Why hello there friends! Acesy here again, Oooh heck, so the both of us have been REALLY busy lately… Updates are probably going to remain slow for a while but the story is not dead!
And here is when Sans meets Papysrus and Papyrus and Sans. The whole gang is together~ Just a reminder, @as-breakable-as-glass is italics, and I, @acesymetric, use normal.
Kyp looked on nervously at the exchange, he didn’t want his double to be hurt either so when Glass stopped him he gave a small sigh of relief. Gathering the rags, he walked over towards the brothers, giving another squeak of surprise when Papyrus disappeared and then reappeared. Sans could do that trick too! Maybe? He wasn’t very sure.
When he stood next to Glass he tentatively reached out a hand. He wouldn’t make Glass take it if he didn’t want to but he was nervous. What if Sans blamed him or never got better?
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Glass glanced down at Kyp’s nervous face and his outstretched hand. After a moment he carefully took it in his own, keeping the grip light. “It’ll be alright kiddo.” He said. Glass could practically hear the thoughts running through the little skeleton’s head.
He led the way down the hall to the room where Sans was hopefully resting, Papyrus trailing just behind them. When they entered the room with the time machine, Papyrus glanced around the room, muttering something about it looking almost as messy as Glass’ lab room. He then caught sight of Sans lying on the floor in the mess of pillows and quickly rushed over, rummaging through his bag for his things.
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Kyp felt relief at Glass’ words and walked quietly down the hall with him.
On the other hand, Sans waited for a while but had fallen asleep eventually. When awake he had been able to hide the pain he was in but asleep… He clutched at his chest with one hand, twitching occasionally, his face pinched. Dried determination still stained his skull and clothes. In short, he looked a mess.
It would be safe touch him now, since the time energy had stabilized somewhat.
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Papyrus kneeled down next to Sans, worry creasing his brow. He looked so small and frail lying there and it was obvious he was in pain. His soul ached with sympathy as he fished out a jar of magic healing ointment and some bandages, setting them on the ground beside him. He turned his head so he could see his double and his brother.
Keeping his voice low so he didn’t wake Sans, Papyrus asked, “Could I have one of those rags Kyp?”
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Kyp nodded, letting go of Glass and shuffling over to him. He couldn’t take his eyes off Sans until he leveled with his double, handing over one of the rags.
“Is he gonna be okay?” He whispered.
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Papyrus smiled reassuringly at him as he took the cloth. “Yes we just need to patch him up a bit.” Though no matter what he did, even if he used his magic, Sans was sure to have a scar from this.
Papyrus began to wipe the Dt from the other’s skull in slow, gentle strokes, trying to avoid directly touching the worst of the cracks. Not taking his eyes from Sans he asked him, “Would you like to help me?”
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Without a second thought, Kyp nodded and grabbed another of the rags. He worked as carefully as he could, so he avoided the worst areas, mostly concentrating on his arms.
Sans stayed asleep throughout the two working, only stirring once or twice.
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Together, they cleaned up the determination as best as they could. While they worked, Glass came around and sat on the opposite side of Sans. He wanted help somehow but it looked like Paps and Kyp already had it covered. Besides, knowing him he was most likely to hurt him trying to help.
When all the dried Dt was cleaned off, Papyrus set aside his rag and grabbed the jar full of the healing ointment. “I would have preferred to use magic to heal him, but this will have to do.” It was a fairly simple salve that would numb the pain and help the healing process along but that was about it. He would have made a something better if he’d had the time, but Papyrus had wanted to see to Sans as soon as possible. He had grabbed the strongest stuff he could find in the house and hurried right back over.
Papyrus unscrewed the lid and dipped two fingers into the jar. “Rub this gently into his cracks.” He demonstrated as he spoke, gently applying the ointment into the cracks closest to Sans’ eyes and slowly working outward from there.
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After a moment of watching, Kyp followed Papyrus’ lead, carefully working the salve in. He was glad his hands were busy and helping. It took his mind off his own feelings for now.
And this time Sans did wake. Along his temple was a particularity large crack, with a small chunk missing. Once either Papyrus or Kyp reached it, he took in a sharp breath, hollow eyes blinking.
“w-wha-” he started to shy away but stopped part way. His… Face didn’t hurt so much.
Gently Kyp took one if his hands saying, “It’s okay Sans we’re helping you. Do you feel a little better? Oh, this is Glass’ brother, he is a Papyrus like me but older. Isn’t that cool?”
Sans, still groggy, didn’t say anything but he had a somewhat bewildered look on his face.
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Papyrus smiled kindly down at him. “Hello, it’s a pleasure to meet you Sans. Nyeh, I’m sorry we woke you.” He slowly brought his hand back to the cracks on his skull. “Do these still hurt? We can put more ointment on them if they do and are you injured anywhere else?”
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Sans winced slightly under his touch and just looked more confused as his sleep-slowed mind tried to process two Papyrus voices and see where they were coming from. (He missed horribly, looking at a point on the ceiling).Then it dawned on him.
“nuh, it’s fine… wasn’t asleep that long. and uh….” If he were honest, everything hurt. The burning numbness hadn’t worn off completely, and there were cracks over most of his right side, his soul hurt- “m'fine. my head still smarts a bit but… heh, nice to meet you, glass said a lot of good stuff.” He moved his hand away from his chest and gripped Kyp’s gingerly.
Kyp smiled a little bit but he was very confused. Why was he lying? That didn’t make sense. If he was hurt then they could help.
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Papyrus frowned slightly when Sans’ blank gaze missed them entirely. “How well are you able to see?” He leaned over just enough to get a better look at the cracks around his eyes.
“And are you sure you’re alright?” He asked, letting some of his worry show through his voice. Paps wasn’t willing to drop the subject until he was convinced Sans didn’t need his help and right now he wasn’t very convinced. It was so easy to see that Sans was in pain even if he tried to hide it. Honestly he was just as bad as his brother!
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Now that the big Papyrus had voiced his doubt Kyp’s also surfaced. “You don’t have to lie Sans… We can help…” He couldn’t stop a slight quiver again. He wouldn’t cry again. He wouldn’t.
Geez… He really needed to work on his lying. Well, he knew that he looked bad so that maybe had something to do with it… But he wasn’t too sure.
Sans sighed in defeat and wrapped his fingers around his Papyrus’ a bit. He addressed the other skeleton and said, “i can’t see. just can vaguely tell where light is coming from and some color from my left eye. there’s a lot of damage on most of my right side. my soul also isn’t in good shape. but… please don’t try to use magic… i’m… unstable can cause damage to other monsters…”
Honestly he didn’t feel much like explaining. But he hoped that was enough- wait. They hadn’t even tried to use magic yet? Well he knew Glass had…tried already… he didn’t say anything. Keeping his face the same as before.
