for coming. Bun here hasn't been too well. Your help is deeply appreciated."

The rabbit in question is in his cage, breathing but not moving, clearly trying to conserve energy. Mettaton looks back at it worriedly, then looks back to Sans.

"Is there anything specific we need to do to help you, or...?"

Gosh this is awkward.

[punful]

The door opens and Sans steps in before even waiting to see who opened it, because being underwater is just vastly unsettling. It's sort of a weird effect, since he just kind of steps forward out of a solid wall of water, and then promptly empties a good gallon or so right onto Mettaton's for. But you know, considering this is a life or death situation, Sans is pretty sure some water stains will be the least of Mettaton's worries.

And then there is a tiny robot standing in front of him and Sans remembers to be--mildly surprised. Because he's never actually seen the--kidbot?--face to face until now.

"uh, hey. hi. uh--"

The kidbot starts beeping furiously, clearly excited about something. The beeping is almost impossible to understand, but it sounds a bit like binary by way of Morse code. If that's the case, Sans thinks he can actually pick out a few words. That one sounded like reason, this one sounded like alive...

"so you, uh, must be mini, huh? sorry, uh. my binary's real rusty."

He was never on the programming end of things. That was all--well, someone else.

The kidbot pokes him in the shins, which makes Sans rock back a little instinctively, but Mini just seems--curious. They repeat the same sequence of beeps a few times, and Sans is pretty sure he gets it. Bone. Bet the kid's never seen bone before.

"heh, yep, bone all the way down. the weirdest part is i was bone that way."

He gives the little robot a wink, despite himself.

There's a moment of awkward silence as Mettaton steps forward. Sans doesn't quite meet his gaze and busies himself with wringing out the bottom of his hoodie.

"cute kid. and, uh, yeah. no big deal."

He'd rather not make a big deal out of any of this. Just--get them all to room 22 and then camp out in a corner with his cat until it's safe to teleport elsewhere.

"nope, just, uh. grab everyone and everything you need. uh...i'd leave her in the cage. 4 is in room 22 already, and i don't think cats get along with rabbits."

[mettatonvevo]

There's a moment of silence as Mini "stares" at Sans and Mettaton stares at Sans as well. You can almost see them both processing this information at the same time, though Mini reacts just a millisecond faster than Mettaton.

you can understand me??? YOU CAN UNDERSTAND ME!!! DAD, HE CAN UNDERSTAND ME, DAD! DAD! DAD!!!!

Now the tiny robot is circling Sans at top speed, beeping furiously. The only thing that stops its reign of terror is...

Bone that way?

Mini looks to their father, stopping its rampant wheeling. What does that mean?

Mettaton sighs. "It's a pun, sweetling. Bone is a play on words for the phrase 'born this way'. They sound alike."

Mini's lights dim for a moment as they contemplate what Mettaton said. ....I don't get it.

Mettaton laughs a little as he picks up the cage and some extra charging cords for Mini. "Perhaps puns and wordplay is a little advanced for you at this stage." He gives Sans a curious look.

"I'm surprised you were able to understand them at all. You're the first person here in Wonderland other than me to do that. And I had to learn."

What a fun first month that had been! Regardless, Mettaton walks up to Sans, holding Mini's hand and the rabbit in tow.

"We're ready when you are."

[punful]

Mini freezes and Sans immediately thinks he did something wrong. Then the kidbot starts zipping around him like an excited puppy and--maybe he did something right instead? Mini is beeping furiously again, but much too fast for Sans to pick up anything.

"uh--?"

Mini stops finally, and even Sans can tell confused beeping when he hears it. And then Mettaton explains the pun.

Ah. Of course. Wordplay's a pretty complex form of humor for an AI. Kind of interesting how Mettaton always picks up on it so easily.

"sorry. it was a pretty bad one."

This is getting more awkward by the moment.

"uh, well. i used to know binary. and i sorta know morse. i mean...i'm sure not catching all of it. if you don't use it you lose it, yanno?"

The rule applies to a lot more than just language. But whatever. The sooner this is over with, the better.

"alright. just don't freak out."

Mettaton might know about Sans's shortcuts, but he certainly hasn't experienced one, unless there's been a Reset already. In which case, Sans isn't going to think about it too hard.

He reaches out and grips Mettaton's wrist.

It's a bit more difficult than he'd like. Transporting multiple people always is, and the weight is a factor. There's an awful lot of metal coming with him.

But all the same, a moment later they're all reappearing in a vacant room. There's an immediate yowl from somewhere in the room and 4 goes streaking by to hide under the bed, making annoyed sounds. He's never been a fan of shortcuts.

Sans lets go of Mettaton and goes to the edge of the bed, leaning down to peer under it.

