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After toiling away at seemingly endless assignments, Asriel decided to reward himself with the newest Nintendo console (that he could afford second-hand). Along with a copy of Super Smash Bros.: Ultimate just ahead of spring break, so he could unlock all of the characters to enjoy with friends and family alike.
Pizzapants was sitting on the living room couch with a clear view of Asriel setting up the console in front of him. Asriel just got back a few hours prior, and the Toriel residence was already bustling with activity.
Kris and Toriel were in the kitchen preparing various dishes for the incoming guests. Pizzapants would elect to help, but he just finished a particularly grueling shift, and unless they had boxes of ICE-E's brand "MICRO-WAY P"E"ZZA", he wasn't allowed to serve anything edible off the clock.
Eventually, the front door creaked open, revealing Susie holding a few plastic bags. "Guess who's home?"
The room filled with simultaneous greetings, Toriel leaned away from the kitchen counter to make eye contact with her. "Welcome back, Susie! You can set those down on the table."
"M'kay." Susie closed the door behind her before getting a good look at what Asriel was doing, "Hey, what are we playin'?"
Asriel smiled, "Smash Bros."
"'Cause that's the only game he's got," Pizzapants smirked.
Susie set the bags on the table before throwing herself onto the couch, "Alright! Let's go already!"
"Sure thing!" Asriel sifted through his bookbag, "But we'll have to wait until the other two controllers are charged. Pete called dibs first."
Susie slouched with a groan, "Lame..."
Pizzapants grinned, "Sorry, kid, you'll have to be a little quicker next time."
Kris leaned back from the counter to look at Susie before muttering something to Toriel.
"Hm? A break? Well, you have been very helpful so far... go ahead and wash your hands."
Kris bolted as she turned toward the living room, "Susie? Would you take Kris to check on Noelle's study session with Berdly? -- If you wouldn't mind another arrand."
Susie straightened her posture, "Uhh, sure?"
Kris quickly ran upstairs and came back with a red wagon, ushering Susie out the door with a sinister smile.
"Geez- We'll be back, I guess? Dude, what's with the wagon-"
Toriel beamed, "Stay safe!" And the door slammed shut.
Asriel stood up and handed Pizzapants a small controller. "Alright, are you ready?"
"To kick your ass?" Pizzapants said with a grin, "Always."
Finally, they got to choose their characters. Asriel takes the pointer, and the announcer calls out his selection: Hero!
Pizzapants elbowed Asriel, "Too grown-up to play Yoshi?"
"I paid for the DLC, I might as well use it..."
The announcer yelled again, Sonic!
Asriel jeered back, "Sonic, huh?"
Pizzapants rolled his eyes, "God forbid someone plays the character they like."
They share a chuckle as the round begins. Asriel starts by building MP, before selecting a few spells from the pop-up menu at the bottom of the screen. Wheras Pizzapants is zooming across the stage in a frenzy, annoying Asriel with whatever hits he could manage.
Eventually, after a close matchup, Asriel knocked Pizzapants off with a carefully placed spell, winning by only one stock.
Pizzapants threw his arms up in defeat, "Come on, I didn't even warm up yet!"
Asriel shook his head with a smile, "Never heard that one before..."
Back to the character select screen, Sonic! Asriel skimmed the gallery of fighters, eventually settling on one and choosing his preferred skin. Byleth!
The match starts. Asriel takes care in keeping Pizzapants away before he can land any hits on him. Likewise, Pizzapants manages to take up all of the space Asriel can't cover. Eventually, after a few impressive moves (intentional or otherwise), Pizzapants lands a hit that sends his opponent flying off the screen.
Pizzapants pumped his fist, "Hah! Told you!"
"Yeah, yeah..." Asriel smiles, despite his loss.
Again, they return to the character select screen. The announcer yells again, Sonic! much to Asriel's confusion. Pizzapants, during his tenure playing Smash Bros. at Asriel's house, was never the type to main a single character. Sure, they both had their habitual first-picks (beyond Asriel's all-time favorites), but even Asriel would fall into picking random characters after a while. Even if it was to combat Pizzapants' attempts to strategically annoy Asriel by spamming, "Show me ya moves!" until he turned the game off.
"I never knew you liked Sonic so much," Asriel teased.
Pizzapants stares at the screen, "Can you blame me? He's uh, top-tier."