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Papyrus nodded, to Sans as he talked. When he warned him not to try healing him, Papyrus had to fight to hide his frustration. “I would have already used magic to heal you if I could but Sa- er, Glass already told me a bit about the unstable energy, though not much.” He glanced at said skeleton as he said it but quickly returned his attention back to Sans and the task at hand. He did expect more detail though.
He seemed to get lost in his thoughts, talking more to himself than to Sans now. “I can’t help your soul, not with out using healing magic… or your eyesight. I can help heal your side though. …May I take a look?” He asked him, hovering a hand over his baggy, Determination-stained shirt. He didn’t want to make him any more uncomfortable than he might already be, but he had to see the wounds in order to apply the ointment to them.
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Glass had been the one to bring it up. Crap. Crap that… Complicated things. And the older Papyrus didn’t sound terribly happy about the lack of information. He wasn’t too sure which Sans he was annoyed at but it was one of them.
At his request Sans hesitated. Healing would be good… But he wasn’t sure if he wanted his Papyrus to see. He certainty had never seen the damage at this stage and he wasn’t keen on Paps being there.
“yeah sure… but uh, pap- the little one- you might not want to look…” Oh wow this was gonna be fun. Two Papyruses was as bad as two Sanses.
Kyp set his jaw a bit. He wanted to help! “I helped clean up the rest of you. I can handle it.”
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Papyrus chuckled softly, “We’re calling your brother Kyp but I guess it would be easier if you didn’t have to call me by my actual name…” He pondered for a while, trying to think of a possible nickname for himself.
Glass thought for a moment as well before speaking up, “How about Gen?”
He raised an eye ridge, “Gen? Where did that come from?”
Glass smiled, “Aww come on bro, we all know you couldn’t hurt a fly. Gen, as in gentle?”
“I could too hurt a fly! I just… wouldn’t want to.” He tried to scowl as Glass cracked up with laughter but he couldn’t keep it up and it almost instantly broke into a smile. “Oh hush! Fine. I guess Gen is an adequate nickname for myself.”
He let his laughter fade when Kyp spoke up. Glass stood up hastily, almost a bit too hastily as the room swam at the edges of his vision. He shook his head slightly to clear it and smiled thinly, “Heh, course you can kiddo but I was wondering if you’d help me find some new clothes for your bro. I don’t know where everything is a around here.” The kid was feeling guilty enough as it was. He didn’t need to see this.
Gen’s smile faded as he looked at his brother. “If you are leaving, I’m going to have a look at you too when you come back.” His tone left no room for argument and Glass nodded in agreement, though a bit reluctantly.
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Kyp! That old nickname? Sans couldn’t help but feel touched by that, and Gen’s nickname? Priceless and completely accurate.
At Kyp’s statement Sans heard Glass getting up, and offering to take Kyp to find clothes and a wave of relief floored him (heh). “yeah, look i’ll still be right here when get back, okay bud?” He he said quickly and smiled, again missing entirely.
Kyp, on the other hand, looked incredulously from Glass to Sans then Gen. Yes it was true, Sans very much needed clean clothes but his injuries! Those needed attending to! He could help!
Before he could argue, Gen’s parting words to Glass changed his mind. There was a finality that he couldn’t argue with in his tone and Glass looked a little unsteady too.
“…Okay… There might be something in our room…” he mumbled leading Glass out of the room. He didn’t take his hand this time but he walked right beside him.
Once they left Sans’ facade fell, pain showing plainly. That wasn’t really what concerned him though. He’d heard the finality too as well as a bit of a stumble. “thanks… i dunno how bad it looks….” Underneath the layers of shirt and lab coat, most of Sans’ ribs were cracked, and somewhat dented inwards. One or two of the ribs also looked ready to break completely and his spine was also ever so slightly off. The bones were also dry and hot to the touch, caked in more dried Dt.
At this point Sans had given up trying to look in the right direction so he just turned his gaze straight up. “is glass doing alright? when i first met him he looked pretty sick. and i dunno if he slept last night… also didn’t eat much.” He didn’t know if he should mention that Glass had already tried to heal him, the resets, or anything. But he was worried.
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Gen carefully maneuvered San’s arms out of the sleeves of the lab coat and shirt, and lifted them over his head as gently as possible. He winced when he saw the full extent of the damage but didn’t hesitate before grabbing another rag and started cleaning his vertebrae and ribs.
He talked while he worked, hoping to distract him from the pain he was in. How had he tried to pass this off as nothing?!?! “My brother has always been… sickly.” He hated using words like that to describe Glass. He wasn’t nearly as weak as they made him out to be.
“He was born with too frail of a body to contain his magic.” He chuckled, “It’s a bit ironic actually. Glass has so much magic potential but he can’t use it without flooding his bones and setting his soul into overdrive. His soul is particularly sensitive to magic in general. That is why he’s sick right now. It takes energy to travel across dimensions and his body is still trying to contain his magic without putting pressure on his soul. Using magic now would cause it to build up and… it isn’t very pleasant when that happens. He already looks far worse than he should for a jump.” He finished wiping off most of the Dt and began to rub the salve into the cracks with care.
“I can understand why Glass doesn’t want to eat, especially after using magic. Food is energy and right now he is so full of it, it hurts.” Glass maybe be good at hiding it, but Gen knew from past experiences that he was in pain. He always hid it until he couldn’t and even then he tried to make it seem like no big deal. “He really should have eaten something though. His soul may have more than enough magic but his bones are still weak.”
Gen frown deepened. “I don’t know why he wouldn’t sleep. Sleep is how his body recovers without gaining as much magic energy. He should be sleeping right now in fact.” When his brother came back, Gen was making him rest. If he hadn’t slept at all last night he should be exhausted anyway!
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Sans did what he could to help Gen with his shirt and coat, but each movement was painful. Although that was nothing compared to when Gen started cleaning off the Dt. It took every bit of self control to not yell out in agony and he gripped the blanket under him. However he couldn’t suppress a gasp and “d-da… is it that bad?”
However Gen talking helped immensely, giving his mind a task to focus on. But he didn’t say anything until he started putting on the salve.
He knew that he really couldn’t judge Glass at all for how he dealt with pain. It sounded just like what he did on a regular basis. That didn’t make it right but it was almost more painful to have someone constantly worried for your well being. And that was why he wasn’t going to mention the fact that he had tried healing him. Of course, that also didn’t stop either Sans or Gen from worrying.
At this point the salve was working wonders. It reduced the pain to more of an occasionally throbbing ache. After a few moments of silence he addressed Gen. “heh… yeah- he turned up in the living room yesterday. can’t tell ya why he was there but kyp likes ‘im… your bro is a good kid. he just doesn’t want you to worry”
A crappy reason, and one that definitely wasn’t really going to help but those were his reasons. Anything for family.