"anyway, you all should be okay here for awhile. i'll be outta your hair once i get 4."

Considering 4 is making semi-demonic sounds, it might be a little while. Which really sucks, because Sans was hoping to find another room--preferably alone--as soon as possible.

[mettatonvevo]

Everyone makes it to the room ok, but Mettaton and Mini both stand there for a moment as they try to process what just happened. Mini, for their part, drops Mettaton's hand and promptly plops on the floor, beeping quietly.

Mettaton, after a second or two, shakes the cobwebs from his brain and looks for a place to put down Bun as Sans scrambles to get his cat out from under a bed. The rabbit already looks like it is doing better now that it is getting more air.

"Thank you, Sans. I'll find a way to repay you for this kindness."

It's the least he can do, after all. He would have been sad if Bun had died, but Mini would have been devastated, and he'd rather keep Mini's potential emotional pain to a minimum.

He finds a chair to sit down in and settles in to watch Sans, amused by the spectacle.

[punful]

Sans gets down on his hands and knees, his back to Mettaton, trying to reach under the bed for 4. The cat just growls and hisses and wedges himself further back into the corner.

"come on, furball, it's not that bad."

4 answers in kind. Sans sighs to himself and sits back on his knees.

He glances back at Mettaton at the comment. "nah, it's no big deal."

He doesn't really like owing favors or being owed favors. It's whatever.

He goes back to peering under the bed. 4 hisses again.

"wasn't just gonna let your rabbit suffocate, anyway."

Closed Starter: Alphys

[mettatonvevo]

[Opening your door to see a wall of water is certainly a way to wake up in the morning. It’s such a way as to make you just. Slowly close the door again. And go back into your room and not mind it.

But then he sees posts on the Network. The water is cutting off oxygen in the rooms. Huh. Well, that sucks for everyone else, but he is at least ok.

And then he remembers Alphys and shoots her a text.]

Alphys. Are you all right?

BRING FORTH THE FUCKENING

[sciencelizard]

[Alphys also had the fun experience of opening her door and being greeted by a water wall, and then slam it and press her back to it before any of it leaked out. Of course, this has been a couple of hours and in the meantime, she's opened it and shut it again and made at least 17 attempts to work out the physics without success.

Of course, that was before the network announcements, and before she remembered that oh, she's a creature that needs to breathe.

So, y'know, the last hour has basically been panic.]

hhhaha i mean
yes
probably
for now?????
why
its the air thing right
i bet its the air thing

[mettatonvevo]

Of course it's the "air thing" Alphys, I know you need to breathe! How are you? How is... Mew Mew?

[He thinks that's the name of her cat.]

[sciencelizard]

[Ding ding ding, you win the 'remembering names' lottery! Your prize is not being an impossible jerk! At least slightly.]

uhhh everythings fine
for now
shes napping so
how much air do kittens need?????
probably less than me

do u know if all the hallways flooded in a way that breaks the laws of physics
or just ours

[mettatonvevo]

[Mettaton shakes his head.]

Alphys, your room is running out of air and you're concerned about the Mansion breaking the laws of physics? Also, yes, all the hallways are flooded.

[sciencelizard]

well!!!!
if the laws of physics dont work with water maybe they didnt work with air either but
i guess that was too hopeful a hypothesis
esp since it seems just jumping out the window isn't a viable option either
since uh
more water

[Where did Wonderland even get all this water. Honestly.]

[mettatonvevo]

Wonderland is full of contradictions and rarely follows logic, Alphys. That's a given. Regardless, dear, you need to get moving.

[sciencelizard]

[He's right. If the air really is running out in here, she needs to keep moving. But all the apartments nearby are occupied. and there's no real guarantee the rest are air tight.

Man, she wishes she'd put her lab next to her room vs across from it now.]

i mean
yes
agreed
but im not exactly a good swimmer
and
where would i even go?????
theres no way of knowing which rooms are occupied vs not or if theyve previously been visited
id need to make some calculations
or uh
an educated guess maybe

i dont rly know what to do

B

[morework]

[ Cullen can make it to the next floor.

He can make it to the next floor.

He is almost there, and he can make it to the next floor.

He makes it to the next floor, and tears open the first door he can grasp.

(He should have stopped for breath on the previous floor.)

Cullen spills into the room, coughing and gasping for breath. His clothes cling to him, drenched, and his hair's natural curls are finally freed, a dripping mess of blond noodles that obstructs his view.

He pulls himself to his knees, and pulls them out of his face. Cullen glances back and, with relief, sees that his supply bag made it in better condition than he did.

He does not yet see that he shares the room with somebody else. ]

[mettatonvevo]

[Mettaton has been resting here for a bit, charging up and checking the network to see how others are faring. Not well, according to the nonsense eveyone is spewing all over the place and the bot is wondering what that could possibly mean when suddenly the door is open and someone comes falling in.

