The destination Toriel had in mind for their discussion was a large, aged weeping willow tree that grew beside their home. It was a lovely old tree, with long leafy tendrils that formed a sort of dome that shielded those who chose to sit beneath it from the outside world. Toriel had spent many an afternoon reading in its pleasant shade. There was also a small creek that the tree overlooked that made the area a great spot for hunting all manner of bugs. Today though, she was hoping the peaceful atmosphere and the somewhat secluded nature of the willow dome would help Sans feel relaxed throughout the difficult process they were about to face.
As they approached the tree, Sans stayed silent while still gripping her paw lightly. She had practically felt his nervousness worsening ever since they left the house, as the reality of what he had agreed to do began to sink in. She gave his hand a reassuring squeeze, and shot him a gentle smile as she pushed aside the willow's leafy tendrils so they could enter the space beyond. He seemed reluctant to meet her eyes but offered a soft "…thanks." Before stepping inside.
There was a satisfying drop in temperature as they entered the dome. The shafts of light that made it through the layers of leaves above cast dappled shadows on the two as they made their way over to the tree's large trunk. Toriel was first to sit down, picking a spot where the roots formed a sort of natural sitting area. Sans walked to her side but remained standing a while longer, finally releasing her paw. His expression was unreadable and eye sockets nearly totally dark. It was clear he was terribly tense, about as far from his usual laid back self as she had ever seen him.
She began to worry that the prospect of this was starting to overwhelm him. Before she could open her mouth to speak though, he finally leaned back against the tree and slid to the ground with a soft thump. His now free hands returned to their usual place in his pockets as he looked around the dome of leaves around them.
"This tree is lovely, is it not?" Toriel said, shifting slightly to a more comfortable position and turning to face him a bit more. "I find that it is where I tend to go when I need a little peace. I could not think of a better place for us to talk than here." Her lips curled into a warm smile as she looked up into the waving sea of leaves and branches. "Sometimes, I swear this old willow has a soul that can communicate with ours. When I come here and sit beneath its branches, I often feel as though I am greeting a longtime friend. I guess It is good that us old souls are naturally drawn to each other, or else this willow would be left... solitree."
She returned her gaze back to Sans as she delivered the pun, grinning at him playfully. The joke was meant to help ease his nerves, and while it didn't seem to do much for that, he did meet her eyes again. His stiff smile twitched a bit, but he didn't react to the joke beyond that. The tension that gripped him clearly hadn't lessened, but he no longer looked a moment from shortcutting away at least.
"h-heh… g-good one…" He managed weakly, finally breaking the silence.
Toriel didn't miss the faint tremble to his voice. She looked at him sympathetically, all the while trying to think of a way to help him better relax. This process would do him little good if he was so on edge. After a moment, an idea popped into her head.
"My friend, perhaps it would help if you brought out GB? He always seems to be good at cheering you up. Plus, I have not seen him in a while." She suggested.
Sans blinked at her suggestion then furrowed his brow ridges in consideration. After a beat, he raised his left hand out of his pocket and his left eyelight flashed bright blue and yellow in turn. There was a strange distortion in the space above their heads for a moment before a Gaster Blaster burst into existence. It was a smaller one this time, about double the size of a certain small, white dog. The floating skull shook itself into awareness then turned to look down at them. Its eyelights gleamed happily as it recognized them both and rushed down to greet them.
Toriel giggled lightly as the blaster affectionately nuzzled her with its muzzle. It seemed to vibrate slightly as something like a reverberating purr escaped it.
"Hello GB, wonderful to see you again." She greeted him warmly, patting the crown of his head.
GB let out a pleased grumbling sound in reply before darting over to Sans. The blaster trilled with glee as he cuddled up against him, playfully nudging his wielder's side and trying to wriggle into his arms. Sans was sluggish to reciprocate any of the affection though and GB took notice. He floated back a bit and looked at Sans in confusion, a faint indication of a frown on his face.
"hey gb, s-sorry bud, but i didn't bring you out to p-play this time." The skeleton said, blinking as his eyelight slowly returned to normal. It seemed that his uneasy state made quelling his magic back down a more difficult task.
GB warbled in a questioning tone and tilted his head, which for him meant tilting his entire body. Toriel caught his attention and waved him over, scooping the blaster up in her paws so that he faced her.