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He tried not to flinch as Sans let out a pained gasp. “I’m sorry.” He hated to be the one causing pain, even if it would help in the end.
If he had any lips he would have pursed them. “It’s nothing that won’t heal.” It wasn’t an actual lie but the damage was extensive. He tried to be gentler applying the ointment to the many cracks on his spine and rib cage. Those were going to hurt again when he had to realign them.
Gen sighed, “If he doesn’t want me to worry, then he would let me help him.” His voice lightened up and he laughed, “And what do you mean he’s a good kid? You can’t be much older than 10! He’s almost three times your age!”
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That was much harder than it sounded like… Letting someone else help you.
However before he could find a way to word those feelings Sans blinked at Gen’s comment. Three times his age what did- oh. He would have laughed, had he any energy. Instead he just grinned a little wider and said, “little sneak, he didn’t tell me he was 30! now I really feel old. heh. dunno if you’re gonna believe me, but i’m actually around 60.” Now he really wished he could see.
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“Well, he’s actually 29, I said alm-wait what?” He paused in his task to stare at Sans dumbly. “You’re… serious aren’t you.” Gen secretly wondered how hard Sans had hit his head.
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Sans could only imagine the look on his face! There was no way he could have planned a better prank. Especially since this wasn’t one.
He chuckled, then almost immediately regretted it, winced and continued, "yeah, i’m serious. that’s a time machine and glass pulled me out of it couple of hours ago.”
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Gen glanced over to the machine when it was mentioned. “I know what it is, b-but- he made it sound- agh!” He pressed his palms into his forehead. He didn’t know why he was as surprised as he was. It just had never occurred to him. His brother was the more sciencey one after all. Thinking about time travel simply confused him. He tried hard not to think about the concept when he jumped through timelines as it was.
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“well if it makes you feel better, kyp is the right age. i just got shut in this one when i was a kid- an actual kid- and now things are… complicated.”
He thought for a second, Glass’ time machine might work differently too… Hopefully he would get to see it but for now, he grinned a bit more out of concern and asked “uh, you okay up there?”
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Was Sans seriously asking him if he was alright? He wasn’t the one lying on the ground with half his bones cracked! Gen shook his head and continued rubbing in the salve. “I’m fine!” Like Sans said, it was complicated but if he thought about it, he guess it didn’t really matter how old he was. He was still a Sans and he was still a friend. He ought to have taken it a bit more in stride than he had. “So, 60? Nyeh, that means you’re twice our age!”
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As Gen continued Sans closed his eyes. Everything still ached, and buzzed but the pain was becoming more and more manageable.
Actually Sans didn’t mind the comments, he had always looked younger than his age but he couldn’t help but slip in a very Sans-ish pun. “yep i guess it does. no need to- rub it in.” He cracked an eye open and smiled cheekily.
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Gen frowned disapprovingly. “Ugh, that was absolutely terrible. You’d think with more life experience you would have seen the error in your ways.”
He set aside the jar of ointment and picked up the roll of bandages he had brought with him. “I’m going to start wrapping up your wounds. I’m sorry this might hurt a bit, but I’ll do it as carefully as I can.”
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That caught him off guard for a second. “oh my go- hah! that was a good one. eye see what you did there.”
However his smile faltered a bit. Sure, Sans was used to pain but he definitely didn’t look forward to it. And he must have been in worse shape than he had thought if Gen was that worried.
Sans took a steadying breath, clenched his jaw and tried to relax. He trusted Gen, “all jokes aside then. go ahead and start.”
Why hello there friends! Acesy here again, sorry for not posting last week, Breakable and I were busy and the skele bros were on a bit of a hiatus.
We are back now though, and now we bring you brotherly honesty and love of various forms, lots of hugs and nicknames. Just a reminder, @as-breakable-as-glass is italics, and I, @acesymetric, use normal.
Papyrus flinched then slowly sat up, turning. His eye sockets had tracks running down his face from when he had been crying before, and fresh ones were gathering at the corners.
“… I’m sorry… I-I din’t m-mean to…” he whispered.
Sans felt like his soul had been dunked in icy water. “no pap, you didn’t do anything wrong.” He spoke softly.
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Glass sat up straighter, “Ah kid don’t cry. Your brother’s right, you didn’t do anything wrong.” Damnit he should have realized he was awake sooner.
He glanced at Sans, “Uh…” Shoot. Glass found himself at a loss for what else to say. “Do you want to explain it all to him by yourself or should I help?”
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With a strained voice, Sans reached over to Papyrus. “yeah, yeah i’d appreciate it… pap, shh. it’s okay, come here…” Sans would need help but he sat up again, ignoring a pounding headache among other pains. Papyrus needed him more.
Pap sniffled for a moment before carefully wrapping his arms around Sans who pulled him into as tight a hug as he dared. “I’m so conf-f-fused… I-I… San-ns what is g-going on!?” Fresh tears stained Sans’ shirt as he began crying a new.
Sans rubbed his back gently. “it’s a long story bud… it’s okay.”
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He kept a close eye on Sans as he sat up, pushing a pillow behind him to give him some support but otherwise he didn’t know what to do with himself. Glass felt pretty useless in the whole situation. One thing was for sure though, he defiantly didn’t like seeing his or any Papyrus so upset. He just… didn’t know what he was expected to do. He gave them a moment before asking gently, “What do you want to know Paps?”
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It took a while for Papyrus to calm down enough to ask any questions, but he did. At first he asked about Sans and what had happened who answered everything, simply and truthfully, including why he was injured. He didn’t elaborate on any of the details, glossing over the more painful parts. He told him briefly about their first run, but he stumbled on the part where Papyrus died. He just held him closer, hoping that he got the message. Sans didn’t ask for Glass’ help but the fact that someone else was there gave him some strength. He had to stay honest. This would be his last run, he was Determined to make it.
After a pause Papyrus looked over at Glass. The tears were dry, but his sockets still looked rather watery. “S-so… I met you already? Because I think I remember….” His little brow furrowed. “…puns.”
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He didn’t end up saying much during the explanation, which he was grateful for. Mostly he just listened and helped move the conversation along with a short comment when needed, but Sans was doing a fine job on his own. Papyrus was also handling it a lot better than he would have expected
Smiling faintly he replied, “Yeah but tibia honest your brother was the one who started the punning.” Heh, figures he would be remembered for the puns.
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Papyrus giggled nervously. Sans gave a mock sigh and said, “i see how it is. you’ll laugh at glass’ puns but not mine?”
“That’s probably because yours are terrible.”
Then Pap gave Sans a weird look. “Er, with all the time stuff, how old are you?”
Sans snorted, wincing.
“WHAT?” Papyrus asked indignantly, his usual volume returning.