It takes a moment of watching the figure hack and cough up water for Mettaton to recognize who it is; and suddenly he's decided that rather than see the robot just sitting casually on the ground with a cord sticking into the wall, Cullen should get a bit of a show.

The closets aren't working, of course, but a star like Mettaton is never truly unprepared, so he opens one of his side hatches and pulls out his emergency stash of glitter and rose petals and quickly throws the glitter over himself first as he stretches out on the floor.

He throws a handful of rose petals over himself and places his head on his upturned hand, batting his eyelashes as they fall.]

Hello, Cullen! What a surprise to see you here!

d;

[readytocomply]

[ooc: stuck in a room bc of the water??]

[Bucky is getting better with the events. He knows to wait them out, they'll be over and done with eventually. He just has to survive while they run their course. Obviously, he plans to do this alone or with Steve and the others, but before he's checked with everybody, made sure they're okay, the water comes rushing towards him and he gets in the first safe room he can.

..Of course. He knows this room, doesn't know why his feet had taken him in this direction at all. He turns back to see if he can open the door, water spills in and he slams it shut. They'd tried the windows, the closets, the door again, but the only way out is to let all the water in and swim - he's not ready to take that risk yet. So they sit. Bucky in a corner of the room, hands in his lap.

He glances up at the robot, huffs, and turns towards the wall. Bucky pulls out his phone and shoots off a few texts.

He doesn't even feel guilty for ignoring him, except he does.]

[mettatonvevo]

[((OOC: sounds perfect to me! ♥))

Mettaton has been all over the place during this event, but he's been making trips back to his room now and then to check on things, make sure his equipment and other objects are safe and secure. With air running out in various rooms and the resets making people repeat their actions over and over again, he knows that anyone could burst into his room looking for relief at any moment. So it's a matter of practicality that brought him back here.

Then Bucky Barnes literally bursts into his room and suddenly Mettaton is internally flooded with a slew of emotions, the most prominent being guilt. He helps him check other ways to leave, of course, mostly silently and not saying more than needs to be said. After all, once he finds a safe way out, he'll go and Mettaton can go back to feeling shitty about what happened between them in peace. But they don't find a safe way for him to leave. So now they sit. Here. Together.

If it weren't for the fact that the air is literally getting thinner in the room, he'd think that the awkwardness was making it harder to breathe. ...even though he doesn't breathe. Whatever. The room should have two more hours of oxygen, so there isn't much to worry about at this point.

He sits on the edge of his bed, staring at his own hands. He gives the human an occasional glance, but immediately looks away, especially when his eyes accidentally meet Bucky's. There's a tinge of redness to his cheeks when that happens and he hates himself just a little for it.

The silence stretches and he knows he shouldn't say anything, should just keep his mouth shut and let things run their course, but when he gives a quick glance to the mirror he hastily shoved to the side of his bed so that Bucky wouldn't see it uncovered and finds no writing, he decides, well, he might as well say something.]

So. This event seems to be. Very wet.

[...wow, ok, speaking clearly was a horrible, horrible idea.]

[readytocomply]

[When their eyes meet, Bucky has a hard time shifting his gaze away. There's a light tint to Mettaton's cheeks and it makes him want to smile, to tease - but, no. They can't do that anymore. Mettaton made it perfectly clear he didn't want Bucky in his life. People don't say those kinds of things to people they wanna see the next day. He jerks his chin down, pulling his knees up to his chest and looping an arm around them. The oxygen levels are getting low, but he's got some time before he'll need to brace the water outside.

Bucky snorts.]

Yeah, sure is.

[He wraps his arm a little tighter, and he doesn't want to do this. Talk, or try to be nice. He doesn't want to pretend like everything's okay but he doesn't want to deal with the fact that it's not.

Besides, there's still things he wants to say but he doesn't figure Mettaton is in the mood to hear it. So he waits, again, tips his head down and doesn't say anything, but then -]

Really appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone that it's Steve. Don't care what you say about me, but don't bring him up. [His voice is firm, unfairly accusatory - Bucky knows Mettaton would never do anything to purposefully hurt Steve, he didn't do anything to him. Still, he needs him to know.] Don't think anyone would give him a hard time, but you can't always know that.

I don't.. I don't want anyone treating him like shit because he's with me, okay?

[Men weren't allowed to be with men the last time Bucky was his own person.]

[mettatonvevo]

[The snort brings a small smile to Mettaton's face before he carefully wipes it away again. Well. At least he found his awkward statement funny. Bucky looks away, tips his head down, and Mettaton is beginning to become quietly grateful that nothing else is being said when-]

What?

