>> Frisk: Prepare for event

[Sans]

Frisk continued to watch the download bar fill up, her face remarkably stoic despite the image of Alex still fresh in her mind. Roughly two minutes had passed without much having occurred aside from her trying to lighten the tension in her stomach with one of her favorite activities: Puns.

“Outside the King’s castle, a thunderstorm was brewing,” she said, repeating what she read in the pun book she had in her hands, “Doth be a reigny day, proclaimed the King of Puns.”

She sat in silence for a few moments, processing the joke in her head. Her eyes widened as something clicked in her mind before she burst into a massive fit of giggles. The King of Puns said it was a REIGNY day! She continued to laugh the most high-pitched, childish and gleeful laugh as she faceplanted onto the book, her entire body shaking. She stayed this way for a few moments, trying to recover from her brief fit.

Eventually, she lifted her head off of the pun book, wiping away a tear from her eyes as she looked at her computer. During that time, the download bar had increased just enough that it was almost touching the end of the bar, and Paige had started messaging her again.

Setting the book next to the computer, she opened up PesterOmni, opening the message board.

[spoiler]

-- literaryEnthusiast [LE] began pestering freskAbenet [FA] at (XX)XX)XX) --

FA: "Oh... hi, Paige!"
FA: "I am... doing okay... right now.."

FA: "Oh? What.... is it?"

FA: "Oh... yeah..."
FA: "Paul, um... showed it to me...
FA: "I... have it downloading... right now..."

FA: "Client.... and Server?"

FA: "Just... a file..."

FA: "I... hope so... I...."
FA: "Don't want to.... hold you guys back... by my... um..."
FA: "Downloading..."

FA: "oh... okay..."
FA: "I'm also, um... playing with Finn and, um... Ahmed..."
FA: "So, uh... we can play together..."

FA: "Yeah...."
FA: "But... Finn, though..."
FA: "He seems.... kinda lonely, don't you think?"

FA: "It's something he told me.."
FA: "He told me that..."
FA: "People who... talk down to others... are lonely inside..."
FA: "And are, um.... just trying to bring others lower to..."
FA: "Feel better about themselves...."

FA: "I want to, but..."
FA: "I don't know if I can...."
FA: "Or... if he even wants me to..."
FA: "What if he just.... wants to be left alone?"
FA: "Where no one can hurt him....?"

FA: "Really...? What did he say?"

FA: "If... you, um..."
FA: "Don't.... mind me asking..."

FA: "I know, but...."
FA: "I... don't want to... offend you..."

FA: "Oh...."

FA: "Oh...um..."
FA: "It's... about to complete..."

FA: "It's.. okay..."
FA: "I.... knew what you meant.."

FA: "No! It's... it's okay... Paige..."
FA: "Don't... feel bad.... for that..."

FA: "Okay..."

FA: "Oh.. okay..."
FA: "Bye... Paige!"

-- literaryEnthusiast [LE] ceased pestering freskAbenet [FA] at (XX)XX)XX) --[/spoiler]

She closed Paige’s message board, closing out of PesterOmni for the time being. First Ahmed, then Finn, now Paige wanted to play with her! She wasn’t sure if she should’ve been happy or really, really scared for their safety.

Their brief talk about Finn got her thinking, though. Had Finn not told the others what he told her? If so, maybe she was right…. Finn just wanted to be left alone. She couldn’t get that, though. Why would anyone want to be alone and be mean to everyone else? It didn’t make any sense. How would you keep your friends that way?

Frisk looked up towards the walls of the cave, staring at the drawings she made of her past friends. They had all been so outgoing, so nice and friendly to her. It hurt thinking about them, though. Like a knife through the heart with each mention of their names. It was better to just forget about it, she knew, and forget about Finn’s problems. His problems were his own, just like hers were her own, and she couldn’t let herself intervene. What if she screwed up? What if she got mad somehow and… hurt him? She couldn’t do that. Not again, not after what had happened last time.

But… with all that being said… she couldn’t sit there and watch Finn isolate himself like that. It hurt to think about what he would have had to have gone through to do that, but she knew first-hand that it was bad. She was his friend, or at least, she hoped she was his friend, and she was going to do everything in her power to help him. To make him feel better about himself.