“nothing just, you’re worried about that? if you wanna know, i’m somewhere around sixty. i stopped keeping track.”
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Sixty? He knew that this Sans was a lot older than him but he hadn’t thought it was by that much. It was weird to look at Sans, a frail child swimming in too big clothing, now knowing how old he was.
Glass laughed, “Heh, wow, you’ve been holding out on me old man.”
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Papyrus pulled away from Sans to get a look at his face. When he didn’t throw confetti and yell ‘just kidding’ his jaw dropped. “SIXTY!!? SANS YOU ARE OLD!!!” He didn’t mean to shout but… Papyrus was six!!! To him, his brother had just turned eleven!
Sans flinched back, teetering and head ringing for a second, “yeesh.”
He tried to turn towards Glass with mock grumpiness- although he misjudged so it looked like he was talking to a wall- “hey now, respect your elders young man.”
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Glass winced at the sudden shout but laughed all the same. “Sure gramps, as soon as you stop talking to the wall.” He snickered a bit more before calming down. “In all seriousness though, we should probably get you looked at. You aren’t exactly in good condition at the moment and I’m not an expert healer like my bro.”
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Papyrus giggled again, covering his mouth. Encouraged, Sans tried to scowl deeper, and looked at another wall. “this better kids?”
“NYEH HEH HEEEH… NOOO.” and he gently turned Sans’ head to Glass. “THERE.”
“thanks bro.”
He listened to the rest of Glass’ statement and sighed. “it isn’t really a good idea to use magic to heal me right now. the time energy that gets stuck in me usually reacts to outside magic.”
Suddenly Papyrus looked a little worried. “WAS IT THOSE WHITE SPARKS?”
Sans sounded wary “…yeah…why?”
Papyrus looked up at Glass. He’d seen what happened to him. After Glass had healed Sans he had keeled over and held his eye and chest before eventually passing out.
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So, that had been time energy. Glass forced his voice to stay unconcerning, “Uh… we just saw some of them jumping off you when I first pulled you out.”
No point in making him worry over him, nothing bad had even happened. Well not serious anyway. He grimaced slightly, remembering the odd sensation the sparks left behind and those floating images he couldn’t catch. He brought his hand to his left eye socket unconsciously. Where those… memories?
He shot a meaningful look to Papyrus. Please don’t tell him, please, he silently begged . He wasn’t worth worrying over especially on something that hardly affected him. Whatever it did to him, he would figure it out on his own.
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Papyrus caught that look but he also caught him holding his eye. The last thing he wanted to do was lie to his brother but…
“Y-YEAH. NOBODY GOT HURT OR ANYTHING.” and before Sans could say anything Papyrus continued. “ANYWAY. BROTHER, YOU NEED TO SLEEP MORE BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE.”
That distracted Sans enough. “what? hey wait a minute-”
“YOU ARE STILL INJURED AND VERY DIRTY! I, PAPYRUS CANNOT LET THAT HAPPEN! SO YOU WILL STAY HERE AND REST!” If Glass didn’t want Sans to know then there must be a good reason. But he wasn’t going to let it go.
Sans got the distinct impression that he was missing out on something. Glass was a good liar but not Pap. But he wouldn’t deny it, he was exhausted. And it was taking more energy to sit up and think than it was worth. He tried glaring at Papyrus but again his vacant stare hit a work bench.
Finally he sank down onto the pillows with a grunt “…it’s not like i can go anywhere…”
Satisfied, Papyrus stood up, then paused. “UM GLASS? CAN YOU HELP ME GET THINGS TO CLEAN UP?” Now it was his turn to give him a look. An oddly scared one on his young face accompanied by a hand gesture half in wing-dings ‘NEED TALK’.
There were things he would rather Sans not know too.
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He let out a relieved sigh, “Sure Paps.” A wave of dizziness hit him as he clambered to his feet and had through out his arm for balance so he that didn’t fall over. He shrugged it off, annoyed with his own weakness.
And he saw that look Papyrus gave him. It was a eerily similar look his brother would give him when he had something private to discus. Papyrus may have covered for him but he wasn’t out of hot water yet. His fractured signing only confirmed that.
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Papyrus hurried over over and held one of Glass’ hands eyes wide.
When they didn’t leave right away Sans tilted his head in their direction. “…everything okay over there?”
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He flinched slightly when Papyrus took one of his hands. ‘I’m fine.’ He signed to Papyrus with a strained smile. He gently eased his hand out of Papyrus’ grasp and shoved it back into his pocket. Out loud he said, “Yeah, we’re all good.” Damnit even half blind Sans was perceptive. At least Papyrus didn’t say anything to alert him how bad he looked.
Glass shook his head to clear it. “So, where’s the cleaning stuff again?”
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Papyrus withdrew his hands nervously but nodded. “FOLLOW ME…”
He waited until he was down the hall before speaking. “WHEN YOU GOT SHOCKED DID YOU… SEE THINGS?” he hoped he wasn’t crazy. Please let him not he crazy. “LIKE THINGS THAT WEREN’T REALLY THERE? Because….” His voice became quiet again. “After you healed brother and fell over… I tried helping you…. Then I tried helping Sans. The white stuff…” He rubbed at his sternum. It had burned his bones, then numbed them but that was nothing compared to when they hit his soul.
It hurt for a second, then nothing and he saw and felt things…. Not quite as many bolts had hit his soul as Glass’ but he felt like this wasn’t the first time it had happened. The weird numbing felt too familiar, and the fear of his brother lying hurt…
Tears welled up in his sockets again. No don’t cry don’t- “It-it’s my fault isn’t it? That S-sans died? Y-y-you both came t-to help m-me and…an…”
Tears streamed down his face and he scrubbed at them furiously but couldn’t talk anymore without letting Sans hear.
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Glass followed Papyrus down the hall, walking a little slower than usual. His bones felt jittery and the ache wasn’t going away any time soon. He stopped walking at the child’s confession, “You saw things too?” His eyes widened when Papyrus started to cry.
“Ssh no Pap.” Glass knelt down so that he was level with him, carefully placing his hands on his shoulders to make him look him in the eyes. “Hey listen to me, none of that was your fault. You didn’t know what was going to happen and if you need someone to blame for all that blame me, ok?” He was the one who let the whole thing happen. Papyrus was just a kid. No one expected him to be able to fight off a fully grown monster.
his mind reeled with what this could mean. If Papyrus could remember Sans’ last reset did that mean his strange memories were from past resets in his own timeline? He didn’t know what to feel about that if they were. Not everything he glimpsed was bad. He remembered jokes, laughs and meeting new people along with some.. weirder things but everything in general seemed wrong somehow.