"Uh huh." Asriel selects his character, Sora! and the match begins.
Given his gameplay, Pizzapants wasn't exactly helping his character's top-tier perception. During the middle of their match, a thought comes to Asriel, "Now that I think about it, I don't remember playing your favorite games, you know?"
Pizzapants strains to comment during his gameplay, "What do you mean?"
"It's just- We've known each other since we were kids, and you know all of the games I've played. But I can barely remember us talking about your favorites."
"I wouldn't say that." Pizzapants chuckled, "I don't know everything about you, dude."
Asriel grinned, "I mean, you were there when I was a die-hard Yoshi fan, you at least know the gist of it. But I can't remember a time when you talked about your favorite games."
Pizzapants smirked, "Yeah, well, I didn't want to rain on your parade with 'third-party titles', Nintendo-boy."
Asriel chuckled again, "Oh yeah? Why not now?"
Pizzapants' smile falters, "Ah, well. I don't want to bore you with my library of video game knowledge."
"Why not? It's the least I can do after making you listen to my rants about Zelda."
Pizzapants stammers, almost sending his character off the stage. "I, uh... played Sonic, mostly."
"Oh yeah? Which one's your favorite?"
Asriel looked over to see Pizzapants' expression, which resembled that of an old war veteran stuck in a flashback. "You don't- I mean... It's so hard to choose, you know?"
"Yeah," Asriel refocuses on the game. "Okay then, who's your favorite character?"
Pizzapants' tone again is very solemn. "Well, there are so many..."
"Aw, come on! I'm sure you can pick one."
"S-sonic..." Pizzapants answered sheepishly.
Asriel looked away from the game, where Sonic was running around a lot less energetically. "I know that's not your real answer, Pete."
"Well, it's hard to explain if you don't know all of the characters."
"I know some of them!"
Pizzapants gave a weary look at Asriel's overly cheery face. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah! Sonic, Shadow, Tails... I think I played the one on the DS! ... or was it the GBA?"
Pizzapants tries to parse the examples Asriel mentioned, "I mean, the classic games have some good picks all around, but they're pretty simple back then."
"Mhm?"
"Knuckles definitely had the best story at that point, even before the jump to 3D."
"So he's your favorite?" Asriel turned to gauge Pizzapants' reaction.
"Nah," he chuckled, "His backstory with the Echidnas is nice and all, but he isn't anything special. He just stands around all day, stoic and lonely next to his special rock, taking care of some ruins like a museum security guard."
Asriel laughed, "I see. So what about the others?"
Pizzapants considers for a moment before giving a defeated shrug. "Sonic? He's just the hero on the box. Not much to say. Tails, though, he's a mechanical prodigy. Other than that, he's just some kid who helps out from time to time."
"That's it?"
"I'm glossing over a lot, but yeah."
Asriel barely opens his mouth before he has to divert his attention back to the game, his character barely landing back onto the stage. Unfortunately, Pizzapants gets the drop on him, sending Sora flying off the edge with a flourish.
Pizzapants reclines into the couch, performing an exaggerated showboaty stretch as Sonic enters the victory screen. "Even when I lecture, I still win..."
"Care to continue, Professor? I don't think we've finished our lesson." Asriel selects his character. Robin!
Pizzapants carefully picks up his controller and gives Asriel a confused look. "Uh, are you sure?"
"Are you kidding? You didn't even answer my question!"
Pizzapants stutters, looking around the corners of his vision for a reasonable, time-respecting explanation. "Come on, man- there's like fifteen main-line games, three shows, and comic series!"
"Three shows?" Asriel laughs, and Pizzapants corrects him with a wagging finger.
"Three shows and three comic series. -Ish." he takes a moment to think, "Oh, and like, four movies."
Asriel blinks in bewilderment, "Four?"
"Yeah. If you count the OVA, I mean."
Asriel shakes his head in disbelief, "Okay: from the games, who's your favorite Sonic character?"
Pizzapants tries to shrug it off, "I'd have to pull up a picture."
Asriel sets down his controller. "Alright, let's see it."
"Really? Don't you want to-"
Asriel quickly grabs Pizzapants' shoulders, turning him so they can look eye-to-eye. "Peter Joseph Pizzapants. I have been playing Smash non-stop for the last 3 days. You have listened to me speak ad nauseam about my favorite game franchises for our entire teenage lives, and you will not deny me from learning about one of yours today- no matter how long-winded or arduous you might think it is, it's always a pleasure to see you get so excited over something you're passionate about."