If she could do that… she might feel good too..

She glanced towards her laptop as another notification popped up on it, this time by Paul. Smiling, she pulled up the message board.

[spoiler]

-- nocturnalNerd [NN] began pestering freskAbenet [FA] at 15:06 --

FA: "Oh? What... do I need to... check?"

FA: "Oh... okay.."
FA: "I'm... downloading it.. right now, but..."
FA: "I will..."
FA: "What do... I need to, um... look for?"[/spoiler]


The little girl minimized the window for the message board, clicking open the folder she had stashed the file in. Like she had remembered, it was just one file. Suddenly, the program popped up in front of the file window, displaying a black screen. The screen indicated that the “Server Version was installed.”

Oh… she thought as she pulled open the message board.

[spoiler]
FA: "Two... separate... programs.."
FA: "In the file...?"
FA: "When I, um... install it?"

FA: "Maybe..."
FA: "This one just, um... completed a moment ago..."
FA: "Said, um... the server version or..."
FA: "Yeah... server..."

FA: "I... guess so..."
FA: "I'm sorry, I..."
FA: "Don't know how, um..."
FA: "This works..."

FA: "No! I mean..."
FA: "I... should've noticed... earlier..."
FA: "Now..."
FA: "Well..."

FA: "Sure... and Paul, I..."
FA: "I'm sorry I didn't... notice it earlier..."
FA: "I just..."
FA: "I'm not... very familiar with this..."

FA: "Alright..."
FA: "I'll.. install it... right now..."
FA: "How long, um..."
FA: "Should it take to, um... download.."
FA: "If, um..."
FA: "You don't, um.. mind me asking...?"
[/spoiler]

She dragged her cursor to the new file, this time just placing it on the desktop and going through the install process that way. She sighed as she watched the bar start slowly filling up again. Another hour of waiting, it seemed like..

Just then, another message popped up from Paul. She quickly checked to see what he was asking.

[spoiler]

FA: "Paul?"

FA: "You..."
FA: "You don't?"

FA: "Paul... I..."
FA: "I..."
FA: "Don't know... what to say..."
FA: "I mean..."
FA: "I haven't... you know..."
FA: "Talked to you in... um..."
FA: "A while... and..."
FA: "Well..."
FA: "I... haven't been that, um...."
FA: "You know..."

FA: "Actually.. wait..."
FA: "How is, um..."
FA: "Your garden doing...?"

FA: "If..."
FA: "You don't mind me asking...?"

FA: "oh... okay..."
FA: "I... guess this is... goodbye, for now?"

FA: "Okay..."
FA: "Bye... Paul!"

-- nocturnalNerd [NN] ceased pestering freskAbenet [FA] at 15:10 --[/spoiler]

She silently exited out of the message board, an overwhelming sense of joy, amazement, and every other positive emotion one could get from being accepted in this way washed over her like an ocean wave. She couldn’t believe what she had read. She hoped she wasn’t imagining the whole scenario. That it was all real. She so desperately wanted it to be real.

She pinched herself, letting out a high-pitched squeal. She stood motionless for a while, waiting to wake up.

It was real.

She felt like starting the birthday party right then and there. These feelings she were feeling were ones she had thought she was never going to feel again, so used was she to living in caves and cooking her own food with her only interactions being through an electronic device. He liked her. Paul liked her…

She kinda wanted to turn around to see if Alex was there, just so she could rub her sweet, sweet victory in his face. He would probably try to scare her afterwards, but it would be sooooooooo worth seeing the look on his face as she proudly proclaimed to him how she was right and he was wrong.

But instead, she celebrated through more puns! The medieval pun book was surprisingly extensive for a supposed “pun book for dummies.” It had jokes about kings, knights, wizards, witches, castles, swords, dragons, dwarves, elves, vampires, skeletons (a personal favorite,) horses, fortresses, queens, and many, many more. It helped that she had gotten several volumes of them to share with her friends, something she was going to have to do later on, as she just hadn’t done it yet. There just wasn’t a good opportunity to do so. She resolved that, first chance she got, she was telling them a pun.

Eventually, after a long time of waiting, the download for the client version of OSburb finished installing. She set down her book, deciding to contact Ahmed and update him on the matter.

