A Tale of Consequences
Reset?
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Chapter 8
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"Y-you sure you'll be okay going back—like that?"
Alphys was worried. But when wasn't she? Sans tilted his head toward her voice, "It'll be fine. It's been a while, but I used to commute to Hotland all the time."
He hadn't always known how to teleport. Granted, he hadn't actually used the river-person's boat since…-static-It was hard to justify walking when you learn you can just step and be there no problem.
...of course, the shortcuts wouldn't work if he couldn't muster the energy to use them. Like right now. Which was why Alphys was shuffling after him as he carefully picked his way down the stairs toward the landing. Her awkward mother-henning was both irritating and touching, so he ended up settling for a nice middle-ground of bemused gratitude. He wasn't physically harmed. His soul still felt charred, but it was beginning to numb. Whether that was a good or bad thing he wasn't sure. That familiar pressure was missing, but he could still feel the faint beat of a heart within his chest if he looked hard enough for it. He needed to figure out how to actually talk to the kid. He hated having to guess.
"O—oh. Did you work h-here? W-when? H-how? I—I've always been alone at the lab."
"It was a long time ago." Sans waved vaguely, skirting the edge of yawning pit in his memories. Long time. Lost time. Not really something he really wanted to talk about. "We were in and out of the core mostly. Maintenance. Ya'know how it is."
"Y-you always w-were g-good with the e-equipment…" The mumble nearly made him miss a step.
She shouldn't remember anything about that.
Bringing notice to it would be worse, so Sans let it slide.
"I—I don't know about this, Sans." She shuffled uncomfortably. Sans could barely make out her hunched shape against a dark background. She hadn't let him leave until he could prove that he wasn't entirely blind, that yes his vision was slowly clearing, and even then had insisted on hovering to make sure he didn't trip or something. "W-what if the river is r-rough today? S-should I call Papyrus? H-he could come pick you up—o-or I can g-go all the way—"
"It'll be fine Alph, don't sweat it, I'm no baby bones." And god was Hotland warm. "It's a straight shot from the landing, and it's not like I plan on dancing the salsa during the ride. I'd rather not worry Pap about this."
"D-does he know? A-about...y-you know…"
"Nah, and I don't plan to tell him." If everything went well, Papyrus would never meet the human. There was no point in wandering down that path.
...it was quiet, but an echo of regret hovered after that thought. A painful prick.
You can't blame me for it, kid. Sans very pointedly directed it to where that faint flutter was. Papyrus wouldn't see the demon. He'd just see a human. He wasn't willing to risk his brother on the whim of the kid's own personal Mr. Hyde. Complete with murderous tendencies. Given how the last time ended…
He'd really rather not go there right now. His chest—their soul ached just thinking about it. That was the clearest death so far. It was burned into his memory, lurking on the edges while he'd tried to distract himself with Alph and the kid and the DT experiments. Papyrus' oblivious enthusiasm, the flower's snide insults and—
Here yet there—red tipped green thorns digging into the cracked soul. A purred greeting neither of them wanted.
Resignation.
"I-it's...j-just a little..." The rustle of cloth, and the blurred shadow shifted. Arm waving?
"Obvious?"
"Y-yeah…"
Rock scraped against rock. The sound of running water began to overpower the distant hum of the core. He could hear the faint song of the river person. They always seemed to be waiting when someone needed a ride. It was uncanny.
"Eh. It's nothing a good nap won't fix."
A nap without a determination-induced headache sounded heavenly actually. There were two ways to restore magic. Sleep, and food. Guess which one came more naturally to him? Especially when he could barely muster the energy to stay upright and not nod off right there.
There was a reason Sans let Pap do all the cooking, even if the results were only marginally edible more often than not.
"I—just—t-text me when y-you get there okay—wait you don't have a phone—how do you survive without a phone? Oooh why didn't I think of this back at the lab—I probably have enough spare parts to cobble together something—can you even see well enough to see the text? Maybe if I made the text white on black instead—"
"Alph…" He almost interrupted her. Then thought better of it. If she was geeking out over phones then at least she wasn't fretting about him keeling head first into the river anymore. He just let her ramble, it wasn't like she was actually dragging him back to get one. He did want to get home before Pap got off shift.
