Chara looks from side to side, feeling weird. They notice a perspective shift. Comedian?
No answer. Nice, maybe they'll get some peace for a bit. Now if only they were up and moving- Sans' form stands as the form thought in their head. Realisation creeped in.

wait, what-
Oh, talking to me now are you? They were positively giddy. Looks like you're in time out~
They took off almost at a run, towards the sound of the brother and the walking sushi roll.
where are you going? you'd better not be-
I told you earlier, didn't I? I. Do. What. I. Want.
They found Papyrus and Undyne easily. Snow was flying thick and fast, and they were laughing and tossing insults at each other. don't you dare.
"I WANNA PLAY TOO~!" They cried with a rush of excitement and malicious glee in his voice, making the pair look up. What're you gonna do now funny man, huh?! Magic flared down their fingers and threw bones up from the floor, giving Papyrus and Undyne minimal time to react, taking out half the floor and snowfall and leaving it marred by pockmarks and gouges like wounds in the snow.
"WOWIE! AT LEAST GIVE US SOME WARNING BEFORE YOU START WITH YOUR JAPES!"
Undyne, however, looked ecstatic."Hell yeah! This was getting boring with snow being NON-LETHAL! PAPYRUS, FIRST ONE TO TAG HIM WINS!"
"I-I DON'T THINK- NON LETHAL ATTACKS ONLY UNDYNE. HIS HP-"
"Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine." But Undyne grins in excitement still.

Chara uses their natural reflexes as well as the surprisingly swift body of the skeleton to dodge and weave around the returning magic and spears. Who can I kill first? Bonehead or fish face?
Magic was released again, on both sides. Undyne came rather close with a spear. Or you on accident?
Another round, this time clipping Undyne with some bones from behind. They are gleeful when they see her step falter as soon as his very special brand of magic makes first contact, and she gets hit by a small barrage. Or, you know. Who can you kill first? Fish face has my bets now, which is kind of surprising.
"SANS! I AM GLAD YOU SEEM TO BE HAVING FUN, BUT YOU SHOULD BE MORE CAREFUL! AND THE SCARY FACE IS UNNECESSARY."
Another dodge, weaving around spear and bone with ease. Mind you, your brother never really puts up a fight, he just stands there looking pathetic while I kill him normally. They throw two rows of bones towards them and wrap Undyne in blue magic. They laugh as they see her doing her best to jump around them with the magic dragging her down while Papyrus does his best to keep an eye on her and avoid his 'brother's' attacks. Also, I wanna know how -they jump his body back again, smoothly dodging a large row of spears. Papyrus's attack is not even worth mentioning, he looks like he is quickly starting to doubt this 'training' session -you move so easily. Maybe all that sleeping is good for something after all.
"UNDYNE'S LOOKING BAD. I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, THINK WE SHOULD STOP NOW, BROTHER. BEFORE… BEFORE YOU TIRE YOURSELF OUT! YES, THAT'S WHY... NYEH HEH HEH…" the laugh that Papyrus gives sounds uncertain and forced. Chara reached down into a sea of 'borrowed' magic, but as they tried to pull up tricks from the deeper and larger reserves they were suddenly hit with a resistance that felt like trying to drag a Mach truck with no tires across asphalt.

that's. enough.

Blue and yellow pain, and then they are jerked upwards like a marionette on strings.

Sans pushes against their consciousness with everything he has, and suddenly he's jerked back in control. He drops the magic immediately, and puts his hands in his pockets, bringing about his usual casual air -although he couldn't feel further from it- and shrugging. "you two just got dunked on, he he."
"SANS!"
"welp, that was fun. i'm gonna head back to my sentry station. i'm due a break from my shift in waterfall."
"YOU JUST- WAIT, WHY ARE YOU HERE WITH US IF YOU ARE NOT ALREADY TAKING YOUR BREAK, YOU LAZYBONES!"
"i was taking a break from taking a break. you need a hand undyne?"
"Nah, it's good. Man, it's been a while since we sparred. I forgot how you can throw those things around." He shrugs, as her eyes narrow at him suspiciously. He'd always held back a bit or subtly diverted last second so as not to got her. The less people that knew about his weird magic, the better in his opinion.
great. He takes a moment and actually tried to make inner vocal contact like he had when he was trapped. hope you've calmed yourself down now, because you are going to regret everything you just did as soon as I figure out how to get my hands on you.