"Listen GB." She said softly, with a bit of a playfully secretive tone. "Sans and I are going to talk about some important things, but some of it might upset him. I would very much appreciate it if you would sit with him and keep him company while we do. I am sure it would be very helpful. Could you do that for me?"
GB's eyelights lit up bright with understanding and he nodded enthusiastically. Toriel smiled and gave him another pat. "Thank you, friend." She said, tone warm with gratitude.
Sans shot Toriel a somewhat dry look, but it faded back into dull anxiety rather quickly. She gave him a small apologetic smile as she released GB and the blaster hurried back over to Sans. He moved slower this time upon reaching the skeleton, gently nudging Sans' arm up so he could wriggle underneath it. Sans allowed this, taking his hands out of his pockets and laying them on top of the blaster as he settled into his lap.
GB pressed close to Sans' middle, closed his eye sockets and began purring again, louder this time and with more of a noticeable vibration. Toriel watched as Sans absently began running a hand up and down the length of the blaster's muzzle. The effect was small but, she could see some of the tension in his body leave him.
She gave him a little more time to relax before she forced herself to speak up again. Hard as this was, she couldn't back out now. Sans needed this, they both needed this.
"So, my friend…" She began gently, attempting to meet his gaze again. "Would it be easier if I started first? I am more than happy t-"
"no…" he interrupted her suddenly, pausing in his stroking motions.
Toriel blinked in surprise, but folded her hands in her lap and gave him her full attention.
Sans drew in deep, shuddering breath. "no… i n-need to go first. if i don't start talking soon i'm going to lose the nerve to do this…. just-" He dragged a hand down his face, shutting his eye sockets briefly. "g-give me a sec, i… i need to figure out where to start."
Toriel nodded, eyes warm with understanding. "Take your time, there is no rush." She assured him. She was content as she waited patiently for him to speak again. For a little while, the only sound was the rustling of the leaves around them, the distant gurgle of the creek, GB's deep purr and the soft scritch of bone on bone. Finally, his eye sockets re-opened and he met her eyes with a weary but resolved look.
"i guess… the only place to start is the beginning, right? the very beginning." He said, eyelights becoming hazy as he turned to stare into the middle distance. Toriel could practically see the thoughts spinning through his skull, all fighting to be acknowledged into words.
"i wasn't… made the way monsters usually make kids." He began. "me and my bro were created artificially… in a lab. well uh- shoot I guess before i explain that i need to explain about our…" his jaw set in what seemed to be a rare display of anger. "our… father." He spoke the word with such bitter sarcasm that it made a feeling of dread settle in Toriel's soul.
"tori, answer this for me. its relevant, i promise." He said, his gaze unmoving from the horizon. "before doctor alphys, do you remember who the previous royal scientist was?"
Toriel blinked in surprise at the sudden question and began tapping a claw against her chin as she thought about it. There definitely had been a royal scientist before Alphys, the previous one had served them since their move into New Home. They were the one serving when she still ruled alongside Asgore, the one who created the Core. But when she tried to picture their face in her mind… there was nothing. When she tried to remember their name, her thoughts raced to a certain part of her consciousness, as though by instinct knowing that it should be there… but still, there was nothing. The longer she tried to remember, the less she found she could focus and a strange lightheadedness overtook her. She rubbed her forehead gingerly as she looked back at Sans.
"I am sorry Sans, I am afraid that for some reason, I simply cannot recall who they were. Perhaps this old soul of mine is finally showing its age." She replied, somewhat sheepishly.
Sans shook his head, tapping his phalanges on one of GB's horns. "nah, it's not you, old lady. that's just it, no one can remember him. he fell into his own creation, the core, and that shattered him across time and space. only I seemed to keep my memories of him… there's a reason for that but i'll get to it later."
Toriel tried not to gape at him, scarcely able to understand how he could reveal such shocking information with such a casual tone. She knew that it was likely a way to cope with the situation, but the way he spoke made it seem like he had said all of this before, to the point that the repetition was boring him.
