come out of hiding, i'm right here beside you

[barehands]

[A while after the execution has ended, everyone will find a simple note slipped under their door.]

If you don't want to be alone after everything that's happening, some of us will be in the dining room. Even if you decide not to come, please remember that you aren't alone here.

[The note isn't signed, but the handwriting is feminine and neat.

For anyone who decides to come, there's a good array of food laid out on the table. There are some small and simple cakes, cookies, and pastries, a healthy amount of okonomiyaki, okayu, and other Japanese dishes (with a focus on rice and eggs), along with curry. In addition, there are pancakes, and a large pot of soup. It looks like a few people collaborated to make enough food for everyone here.

Just like the meal they shared together earlier in the week, the candles from the storage room lend a more peaceful light than the fluorescent lights above.]

Comments

[journalname]

Yes. His name is Asriel. I hope he is not taking my absence too hard...we have never spent this long apart.

[.....]

...ah, no, I believe you. That may have been a poor choice of words. [He still means what he said, but he hadn't really meant to imply treachery so much as a lack of kindness.] It was just disheartening, to see how quickly the group broke down in there. Maybe not entirely surprising, after only a week, but it will not be easier now.

[enhancements]

Did you expect them not to...?

[It sounds like a genuine question, as opposed to anything snide or backhanded.]

Perhaps it's just a matter of where I'm from... We have a tendency to not treat each other well. Particularly under high-stress situations. We contain any incidents that arise by force, not by diplomacy; compassion is secondary to control, if it's taken into consideration at all. I had to make a series of difficult decisions immediately before arriving here, all to that effect, and in the end a large number of people died because of me. But those actions were to spare a far higher number from an even worse fate.

Compassion would only have hindered the process.

[journalname]

[He smiles ruefully.]

No. I do. It is just that I do not like to think of this causing them pain. But that is inevitable. They know I would never have left without word, and it will not be hard to determine that I am not even in the Underground at all. I cannot imagine what they must think...

[Well, he can. Monsters disappear sometimes. But that is hard to believe on its own.]

...I see. [He actually seems far less bothered by this revelation than one might think. He has been a leader in wartime; sometimes there are hard decisions.] That has never been our way. I suppose it is different for us, having monarchs who live for so long. What you might call the monster way of leadership is really just...the decisions that Toriel and I have made over many years. For us, harmony and cooperation are the key to surviving Underground. Of course there are always disputes, but we will go and oversee negotiations personally if we must.

And, of course, monsters all have a shared goal, and must continue to live in fairly close quarters with each other. It is...a unique situation. A little like this one, perhaps, save that we are all strangers here.

[enhancements]

Bluntly put, I don't think I can really understand that. Common goals to be achieved through harmony and cooperation - such things do exist for me, but they're matters of convenience as opposed to anything that's done through preference.

Even when it comes to my work with the Umbrella Corporation... I've been there for years, but it's more a matter of their goals happening to align with mine. They can give me what I want, so I stay. That's all.

[journalname]

Honestly, humans did not have corporations when we went underground. But I have seen their materials come down the river. They are only very large businesses, are they not?

[enhancements]

Technically. However, they can control a large amount of things if they're efficient enough, and if their leaders are smart enough.

It's long been one of our founders' goals to save the world; if things go well over the next several years, he may actually accomplish it.

[journalname]

Oh, how wonderful! What is he saving it from?

[enhancements]

Environmental destruction, mostly - although Umbrella is also highly dedicated to the study and eradication of genetic disorders and illness.

[journalname]

What has been happening to the environment?

[Leaving the question of genetic disorders and illnesses aside entirely, because Asgore does not know what the word "genetic" means. Probably some human biological function? Curing disease is good!]

[enhancements]

...As I've said, humans are good at destroying themselves. They've made various mistakes that are difficult to fix. Not impossible, but difficult.

[journalname]

...right. I hope they are not doing that at home...

[Not that he would easily be able to tell. But the effects would doubtless reach the Underground eventually, just like all the garbage they keep throwing in the river.]

It is good of your founder to try working against it. That seems like the kind of thing all humans would aim for.

[enhancements]

I was tasked with overseeing all of it, before he left the company to me. It's an extensive mission, but it's one I'm going to be seeing through to the best of my ability.

[journalname]

How noble! I wish you luck.

[did you bring about the zombie apocalypse or what my dude how is this going to come back to haunt me]

I think magic could help with such an endeavor - but you have all progressed so much in science and technology since. We may all be evenly matched.

[enhancements]

[It'll make sense in time. What matters is that the people who founded Umbrella were pretty into saving the world, and Wesker is very much on board for seeing that goal through because it happens to align with his own. It's kind of a lofty endeavor, sure, and more than a bit pretentious, but world-saving is very much what's happening here.]

Evenly-matched or not, it would help expedite the process, surely - we're prepared for this to take decades. With any luck, it won't, but that is a timetable that we're looking at currently.

[...World-saving that he is going to micromanage like fuck is what's happening here, because Wesker is anal like that.]

[journalname]

I wish that I could offer you help. Perhaps I could, in the future. It depends on what might happen if we get out of here.

[No commitments. That's not something he would personally do, that's something he would have to enlist other monsters for.]

[enhancements]

[And something about that strikes him oddly, though it's difficult for him to work out why, and so for the time being he just. Doesn't.]

You don't have to-

[...]

...If you consider it something that's possible after all of this, I wouldn't refuse the offer. But it's not strictly necessary, either.

[......]

Either way, I appreciate the sentiment, Asgore.

[Nailed it.]

[journalname]

It is nothing. As you say, everything depends on how we find ourselves at the end of this. But it does not have to be necessary to be worth doing!

[Sometimes you help just because?]

It is possible I shall find myself very busy, after this. Those who arranged this clearly had some way to cross through the Barrier. That would be incredible to find...