[Oh, there's so much more about him that's sharp than just his memory. His words. His actions, when they finally arrive. His perception, without a doubt. Counting his victories merely by the look on Chara's face -- Chara, who could choose to emote at all, Chara, who could just wear a flat and empty smile -- it was observation and bluff, but it really did feel like Sans already knew what was going to happen even before Chara did sometimes.]
I know exactly what I am. I know exactly where I should be. I'm a very fast learner, Sans, and my memory is not so bad either.
[Not human. Burning in hell. They wonder, hesitate, agonize over their words again, carefully approach what comes next. They lost an inch of ground with a careless choice of words, now he latches onto their confusion. He was the one who gave them the word anomaly, and they shy away from it. He sees that.
They won't ask for a promise. Watch over them, and protect them, will you not? Promises are worth about as much to this guy as any other adult. Nor will they ask a favour, try to make a deal. They can't guess what he would want to get out of them, but they refuse to be in a position where they owe him. Appealing to his kindness...? Ha. c'mere, pal.
So, they'll have to fight for it, and fight like hell. Out come the threats.]
If you can be sharp, then let me be blunt. I have seen what happens when you can't afford to not care anymore. In that same timeline, you have seen what happens when I cease to care. When I distance myself, and thus find it easier to hurt others.
If my secrets are all I assign any meaning to. Then I'm sure you understand. What happens if they are not kept.
[And there are the expected threats. Oddly vague to start with. Not that he has much to go on, but he sort of expected more specifics, more "here's exactly who I will hurt and how I will hurt them." Or maybe they're toeing the line, trying not to rile him up.]
so if i tell anyone your soul is broken, or that you have a soul at all, you'll kill me. that right? i have to wonder where you ever got the idea that i'm a blabbermouth.
You're not a blabbermouth when it suits you, Sans. But you're also not above fighting dirty.
That's why it won't be you that I kill.
[There are plenty of blanks that he can fill. Papyrus is here now. Papyrus, who wants to give the little human guidance. No more RESETs. No more slamming bones into an unguarded back and telling the human not to come back, no matter how much Sans dislikes the current timeline. More than one life, certainly, but still a finite number.
Even as they snapped Papyrus' head right off, he still believed in them. Surely he would continue to believe in them after he died and came back. And died, and died, and died.
But that, surely, is a realization that Sans has already come to. One that's been ingrained into his very bones by timeline after timeline of not knowing where the snow ends and his brother's dust begins.]
They wouldn't believe you if you told, anyway. They don't usually believe you about the timelines, do they? Why would they believe something as impossible as this? A SOUL stays whole, or it is destroyed. One or the other.
And I know that my SOUL was destroyed. I was dead twice over before Frisk ever fell.
[No, of course they wouldn't kill him. That would take too much effort. Why kill someone you know will give you a bad time when there are plenty of other candidates?]
[And Chara's right. No one would believe him. Sans can think of only one person who would readily believe that a soul could exist in a state like that and, well...]
[Never mind.]
reading you loud and clear, kid.
and while we're setting boundaries, laying cards on the table and all, i want to make something very clear.
[There. That's the line. No worlds at stake, no timelines threatened. Just one monster. Different worlds, different rules, a different place he can set the line. Just here. Just this once.]
[He's decided. This time, for the thing that matters most, he will move.]
[There it is! They'd wondered when it'd show up. Comic Sans no longer, in every sense of the phrase.
And, funnily enough, it's a lot of things.
Almost feels like an objective. If X, then Y. Skip the extraneous stuff, skip the puzzles, skip the dialogue. Go right to the final boss. They always knew Papyrus mattered, but the game is different now. What Sans wants to protect has narrowed down. And now Chara knows for certain how to make the absolute worst come crashing down onto them. The wild, oblivion-starved part of them almost wants to rush off and try it here and now, for no real reason beyond the fact that they can. The fact that they know that LV 3 is nowhere near enough to stand a chance, and it'll be as hilarious as intentionally pointing a shield away from Undyne's spears had been. As hilarious as getting dunked on was.