"Wait, wait just let me make sure I am understanding." Toriel interjected quickly, waving a paw. "You are saying that the previous royal scientist... died? Not only that, was erased from everyone's memory? How…? Certainly, something like that is not possible…"
Sans flinched ever so slightly, a despairing look crossing his features. "heh… I warned you that you weren't going to believe me tori." He said softly, subconsciously tightening his grip on GB. If the blaster noticed or was bothered, he didn't show it, still purring all the while.
Toriel shook her head firmly, moving forward to lay a paw on Sans' shoulder. "No, Sans I do believe you, I apologize If I made it seem otherwise. It is just hard for me to wrap my head around is all. Just, slow down a little okay?" She requested with what she hoped was a comforting smile.
She felt Sans relax a bit at that, and his expression turned to one of minor embarrassment. "sorry t, you did promise after all… i shouldn't be so quick to doubt you." He apologized quietly.
"It is fine my friend, I understand. Do not worry about it." She assured him, letting her paw linger a little longer before pulling it away and sitting back in her previous spot. "What you said it… does explain why I have never heard them mentioned and why I cannot seem to recall anything about them… I never even considered what happened to them… It is so unusual that none of this ever occurred to me… Could you explain it to me a little more? … how did the royal scientist get… shattered, as you said?"
Sans resumed petting GB as he seemed to ponder his answer. "well, the doc discovered the best way to convert the geotherm- …er… the heat, from ebott's lava chambers to magical electricity was to use a special, massive, magical energy field that laid just above the lava in the core's inner structure." He began to explain, lifting one hand to gesture along with his words. Toriel was surprised to see there was small spark of energy in his eyelights as he talked about this, as though he were discussing his passions rather than a tragic incident.
"this field regulated the amount of heat allowed into the converters at a time, as well as helped to control the ozone emissions." He continued. "it was a necessity… but it had some serious drawbacks. The magic used was dangerous stuff, it needed constant cooling like the core itself and it became unstable if it came in contact with any living monster's magic. The day that it happened… there had been an "accident"." He said that word with a particularly dark tone, eye sockets narrowing slightly.
"the core was overheating and the magic field was destabilizing faster than they could kill the power. there was a massive explosion in the main sector where the control room was. All of the doc's team were… "killed" in an instant, along with one bystander. The doc had managed to get out to one of the walkways before it happened. But well, he ended up falling into the unstable field from the next tremor and was dusted just like the rest of them." At that, Sans spread his phalanges and made a half-hearted explosion sound effect. Toriel could only stare, stunned at what she was hearing and the way he was choosing to talk about it.
"the thing was, the field at this point had reached a critical temperature and was basically out of control. When it made contact with the doc and the others' souls, it didn't just dust them. It tore them apart, creating some anomalous magical reaction so great that it split their souls into pieces and sent them scattering across space and time. When this happened, it's like they were just erased from this world, all memories of them just… gone, like none of them had never even existed, except for in my memories…"
His eye sockets darkened a bit at that and he drew in a steadying breath before looking at Toriel for her reaction to all he'd just said. His expression was one of returning unease, showing that some part of him still believed she would denounce his claims as mad ravings. Toriel made an effort not to let herself look too bewildered as she searched for what to say in response.
"Sans I… That… That is horrible… I cannot believe I never heard about any of this… I know you told me why I could not have but… Those poor monsters…" She placed a paw on her chest, over her soul, as a particular detail stuck out in her mind.
"My friend… this doctor, the old royal scientist… you said he was your… father?" She looked at him with sympathy in her eyes and her next words escaped her before she had time to think about them. "Oh Sans, I am so sorry…"
Sans froze up at that, eye lights going out completely and his grin becoming stiff. Then, an abrupt peal of somewhat manic laughter escaped him and he covered his face with a hand. There was still no humor behind his laughter, sounding more stressed than anything. Toriel watched him in confusion, and concern began welling up in her soul.
"What… what is so funny?" She asked nervously, dropping her paws back into her lap. "Did I say something wrong?"
It took Sans a few moments to compose himself again, keeping his head down all the while. He wearily let his hand slide down his skull and fall back on top of GB, letting Toriel see his face again. She could see there was indeed pain in his eye lights as they weakly flared back to life, but it was not grief, it was something… darker.
