@coupleofspares sees something just out of eyesight.
There’s a flickering in the corner of Sans’ eye. It’s been there for a while now. Like an itch he can’t scratch, it might disappear to bring the idea of relief, only to suddenly reappear, proving it had never disappeared in the first place but only simply been forgotten.
If he could see it in anything but his peripheral vision, he wouldn’t see an oddly familiar tall shape. A monster, who, if he focused hard enough, would feel an odd recognition for - like remembering a distant dream and not being sure if it is part of his current day reality. No, it wasn’t that yet, but it might be soon. Right now, it was just a shaking, a trembling. Bright, white, searing.
For now, though, it was just an obnoxious flickering, slowly encroaching on his field of vision. There was a soft static noise, but it, too, was hardly there. It felt almost as if the noise was coming from every direction, but additionally as if was only inside his own head.
The static grew louder, a buzzing noise, bothersome. The noise, by itself, almost felt repulsive. He might feel as if it wasn’t supposed to be hearing it.
Can’t say for sure, though. Only Sans can say that about himself.
The thing in the edges of his vision began to solidify. The flickering began to clump together in a shape, the one described earlier. As it formed, pulling in pieces to create a body that he could of sworn weren’t there in the first place, Sans began to make out the finer details. The looming, forming creature took heavy steps, it’s being rebelling against this action. For every step it took towards the center field of vision, it’s body lagged behind, trying to return to that spot. Things like him were not meant to be seen.
Well, the creature may not have possessed determination as some may call it, but he certainly had some of the features of that. He persisted.
Finally, he reached center stage. Sans finally was able to focus on whatever it was that had caused this flickering, this static, this…
Well, whatever you’d like to call it.
Earlier, he had not been able to put his finger on who or what the creature was. Now, even if the deformity which the void had ingrained into his very being, his father was recognizable.
Even if only in a still odd way, where Sans had to be staring at him to recognize him, and even if he still felt like an extra in a dream.
Gaster’s hands slowly raised. Ah, yes, Sans remembered now, even if he had not before - Gaster was deaf. He had always spoken in sign language.
But, even now, his sign language felt odd. Like it was lagging a second or two, or like it was corrupted, or different than before…
S̜͎͖̞̩̻A͔̖̬͙N҉͍̰͍̤̙͍̜S̞̫̱̟̭͙̘͞.̳̘̮̻̘̲ͅ His words seemed almost to be like they, too, were trying to break from him. Like they should not be allowed to exist.
S̷̰̫̤̦A̶̻N̙̬̥͝S͇̻̼͈̭͕̰,̯͕̰̯͇͖ ̠͔̫͚͇̺̫͟I̭̲̗̦̗ ̸̯̦̩̼͕H̜̲͙A̵̟̼V̱̤̯̫͎E͓ ̹̣̻̕S̴E̺̳À̗̱̗͙͈̫̹R̻̞͙̝C̟̖̣̻̬͉͚H̜E͍̞͓̮͓̝͞D̖̺͉ ͎̯͙̲̦̟F̧̹̜̤͙̮̞̖O̞͈͔̳̗͕R͏̗͇̭̜͖ ͍̗̟Y̛͈͍̠̝O͖̝U͈͉̱̣͞ ̘̗̯̣̤͢F̥͡O̤R̰̩̰ S̩Oͅ ̡̪̪̭͔̰L̡̰̰̝̥̤O̯̮͟N̞̖G̩̮̖̻.͇͉̦ͅ
♡ Stunned, absolutely stunned and for once, speechless. The charismatic skeleton was rendered unable to weave words with what had flickered then solidified into visibility. It looked like his old man no one but himself knew existed. To the world, he and Papyrus ‘just showed up one day’, but Sans knew… and to have that faint memory in front of him, it was chilly and unsettling.
He shivered when he first felt the disruption of space around him, and he outright shuddered now when he heard Gaster speak his name. Speak it again andd say… he’s searched so long? And here he had given up
*uh. oh.
♡ He spoke in hands, in sign language… So maybe he didn’t remember him as much as he thought… and though it was logical, Sans still felt guilt and faulted himself for it. The cursed teenager been through so many time loops that… he admittedly forgotten a lot of the language now. He didn’t practice, and now he sure wish he did.
He gestured his hands but–nothing came. What could he say? Gaster should not be here yet he was… His hands shook from being overwhelmed with so many emotions piling in on him at once.
*didn’t doubt it one bit, pops. … maybe…. … maybe you should get outta sight so uh. … papyrus wouldn’t understand, y’know?
♡ Sans felt awful for his words. Awful that he had to tuck yet another secret into his short and stout frame and swollen heart, but that’s why Papyrus was so fortunate to be carefree and spirited; he had Sans for a brother. Sans waved for the ghastly image of his father to follow him conveniently close to and behind his big house in Snowdin.
There, there would be his secret room, a miniature lab only he had known about. Hopefully… Gaster would be alright in there, near the broken machine and seeing his old notes alongside the new made by Sans.
He may be in slippers and baggy clothes, but he was none the less still hard at work but from the shadows. A lot like dadster…
Gaster blinked.
He had known about his son’s lie to his brother. At this point, Gaster knew practically everything. Being torn from time to place constantly did that did to you - there was nearly nothing that escaped Gaster.
He hadn’t expected this, though - Sans still trying to keep this hidden.
Gaster supposed he shouldn’t have expected anything different.
Following Sans, Gaster breathed in. He shouldn’t be focusing so much on the situation with Papyrus. It would take time and luck, but he would be able to find Papyrus as well, he knew this. For now, he was grateful to get his time with his eldest son, to see him again.
He wanted to say something, to tell Sans about all of this - about being whipped from timeline to timeline, seeing routes where endless things had gone wrong, watching routes where everything had been fine. Gaster had had no one to talk to about this.
Even then, he felt that he did not want to burden Sans. He must be overwhelmed by his father’s appearance. Besides, he didn’t know how long he would be in this timeline.
There was only so much time.
Instead, he just waited for Sans. He knew where Sans was taking him. The old lab. He…. had not seen it for quite some time now. It felt odd, unfamiliar.
Gaster supposed Sans had picked this location for reasons of privacy, not nostalgia, though. Nonetheless…
He was glad to see the old laboratory again. He wondered how much it had changed.
