Hey Everyone!
Interference in bold, puns and memories in italics, magic is underlined.
-text- indicates either texts, or mental "talking".
All Undertale stuff owned by Toby Fox, else me or a reference.
You feel an urge...an urge you cannot deny...it consumes you. You surrender to the dark desire, and feel the guilt of random Nice Cream crawling up your back.
Sans
He stepped into his shortcut on his way to a briefing at the Guard's offices the morning after movie night, the twist for once hardly noticeable. Huh. That was a first- oh. He looked around, suddenly wary. He was standing on a grassy hillside he'd never seen before, the sound of waves crashing against cliffs not far off filtering into his tense mind. Crap. What the hell-
"Hello there, skeleton," He felt his spine stiffen. Oh, great, "Come, sit with me, I only bite on Tuesdays."
He spun, magic flaring. He did not appreciate the joke. The figure before him wore an amused expression, which annoyed him immensely. She could at least pretend to be mildly startled.
Blood red silk spilled over bone white stone, snow white petals drifted across void black hair, ink black silk lay flat against the thin rose red waist. He felt the bone of his socket raise, "ain't that the outfit of the perfect villain. you always pander to the crowds like this?"
She tilted back her head and laughed, lids closing over eyes like the depths of space, "Ah, skeleton, you wound me greatly. After all, I am far more bound by their expectations than you are. Do you not think I would appear otherwise if I could?"
He ignored her inviting pat, although he could not abandon the image of thin fingers faintly glowing against the sucking white of the marble. They seemed...almost childlike, small hands with rounded fingers...but he could see the blood in the cracks of her skin, caked under the ragged fingernails, blood and dirt and shimmering dust. A contradiction, innocent hands stained with the lives of others - he shoved away the memory of red and gold. Not giving in.
"Oh well. I have a bargain for you, skeleton, if you would be willing to accept," His eye sockets blackened, dragging up a shortcut through what felt like lightyears of the densest space. He wasn't in the mood for games, "YOU WILL HEAR ME OUT," He resisted the urge to kneel, damn near furious with the creature for treating him this way, like a puppet, like a game. He felt the force of that command...lessen?
A sigh drifted across the grassy slope, "You are not my brother…" her expression was that of someone who knew they had fucked up, knew they had taken out their anger on an innocent target, but could not apologize. He resisted the urge to forgive her. She would damn well have to admit it, and...he felt the stirrings of a magic unlike any he had ever encountered.
Above her outstretched hand, reality rippled, stars and shadows mixing into a shape he dreaded and loved...a SAVE POINT carved out of something he could not describe, "A bargain, yours to accept or deny. The payment adjusted for the burden you bear," he felt...confused. That sounded like an apology of sorts, or at least, a recognition of something owed. Somehow, that seemed a greater concession from this creature than any apology. Her face...reminded him of Frisk's from twelve years ago, a mask of indifference hiding something more.
"Time bends and sways, but certain moments bind it forever. None can move them, try as they might, for a thousand roots unite into the single trunk which bears a thousand branches. The trees, however, are not always healthy - some branches die before ever reaching another nexus. You know this, and so do I," Not inaccurate, but a trifle flowery for his taste.
"You and the child exist between two nexi, moments in time which cannot be undone. I desire as much as you that the branch you stand on not die out, and so I have a bargain. The child cannot face the schoolyard again, cannot face her peers alone. The price you pay is the change of your time necessary for you to accompany her in her day - to others the phrase would be 'a temporary setback'? the price you pay is bearing once more the external age you wore when your elder brother last stood beside you."
That...he wasn't sure how to react to that. So much would be changed...how would his brother handle it? How would Frisk? He tried to calculate just how old that would make him in human terms...huh. He'd be a little older than Silver. Not much taller, though, and he hadn't filled out for...well, a while. Three or four SOULs at least. He'd been a pretty awkward kid, really, not that the eye thing...oh. He looked up and she nodded. Well, that would be great. He'd have to relearn everything about how he functioned with one eye, with that mismatched body, with those half-healed wounds. He did not think she could convince him to deal with that, but...
