Your saved screenshots from last night proved very helpful to showcase what you meant when you said 'not much detail'. It however it still took a while to convince Sans that you were not pulling his leg.
"we had better graphics on games we found in the dump. what did this guy code on? a calculator?"
"Hey! That's your world you're talking about."
"no, that's a poor excuse for a-...hmm" You watch Sans lean in closer to the screen, his brow bones coming together in focus.
"this isn't right. there should be a corridor here." he points to an area in waterfall. Before moving the files around and scanning the images with more intensity then before.
"and a marketplace over here." This time he is pointing at the picture showing the MTT resort. Well that's interesting, though not completely unexpected.
"I thought there might be some differences. The game is fairly linear and empty. I'm guessing the Underground is not really like that?"
"nope. Place is a maze, like a literal maze. Half the houses in Waterfall can move and redirect the water flow. And the bridges in Snowdin are always getting replaced and swapped around. Always a fresh puzzle to solve. Is this how Frisk was able to get through so fast?" That made sense, but if even a few screenshots had a lot of inconsistencies what else was different?
"Okay, okay. One minute." Screenshots were not going to cut it. Oh you really didn't want to have to do this but if you wanted to help you needed to give Sans all the information he needed. Maybe the inconsistencies would help him work out how the game and his world was connected. You switch on the router. As you watch for the connected symbol to pop up you can see Sans watching you, yup, the cameras were a bad idea.
"I'm going to pull up a run through of the game, see what matches and what doesn't. Is that okay?"
"no skin off my nose, so i'm game if you are" Two puns in one go? Was that a good sign or a bad one? Well you are already loading up the videos, though of course now your connection decides to go at a snail's pace. Probably an update you missed. You manage to find one video that looks promising, a full pacifist playthrough without commentary. It was over five and a half hours long but you might be able to up the speed in parts."
You're not really watching the video as it goes through its opening, insead focused on watching Sans. The quick thought of this being the best reaction video of all time passes through your head before you push it away. This was Sans' world and life you were showing, condensed down to a pixel adventure. Though to be fair he looked pretty relaxed, arms partially folded in front of him and leaning back in his chair…which you have only just noticed looked really expensive and comfortable. Trust him to go all out for comfort. It distracted you enough that you only realised your mistake when the sprite of one yellow flower popped up on screen.
You let the video continue though as you see Sans move forward with a look of both confusion and concern. You were planning on talking about Asriel and his predicament anyway, just not right now since you already had so many other topics to cover. You pause the video just before Torial enters the scene.
"flowey, they were on your list."
"Yes. Do you remember them?" You are nervous, this could change a lot of things depending on his answers.
"i remember them from the barrier breaking, seems he couldn't leaf things well enough alone. most memories around the incident are a little uprooted though, but i have notes. i think the little weed has been a thorn in my side for a while." Well that's the understatement of the century.
"Did Alphys tell you about the experiments she had been doing on golden flowers?"
"yup. month after we were on the surface, said she had been trying to tell me right after the barrier breaking but, well we were kinda busy." That made sense, you can't imagine how hectic those first few months must have been.
"bin searched for the little weed for a while, particularly after the last reset." He gives you a cold stare and damn do you feel the sins on your back.
"Which I'm still really really sorry about."
"anyway, even pap's hasn't seen root nor petal of them since the break. figured the kid must have dealt with them, though they won't talk about it." Poor Frisk. You wish you knew a way to make it up to the kid everything they had been through. Hopefully helping Sans would be enough.
"Is Frisk able to save and reset?"
"nope. an' i believe them. we had some rough moments early on an' quick do over would have come in handy" Well that was a shame, then again it would have been way too much power for a little kid to have. Speaking of too much power.
"Flowey might still be able to reset." Sans doesn't look surprised.
"i figured as much from my notes" Well if he already knew some stuff about Flowey that was good at least, and thankfully you didn't have to drop Alphys in it.