Pizzapants (swiftly ignoring whatever Asriel just called him) blinked, and like a deer caught in headlights, his face shrank into the center of his head. "But-"
Asriel shakes Pizzapants back and forth, like a bobble-head. "Give me an honest answer, Pete!"
"Oka-ay-ay-ay!"
Asriel stops shaking Pizzapants, whose meek expression falls to a new corner of his face as he pulls out his phone and finds an image of an official 2000's era ensemble artwork.
Pizzapants zoomed in so he could view each character individually, as Asriel scooched closer for a better look.
With a sigh, Pizzapants scrolls around the image. "Well, we talked about those already... these are from the adventure games. There's Gamma, one of Eggman's robots, Tikal the Echidna-"
"Wait," Asriel squints at the familiar silhouette on the screen, "didn't you say Knuckles was 'lonely'?"
"What? Oh yeah. She's like, a ghost trapped in the Master Emerald." Pizzapants stopped to reconsider his phrasing, "She's his ancestor. She gives a lore dump about it. -- It's how we know about his backstory."
Asriel nods, "Oh! So is she..?"
"Nah. Maybe if she stuck around a while longer," Pizzapants continued to a new set of characters. "Anyways, we've got the Chaotics: Vector, Charmy, and Espio; He's cool."
"... But not your favorite."
Pizzapants shook his head and continued, "There's Eggman, Rouge, and Shadow."
"Yeah, I recognize him." Asriel points to Shadow, who mirrors Sonic's pose in the picture with a sour expression. "Is he your favorite?"
Pizzapants laughed, "He's pretty good, but he's got so much time in the spotlight you'd expect him to have ANOTHER game about him!"
"Ah... well," Asriel points to another character next to Sonic. "What about him?"
"Pfft, Silver? Nah. He's a wimp."
Asriel gives a curious look, "What's so bad about him?"
"I mean," Pizzapants takes a moment to search for the least arduous explanation, "Okay- He's a time-traveler from the future."
"Uh huh."
"And he's got telekinesis."
"Cool!"
"Yeah, but he's tricked into going back in time to kill Sonic, because he thinks that Sonic is responsible for the evil guy messing up the world in the future."
Asriel takes a moment to parse the information, "O-okay?"
"And when the time comes to seal away the evil dude in the future, Silver gives up, and Blaze has to do it for him."
"... What?"
"Right? And that timeline gets overwritten anyway!" Asriel and Pizzapants share a moment of bewildered silence. "What was I talking about again?"
"Silver?"
"Oh yeah. Anyways, he's just okay."
Asriel shakes his head, "Wait-"
"Hm? Was I not thorough enough?"
"No, Yeah- hold on..." Asriel grabs Pizzapants' phone and scrolls around the image before finding and pointing at a lithe cat in purple attire. "That's Blaze, right?"
Pizzapants blinked, "Yeah! How do you know that?"
"I think I played her game on the DS! Sonic Rush, right? She's got fire powers or something."
For a brief moment of pure astonishment and tender understanding, Pizzapants gazed into Asriel's eyes with a level of endearment and acceptance very few experience in their life. "Yeah! she's a princess from another dimension who has to return home with the-"
"Sol Emeralds, right?" Asriel chuckles to himself, "As if the Chaos emeralds weren't enough, hah!"
Pizzapants gives a short, loud laugh. Certainly too much for that little joke. He's heard it a hundred times before, but certainly not from someone so important sitting next to him. "Yeah..."
"So?" Asriel smiles at Pizzapants.
"So... what?"
"Blaze. She's your favorite, right?"
Oh yeah. Picking favorites. He almost forgot. Pizzapants looked away for a moment, "Oh, nah. She's not."
"What? How come?"
Pizzapants scratches the back of his neck, "I mean, she's great- Really great, but she's got one game to herself and another dragging Silver around. And we barely see the place she rules over, even in the comics."
Asriel zooms out the picture to see the whole ensemble, before flipping the phone around to Pizzapants, "So you're telling me, out of all these characters, NONE of them are your favorite?"