The way she'd phrased it...that 'price you pay is' stuff...that was an old formula, something he'd only heard once, when he'd accept his role as the Judge. He looked up at her, waiting for the second half. She met his gaze and chuckled, "The payment I pay is removing the knowledge of your power from the Captain and the Scientist, and all actions resultant thereof. The payment I pay is answering your calls, the bargain of each determined then. The payment I pay is suppressing the memory of the abandonment years after the fall into the CORE to the choosing of the Judge in the mind the Healer."
Okay, that first thing was..pretty nice. He'd gotten damn sick of Undyne and Alphys prodding him every five minutes, running tests and demanding answers. Second thing?...okay, yeah. Shouting into the Void was about as helpful as asking her questions had been up till now, and...something about that phrase made him hesitate. It didn't feel like she just meant answering his questions, and that second phrase...yeah, he'd think about that. The third thing, now - who was the Healer?
He remembered an old rhyme from way back in the day, something he hadn't heard since...since his father died. Interesting, he didn't think he had all that many memories of his parents...How did it go again? Oh yeah. It was a list of the Roles, the honorary and not-so-honorary titles of the seven most powerful Monsters in the Underground and their duties. It didn't even keep it's rhyme, did it.
The King stands beside his Throne
Patient enough to Wait
Patient enough to Listen
Patient enough to Learn
The Queen sits in flickering Firelight
Kind enough to Read
Kind enough to Feed
Kind enough to Bleed
The Heir wanders through echoing Flowers
Persevering enough to Refuse
Persevering enough to Remain
Persevering enough to Rejoice
The Captain fights in shining Armour
Determined enough to Fight
Determined enough to Live
Determined enough to Fail
The Scientist works in growing Darkness
Just enough to Tinker
Just enough to Interfere
Just enough to Change
The Judge watches in haunting Sunlight
Honest enough to Observe
Honest enough to Protect
Honest enough to Remember
The Healer waits through every Day
Brave enough to Believe
Brave enough to Guide
Brave enough to Dream
Well, that was enlightening. He knew most of the roles were optional, now that they'd reached the Surface. Hell, even in the Underground, they'd gone without an Heir for...well, a while. He wasn't going to think about how creepy that Flower line was, not going to think about Bleed, not going to think about Fail. Nope, not happening.
Well, Asgore was the King, Toriel the Queen. Asriel probably got to be the Heir again, not like there were any other contenders. Gerson was the Captain and the...previous Royal Scientist was...well, he was, back when this thing was written; but she was talking about current days, wasn't she? So, Undyne and Alphys. He honestly had no clue who the Judge before him had been. Asgore had mentioned something about an enforced retirement...yeah, didn't matter. That left...oh. Yeah, guess his brother did fit the description of the Healer a little too well. Yeah.
So, his brother wouldn't remember THOSE years...he'd give a lot for that to be true. Papyrus had been so lonely, so starved, so cold...he'd give a lot if his brother didn't have to remember. Far more than she was asking of him...far more than the insult.
He growled. Great. He was actually thinking of accepting a bargain with a bloody Trickster who'd sauntered into his mind and manipulated his brother. He...he…his head snapped up. There was supposed to be another part, wasn't there.
She turned away from him, facing out over the bluffs to the ocean sea. Her expression was distant and cold and...familiar. The expression of someone who stood alone, and knew they would stand alone forever, "The consequences. The consequence of accepting is a binding of fates. Two SOULs will be bound to change and die to the beat of each other. The consequence of refusing is the breaking of lives. A roll of death that grows and grows until the tree withers and falls into the Void."
He growled again. He doubted he'd get a better explanation than that, prod though he might. He'd just have to deal with the consequences...heh. That almost qualified as a pun. He let his fury fill his eye sockets, the promise of vengeance for forcing this decision upon him. Her expression didn't waver. Somehow, that just made him sad.
"i accept."