"nah, it's not you tori. i should have… clarified my relationship my old gaster before diving into all the stuff about his death." He replied, giving GB a reassuring pat as the blaster nuzzled him with concern. He seemed to notice Toriel's renewed confusion at the name and gave her another apologetic look.
"geez look at me, i hadn't even told you the doc's name yet… damn, i've been all over the place with this huh?" He said, shaking his head with a sigh. "sorry tori, let me uh… start over. i was telling you how me and pap were "made" right?"
Toriel nodded but raised a paw to stop him from speaking for a moment. She felt a stab of guilt about what she just said possibly upsetting her friend. Everything he had shared so far had been so much to consider and her mind was racing with questions, but he was still her priority in this situation. She needed to approach this better.
"Do not worry about it, my friend." She said, lowering her paws back to her lap. "You talk about this the way that makes it easiest for you. It is my job to listen and understand. I will try not to make any more heedless comments from now on." Now it was her turn to looked apologetic.
Sans didn't reply but gave a small nod, looking down at GB as his eyelights became unfocused with thought once more. His silence prompted Toriel to continue.
"And yes Sans, you did start off by telling me that you and Papyrus were created… artificially? I believe that is how you put it."
The mere idea of that made her feel vaguely ill. From the way he had said it, she was sure he didn't mean the brothers were made through some sort of magical artificial insemination process. She could feel in her gut that this was something much worse. Most likely yet another thing she was not aware was even possible.
Sans nodded again, and Toriel noticed his hands were trembling slightly once more, though he was making an effort to hide this by petting GB. Despite his nerves, his voice was steadier than before when he spoke again.
"yah… when I say that gaster, the doctor, was our father… i mean that he made us. he was a skeleton too, in case that wasn't clear. from what I can remember from him talking about it, he cut holes in each of his hands and took the magical matter from them to create the basic material for our souls. but that alone wouldn't have worked, maybe if he was just trying to do something like clone himself or make normal kids, but not for what he had in mind."
Sans' tone held that same dark sarcasm from before, and his eyelights wavered with something like anger. As rare as it was for Sans to express sadness, seeing him express anger was even more unusual. In fact, Toriel couldn't think of another time it had happened other than today. She forced down her dread and kept listening, fully engrossed at this point.
"we were made to be… weapons, tori." He said, his strained smile withering a bit. "he wanted to create monsters powerful enough to oppose humanity and possibly even strong enough to break the barrier… so when he made us… he injected our souls with the essence of different traits that he extracted from-" he stopped short, looking at Toriel with a sudden expression of concern.
Toriel blinked in response, tilting her head a bit. She was still trying to digest the horrid idea of Sans and Papyrus, her dear, kindhearted friends being intended as weapons. She didn't understand what had suddenly distressed him concerning her. But then it clicked, and she felt an ice-cold chill run down her spine as her soul clenched up inside her. No…
She covered her mouth with her paws, feeling faint as she finished his sentence for him. "The human souls…" She croaked. "He… you were… made with their…" She couldn't finish, too caught up in sudden memories and emotions.
Sans nodded weakly and then hesitantly scooted closer to lay a hand on her arm. "i'm sorry tori… i didn't think even about…" he paused and Toriel could hear GB whine softly. Sans tried to make his voice sound reassuring. "from what I could tell… I don't think it hurt them. The doc would have not wanted to risk damaging them at all… i know that doesn't really help but…" He trailed off, clearly not sure what to say.
Toriel swallowed, trying to compose herself. She forced herself out of her spiral of thoughts as the pain slowly burned away into anger, as it so often did with her. She set her jaw and let out a guttural huff, blowing out thin plumes of smoke from her nostrils. "How dare he…." She growled, fangs flashing.
Her rage was not directed so much at Gaster at the moment, a monster she had only just heard of, but at the monster that she knew was truly responsible for all of this in the end. Asgore… Even now, after all the efforts she had taken to come to terms with his actions and move on, hearing the details of what he'd done with the human children she'd loved made her see red.
Sans flinched a bit but did not pull away from her. In fact, he tightened his grip on her arm in what was likely meant as a comforting gesture. It was enough to bring her back to reality at least. She took a deep breath to quell down the hot fire magic that had risen up in her throat. She then moved to cover his hand with hers, squeezing it back gratefully. He turned it over to properly wrap his phalanges around her paw, gently stroking it with his thumb much the same way she had done for him earlier. The action soothed her turbulent soul just a bit. Once she trusted her voice again, she met his gaze and couldn't stop herself from asking another question.