[spoiler]

-- freskAbenet [FA] began pestering avidProcrastinator [AP] -- 

FA: "Hi... Ahmed..."

FA: "How are, um... you doing?"
FA: "If... you don't mind me asking...?"

FA: "Oh... okay..."
FA: "So, um..."
FA: "How are... you doing?"

FA: "Yeah..."
FA: "About that..."
FA: "I... have the, um..."
FA: "Server and... client... downloaded..."

FA: "I just..."
FA: "Don't really, um... know how it works..."

FA: "Yeah... shouldn't be... too hard, I guess.."

FA: "I guess so..."
FA: "Anyways..."
FA: "How, um... is your boss doing?"

FA: "That's good... it's nice of him that, um..."
FA: "He's looking after you..."

FA: "Yeah..."
FA: "Oh... okay.."
FA: "I guess... that's true for, um..."
FA: "Everyone..."

FA: "No one is... um..."
FA: "As they seem, right...?"

FA: "Yeah... I guess so..."
FA: "By the way, um..."
FA: "I wanted to, um..."
FA: "Try to cheer... Finn up..."

FA: "I mean..."
FA: "I've told I think he's, you know..."
FA: "A little pushy..."
FA: "But..."
FA: "I think he's just sad..."
FA: "He needs someone to cheer him up, you know?"

FA: "Maybe..."
FA: "But... I don't know... how to cheer him up.."
FA: "Well..."
FA: "Without him, you know..."
FA: "Yelling at me..."
FA: "Oh!"
FA: "He likes to make OCs!"

FA: "I think so..."
FA: "He even drew me an OC after I asked about it!"

FA: "I do have some paper around here.... I think I could, um... draw one for him..."
FA: "What, um..."
FA: "Animal does him, um... like?"
FA: "Do you think?"

FA: "I've... drawn a few times.."

FA: "A turtle?"
FA: "Maybe..."
FA: "I... hope he doesn't mind... a turtle.."

FA: "You like turtles?"

FA: "You're favorite color is... green?"

FA: "Teal..."
FA: "Isn't that, um... light blue?"
FA: "I think...?"

FA: "Oh.. that's teal."
FA: "Yeah. It's really pretty."

FA: "Where's, um... your family now?"

FA: "Oh..."
FA: "I'm... sorry... I..."
FA: "Didn't think... you..."
FA: "I'm... I'm sorry..."

FA: "To find your family?"

FA: "I'm sure you can, Ahmed!"
FA: "And... yeah... magic is pretty powerful..."
FA: "I'm sure it, um.. hurts to get hit by some..."

FA: "Oh? What's happened..?"

FA: "I... hope he didn't.. hurt you too badly..."

FA: "It's okay... I mean..."
FA: "You can... always, um... try again, right?"

FA: "Yeah..."

FA: "I... I think so...."

FA: "Thanks..."

FA: "I... guess so..."

FA: "Bye... Ahmed.."

-- freskAbenet [FA] ceased pestering avidProcrastinator [AP] --[/spoiler]

She closed out of the message board, leaning back on her chair. She could draw something for Finn, a turtle most likely. But she didn’t know what he would like.

That’s when she remembered. Ahmed had told her that, in order to get him to like her, he had to “follow his unique set of rules.” Did that mean she had to swear a lot, or something like that? Or type really weirdly?

She decided her best course of action was to study up. She quickly pulled up a video site, searching up several songs to listen to to try to get a “feel” for what to do.

“Umm, you're packed and you're stacked 'specially in the back
Brother, wanna thank your mother for a butt like that.
Can I get some fries with that shake-shake boobie?
If looks could kill you would be an uzi
You're a shotgun, bang! What's up with that thang?
I wanna know how does it hang?
Straight up, wait up, hold up, Mr. Lover
Like Prince said you're a sexy mutha well-a”

Frisk continued rapping as she placed her crayon on the loose leaf paper, bobbing up and down in rhythm with the song. She started to draw, having a few ideas in her head as to what the drawing would look like.

>>Frisk: Draw that dope ass turtle, man. Oh, and drop some bitchin sick bombs while you're fucking doing this shit.

PesterLog: Paige and Frisk
PesterLog: Paul and Frisk
PesterLog: Frisk and Ahmed