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Papyrus looked up. Blame Glass? He shook his head furiously. After several shuddering breaths he choked out, “N-n-n-no!! Y-you… Y-y-you…”
Fresh tears rolled down his cheekbones again and he threw his arms around Glass.
“I C-c-c-can’t blame y-y-you!!! You s-saved m-me! Y-y-you sav-ved Sans a-and healed h-him a-and…” He couldn’t say anymore as he sobbed into Glass’ front. There was so much he wanted to say though.
Glass had been willing to help them even though he had only just met. And Sans was happy. He only remembered fragments of the past but he couldn’t remember Sans sounding that happy while talking to someone else.
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He winced when Papyrus threw his arms around him but only hesitated a second before hugging him back. Still hesitant, Glass rubbed small circles into his back trying to calm him down.
He flushed slightly as Papyrus spoke. He had only done what any monster would have done and it hadn’t even been enough to to make that big of a difference. He didn’t point this out to him though. He just hugged him as tight as he dared, hopping it would be enough to comfort him.
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Papyrus stayed like that for a while, relaxing a little when Glass started rubbing his back. It was soothing, familiar… Someone must have held him like this before.
Eventually, he took a deep breath. Face still buried in cloth he said, “S-sorry…Thank you…” then hiccuping slightly he pulled away enough to see the side of Glass’ face and regarded the magic residue. “We should get you cleaned up too…” he mumbled.
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He gave him a wane smile. “Heh, No problem kid.”
Listening to him, Glass paused, “What?” He asked, confused by what he meant. He reached up, touching his face. Oh. “Yeah, sounds great.” He had momentarily forgotten what a mess he was.
Letting go of him, Glass stood up with a soft groan. “Alright Papyrus let’s go get cleaned up then, or your brother’s going to start wondering where we are.”
He would definitely try keeping a closer eye on the kid now. He wanted to leave no room for doubt that he had anything to do with what happened.
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Papyrus scrubbed at his face one last time, giving Glass a brave smile. *Hiccup* “Nyeh heh. If he’s awake.” He hoped he wasn’t still awake, his dork of a brother needed to rest and get better!
Further down the hall Papyrus turned a corner into a dark room, flipping the light switch. It looked like it had been a chemistry lab, standing sinks scattered around with work tables strewn with notes covered in messy wing-dings, burners, vials some of which still contained liquids of this or that. However, the largest one had various cooking supplies stacked haphazardly on one table while another had a large Bunsen burner with a skillet over the top. There was also a large fridge, an oven and racks where dishes were supposed to go.
One of the tables had also been pulled away from a sink and had three chairs around it. It was covered in a mixture of notes, books, and messy drawings along with a single cold cup of tea.
Papyrus made a beeline for the largest sink and grabbed a washcloth, and running it under the water.
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Glass glance around the room curiously before going over to the larger table and taking a seat in one of the chairs. Despite it being a lab room it had the distinct feeling of a messy kitchen. He couldn’t help but pull over a stack of notes and start flipping through them.
“Yeesh Dingus, (yeah the name was stuck now) your writing’s even worse than my dad’s.” He muttered. The wing-dings was barely even legible. Trying to read it only succeeded in making his head spin so Glass soon gave up, tossing the papers back onto the table.
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After a bit Papyrus brought the freshly wetted towel and a softer dry one to Glass. “Here you go.” His voice was still a softer than usual but he was looking much better.
But after a moment his little brow scrunched in confusion. “I heard you and Sans talking about school and you said that your Papyrus got a… School-er-ship? What did you mean by your Papyrus?”
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He accepted the cloth gratefully, “Thanks Pap.” The excess magic had dried and darkened slightly, much like blood would. He scrubbed roughly at his face, wanting to make sure he got it all off. He paused in his task when Papyrus asked about his brother. Well shit.
“You mean a scholarship?” He asked. Come on Glass don’t avoid the question, he chastised himself. Sighing, he set the rag on the table. Where to even start? “So you know what that machine I pulled Sans out of is supposed to do, right?”
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Papyrus thought for a second… “Sans said it was a time machine… So time travel? OH DO YOU KNOW ME FROM THE FUTURE?” His volume returned somewhat, his eyes shining then, “Wait. You said brother….” He stared at Glass, mind working hard to figure out what that meant.
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Glass winced slightly, “It’s a time machine, but I’m not from the future. …Uh, you know about the chaos theory? How one change in events can branch off and cause a butterfly effect of different possibilities? Well that’s sort of what timelines are. Different possibilities. Timelines are… alternate versions of reality. You can call them a lot of things, universes, worlds, dimensions. Anyway there are an infinite number of realities out there that form from variations in events or just fundamental differences.”
He braced himself for Papyrus’ reaction, “I’m from one of those realities and when I said you were my brother I meant that. I’m Sans, just not… your Sans.” He never had to explain this to someone before and he didn’t know how good of a job he did, but it was out now.
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Papyrus put his hands over his mouth quickly at Glass’ wince. Oops.
Then he followed about half of the explanation but he got the idea. Things happened that made other things happen but were different. And those made different places. But with the same people. He didn’t spend too long think about that part of it.
“So. Wait… Uuuuh…” Then little gears in his head continued turning as he tried to wrap his mind around that until… “…then that means you’re my brother?” He grinned widely, eyes shining. Then he whispered, “I have another brother?”
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Well Papyrus had taken that a lot better than he had been expecting. A lot was just dumped on the kid and he was still as bright and optimistic as ever. But what else had he been expecting?
Glass relaxed smiling, “Hey, I guess it does.” He never really thought about it that way before but Pap had a point. He didn’t mind Papyrus thinking of him as a brother either. Really, the thought of having another brother made his smile widen.
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Of course this encouraged the little skeleton and he picked up the rag, dragged a chair in front of Glass and said, “Nyeh heh! Well brother dear we need to finish getting you cleaned up!” and gently started wiping at spots that Glass’ initial cleaning had missed.
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Glass managed to not flinch when Papyrus brought the cloth to his face but flushed at his words. Ah, he was going to take the brother thing all the way wasn’t he? “You don’t need to do that you know. I can clean myself”
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He may have missed it before, but he noticed Glass’ face turn a pale shade of blue this time as Papyrus handed him the dry cloth. “Are you oka- wait. You’re blushing! Big brother Glass is bluushiiing!”
For him this was a personal achievement. He could never get his Sans to be embarrassed for anything.
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Pointing it out just made Glass’ face turn a darker shade of blue. He took the offered cloth with one hand, using it to cover the left half of his face while pulling his fur lined hood down a little lower with the other. “Geez kid,” he mumbled, “you always humiliate your Sans this much?”
Before he could get an answer, there was loud bang and someone calling out from the hallway. “Sans? Brother? Are you here?”
Glass’ eyes widened, “Paps?” He glanced to the child in front of him then towards the door. Shit. He threw the cloth on the table and stood up just as the door flew open and a tall, lanky skeleton charged in.