But it's reassurance, somehow, too. Animosity is a certainty. Familiar ground. As easily comprehended and predicted as numbers following a pattern. These terms are much more stable than whatever nebulous truce they had before this. Their secret is about as close to safe as it can get, circumstances being what they are. A Mexican standoff might not seem like any comfort, but that tense, wary mutual deterrence feels much more reliable than anything as breakable as trust.]
Understood. We have both made ourselves perfectly clear.
It's a huge weight off my chest. We understand each other so well, Sans, don't we?
[It's almost comforting. Much more comforting than a quiet threat at the bridge, than the perpetually empty threat at the hotel. Those always rang so hollow, even at his most intimidating. "here is some advice for fighting my brother...don't." Except that it doesn't matter, it's empty, because he just vanishes after Papyrus dies. Even Sans isn't sure what he actually does in all that time. Follow the human around? Wallow in his room? Maybe in some distant, early timeline he actually acted, actually tried to save Papyrus, actually went after the anomaly as soon as his brother's dust hit the snow. Wishful thinking, maybe.]
[It doesn't have to be that way this time. It's not even hope really, or any sudden willingness to care and act, because at the end of the day, all of this is still impermanent. Papyrus has left Wonderland once already and he might do so again. Even if he doesn't, Sans will leave eventually. The difference is that this timeline, everything in Wonderland--it's all one timeline, and it's all completely self-enclosed. Nothing that happens here has any bearing on the Underground, but it has all the bearing on the future of this timeline.]
[Wonderland is different, and he has to start treating it that way.]
gotta admit, it's kinda nice to agree on something.
It's about as close as we'll ever get to having fun, huh.
[All this. The wretched, broken thing he pulled out of them. Their moment of dumb, flawed reflex -- aren't they supposed to be in control? -- and his hair-trigger reaction. A stupid box of water sausages in their room, like that's supposed to, what? Make them feel better? They don't feel anything.
How ridiculous that all of this happened because of a pointless impulse. Hey, Chara, maybe you can have your fun too! Maybe you can pretend to be human! Look what happens when you try. You slip up. Remind everyone what you are.
Incomprehensible. Unnatural. Something that should not exist. A threat, a vicious thing, wiping this away as hard as they can with dark, malicious promises to target entirely innocent bystanders. The one last obstacle between everyone and their happiness, stubbornly persisting.
This is guidance too. The answer. Their purpose. The world is still whispering it.]
But, Sans, you know. We agree on an awful lot of things.
Edited (what are words what is english) Date: 2016-03-18 07:04 pm (UTC)
I gave it a real good try, though. Several hundred real good tries, actually, while poor Frisk was snared up in my control. Even you couldn't give me directions. Even your fun little dunks didn't stick.
* It's a beautiful day outside. Nice day today, just like yesterday, and the day before that. Every single page says the exact same thing.
* You tried and you tried, but you just can't reach hell. You just can't find a way to burn.
[Frisk? The angel in the prophecy? The one who made the Underground go empty with six human SOULs and almost every monster SOUL. Maybe they mean Papyrus, Toriel, Asgore? Maybe he'll even think Chara's directing that old prophecy onto themselves, painting them as that angel in the same breath that they call themselves a demon.
May as well leave it vague, see what he has to say.]
from what i understand of how all that works, demons are just fallen angels. so who's to say?
[Of course he knows what they're referencing, but the point of that whole Prophecy was that it cut both ways. It only ever promised that the Underground would go empty, after all. And it's still an angel either way. Which is telling.]
your story, huh. so, then...at first, way back when, when you were alive and living with the royal family...is that what you wanted? to be the angel? save everyone? cause all the murder and stuff didn't start till frisk showed up.
Doesn't matter. The first human SOUL the Underground ever saw fell ill and died. Couldn't do much of anything, killing or otherwise.