No answer. He doesn't care. He turns and walks away, not knowing what to say back to Undyne.

Chara was even quiet about the shortcut he took back to the lounge, which he certainly wasn't going to mind. He'd had more than his fill of their 'fun' for today. Frisk looked up from where they were on the couch as he flipped onto it softly. They'd righted the table and put everything back on place, and it looked like they had looked through everything as they only had one piece of paper in front of where they were sat.
"that went worse than expected. we might not have as much time as we were hoping." Frisk looks at Sans questioningly. "they got under my skin a little bit."
"No. No pushing away with jokes about them." Sans turns to Frisk, surprised by the firm tone. "You are still looking rattled -and no that's not a pun- so something worse than 'worse than expected' happened. And when you're dealing with Chara… I know how bad that can get. You can't underestimate them." They finished quietly.
"don't worry about it right now" he's met by a piercing stare. "it's under control, and undyne and pap are probably walking home right now, as we speak. chara's not speaking to me right now, probably sulking. so, what did you find?"
"Mmm" they don't look or sound impressed but they know that they won't get anything out of him now. And they know that if Papyrus gets home, there will be no more said about it whatsoever. "It's a message you left yourself. I'd forgotten about it until I found it just now."
He connects the dots almost immediately. If they knew it was a message he'd left himself, that meant there was a message there to find. "you did that. why?"
"I panicked. Sans… I think you might have done something stupid."
"i'm a bonehead, nothing new about that tibia honest." He quickly breaks eye contact with Frisk at the stare he receives, corners of his grin dropping. If he wasn't already a skeleton, he would probably now be a ghost - that kid's looks could probably kill. They seem to wait for him to say something, both sitting in tense silence for a full minute and a half, and they give up waiting when it's clear he's not going to offer up anything else.
"Tell that to the lab in the basement and your spiel about time-space anomalies." He has the good grace to shrink into himself as he shrugs. "I've spent enough time with you across every version of the timeline in one way or another that I know that's crap. I don't know as much about you as you would think I would by now, you're still confusing - very confusing - but I know you aren't stupid, and don't treat me like I am, either." It sounds weird coming from one so small but he supposed that just because they're resetting timelines doesn't reset their age; and about now they are looking way older than their years. He doesn't want to contemplate how long they might have actually been jumping about in time by now, how long the 'kid' might have been playing about. Let alone how long it has been since the damned flower started this whole mess of tangled time.

"Sans…" they sigh. "I'll get to it. Between what I saw of you fighting Chara, the fact they were able to wrap around your soul in the first place, and what they saw when they 'checked' you - don't ask yet - I think… I think we need to go speak to Alphys sooner rather than later."
Alphys? Why would they need to- oh no. He shrugs, face settling for innocent bewilderment when his actual feelings settled for somewhere nearer 'oh shit'. "...oops?" Frisk just gives a frustrated sigh as their hand met forehead with a smack.
"I'm taking these back downstairs then I'll start towards Hotland, and get our initial meeting out of the way."
"do you want to take a shortcut?" Frisk shakes their head, but doesn't say anything else, getting all the papers back in order and taking them and the key. Sans sets the table back in it's right place without moving from the couch, eyed hooded as he thinks over the revelations from today.

Screw it, he's going to Grillby's for a drink already. Kid's gonna be busy for a while anyway.

Chara found themselves rousing to a sea of blackness. "I am starting to really hate new things." Their words echoed around the black space, but seemed to simultaneously disappear like they were speaking into a vacuum. Chara was not impressed. They righted themselves to a more upright position, before wondering what to do with themselves. They're here. Chara tasted blue and yellow on their tongue as the words spoke, their wrists and ankles tingled. They rubbed at the area, then noticed the wispy energy that wound round them, blue and yellow too. The flashes of colour dug under their skin and they could trace them faintly down the forearms to halfway between the wrist and the elbow. Chara didn't feel like looking down at the other source of tingling.
They keep themselves here. They hurt themselves. But they don't know it.
"Okay, I don't know what this is but I'm out. Nope." Chara tries to get some forward momentum, but it's like treacle. It didn't feel restraining, just slow. They should pay. Pain snaked through the colours, making Chara try to flinch away. They need to pay they must pay they need they must not the words melded together into a cacophony of whispered noise and Chara felt like they were being ripped from the inside out.

