Carrying a telescope under his arm, he leads a blindfolded Sans to a special place he used to visit before Monster kind was sealed underground. The bartender knew that the Monsters who were born after the war ended never saw real stars in the sky and he wanted to surprise his friend with this special treat.
Nearing a large hill in the middle of an open field, Grillby couldn’t suppress a sigh of relief; He was actually surprised that the humans hadn’t destroyed that hill or built something over it like a mall or something. Holding the skeletal hand in a firm but gentle grip, he looks over his shoulder and smiles at the smaller skeleton,
*We’re almost there. Then, I can show you the surprise I have for you.
For every “Trope” I get, I will post a TV trope for my muse.
Hanging Judge
“A Hanging Judge is a ruthless judge who rules his courtroom with an iron fist as his own personal fiefdom. He will hand out brutal sentences for the most minor infractions. He may be corrupt and using the law for his own ends, a Corrupt Hick using his power to dominate the local community, a Knight Templar who believes his punishments are justified, or a bully who gets off on abusing his power. Any hero who ends up hauled before him can expect no mercy and precious little justice.”
Definitely more evident back in his days as part of the Criminal Court and even when he went by his original title, The Corrupted Judge. Despite how it has been quite some time since Glitchy has properly judged someone, he is still all-too happy to do it if he’s allowed to, oftentimes leading to disastrous consequences for the defendant as he advocates for the death penalty whenever possible.
THE AU’S ARE AWESOME! I don’t know which is better! We have Underswap, Underfell, Swapfell, EchoFell, PTA Undertale, and that’s just to name a few. NOT TO MENTION THE SHIPS, HOT DAMN!!]
There was that familiar, but still uncomfortable, pulling sensation, that tugging on Sans’ very being that preceded an undesired trip through the multiverse. A few moments passed and that pull turned into a sharp yank right before it forced him out of his own timeline as though he was nothing more than an unwanted insect that had been found scuttling his way around on a larger organism.
It was practically a routine process to him by now, but it was no less unpleasant. Now, he would be sent off to another timeline for a while only to be dragged back whenever his own deemed his presence necessary again.
And that is precisely what happened.
When he was finally spit out into a timeline, he slammed face-first down into the ground beneath him, another part of this routine. As soon as he recovered, he jerked his head up and desperately, almost hungrily, gulped down breaths of air despite not strictly needing to do so.
The difference between his native timeline and most others was as stark as that between night and day once he left it. The coding was... all wrong. Invisible pressure crushed him in the form of broken strings and variables while a valuable key point of pressure, the judge code, was missing entirely. This timeline... it was all correct, as far as he could tell. No aberrations causing undue stress on the residents, no broken functions, no unwanted timeline hopping. Everything was as it should be.
When he had his fill of the untainted air, Sans scrambled up to his feet and looked at his surroundings. Just beyond the throne room, from what he could tell. Ahead of him, where the barrier should have been, there was only unfiltered sunlight streaming down from the surface. Oh good, it was one of those timelines that simply reminded him of what he could not permanently have. With a sigh, he shuffled his way beyond where the barrier was. Might as well get it over with as soon as possible.
The sun was even more intense when he stepped outside, a burning orb almost directly overhead in the middle of a clear, blue sky. Sans spent a few moments frozen, just looking directly up at it (Having no real eyeballs proved to be advantageous at times). It had been ages since he had last really looked at the sun; countless resets had made it lose its luster in his mind, leaving it just as painfully familiar as the darkness constantly permeating the Underground. Then, just when he lowered his head, he heard it—a voice coupled with hurried footsteps against stone.
The voice repeated itself, calling out his name for a second time, right before arms closed tightly around him and pulled him close in a firm hug. The bright, happy hugger was apparently a Sans, just a touch taller than he was and with strange bones that were firm, yet somewhat spongy to the touch.
It was one of his doubles that he had already met before.
“Hey, Squish.” He greeted cheerfully, though softly, as he wrapped his arms around the slightly bigger alternate in return, giving him a gentle squeeze. “Glad to see you too, pal.”
“Sans! You... You won’t believe it, the kid, they—” Squish cut himself off as Sans raised his bony hand for silence.
“They broke the barrier. I know. Figured that much when I was able to go past where it used to be.”
Fortunately, Sans’ knowledge of events didn’t seem to lessen Squish’s enthusiasm in the slightest. “Yeah! Happened a few weeks ago. Was coming back up this way to get something that Pap left back at our house and then I saw you climbing up outta the Underground.” His grin widened as he looked up towards the sky. “Saw you eyein’ the sun. Still not used to it yet? I know I’m not.”
“...Yeah.” It was a lie. Spoken to keep from crushing that precious, infectious enthusiasm and said in a manner to suggest stunned awe rather than hesitation, but a lie nonetheless.
Luckily for him, Squish, unskilled in the art of lying, didn’t appear to notice it. Instead, he grabbed onto Sans’ hand and led him back towards the hole in the mountain that he had just left. “Anyway, c’mon. I can go grab the thing that we left and then I can show you aaall around the surface. I’ll even catch you up on things while we’re walking. How’s that sound, bro?”
Sans created another lie, this time wordless in nature. A forced quirk upwards of his smile to outwardly signify some sort of happiness despite how he felt anything but on the inside. “...Sounds great, bro.”
Keep Squish pleased, keep him happy during his no-doubt temporary time up on the surface. No need to ruin the mood with that thought gnawing at the back of his mind; the thought that, eventually, this is all going to be reset.
Resolve, weakened, was enough to bring him from one end of this empty world to the other. Stagnation. The lack of life was stifling, and he tugged his jacket around his bones tighter. He hated having to be apart of this mess; the indecisiveness, the waiting. It made him fucking sick, yet -- there wasn’t a single speck of dust to be found.
If they’re all dead, this as a shitty way to go around it.
Sentry stations, the lab which he distinctly remembered now hating, but he didn’t see the little pest peaking through to him from his peripheral. This timeline was a bust, but he kept walking. Walking. ‘Cause he had to see this with his own two eyes, make sure he wasn’t gonna kick the bucket for not staying on his toes.
(He called out for someone. Nobody came.)
Perhaps the biggest sign of worry was the tiling of that familiar Judgement Hall. Not only did it not look like a fight broke out, but it didn’t look like much of anything took place here at all.
He let his eyes trail the stained glass. Light trailed through the windows. It was a beautiful day outside, wasn’t it... Yeah, he couldn’t have just walked into an abandoned timeline, did he?
He intentionally smudged the flooring as he pressed on.
The barrier was before him.
Or what should have been the barrier. Y’know, if the place had an expansion he wasn’t aware of, he’d give props to whoever made this so damned realistic. Air blew in. And it sorta looked like what the media used to depict the ...
His head hurt just thinking about it.
* alright. you win.
* figures none of this is real, right?
* heh.
His bones were shaking already.
* never really did think the surface existed after all this time.
“ ... they’re not sick or anything, just kind of down. ”
✱ suppose that mean’s ... it’s a little more than they can BEAR.
“ SQUISH I SWEAR TO GOD-- ”
✱ better not, the kiddo’s around.
“ ... gggrrr, if Judge didn’t like them so much, I wouldn’t care. ”
✱ well thank goodness for that, then. but, getting back to the paw-blem at hand, kay’s been down in the dumps with their art not being able to do much with school in the way, and it’s been an awful lot more draining than they thought.
❛ so they want to thank you for your paitence! and ask that you please give them a little more ... ❜
“ There’s nothing physically wrong and they aren’t going to do anything brash, they’re just tired.
✱ and from the deepest depth of our souls, we thank you for understanding.