[Like hell they're breathing a word of the plan to someone who might remember across timelines. Someone who hangs out with Toriel. They just got sick out of nowhere, and of course there wasn't a proper doctor around.]
deal with it, huh? you think you can just rip it out and bury it in the dirt? or i'm pretty sure that flower will gladly take it for you. he seems to have a thing for souls.
That miserable thing seems to be on the edge of shattering, anyway. Can't be that hard to erase it.
[That's it. Nothing more than that. A complete failure to acknowledge that flower in any way. A secret to protect. They don't know who the flower really is, right?
Sans surely doesn't know the flower's role in the story on the runs that fell in between pacifism and annihilation -- the six SOULs, Asgore's demise, all of that. And on the last timeline, the perfectly happy one... well, Chara's just going to insist that they must not have been there for that one. You're not really Chara, right? Chara's been gone for a long time, haven't they?]
[A shattered soul doesn't always get erased, after all. Sans knows a thing or two about that. The smudges of eraser marks, the dents left behind. It's simple: the law of conservation.]
[They don't mention the flower. It's either a dodge, or they consider the flower as unimportant as everything else.]
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2016-03-18 05:16 am (UTC)I know exactly what I am. I know exactly where I should be. I'm a very fast learner, Sans, and my memory is not so bad either.
[Not human. Burning in hell. They wonder, hesitate, agonize over their words again, carefully approach what comes next. They lost an inch of ground with a careless choice of words, now he latches onto their confusion. He was the one who gave them the word anomaly, and they shy away from it. He sees that.
They won't ask for a promise. Watch over them, and protect them, will you not? Promises are worth about as much to this guy as any other adult. Nor will they ask a favour, try to make a deal. They can't guess what he would want to get out of them, but they refuse to be in a position where they owe him. Appealing to his kindness...? Ha. c'mere, pal.
So, they'll have to fight for it, and fight like hell. Out come the threats.]
If you can be sharp, then let me be blunt. I have seen what happens when you can't afford to not care anymore. In that same timeline, you have seen what happens when I cease to care. When I distance myself, and thus find it easier to hurt others.
If my secrets are all I assign any meaning to. Then I'm sure you understand. What happens if they are not kept.
no subject
Date: 2016-03-18 05:26 am (UTC)[He doesn't believe it.]
[And there are the expected threats. Oddly vague to start with. Not that he has much to go on, but he sort of expected more specifics, more "here's exactly who I will hurt and how I will hurt them." Or maybe they're toeing the line, trying not to rile him up.]
so if i tell anyone your soul is broken, or that you have a soul at all, you'll kill me. that right? i have to wonder where you ever got the idea that i'm a blabbermouth.
no subject
Date: 2016-03-18 05:48 am (UTC)That's why it won't be you that I kill.
[There are plenty of blanks that he can fill. Papyrus is here now. Papyrus, who wants to give the little human guidance. No more RESETs. No more slamming bones into an unguarded back and telling the human not to come back, no matter how much Sans dislikes the current timeline. More than one life, certainly, but still a finite number.
Even as they snapped Papyrus' head right off, he still believed in them. Surely he would continue to believe in them after he died and came back. And died, and died, and died.
But that, surely, is a realization that Sans has already come to. One that's been ingrained into his very bones by timeline after timeline of not knowing where the snow ends and his brother's dust begins.]
They wouldn't believe you if you told, anyway. They don't usually believe you about the timelines, do they? Why would they believe something as impossible as this? A SOUL stays whole, or it is destroyed. One or the other.
And I know that my SOUL was destroyed. I was dead twice over before Frisk ever fell.
1/2
Date: 2016-03-18 06:23 am (UTC)[And Chara's right. No one would believe him. Sans can think of only one person who would readily believe that a soul could exist in a state like that and, well...]
[Never mind.]
reading you loud and clear, kid.
and while we're setting boundaries, laying cards on the table and all, i want to make something very clear.