They hated blue and yellow.

Sans had passed out on the bar some time around the third glass of whatever ketchup concotion Grillby had made for him. Grillby had let him sleep, concern fizzling bright in him. It wouldn't be long before Papyrus found him anyway. It never was. The bell on the door jingled right on cue and oh- it was the human that had been with them. They didn't seem surprised to find him here, and they gave Grillby a gesture that he took as an apology. He shrugged as he started wiping out glasses. Wouldn't be the first or last time. He watched as the human hesitated before giving him a poke on the ulna that was closest to them, then sigh and pull out their phone and call someone, before sitting down to wait next to him. Grillby reaches under the bar and pulls out a soda bottle and places it in front of them, waving away the coin that they offered. He'd put it on Sans' tab if it really mattered, but he had a feeling that one soda would not. They smiled thanks at him, then just waited quietly. It took all of about 5 minutes for the bar door to be taken nearly off its hinges, slamming against the wall behind it loudly.

"NEVER FEAR, HUMAN, THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS HERE TO GET HIM!" Frisk felt an overwhelming relief when they heard the shout. Nobody even batted an eye, Frisk had the feeling this might be fairly regular. Papyrus turned the barstool 180 degrees and stopped to scoop Sans onto his back, and Frisk couldn't help but grin as Sans seemed to shift to drape over his shoulders so he wouldn't slip. That. That was pretty adorable. When they got out of this mess, Frisk was going to have fun with that. Brother in place, Papyrus stood up.
"SORRY GRILLBY. I WILL ASK HIM TO PAY HIS TAB WHEN HE WAKES." the eye sockets narrowed. "AGAIN."
Grillby crackled and hissed gently, and the duck monster spoke up "Grillby says not to worry him about it just yet." Another gentle crackle. "He's just tired."
"COME ON, LAZY BONES." Papyrus said softly, but Frisk could hear a note of worry. "I TOLD YOU YOU WERE GOING TO MAKE YOURSELF TIRED EARLIER. MAKE A NOTE, SMALL HUMAN: THIS IS WHAT YOU GET WHEN YOU DON'T LISTEN TO THE GREAT PAPYRUS. NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH" Frisk follows them out. Once they were in and Sans had been gently deposited on the couch, Frisk gestures to the kitchen. "THAT WOULD BE BEST, YES. LET HIM SLEEP."

Frisk nods and leads into the kitchen, then after a moment makes a decision, and asks "What did you mean in Grillby's?"
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN WHAT DID I MEAN?"
"That you told him he was going to make himself tired. I thought you were pl- training with Undyne?"
"WELL, YES... AND YES. WHEN MY BROTHER USES HIS MAGICAL ENERGY, IT MAKES HIM TIRED. THE MORE HE USES THE MORE HE SLEEPS. WHICH ON TOP OF BEING LAZY AND SLACKING OFF MEANS SOMETIMES HE WILL GET NO WORK DONE AT ALL. AND AS FOR UNDYNE AND I, WE TOOK OUR TRAINING OUT TO NEAR THE GOLF COURSE, BUT SANS SHOWED UP AT SOME POINT. ABOUT … HMMM … I DON'T KNOW HOW LONG AFTER, ACTUALLY." Frisk nodded, encouraging Papyrus' story. "HE CAME AND TRAINED WITH US. HE SEEMED TO BE HAVING FUN, I HAVE NOT SEEN HIM APPLY HIMSELF TO, WELL, ANYTHING LIKE THAT IN A LONG, LONG TIME!" Still nodding, encouraging more to the story. But Papyrus was suddenly looking very thoughtful over something. Frisk had a feeling that this was what Sans had been avoiding telling them.
"That's good then, right?"
"YES! WELL. IT SHOULD BE GOOD, BUT-" he sighed "IT IS PROBABLY JUST ME OVERTHINKING THINGS. BUT HE IS VERY GOOD AT NOT TELLING PEOPLE THINGS WHICH MEANS I HAVE TO GUESS A LOT."

Frisk waited for a few minutes, staying silent and patient. And good ol' reliable Papyrus launched into the story for them.