"I never actually asked, what do you remember from resets?" That would certainly help avoid covering things he already knew…you also REALLY wanted to confirm some fan theories!
You watch as he leans back in his chair, eyes partially closed…which was really really weird now you can actually see it. His bone had texture so you could see it had some flex but when his sockets closed it was like new bone was made.
"'s like fragments from a dream. you have to really focus at the right moment to grab what you can before it's gone. if it happens a lot in the same place things get really fuzzy."
"And are you the only one who can remember resets?"
"ya full of questions today, right when i thought we were going to sit down for some youtube and judge." He looks at you and then sighs. "most don't remember, a few will get the feeling of dejavu but when your stuck in the same play day after day that's not uncommon. Asgore knew that humans could reset, but couldn't remember them themselves." Well that opened up a whole new set of questions, but you could see you were getting to the end of what Sans was willing to answer as he clearly wanted to get back to the video and get some of his questions answered
"Okay, last question I promise, then we can get back to the video." You wait until Sans rolls his hand to you to continue. His other hand is resting and holding up his head.
"You said you took notes?" Realising Asriel would be better explained via the video you know if you don't ask this now you are sure to forget.
"yup, you ain't the only one with a nifty little notebook"
"Really! There was speculation you might have something like that. So the notes aren't erased with a reset?"
"nope, whatever is written in there stays written in there, but i have limited pages so its kinda messy and shorthand." he shrugs. You would love to get a look at the notebook but as he hasn't offered to show it you don't want to push.
"any other speculative theories floating around i should know?"
"Likely thousands. The reception to the game was massive but the game itself was short and packed with information. You've seen how intense Undyne and Alphys are with anime, now picture thousands of determined humans all trying to solve every little thread of a story." You actually see a look of shock pass over Sans' face, and he might have even gone paler.
Then in a moment you see his eye lights look away and flicker. His fingers are also making slight movements before his eye sockets go wide and he smacks himself in the face with his hand.
"i'm a fucking idiot. all that determination…wait right there, i need to get alphys" You don't even get to say anything before Sans is off his chair and blinks out of shot. He doesn't walk away from the camera, he just isn't there any more. Looks like you got to witness a shortcut first hand.
Your room is suddenly very quiet without the conversation, or at least it would be if your PC fans were not kicking into overdrive. Must have something to do with the live feed you had on Sans' end as it wasn't doing this before. Actually your PC was pumping out a ton of heat.
Well since you didn't know how long Sans would be, likely not long with the use of his shortcuts, you focus on the health of your PC. Keeping this thing running and in top condition was now a top priority…you could probably give the filters a clean. Closing down the video applications so as to reduce the strain and give your PC a breather, you were mildly surprised it worked on your end, expecting it to be a one way program Sans controlled. However even with the video links closed the fans hadn't calmed down yet.
Popping up the task manager to see if there was anything running in the background you spot a background application you don't recognise and was hogging not only a load of CPU but also memory. Right clicking you hit 'end task' only to be met with a warning popup.
Warning
This Application cannot be closed
F̸̨̩̥̋̒͒r̵̤̠̳̥͋͆̀̈́a̶͖̜̯̭̘̐̏͊̿͝c̶̹͓̪̄̈́̅͝ţ̷͎̃́̐̓ạ̴̃̋͆͒̔l̸̘̄̅̔͝ ̴̠̻̊̒̊̄̌ͅṶ̸̽̉̎͘n̷͍͗̚ị̷̌̈́͊ẗ̶̙́y̷̜̼̰͂͠ ̴̳̦̙͈̗͐̏̂N̶͇͙̗̄̈́̄e̷̠͎̭̤̭̿̔̿̏t̵̙̿͒͂̊͠w̵̉̀͆̔͜o̴̲̙͇̙̍r̷̳͔͗͂̓̅͗͜ǩ̸͎̘̞̹͆͌…in progress