Pizzapants looks away, "I mean, we didn't go through all of-"
Asriel points to a group of birds; the Babylon Rogues. "Them?"
"They're cool..." Pizzapants corrects himself after a glare from Asriel: "N-no."
Asriel points to a water-creature: Chaos Zero.
"No..."
Asriel points to a small rabbit girl, Cream.
"No."
Asriel points to Big.
"Hell no!"
Asriel points to a pink hedgehog, Amy. Pizzapants remains silent. Asriel flips the phone back toward himself to get a better look,
"Who's this one, Pete?"
Pizzapants scrunches his face like a baby refusing food, but manages a whisper. "That's Amy."
Asriel relaxes his demeanor and motions for Pizzapants to keep going.
"She's... okay."
"Nothing else?" Asriel leans forward, giving a knowing smile.
"I mean... she's got a hammer. That's cool..." Pizzapants' face is shaking, holding back whatever information he can.
Asriel keeps pushing, adding a teasing tone. "What, you don't like pink?"
"What? No! It's just- she- they-" Pizzapants stutters before returning to full cantor, "Okay, it's like this, right? She's introduced as this overly attached damsel in distress. -- Whatever, it's the 90s, she's a fangirl over the main character, who cares. -- THEN, she gets a re-introduction in 3D. She has this bubbly personality, who on the surface seems like she's this annoying brat, but NO! She admires Sonic because he's a good person, and she ACTS ON IT!"
Asriel leaned back, smiling at Pizzapants' sudden burst of passion.
"So when she sees someone in need, what does she do? She HELPS THEM! And when she doesn't get any credit for it, she doesn't complain, she just keeps going!" He takes a breath before continuing with wild gesticulations. "I mean- Think of it like this: She's dragged into SPACE on the SPACE COLONY: ARC, and watches some dead guy's manifesto about how he's going to blow up the earth or whatever-" he takes another breath. "But she's still around! And you know who else is there?"
Pizzapants motioned to Asriel, who looked happily petrified at his partner's tirade. "W-Who?"
"That bum, Shadow! Who's too busy misremembering his dead surrogate sister's final words, and needs AMY to give him a pep talk to help everyone else! You see what I mean?"
Asriel gives a cautious nod. Pizzapants continues, "But now, she's sidelined!" He clasps his hands and makes an obnoxious high-pitched voice. "Oh, she's too obsessive! Ooh, she's too annoying! Let's fix her! -- Dude! Now she's on the bench, no- She's not even in the stadium, she's on the friggin street playing with tarot cards, giving advice to whoever passes her by!"
Pizzapants ends his rant with a puff and holds his head in his hands. "What's wrong with a little comedic effect? No angry piko-piko hammer smackdowns? No... Nothin'?"
Asriel pats and rubs a circle on Pizzapants' back, "I... never knew you were so passionate, Pizzapants. Are you alright?"
Pizzapants sighs, "Yeah, I'm okay. It's just... they did her dirty, man. They did her dirty..."
Suddenly, the door swung open, and Toriel (who had been sitting in her chair reading a book for the last ten minutes) looked up to see Susie and Kris. "Welcome home! Did you speak to Noelle and Berdly?"
Kris waltzed in with a newly battered wagon, with a wheel squeaking all the way. Susie entered behind them, with leaves in her hair and a smile on her face. "Yeah. They'll be here in like ten minutes. They just gotta drop their stuff off and-" she caught a glimpse of Pizzapants, head in hands. "Uhh, what's up with him?"
Asriel smiled at her, "Just talking about our favorite Sonic characters. I think Blaze is my favorite!"
"Uh huh."
Pizzapants raised his head a little, "Not your style?"
Susie shrugged, "It's alright."
Kris speaks up from across the room with a grin, "Shadow's pretty cool."
Susie smirks back at their comment, "Not as cool as the red guy!"
Pizzapants snickers, "You mean Knuckles?"
"Yeah! He kicks ass!"
Kris returns to the couch, "But can he teleport?"
"Uhh, who cares? He'd still punch that guy through a wall."
Kris shrugged. Susie quickly turned her attention to the character select screen of the game. "So, can we play now?"
Asriel stood up, "Yeah, the controllers should be ready!"
Soon after, everyone huddled on the couch to select their characters, the announcer calling out every choice.
Steve! Little Mac! Yoshi! Sonic!
And thus, the game began.