Sans dreams were just a void of nothing, for a change, except for some distant whispers. He tried to make out some of what was being said, but gave up quickly. Then he felt a rush from his soul, magic he hadn't called for. Before he could react, it felt like someone had shoved a burning poker through his eye socket and magic channeled painfully through it. Panic rose, was Chara trying to access their magic again? But pain overwhelmed panic quickly and he doubled, both hands over the left socket. As he was ripped from sleep, he put every ounce of strength he could muster into not crying out. The pain quickly faded, although he could still feel the familiar channeling sensation running through him. There was a decided lack of destruction around him so he decided to let it be for a minute. He slumped back into the couch- wait, when did he get on the couch? Blanket? His brain's scrambling to catch up to events, when the low conversation from the kitchen catches his attention. well, what Pap likes to think is a low conversation.
"-WAS MAKING HER TEA IN HER ROOM WHEN YOU CALLED ME TO COME FETCH HIM FROM GRILLBY'S BUT SHE WAS NOT BEING LIKE UNDYNE. SHE ONLY SAID ABOUT THREE WORDS AFTER SANS LEFT. I THINK I MIGHT HAVE TO ASK HIM TO APOLOGISE, WHICH CAN BE A PAIN SOMETIMES."
He hears a pause, in which he decides to roll over and face the wall, cover himself back over and listen in case they looked into the lounge.
"Is she ok?"
"APART FROM THAT, SHE SEEMED TO BE? I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS… AM SOMETIMES… HOW TO PUT THIS? NOT SO GREAT WITH KNOWING WHAT FEELINGS PEOPLE ARE FEELING. LIKE WHEN YOU WANTED TO DATE AND WAS OBVIOUSLY IN LOVE WITH ME, I DIDN'T REALISE UNTIL YOU ASKED ME TO DATE YOU. WHICH I UNDERSTAND YOUR FEELINGS BECAUSE I AM VERY GREAT AFTER ALL." he hears the kid chuckling. "SANS' ATTACKS DON'T DO MUCH DAMAGE, NOT ENOUGH TO HURT HER LIKE SHE WAS ACTING, SO I THINK HE MAY HAVE HURT HER FEELINGS."
"Maybe he had a bad day and got carried away?" He hears Frisk's voice offer, but he caught the tone which he knows would go well over Pap's sky high head. They were prying for information.
"THAT'S WHAT I DON'T UNDERSTAND. HE SOUNDED LIKE HE WAS HAPPY AND EXCITED TO JOIN IN WITH US, SO I DON'T THINK SO. BUT THE MORE I THINK ABOUT IT, IT DIDN'T SEEM TO BE LIKE WHEN HE USED TO BE HAPPY, IF THAT MAKES SENSE."
Sans gets a sinking feeling in his chest. Uh oh, sounds like you're busted~
and i thought i had got rid of you.
I would be so lucky.
He quietly moves himself off of the couch, making up his mind to go speak to Undyne before Papyrus can. "I WILL TRY TO TALK WITH HIM ONCE HE IS AWAKE."

Sans makes sure he shuts the front door behind him so softly that it barely even clicks. He heads over to the inn, head down.
i don't know what you thought you were playing at, but you've left a hell of a mess.
Seeing if I could light a fire under your bony ass. I would like to get back to Frisk some time this side of eternity.
out of the kindness of your heart, i'm sure.
Hell no. I want out and you're taking too long and as I told you earlier - you always seem to need something to motivate you. And besides, we haven't got a heart between us.
…was that a joke? i'm so proud of you. He fires back smugly as the door chime rings gently as he pushes the inn door open.
I will break your mind and murder everyone you love, then use their dust to clog up every cavity in your body.
He decides not to push it any further after the eventful day that he'd just had, beyond mentally scoffing.

"Sans! Are you here to see Undyne?" The innkeeper greeted him as she came down the stairs.
"yeah, actually. 'sup?"
"Nothing. Like, literally. No windows are broken, there's no shouting…. I'm worried."
"pap said that she seemed a bit down. came to see if I couldn't lift her sprats a bit."
"You be nice!' the innkeeper scolded him good-naturedly with a laugh.
"i don't know what you cod be on about." he shoots back with a grin. The innkeep shakes her head, still grinning.
Kill me now.
"Go on up, I'll stay down here and try to keep the area clear for a bit shall I?"
"appreciated. thanks. and i'll pay for any damage to the plaice if she starts throwing spears at me." Sans shoots her a thumbs up as he heads up the stairs. i should be so lucky. He fires Chara's own words back at them.