[His head snaps to Bucky, confusion etched on his face which he once again takes command of very quickly, slipping back to a neutral face. He lets his gaze wander off of Bucky in what he hopes is a natural manner.]

Why would they treat him badly for being with you? Do people dislike you both? If they do they should mind their own business. Their opinions have no place in your love life.

[Unless there's a danger to either of them, but Mettaton figures that goes without saying. He can't think of who would hate Steve or Bucky though. And while he may be a bit bitter and sad now and then when he thinks of them together, he's certainly not going to stop them or say anything. It isn't his place.

He has no idea that Bucky's worry stems from them being the same gender.]

[readytocomply]

Nobody dislikes Steve.

[Well, not that he knows of. It's hard to dislike someone as good as him. Bucky, on the other hand, has a list a mile long of people that don't like him - hate him, even, but he doesn't think any of those people are here.]

We're men, Mettaton. [He shrugs a shoulder.] I know it's not as common now, but it used to be something that'd get you in a lot of trouble.

Don't want people to know unless Steve tells them himself.

[That way if anything negative comes back, it'd be something he's prepared for. He sighs though, shifting a little towards the robot.]

I didn't think you'd tell anyone on purpose or that anyone you would tell would be an ass about it. I just don't want anyone to hurt him because of me. He's had enough of that already.

[Bucky's eyes flick up, drop back down, he pulls his knees up to his chest and presses his face to them, arms curled around. He feels sick, again, uncomfortable, because as soon as he'd opened his mouth around Mettaton, all he'd wanted to do was share all his secrets. ( To talk and talk and talk, and Bucky never wants to talk to anybody. But they're not friends anymore, Mettaton made that perfectly clear. He doesn't want to keep opening up, keep going back only to find out he's not good enough all over again. He doesn't want to hurt Mettaton again. ) He doesn't realize that he'd been mumbling, saying those last few lines under his breath.

He squeezes his arms tighter.]

[mettatonvevo]

[Men? Why would it matter if they're-

Oh. That's right. Humans can be weird about the whole "same gender" thing.]

I forgot that humans can have a stigma against that sort of thing. We don't have those same attitudes in the Underground.

[Alphys is a bisexual lizard woman dating a lesbian fish woman back home, so same gender dating was the last thing on his mind as being a problem.]

I get that. You just want to protect someone you love. I can understand the need to make sure I don't run my mouth. I won't tell anyone, I promise.

[Which in all honesty is a good thing, because neither of them know it yet, but come Valentine's day, Mettaton is going to be outing a lot of people's relationships for all of Wonderland to see on the Network and this promise is the one thing that will hold him back from spilling the beans about him and Steve.

Things go quiet between them and Mettaton thinks that's it to their discussion. There's nothing more to be said between them, right? Bucky got him to keep his relationship secret and that's what he'll do. It's the least he can do after the way he treated him during and after Hell.

He's not initially paying attention when Bucky starts talking aloud to himself, but he manages to catch the gist of the beginning and tunes in towards the end and closes his eyes. It hurts to hear him speak like that. As easy as it was for Bucky to speak to Mettaton, it was easy for the robot to talk to the man too. He was the only one in all of Wonderland he had ever, for a moment, considered telling about his true past and it had been frightening but almost... nice.

And now they were here. Sitting in awkward silence with their good regard for each other long gone.]

...You've always been good enough Bucky. I'm sorry I made you think you weren't.

[That hadn't been the reason why he had pushed him away back then. Not at all. He just didn't want to use him. He hadn't wanted to take advantage of him but then after all was said and done, he'd still used Bucky's trust to hurt him more.]

[readytocomply]

[Bucky believes him when he promises not to say anything. He doesn't care, one way or the other, if people know he likes men or women or both or neither. They can say what they want about him, it doesn't bother him, but.. Steve is different. He deserves the chance to tell people on his own terms. There are those in Wonderland that should find out directly from the source, not second-hand.

He makes a sound against the hard press of his knee - he accepted the first promise for truth, he doesn't believe this.

There are few things Bucky can be convinced of, if given time and genuine explanations, but raising his self-worth, after it's been crushed, when it was already so low.. yeah, that's not so easy. Even Steve struggles to help Bucky with that, and internally he understands that it'll only ever get better if he works on it. So he takes a deep breath and raises his head.]

You aren't allowed to say that to me. You chose.

[He swallows, opts for a last ditch effort to protect himself.]

And you didn't pick me. [Bucky raises a hand, opens his mouth, drops and closes.] I never wanted to hurt you. I would've loved you back the same way if I could have. There's just not room enough in my heart to love two people that much that way.

[He tries to calm his breathing. The oxygen in the room is slowly draining and he doesn't want to make it worse.]

But we still coulda been friends. Still could have been together.