"Which… Which souls did he take the traits from? For you and your brother… what colors were they, do you know?" She asked, glad she was able to keep her voice from trembling too much.
Sans' smile hardened in response, and for a moment Toriel wondered if he had some reason to hide the answer from her. But then, his left eyelight flared brightly and flashed the way it did whenever he used his special magic attacks.
"see for yourself…" he said in a despondent tone, pointing with his free hand at his now blazing eyelight.
Toriel blinked as the colors from the display of magic danced across her face. Light blue and yellow… each flashing in turn again and again. It was almost hypnotic. Light blue and yellow… Patience and Justice… a child who wore a faded red ribbon in their hair and carried a toy knife… another who always wore their prized cowboy hat atop their head and pledged to protect others with their antique revolver… The first loved butterscotch more than cinnamon… The other was very much the other way around… Both so young… Light blue and yellow…
Toriel shook herself out of her thoughts, nodding to Sans to indicate she understood. It took him a moment, but he doused his eyelight and blinked until both normal white lights returned to his eye sockets. The effort seemed to strain him a bit, as sweat beaded down his skull once he was successful. They both took measures to calm themselves before Sans spoke up again.
"for me, it was patience and justice that was injected into my soul. for pap, it was bravery and integrity… orange and dark blue." He said, wiping his forehead with his sleeve. Upon looking up at her again, he grimaced slightly and gave her paw another squeeze.
"hey, you gonna to be okay tori? do you want me to stop for now?" he asked, tone soft.
Toriel mentally kicked herself, annoyed that she'd gotten so worked up. It shouldn't have come as any surprise that Asgore and this Gaster monster had used the human souls in experiments. The idea of her ex-husband, desperate as he was to free his people, just letting them sit there after stealing them… (murdering them...) wasn't realistic. She'd had so long to work through her grief, decades even. This new revelation shouldn't have shocked her… It shouldn't have hurt so much… but it did.
She did her best to force back all her swirling emotions. They were getting both of them nowhere right now. Today was supposed to be about helping Sans with his troubles, not her own. She needed to see this through, now even more so. It was becoming clear that the reasons for her friend's sorrows were more serious and far reaching than she could have ever thought. What she was hearing potentially affected everyone, perhaps even the entire history of the monster kingdom. It was vital she heard it all. Her own nagging traumas could wait.
She wiped at her eyes and told herself that the tears she found there were only from the smoke before stinging them.
"No, I will be fine my friend, thank you…. I… I need to hear this… just as much as you need to talk about it." She replied at last, digging into her old royal training to keep her expression composed and firm.
Sans looked for a moment as though he was going to argue with her, perhaps call her out on her blatant hypocrisy when it came to her insistence about being honest about their emotions. But he seemed to decide against it, instead letting the same muted anxiety return to his expression. It was only then he appeared to notice the way he was holding on to her hand. His eyelights shrank a bit, and a cyan color spread across his cheekbones. He carefully let go and pulled away, rubbing the back of his skull sheepishly.
"h-heh… alright… if you're sure tori." he said, stammering a bit. He was suddenly even more sweaty than before, and this time Toriel could tell it was not from any strain on his magic.
Despite it all, a weak, amused smile reappeared on her face at that. Perhaps if she was in a better mood she'd have thought of a joke to tease him with a bit. Neither of them had made a pun in almost an hour. If that didn't show the gravity of the situation, nothing would.
GB whined again from Sans' lap, drawing both of their attention to him. The blaster looked between Toriel and Sans with a concerned expression. He then gently lifted away from the skeleton and drifted over to Toriel. He pressed his snout against her neck and nuzzled her affectionately. Toriel's smile brightened just a bit in response and she wrapped her arms around the blaster in a hug, pulling him down into her own lap. GB warbled and purred with delight, now contently pressing against her the same way he'd been with Sans. She ran a paw over the top of the blaster, realizing first hand why he always seemed so good at cheering up Sans and most others.
"looks like having gb here was a good idea t." Sans said, the blue color fading from his face now. "gb's a regular therapist, heck he could go to college for it. he'd earn his blaster's degree for sure."