[If Chara gets a bold move then so does Sans.]
2/2
Date: 2016-03-18 06:27 am (UTC)[There. That's the line. No worlds at stake, no timelines threatened. Just one monster. Different worlds, different rules, a different place he can set the line. Just here. Just this once.]
[He's decided. This time, for the thing that matters most, he will move.]
no subject
Date: 2016-03-18 06:50 am (UTC)And, funnily enough, it's a lot of things.
Almost feels like an objective. If X, then Y. Skip the extraneous stuff, skip the puzzles, skip the dialogue. Go right to the final boss. They always knew Papyrus mattered, but the game is different now. What Sans wants to protect has narrowed down. And now Chara knows for certain how to make the absolute worst come crashing down onto them. The wild, oblivion-starved part of them almost wants to rush off and try it here and now, for no real reason beyond the fact that they can. The fact that they know that LV 3 is nowhere near enough to stand a chance, and it'll be as hilarious as intentionally pointing a shield away from Undyne's spears had been. As hilarious as getting dunked on was.
But it's reassurance, somehow, too. Animosity is a certainty. Familiar ground. As easily comprehended and predicted as numbers following a pattern. These terms are much more stable than whatever nebulous truce they had before this. Their secret is about as close to safe as it can get, circumstances being what they are. A Mexican standoff might not seem like any comfort, but that tense, wary mutual deterrence feels much more reliable than anything as breakable as trust.]
Understood. We have both made ourselves perfectly clear.
It's a huge weight off my chest. We understand each other so well, Sans, don't we?
no subject
Date: 2016-03-18 07:07 am (UTC)[It's almost comforting. Much more comforting than a quiet threat at the bridge, than the perpetually empty threat at the hotel. Those always rang so hollow, even at his most intimidating. "here is some advice for fighting my brother...don't." Except that it doesn't matter, it's empty, because he just vanishes after Papyrus dies. Even Sans isn't sure what he actually does in all that time. Follow the human around? Wallow in his room? Maybe in some distant, early timeline he actually acted, actually tried to save Papyrus, actually went after the anomaly as soon as his brother's dust hit the snow. Wishful thinking, maybe.]
[It doesn't have to be that way this time. It's not even hope really, or any sudden willingness to care and act, because at the end of the day, all of this is still impermanent. Papyrus has left Wonderland once already and he might do so again. Even if he doesn't, Sans will leave eventually. The difference is that this timeline, everything in Wonderland--it's all one timeline, and it's all completely self-enclosed. Nothing that happens here has any bearing on the Underground, but it has all the bearing on the future of this timeline.]
[Wonderland is different, and he has to start treating it that way.]
gotta admit, it's kinda nice to agree on something.
no subject
Date: 2016-03-18 07:46 am (UTC)[All this. The wretched, broken thing he pulled out of them. Their moment of dumb, flawed reflex -- aren't they supposed to be in control? -- and his hair-trigger reaction. A stupid box of water sausages in their room, like that's supposed to, what? Make them feel better? They don't feel anything.
How ridiculous that all of this happened because of a pointless impulse. Hey, Chara, maybe you can have your fun too! Maybe you can pretend to be human! Look what happens when you try. You slip up. Remind everyone what you are.
Incomprehensible. Unnatural. Something that should not exist. A threat, a vicious thing, wiping this away as hard as they can with dark, malicious promises to target entirely innocent bystanders. The one last obstacle between everyone and their happiness, stubbornly persisting.
This is guidance too. The answer. Their purpose. The world is still whispering it.]
But, Sans, you know. We agree on an awful lot of things.
no subject
Date: 2016-03-18 08:27 pm (UTC)[The future is full of possibilities. Or at the very least it has a couple more possibilities than the norm.]
perhaps. but not as much as you think.
no subject
Date: 2016-03-18 08:47 pm (UTC)I gave it a real good try, though. Several hundred real good tries, actually, while poor Frisk was snared up in my control. Even you couldn't give me directions. Even your fun little dunks didn't stick.
