"You came here by singing or something, right?"
He looks self-conscious, then grins. "you heard me then."
"Everything's sort of vague when I'm in this state...but now that I concentrate I can remember you humming. You have a nice voice."
"well...i don't do it that often," he says softly.
You start to get excited by the implications. "But the fact that you could...you made a mental link with a song. I've only seen Eldorants do that."
"huh?"
"Let me explain," you say, drawing a stick figure with a soul on the sandy beach. You draw a circle around them representing their world, and then below the circle, a line representing the base rules.
"Every soul has its own properties based on which world it comes from, or you might say, which multiverse. But what they all have in common is an ability to access the base rules that exist across all worlds. Those are the rules that let us travel across the barriers between worlds, and make shields. We call those who are particularly good at accessing the part of the soul that connects to the base rules, Eldorants."
"hmm. i thought that was just your name for the people you come from, on your ship."
"Well, technically it's also their name for themselves. I'm a human, but I've been adopted by them. They come from a different world than mine. My world is the one that's been causing all the trouble, not theirs, and they're not exactly human either, even they look like they are. They just call others who can use their abilities by their name."
He still looks uncertain.
"Anyway. What I'm trying to say is, you might be able to use Eldorant abilities, if you could get here. Eldorants are sometimes telepathic when two or more of us are singing and trying to make a mental connection."
Now Sans looks interested. "so maybe i can tunnel us out of here, like the way you got us here?"
"Right. It's not easy to learn, but if you have the soul for it, I'll bet you can do it. The main requirements of Eldorant abilities are imagination and compassion. I'm pretty sure you have both of those."
Sans looks sad and stands up slowly, wearily, and shuffles a short distance away from you, making muffled footprints across the sand.
He stares out at the blue ocean with a despairing expression.
"i don't know. maybe i did once. now sometimes i wonder if i even have a soul. i mean, i can see it, but maybe it's just a cracked shell by now, with nothing inside of it." He sounds hopeless, as if he doesn't believe he can help anyone.
"imagination. compassion. now there's two words that don't describe me anymore," he says, his voice shaking bitterly with self-hatred.
"Sans-" you start, trying to protest against his onslaught on himself. But you're stopped by a sudden shift in the atmosphere.
The air suddenly grows bitingly cold, as though its temperature dropped to minus fifty. You stand up quickly to get away from the cold ground. You feel your extremities starting to freeze.
Suddenly Sans grabs you, wrapping the both of you inside his jacket, and you see him activate his magic. He appears to be trying to use it to drive back the cold. It's only partially working, but you definitely feel as though he's creating some heat. You can feel it where you're brushing against his shirt and ribs.
"What-" you try to get out something - "what is this!?"
"guess we get to see one of my memories now," he says, his voice raw. You turn to face him and you see black swirling energy circling around his skull, colliding with his blue magic that he's trying to use to ward it off. He's losing, though.
You grab him by his jacket and shout against the roaring wind and magic, "SANS!"
It seems to break the trance the black energy was starting to bind him under, and he pushes back against it more powerfully with his magic, finally driving it away.
Exhausted, he bends over and takes a moment to recover, and you let him lean against you.
"thanks," he says quietly. "if we're going there, i want to keep my mind, at least. i don't want to be the me of back then."
You're puzzled for a moment, but then you understand.
"Like how I became a child in my memory," you say in agreement, and he nods.
"guess we're here," he tells you, pointing at the nearby sign.
You follow his gaze and realize it says SNOWDIN, and you're both in his memories of the past now. It feels very strange to be here in person, even if it is a memory.
You're at the western entrance, but the town feels and looks far colder and more desolate than you thought it would. Is that a reflection of his emotions, or was this how it really looked?
"You know, we don't have to go in," you say, your throat a little thick. "Just because we have a mental connection right now, it doesn't mean you have to show me anything. It's still your mind, and you didn't let your memories dominate you. So you choose what's here, and what you want to show."
He's very still for a long time, facing the town with you next to him. With half his skull hidden behind his jacket hood, and his hands buried in his pockets, it's very hard to decipher his expression.
"you're a player, right?" he says, finally.
It sounds like a rhetorical question, so you don't answer.
"and you killed a monster?"
He remembered what you said before.
"Yes," you admit, ashamed but honest. "I reset it, but I killed once. When I played for the first time."
"then i want you to see this."
"Seriously, I don't have to-"
He turns and glares at you, and you almost catch a flash of light blue in one eye.
The intensity in his look is scaring you right now, but the obvious despair in his face is making you sad too.
"Ok, ok," you say quickly, putting up your hands and making appeasing gestures. "I'll just follow you."
He looks mollified, and he leads the way as you trudge along behind him down the main path through Snowdin. The blizzard here is biting at your skin, and you put your head down as you eventually just focus on following his footsteps.
You sense his emotions are getting more turbulent. You can feel it in the way the air moves around him and you can slightly see his own magic pushing it. Maybe he's struggling to keep this area under his conscious control, and to not give in completely to the memories.
Suddenly he stops, and shudders, and you can see him intentionally calming down.
He turns halfway towards you and clutches his hood with one hand as if he'd almost like to hide his entire skull from you, but is resisting the urge to do so.
" 'm sorry," he says quietly, as if he's mad at himself. "i'm not a very good judge anymore. you're not responsible for all of this. i keep wanting to blame you for everything because you're actually here in person, instead of using frisk to do all your dirty work for you. but you're just one player, and you're one of the nicer ones. so...you don't have to, but if it's alrite... i want you to see this...as long as we're in this place. i want at least one of you to understand what this has been like for us."
He says the last part gently, obviously trying to make it clear you don't have to see it if you don't want to.
"I d-d-don't mind," you say, teeth chattering. His long speech and his kinder tone has made you feel better about the situation, but you're still freezing cold. But you're not going to disappoint him, now that you know that this means a lot to him.
Consternation passes through his expression as he glances you over. "you doing ok? just remembered you don't have a jacket, or shoes. i didn't mean to give you the cold shoulder, but you look like you're about to get frostbite, and i know that's really bad for a human."
You shrug neutrally, trying to stay tough.
"how's that possible anyway? this is just a memory."
"Y-your memory," you say. "Y-you set the rules. If you w-want me to be warm, I w-will be."
He looks curious, then intrigued. You decide you like that expression on him. It's a lot less dark.
You see him focusing on you and the air immediately around you, and suddenly it feels as warm as a summer's day. Yet the area still looks like a wintry day with cloudy skies and a blizzard whipping through town, its wind whistling in a lonely way around the buildings.
"Thank you!" you sigh with relief.
Now less freaked out, you catch up to Sans and walk next to him as the two of you continue forward.