Well so much for not making puns. Toriel was still too mentally bogged down at the moment to offer a laugh, but her smile grew more genuine for a moment and she wrinkled her nose a bit. She was quick to refocus though. She knew Sans could be trying to duck out with his jokes because of her earlier reaction. Her expression shifted to become serious again, though she kept petting GB absently all the while.
"So… Sans. You were saying that… you were created with the human traits as part of your souls yes? Gaster believed that… this would make you powerful?" She asked, still barely wrapping her head around what she was saying. She'd almost lost sight of how shocking the revelation was when he'd mentioned the human souls being involved. Now that the pain was dulling within her, concern was quickly taking its place.
Sans' attempted humor from before withered and his eye sockets darkened once more. He slid his hands back into his pockets and laid back against the trunk of the willow, stretching out his legs in front of him. He stared down at his slippers for a bit, clearly trying to retrace his thoughts.
"yah… the human traits mixed with our natural magic gave us abilities beyond what a normal monster can do." Sans said, decidedly shaking off his slippers and bemusedly tapping his socked feet together as he talked. "for me, the justice part gave me access to something the doc called karmic retribution. bit of a mouthful I know, but basically it just means my attacks do extra damage to those who have a high amount of exp… the higher your lv, the faster i can take you down."
His false grin widened a bit and he gave a small shrug. "there's a bit of poetic justice in that, hence the name I guess. the idea was that if I ever faced the humans, their lv's would surely be sky high and i'd be able to take scores of them out with ease. their own sins would be their undoing, in a way... heh" He seemed to deflate a bit, that now all too familiar despair crossing his features.
"course, a power like that was uh… kinda wasted on a monster like me. weak as I am ya know? you can only be so much of a threat with 1 hp..." He paused a moment, and Toriel could see he was curling his hands into fists within his pockets, perhaps trying to keep them from shaking.
"as for um… what the patience essence gave me… well... i'll save that for a bit later. its uh… a bit of a doozy and I should probably get through the- heh- "childhood" part first. for now, let's just say he wanted to give us the ability to oppose humanity's greatest asset against us and didn't pay any heed to the…" He trailed off for a moment and visibly tensed. "the… psychological damage such a thing would inflict on the monster given that ability."
Toriel felt a chill run through her at his words. The fact he'd specifically use a term like that so openly was alarming to say the least. Questions bubbled up inside her as before, but she blocked them out and kept herself focused on what Sans was saying. She wrapped her arms a little tighter around GB and gave Sans a small nod to indicate her attentiveness.
Sans blinked at her in acknowledgement before continuing, looking a little less stiff as he moved on from the topic. "in pap's case… its harder to say since well… the doc never got around to really discovering the extent of his abilities. the bravery part seemed to just give him a crazy amount of magic power. I know he may not act like it, but my bro is crazy strong. he just always holds back. trust me, ya think that lil guy is impressive?" he lifted a hand from his pocket to point at GB with his thumb.
"even at the full size I can make him, he's nothing compared to the blasters pap can whip up when he really wants too. his are a lot more menacing looking too, I think it's because he doesn't spend any time taming them. he's not too comfortable with his being out, I think they kind of scare him… not that I can blame him. Our blasters may not be directly tied to the traits we got, but man did pap's get a boost from it." He paused a moment, a bit of realization flashing in his eye-sockets.
"oh yah, that's why I called him gb by the way. stands for, uh, gaster blaster. not super creative I know, but hey, I have a knack for being lazy, heh." He said, giving a small shrug.
"the doc is the one who came up with em, i don't know the full story but they were something he created during the war. we kinda… "inherited" them from what i can tell…" Again, a twinge of anger showed in his expression, eyelights wavering like small flames.
GB made a happy grumbling sound at the mention of his name, looking over at Sans with bright eyelights. Sans managed to give him a weak smile back and Toriel instinctively patted the blaster, causing him to purr even louder. He then settled back down into Toriel's lap, pressing affectionately against her belly. For an apparent weapon, this gaster blaster sure was as sweet and friendly as could be. The thought stirred up mixed emotions in Toriel but she chose not to dwell on them and turned her attention back to Sans.
the skeleton had returned his hand to his pocket, and was working his jaw a bit in thought. "as for the integrity that got put into pap… i'm not too sure what it did." He said, furrowing his brow ridge.