“Sans!” Cried the older Papyrus, “What were you thinking?” He didn’t even notice his younger self as he dashed over to where Glass stood and swept him up in a hug. “Do you know how worried I was when you didn’t come home?! I couldn’t even tell anyone you were missing because that meant you were wandering around after dark, again! And you went to a different dimension of all places! Honestly Sans why do you do this to yourself? To me? It took me ages to track you down through the multiverse. I’m not as good at it as dad was!”
“Paps” Glass wheezed. The hug was literally crushing him.
Papyrus looked down on his brother apologetically, “Sorry.” He said before carefully placing him back down. He kept a hand on his shoulder, like he was afraid he was going to fall over if he let go.
It was only then that he noticed his younger double. “Sans, is that me?”
Glass suppressed the urge to groan, “Yep.”
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Papyrus was about to explain that it was impossible to humiliate him when the tall version of him burst in the door and scooped up Glass.
He didn’t know weather yell or run so he ended up squeaking and falling backwards onto the table, spilling a few books onto the floor. Even from his position he had to look up to see his doubles face.
All he could really do was gape. It wasn’t that he hadn’t believed Glass it was just… “YOU’RE SO TALL!”
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The taller skeleton smiled widely, “Nyeh heh, that I am!” He looked down on his other version’s position on the table. “Oh, I’m sorry are you alright?” He asked offering a hand to help his double up.
He glanced back at his brother. “Don’t think you’re in the clear yet Sans.” He said in a lower voice. “I may not be able to stop you from jumping off to other universes but the least you could have done was leave me a note! I’m expecting an explanation later.”
Glass winced internally. “Sorry Pap.” He really was. He hadn’t planned on being gone for as long as he was. He suddenly remembered something. “And I’m going by the name Glass here. Heh, it was getting confusing sharing a name with the other Sans.”
“Glass?” He guessed it made sense having a nickname in another universe. He looked to his double “Should we try coming up with something different to call ourselves too? And if you don’t mind me asking where is your Sans?” He hadn’t seen him when he first arrived and a quick look around the room proved he wasn’t there.
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He gladly took the skeleton’s hand and was helped off the table. Now the other Papyrus looked even taller! Was he going to be that tall?
He broke off his thoughts when Glass mentioned his nickname. “I have a nickname! Sans likes to call me Kyp when we play!”
Oh yeah. Sans. He glanced up at Glass some of his fidgetiness returning. “I hope he isn’t worried…”
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Papyrus beamed, “Wonderful name Kyp! If you think your brother’s worried then let’s go see him! I would love to meet your Sans.”
Glass nodded, “Yeah, we’re done here so we can go back to the other lab room now. You ready to go Kyp?”
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Kyp smiled weakly. “Yeah, let’s go.” He turned and grabbed a few fresh rags, mostly to hide his face. Glass had helped a lot but he still blamed himself.
“Actually I think he should be asleep by now. I hope he is he must be tired…” He really wasn’t talking to anyone in particular, just saying what was in his head to calm his nerves. His voice quivered ever so slightly at the end.
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Glass caught a glimpse of Kyp’s face before he turned around and frowned. He didn’t say anything though with his brother here. It would just lead to questions and he didn’t want to explain the whole reset thing just yet.
Papyrus assumed his expression was worry for his brother and frowned slightly, “Why? Is he sick?” He then looked worried. “What are we waiting for then? I bet I could have him healed up in a jiffy!” He started to march towards the door before Glass grabbed his arm.
“Ahh, bro wait, he’s not in good shape right now but please, don’t try to heal him. He has a lot of… unstable energy around him.”
Papyrus’ frown only deepened. “Unstable energy? San-… Glass, what happened?”
“There was an accident with his machine. I’ll explain later but promise me you won’t use any healing magic on him.” He was not going to let his brother get affected by the time energy or whatever it was as well. It was bad enough that Kyp got affected too and apparently the white sparks allowed him to see resets.
He didn’t want his Papyrus to remember. He just had a feeling that it wouldn’t be good for him. Not to mention he would have to explain everything and he hardly understood what a reset was himself!
“I suppose,” He said slowly, “but would it be safe to use healing products on him? I can jump back home and get some.” He refused to not at least try and help this alternate version of his brother.
Glass hesitated before nodding. He couldn’t see how magic from inanimate objects could hurt anyone. Before he could say another word, Papyrus was gone. Moments later he returned with a small medical bag over his shoulder.
Hey guys, Breakable here bringing you the next part of the nerds’ story! Remember I, @as-breakable-as-glass wright in italics and the amazing @acesymetric wrights in normal script. Hope you all enjoy!
Glass would wake eventually. The first thing he would notice is that he was messily packed in a nest of blankets and pillows which also spilled over to Sans. Papyrus’ handy work of course. The little skeleton in question was curled up in a tiny ball next to Sans but not in the nest.
The sparks that had run up his arms and into his soul left no physical evidence and the numbness was just beginning to fade.
Sans was the next to wake, blearily opening his eyes… He couldn’t see but he could hear. He could Hear! And he wasn’t in as much pain.
He wanted to call out to his brother, or see if Glass was there. He wasn’t sure. But all he managed was a low groan.
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Glass slowly moved to a sitting position. He was momentarily confused by his surroundings before remembering the reset. He remembered Gaster and trying to heal Sans but the rest was just a mess. His muddled mind was having a hard time sorting through the confusing flashes. He knew some of them were important, but whenever he tried to focus on one, it always managed to slip through his gasp leaving him more confused and frustrated than before.
God he felt awful. Now that the numbness was wearing off, his soul felt heavy in his chest and every one of his bones felt brittle and sore. Gingerly, he reached up and rubbed at his eye sockets before pulling his hands away with a grimace. His face was still covered in magic residue from his eye. He must look like crap.
A groan from near by instantly got his attention and Glass turned to see Sans lying next to him. He shifted closer and looked down on him concerned. “Hey, how’re you feeling?”
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He squinted in the direction of the voice. Obviously it was Glass. He still couldn’t see but he thought maybe there was a fuzzy patch of white… Maybe that was his face?
It turned out he was looking off to Glass’ right but he wasn’t too far off. “….mmmf… not as bad as i could be? i can see some color. and hear.” His head felt like it was stuffed full of fluffy buzzing flies and his words were slow and thick.
Some of it cleared after a moment and his eyes widened. “what about you? i thought i heard… what were you thinking?” he tried sitting up but flopped back down immediately. His whole body screamed in pain but he bit back another groan.
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“Hey take it easy you shouldn’t try to move around so much. I didn’t do anything I couldn’t handle. I’m alive aren’t I? I’m more concerned about you. You looked like you were about to crumble to dust back there.” He really didn’t see what the problem was. Sure they were both pretty messed up now but as long as it helped Sans, which it clearly did, then it was worth it.