* It's a beautiful day outside. Nice day today, just like yesterday, and the day before that. Every single page says the exact same thing.
* You tried and you tried, but you just can't reach hell. You just can't find a way to burn.
no subject
Date: 2016-03-18 09:48 pm (UTC)what makes you think that isn't hell?
no subject
Date: 2016-03-18 10:11 pm (UTC)[Frisk? The angel in the prophecy? The one who made the Underground go empty with six human SOULs and almost every monster SOUL. Maybe they mean Papyrus, Toriel, Asgore? Maybe he'll even think Chara's directing that old prophecy onto themselves, painting them as that angel in the same breath that they call themselves a demon.
May as well leave it vague, see what he has to say.]
no subject
Date: 2016-03-18 11:16 pm (UTC)[Of course he knows what they're referencing, but the point of that whole Prophecy was that it cut both ways. It only ever promised that the Underground would go empty, after all. And it's still an angel either way. Which is telling.]
no subject
Date: 2016-03-18 11:34 pm (UTC)The first thing Asriel said to an injured human, a long time ago. The first thing Toriel said to one that was bruised but still upright.]
You know. "Sisyphus" is just a little too long of a name to call the demon, but it would fit. I wouldn't be surprised if you were right.
I did not always believe Frisk existed. I thought it was my story. Karmic retribution, long before you made those sins start crawling.
no subject
Date: 2016-03-19 03:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-03-19 03:57 am (UTC)[Like hell they're breathing a word of the plan to someone who might remember across timelines. Someone who hangs out with Toriel. They just got sick out of nowhere, and of course there wasn't a proper doctor around.]
no subject
Date: 2016-03-19 04:01 am (UTC)[He'll need to think about this.]
well. i guess you'd know.
no subject
Date: 2016-03-19 04:14 am (UTC)Nor, for that matter, does this. Almost-SOUL.
I'll deal with it myself. You just keep quiet and do nothing. That's what you do best, is it not?
no subject
Date: 2016-03-19 04:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-03-19 04:26 am (UTC)[That's it. Nothing more than that. A complete failure to acknowledge that flower in any way. A secret to protect. They don't know who the flower really is, right?
Sans surely doesn't know the flower's role in the story on the runs that fell in between pacifism and annihilation -- the six SOULs, Asgore's demise, all of that. And on the last timeline, the perfectly happy one... well, Chara's just going to insist that they must not have been there for that one. You're not really Chara, right? Chara's been gone for a long time, haven't they?]
no subject
Date: 2016-03-19 04:30 am (UTC)[A shattered soul doesn't always get erased, after all. Sans knows a thing or two about that. The smudges of eraser marks, the dents left behind. It's simple: the law of conservation.]
[They don't mention the flower. It's either a dodge, or they consider the flower as unimportant as everything else.]
no subject
Date: 2016-03-19 04:36 am (UTC)He knows something.]
What comes after that, Sans? I'll humour you. Humour me.
no subject
Date: 2016-03-19 04:44 am (UTC)[Should he really dig this shit up? Really throw Chara a bone?]
[Heh.]
let's just say...shattering yourself, erasing yourself...
...it's not the neat, pleasant little end of the road that you think it is.
i told you before. eraser marks. doesn't matter what kind of "erase" you're talking about. the result will be the same.
[That's all he's going to say on the matter, and frankly, it's already too much.]
no subject
Date: 2016-03-19 04:50 am (UTC)["It," they say, because they struggle to even recall what "it" is. A them? A she? A he?
Something... Fun. The wrong number song, a catchy little earworm getting stuck in their head. Ringing ears and static in their head.]
A name the world won't let the fallen human use.
It... they? Something happened to its SOUL? Different from what happens when you die normally? Is that how it became... whatever it is?
no subject
Date: 2016-03-19 04:51 am (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
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