"he does seem to have this weird knack to being able to do all kinds of physics defying stunts. i'm sure you've seen his flutter jump he does when he gets excited. i swear he could clear a small house with it if he wanted to…" a bit of a fondness crept into his smile for a bit, but it faded quickly.
"but i'm not sure if that has anything to do with the integrity. It doesn't quite fit with the trait itself like the other abilities seem to, but who knows right? at this point it doesn't matter… we were given those traits in order to be weapons, but everyone is free now. so long as they don't cause any trouble for pap there's no need to dwell on them further. he doesn't know why he's so strong… he doesn't remember anything from when we were kids… and i intend to keep it that way."
He seemed to notice the spike in concern in Toriel's expression as he said that and gave her an anxious look. "trust me tori… y-you'll get why he doesn't need to know once I get through this." He said, his nervous smile wavering.
Toriel unease only worsened upon hearing that. A terrible trepidation gripped her as she realized they had only scratched the surface of Sans' story. And from the sound of it, the worst was yet to come. What could be so terrible that Sans was content to leave his brother in the dark about it for so long? She could try to guess from what he'd told her already, but making assumptions hadn't boded well for her so far. She mentally steeled herself and begrudgingly nodded to Sans once more, forcing herself to keep quiet.
The skeleton drew in a deep breath, the look on his face only confirming her worries. While the things he'd shared so far had not seemed to upset him too much, it was clear that this next part was not going to be as easy. GB seemed to notice his wielder's increasing unease as well, and after glancing at Toriel who gave him her okay, he drifted back over to the skeleton and settled in his lap again. Sans gave the blaster a stiff pat, but it seemed not even GB's presence could calm his nerves now.
"i gotta warn ya tori, the stuff that happened when we were with gaster as kids..." He paused, curling his phalanges around one of GB's horns in an apparent effort to stop them from shaking. The pain in his eyelights flared and they became fuzzy around the edges.
"its… its bad tori. there's no way to sugarcoat it… just… be prepared okay? this is going to get pretty ugly…"
Toriel felt her soul clench at that, some part of her wanting to tell Sans he didn't have to do this, if only to spare her friend from the clear distress it was causing him. But instead, she settled for scooting over so that she was sitting right beside him. She carefully wrapped an arm around his shoulders, ensuring he was okay with it before pulling him a bit closer. Now she could really feel how tense he was, as well as the occasional faint trembles that ran through his body. She gave his arm a gentle rub.
"I understand. Do not worry about me though. Please focus on yourself. You do not have to share everything, only what you feel up to. I thank you for being so open with me, but I understand if there are parts that are just too difficult to discuss. I know I will struggle with certain parts when I share my own story with you. No matter what, just know that I am here for you my friend. I am not going anywhere." She assured him, tone gentle.
It was certainly not her best speech, but she felt all of it needed to be said. Thankfully, she could tell he appreciated it, even if he was only feeling up to showing it by turning to her with a freshly forced smile. The warmth shining in his eyelights was genuine though.
"thanks tori…really…i'll uh… keep all that in mind." he replied softly, and Toriel noticed him turn to eye the paw she had laid on his shoulder. He lifted his hand towards it for a moment, then hesitated, curling his phalanges in indecision. Toriel waited for a moment, then slowly lifted and moved the paw to close the distance herself. He blinked in surprise, but then took her paw gratefully, threading his phalanges with her fingers. The light blue color returned to his cheekbones, prompting a weak smile from Toriel. Despite the circumstances, it was nice to have a reason to be closer with him like this. She was suddenly thankful to be covered in fur that would hide any potential color appearing on her own face.
"um…" he cleared his figurative throat, setting his other hand on top of GB, who had been happily gazing up at them since Toriel moved over.
"okay… let me just… figure out where to start with this part…" He said, his somber and serious tone returning.
Toriel gave his hand a tender squeeze, both to encourage him and prepare herself for what was to come. Both their souls were filled with a dull feeling of dread as they anticipated what terrible secrets Sans would be revealing. High above them, a great cloud blocked out the sun and the willow's dome went dark.