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Suddenly he was glad he couldn’t see. His head felt like it was spinning like a top. Or maybe that made it worse? Either way he took a moment to think before saying anything.
He was a little mad. Glass had told them that he needed to not use magic and healing was one of the most difficult forms of magic to use, not to mention it was dangerous to even touch him so soon… But he did have a point.
“…yeah.” He tried squinting at him again. “sorry it’s just… you’re my friend.” He didn’t know what to say beyond that. Augh… He was tired.
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A friend? He was kind of surprised Sans would consider him of all people one. Not that he minded. It was just nice to be called a friend. He didn’t really have a lot of them.
He smiled a bit, “And aren’t friends supposed help each other out?”
“Ah, can’t believe I almost forgot. Guess who I saw during the reset?” He didn’t even wait for a response, “Your dad.”
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“heh yeah… wait what!?” How the- wait. “was he really awkward and scatter brained?”
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He smiled, “Yeah, kind of. We really didn’t get the chance to talk that long. Gaster says hi by the way. It looked like he wanted to say more.” Glass paused a moment before continuing, “He’s real proud of you, you know, for doing all of this on your own. He wishes he could help you but he can’t really from where he is. He asked me to help get you and Papyrus out of the Capitol.”
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Sans smiled ruefully “heh. proud. yeah…” he sighed. He didn’t mean to sound like that. His anger wasn’t directed at Gaster or Glass only himself. His tone became softer and smile a little more real. “it sounds like something he’d say.”
He listened to the rest of Glass’ message and genuine surprise lit his face. “he wants us to move from the capitol? i… guess that makes sense… but where are we going to go?” He had never really thought of moving before. Once he had tried it (sort of) by going to the dump but that hasn’t worked at all.
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“Hey, if I was in your place I would have given up long ago and I can tell you haven’t. If you had then you wouldn’t have taken Papyrus out for nice cream or jumped in front of him to protect him from that monster. You’re still going and that more than enough to be proud of.”
Glass shrugged then remembered he probably couldn’t see it. “I don’t really know where. He didn’t specify… maybe Snowdin. It’s small and sort of isolated from the rest of the underground which is good. Stuff’s less likely to happen there.”
It was pretty far away but that was the point. The further from most monsters, the better.
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He sighed…Sans didn’t comment on the first part. It wasn’t that he wouldn’t give so much as he couldn’t. Sans was so weak that if he fell down or stopped trying then boom. Reset. And he had let Papyrus die once, he would never let that happen again. But he tried a smile, more to reassure Glass.
Very glad to move onto another subject, Sans asked “snowdin huh? i’ve been there a few times. i like the bar, er grillby’s right?”
Isolated did sound good… And he knew (at least later in his life) that Papyrus didn’t really like living near Hotland. Maybe moving would be a good idea.
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He was sure Sans didn’t believe him but he didn’t push the subject.
He nodded “Yeah, Grillby’s is ok. Good food, a little more crowded than I would like in my world, but, eh, it’s alright. The rest of Snowdin is nice too. In my universe, that’s where Paps and I live but before that we used lived here too.”
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“huh. so you weren’t experiments but you still grew up in the lab? or was it somewhere else near here?” He blinked. “uh, you don’t have to answer those. sorry.”
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Glass grimaced but replied, “Nah, it’s fine.” He guessed he had been the one to bring it up so he might as well answer him.
“We lived in an apartment near by. Mom passed away a long time ago so it was just me, Papyrus, and Gaster. Gaster always had a lot of work to do as the head royal scientist but he tried to spend as much family time as possible with us.” He smiled fondly at the memories. He missed the good old days.
His expression became somber again when he continued, “After the core incident, Paps and I decided to move out. We packed up most of our belongings and dad’s research notes and moved to Snowdin. I guess we just needed to have a fresh start in a new place after all of… that.” He gestured with his hand vaguely at the last word even though he knew Sans wouldn’t be able to see it.
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Sans may have been unable to see his face but his voice expressed himself well enough. And even though he was still curious he didn’t want to press Glass any more on the subject, especially not when it came to the core. Sans wasn’t over it and it happened years ago. Technically.
“huh. you had a mom too? that sounds pretty nice actually.” And he and Papyrus made the decision to move so did that mean Glass’ Papyrus remembered Gaster?
“your gaster sounds pretty nice. dingus tried to keep his work out of the house too but-” he cut himself off looking thoroughly embarrassed. “-gaster i mean. look, it was this nickname he used when he talked to himself!” Oh gosh.
He tried desperately to change the subject back to Glass, “anyway! you and papyrus live in snowdin that’s cool. you know like ice?
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He sighed, “Yeah, I guess it was. I wouldn’t really know. I can hardly remember her and Gaster didn’t talk about her that often. Guess the memories were too painful for him.” He could relate in a way. Before he knew his dad might still be alive, even thinking about him had hurt. It still did but the small spark of hope he let burn in his chest made it that much easier.
“Dingus?” Glass asked with a snigger. Despite how tired he was a smile began to spread on his face. “And he talked to himself out loud? Hey if he called himself that then it can’t be that bad. Heh, and don’t try distracting me with puns. If you tell me more about ‘Dingus’ then I swear I’ll answer a question of yours. I know you have some.” He hadn’t hidden anything from him but Glass hadn’t exactly been forthright with information either.
“He sounds like a dork.”
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Oh gosh… Welp too late now.
“aaaah fine you win! waddya want to know about him? and yeah, he was a dork. well, still is it sounds like.”
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Glass leaned back propping himself up on his arms, “What did he like to do with you and Papyrus?” He smiled, “And I have to know, did he like puns?”
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He grinned a bit. “reading mostly until he got a tv to work and discovered sci-fi. but really both of us just went along with what pap wanted to do, which usually was play this imaginary game called undertable. also he would tell us about all these new discoveries or talk about what the surface was like. if it didn’t have to do with interacting with other monsters then he liked it.”
Then he laughed, wincing. “oh yeah did he love puns. and practical jokes, pap kept all the good ones and i took the rest.”
He paused for a second. “what was you gaster like? any good stories from him?”
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“Heh, I guess my Gaster was a bit of an introvert as well. He didn’t really talk to anyone besides Paps, me, and his coworkers. He loved anything and everything to do with science and some of that ended up rubbing off on us. He used to let me sit in his lap and let me watch him work when he had to bring stuff home. Heh, of course I didn’t understand much of what he was doing but even as a kid I was interested in it. He got me an internship at his work place once I was old enough and I became his personal lab assistant.” He smiled, a far off look in his eyes.