It's not like getting a phone would matter anyway. So far each round hadn't lasted long enough to get much use out of one.
"Tra-la-la~" A few more moments, and the river's song was close enough to hear now. "Oh my, I thought I sensed visitors coming."
The lazy river brushed up against Hotland's warm stone, releasing the faint hiss of steam into the air. If he could hear that—oh Alphys wasn't talking.
He turned his smile on her.
"It'll be fine. I'll get my bro to text you once he gets home. It shouldn't be too long."
The sentry perimeter shrunk as the dayglow crystals faded to night. The dogs made much better sentries after dark, even as they grumbled and drew lots to decide which poor schmuck had to sit out of their poker game that night.
"I hope so."
The silence was only broken by the hiss of steam and the river person's humming, content to wait for the moment.
"S-see you tomorrow." She finally took a breath. The rustle of cloth returned along with her usual fidgeting. "Y-you will be by tomorrow, r-right?"
He shrugged. "I gotta be at my station, but I should be able to sneak away if you find anything."
The second if hung unspoken between them. Assuming he had recovered by then. He wasn't worried.
"S-stop b-by on the w-way, okay?"
A scrabble of claws against the warm stone, and Alphys fled.
Sans sighed, his shoulders slouching.
"Tra-la-la~" The river person continued to hum, "Tangled is the friendship lost to time."
"Tell me about it. It's knot the easiest thing to handle." The grumble came out more of a whine than anything. Sans carefully picked his way to the edge of the landing. "Ya got room for another there?"
"Always~ I love company~"
The edge of the water was a slightly darker. He wished he could say he wasn't nervous as he took that last step from stone to wood. It bobbed under his added weight. A disconcerting feeling when everything was shadows and shapes.
"Where to~? Let me guess, Snowdin~?"
"Yeah."
"Tra-la-la~ away we go~"
The boat moved gently away from shore. Sans swayed even at the expected movement, before resigned himself to his fate and settled into a seated position behind the bulk of the cloaked monster. Hah. The River Person was even going easy on him.
Sans couldn't see it, but a worried scientist was a white splotch against the red stairs, watching as the boat serenely floated down stream.
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Heat faded to cool. Waterfall. The river person continued to hum; the tune echoing through the dark halls, in harmony with the lapping waves.
"Tra-la-la~" The break in the song caught Sans' attention. The hooded bulk of the ferrier hadn't so much as shifted from their perch at the prow, "The waters are calm today. What do you think that means?"
Sans shrugged, peering back over the dark plane of the water, "Iunno. Maybe the fish are a little tide."
The river person laughed, "Perhaps. Or perhaps they are listening. Be aware of the silence where there should be sound."
Sans didn't bother to ask for clarification once they started humming again, lost to the song of the water.
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"S—ns!"
Hiss.
Static. But not in his head, for once. The faint, droning noise was from the television, somewhere to his left. It was soothing in a way.
The surface felt familiar. Lumpy in all the right places. He sank into the cushions like he'd worn a Sans-shaped hole into it. Probably had. His limbs felt like lead even as he considered trying to move them.
Nah. Not worth it.
"SANS! WAKE UP!"
Ugh. Fine.
"I DIDN'T HEAR THAT!"
"I said I'm coming." Sans grumbled, sinking deeper into the dubious warmth of his jacket. "L...ater…"
"HOW DO YOU TAKE UP THE ENTIRE COUCH WHEN YOU ARE SO SMALL!" Oh no. Papyrus' shouts were becoming less shout-y and more whine-y. Sans had a hard time resisting the whine-y ones. A faint nudge, but he was too close to sleep to care. "I WANNA WATCH COOKING WITH METTATON! AND IT'S ON IN FIVE MINUTES!"
"OOOOH DON'T MAKE ME MOVE YOU!"
"GAH. FINE. BUT DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU!"
PING.
Pressure building, strong tethers closing around his soul. Panic rising, struggling to be free, the magic crushing their soul and—
Sans nipped the rogue panic in the bud. Nothin' to worry about. Sans knew that comforting shade of blue better than anyone. Utterly gentle as gravity shifted and his soul was tugged upwards and Sans' body went with it. Pap was always careful.