-knock knock-
Silence from inside. "i'm taking that as a sign to enter." Still nothing. He opens the door and steps in.
And this is where we get dusted because you don't know how to respect boundaries.
He ignores Chara completely, closes the door quietly and clicks the lock, then goes and sits by Undyne. She's sat on the bed with her hair down and staring at her knees. Pap's right, very un-Undyne.

And sits…

And this is why everyone dies. Speak for god's sake, we're getting old here.
shut up. "...have you seen a healer or should someone get alphys?"
"No."
"o...kaaaay…" he's so the wrong person to be doing this. "wanna yell at me until you're blue in the gills?"
She sighs, still not having looked at him. Which was okay because he knows he probably looks a mess considering in the awkward silence he became acutely aware that the left pupil was still alight with the magic channel he still wasn't sure how to stop (or why it was doing it in the first place). "No. Well, yeah. But not right now."

He also sighs. "you won't feel better until you get your hp healed up, you know." She goes to speak up, but he interrupts before she can start. "i mean the feeling won't go away. the crawling. it's why i've never hit you with an attack before. you know, when you've dragged me into one of yours and pap's sessions."
"What did you do to me, Sans? No, wait, why did you do it?"
"i can only answer one of those questions, and it's not going to be the answer you want most. but... papyrus can't find out about what my magic does."
"...Why don't you tell him things, Sans?"
"because…" he pauses, thinking about how honest he wants to be on this. "because he's so… good. he's amazing. he's..." Everything you're not? But Chara didn't know how on the money they actually were with the snide remarks and he sure as hell wasn't going to tell them so he carries on ignoring the remark. "he's the great papyrus, ya know?" As he smiles fondly, he feels the last of the errant channeling calm and his pupils fading in to how they should be. "probably too great. i just want him to stay like that."
Despite herself, Undyne has to grin. "You almost sound like you really love the little dweeb." He digs a gentle and playful elbow into her side. "And you aren't gonna spill unless I agree, are ya?"
"nope."
"Ugh, fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine."

He takes a moment to gather his thoughts. "i don't know why it does it, to be honest. i put enough nights in at enough libraries that if there was an answer for that, i would have it by now. what I do know is the effect it has."
"I can tell you that right now, nerd. It makes you feel fuckin' awful! It's-"
" 'like every bad thing you have ever done is digging claws in your back and trying to drag you under water' is what you're about to say, right? or something like it." Undyne huffs next to him. "or, as i like to use the short version… karma's biting you in the ass." He flashes a grin at her and she laughs a loud, short laugh. That's more like it. It doesn't escape his notice that a certain someone has had nothing smarmy or, well, anything at all since he's been talking. That's odd, he was pretty sure he was going to have to be talking to Undyne over the noise of venom in his head the whole way through the explanation. But on the other hand, he's also aware that Chara has now got very vital information on how his magic works, which is not great. Which means this is where honesty has to stop. Not that he had much more information than that anyway. "and if it's any consolation, i actually am sorry i can't tell you why today happened."
"You just get weirder and weirder." She teases him, sounding a little more perky than she did.
"well, i gotta do something to keep life interesting." He shrugs at her, false innocence on his face. The expression starts her laughing loudly again. Sensing that his job here is done, he stands and starts to leave. As he stops to flip the lock on the door, Undyne looks up at him.
"If you make it that interesting again, punk, I'm gonna ground you into paste."
"only if you give the pieces to asgore. i've heard it's a great fertilizer."
"What?"
"bone meal." He ducks out of the way of the thrown pillow, chuckling as it hits the wall with a soft thud.
"Get out of here I start throwing spears."
"they'll match my piercing wit" and he quickly leaves the room, her laughter following behind her. He gives the innkeeper another thumbs up as he leaves before pulling on his mitts and trudging out in the snow. He walks around the back of the inn, opening a shortcut to his side of the purple door.

Bleugh, I told you to warn me before doing that.
i'm taking a shortcut.
Ha ha. They reply snippily, before lapsing back into quiet.