And then as quick as it happened, it faded. His Sans-shaped hole was slightly off as he settled back down, adjusted to be leaning against the smooth mass that now took up half of their little two-person couch.
"OH BOTHER. WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH YOU?"
Papyrus' glove rested on his chest like it was a makeshift arm-rest, his hip returning the favor by being a fairly comfortable pillow.
Sans was okay with this. The pressure slowly faded back to a dull thrum.
The droning static gave way to the cheery jingle of Papyrus' favorite show.
Sans drifted back to sleep.
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In the depths of their soul, Frisk hid. Non-existent hands covering their non-existent ears as they tried to block out his call.
They had just...wanted to help.
Cracks and splinters as he fell apart in their hands. Nothing existed in this world except for them. Once he was gone, they'd be alone.
They'd be alone and it'd reset and then— No. No. He promised. He promised!
He promised to stop them! If he was gone—if he was gone—
Everyone else had died. They couldn't do this alone.
They hadn't thought about it...just grabbed at them. Grabbed the shards. The dust. Grabbed and held and did what Frisk did best.
Stayed determined.
"Y-you should be dead—"
Determination kept them going. Kept them together. But still broken.
"Extensive damage—"
Still broken. Cracking more with each death. With each reload. They couldn't save. They couldn't continue. It just kept reloading from the first and only save point.
And now…
I'm just a bit more fragile than you're used to.
They hadn't considered their determination could be hurting him.
"Oh god—oh god—are you okay!?"
They should leave. Should go. Go where? Back to them? Float around until their determination eroded and their soul finally shattered?
Frisk once wanted to save everyone. That decision had unleashed hell on their friends. Frisk then decided to save a single person. And now they could be slowly killing him.
They could hear him calling, wandering the shadow of these dreams.
They made themselves small and tiny and quiet and wished they didn't exist.
They should leave, but they didn't need Alphys to tell them it was their Determination holding them both together.
That would be selfish. It wasn't just their soul to break any more.
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Alphys kept glancing at the clock. And then her phone. And then the monitor. And then back to the clock.
She didn't even have to find a window to know it was way passed night fade.
"S-surely he got home by now…" She muttered aloud, reaching for her phone. She—-she could message Papyrus…
Her claws curled. The pit of her stomach twisting uneasily.
I'd rather not worry Pap about this.
It—she'd—Alphys sighed. Dropping it.
"H-he'll be by tomorrow…"
She nibbled at the inside of her cheek, forcing her attention back to the monitor and the computer drawn diagram depicted on it. There was something off about the red soul—well. More so than the mind-numbing fact that it existed.
It almost seemed…too small…
Like something was missing.
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"Golly Chara, you always make that look easy. It didn't even take you three turns this time!"
I wipe the dust from the toy knife, barely sparing a glance for the dust covered robe Azzy was inspecting. I press the edge against our—my—finger. "What can I say? I've had a lot of practice."
It always made me smile, thinking that this dull blade could cut through cloth and fur and even bone while it barely even left a dent against my skin. It had rankled at first, being reduced to whatever I could scavenge from the ruins, but I'd come to appreciate the irony when I'd twisted it into the back of that stupid skeleton.
"You just made your creepy face!" Azzy giggled. Leaves curling as the yellow-petals bounced, "You have a plan don't you? I can help!"
"Don't worry Azzy, you'll help a lot." The direct approach hadn't worked. I could clear the ruins in less than a day, but I could only accumulate so much EXP from such weaklings. I needed more. "But we'll need to be discreet."
Azzy—Flowey grinned.
This was my story now.
I could feel the save file. Close. So close. But I couldn't quite reach it. My frankensteined soul not quite solid enough to make that final stretch.
I had a boss to defeat, and I had to do it just right. Last time had confirmed it. If I just killed him, my partner would reload.
I would take back my prize, and then the ending would be mine.
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A/N: It's a shorter chapter, but it feels right to end it here. Kinda more of a transition chapter than anything since theoretically we'll be moving into a more continuous arc. Will Sans survive past day three? Who knows!
Also. I really wanna draw the scene on the couch. I might try. It and any other are I end up sketching will likely end up on my fic tumblr.
Reviews and comments are always appreciated!