“He also liked to take us to all sorts of places like the dumps in Waterfall or even Snowdin. Every year Gaster would take a week off work so we could go on an extended family vacation. It was great… he was great.”
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Papyrus stirred a bit on the edge of the nest but stayed still otherwise. He was awake, but he didn’t want them to know. He was confused. He knew the bigger skeleton. He was sure of it. He also knew that Sans never talked much about dad. But he didn’t remember having a dad. Maybe if he let them talk he could remember… He also felt that something terrible was his fault.
“hey, i would do that too, mostly after this took place. we didn’t have many vacations though. did he know grillby? dingus- don’t laugh- dingus said they were war buddies i think. ah, i got my first internship here too! what did you study?” This was nice. Being able to talk like friends normally did.
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Glass failed to notice Papyrus shifting at the edge of nest. He was still tired and was distracted by his conversation with Sans.
“Yeah he knew him. He introduced us the first time we visited his bar in Snowdin. Heh, unlike Dingus, Gaster wasn’t a war veteran, but he did serve the king as a weapons specialist at the time. I don’t think he was the royal scientist yet but he made a lot of weapons during the war and got promoted to a higher position.”
He laughed, “Definitely didn’t study engineering. I was more into the reason why things happens rather than how so I took theorist, physics, and chemistry classes which was similar to what my dad was doing.” He paused in thought, “Except he actually studied engineering so he knew how to do more than just theorize stuff.”
It had been a while since he actually talked about this with anyone. The only person he felt truly comfortable with the topic was Papyrus and he already knew this stuff. It was actually relieving to finally share this stuff with someone.
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“that’s actually really cool. he probably invented a lot of mechanics when he made your time machine.”
Sans grinned, it was a bit weird to talk about himself at all let alone in a good light. “my first phd was quantum physics. i also got masters in theoretical mathematics and magic. and a bunch of random stuff i don’t remember.” Then he shrugged. “school was my way to cope for a while. i’m too old for that now.”
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Snorting he replied, “He made all sorts of fun stuff. You know we might have actually finished the machine if we hadn’t got distracted every other week.”
“I kind of just did the bare minimum in school. Heh, I was too lazy to be an overachiever. That and I didn’t want to waste any time on stuff I didn’t think I needed. I just wanted to get in a lab and work with Gaster. I guess that was what I did to occupy my mind. That was really my only real goal.”
“Paps was brilliant but he wasn’t interested in theoretical science like me or Gaster. He got a sports scholarship and studied Magic Healing and some basic science. I think he wanted to be a healer if he couldn’t make it in the royal guard.”
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Papyrus repressed a squeak. But… He was right there!! What was going on?? And why was Sans talking like that? He was so confused.
“i bet your resume would have been enough for anyone though. so did gaster tell you to go to school? mine believed in hard work an all that but he probably would have let me work with him without all the credentials.” He wondered briefly why he hadn’t heard Papyrus yet. Normally he would have been up by now.
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“He knew we were both smart enough to work for him without any actual schooling, Gaster home schooled us until we went to college, but he didn’t believe in coddling us. If we wanted to get hired by him then we had to prove we were willing to work for it. I think he wanted Papyrus and I to have something to fall back on if we decided we didn’t want to work with him for the rest of our careers. To make sure we did our own thing rather than just follow blindly in his footsteps.” Which he guessed ended up being a good thing because it was in college Papyrus discovered his differing preferences.
Glass looked over to Papyrus who appeared to still be asleep, curled up on the floor. “Should we wake him up soon?” They should probably start preparing for the journey to Snowdin and how they were going to explain it to him.
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Sans sighed a bit. Shifting. “yeah probably. where is he anyway?” He tried squinting around but no luck. He could tell where the machine was since the door was open, bathing the room in pale white light. But everything else was just indistinct colors and shadows.
He was a far cry from healed but he might be able to move with assistance.
Suddenly he looked nervous. “hey glass. does your pap know about the timelines?” Sans had been wondering if he should tell Papyrus about the resets for quite a long time. “because i’ve… heh. never told mine…”
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“He’s on your other side, asleep, and my Paps knows about them but that’s because he can travel them too. Gaster showed us how when we were just kids.” Glass shifted uncomfortably, “I haven’t told him about the resets though. I hardly understand them myself. Telling him would just freak him out and there’s no real proof of them existing besides my machine’s chaotic readings.”
There was a lot he didn’t tell Papyrus so he couldn’t exactly judge him for not telling his.
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Sans nodded slowly. “he remembers a little more every time. i can’t keep it from him but… yeah. i don’t want to scare him either.”
Papyrus trembled a little more. Sans was worried about him when he was lying on the floor, blind and talking about things he had never heard of? He knew he didn’t mean to but this was scaring him worse, not knowing what was wrong with his brother.
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“Yeah, I guess tha-” It was then that he noticed Papyrus was trembling. Shit had he been awake the entire time? How much had he heard?
Hey, It’s Breakable! Just wanted to remind y’all that I, @as-breakable-as-glass, respond in italics and @acesymetric responds in normal script. I hope you all enjoy part 4. This one is one of my favorites :)
Slowly, the world around him drained itself of color. Everything was frozen, like an old recording on pause. Static filled his ears in an incomprehensible screech as that too faded into inky darkness. Glass blinked and suddenly, he was standing in a featureless, grey room. He wasn’t alone either.
Standing across from him stood a dark figure who somehow seemed familiar… He felt like he was looking at a memory from a forgotten dream, faintly recognizable yet completely foreign.
He stared at the figure, his brow creased slightly. “Who are you? What the heck’s going on?” Suddenly Glass’ eye sockets widened with recognition. “Gaster? D-dad?”
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The white face tilted towards Glass as if noticing him for the first time. Small eye lights formed and a-too-wide smile spread across his face. He was trying to go for a concerned smile but it probably looked creepy.
“I aM sOrRy… BuT i Am NoT yOuR gAsTeR. yOu HaVe MeT mY sOnS tHoUgH.” His voice felt like it was right next to Glass’s skull and far away all at once.
“yOu ArE aT tHe EdGe Of ThE vOiD wHiLe We WaiT fOr SaNs.”
He also tried signing with his hands in hopes that Glass would understand. He hated the sound of his voice (or absence thereof).
‘It is good to meet you though. I have not seen Sans that happy for a very long time.’
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Glass tried to hide his disappointment when he learned this wasn’t his Gaster. Really, he should have know better than to get his hopes up.
He noticed the signs and couldn’t help but start using them himself while he spoke. Heh, guess old habits died hard. “The void huh? As in that great expanse of nothing your Sans was telling me about?”
He looked to the side, slightly uncomfortable, “Eh, and it’s good to meet you too but if Sans is happier for some reason it’s not because of me. The only thing I’ve done so far is crash in his house and follow him and Paps around.” Speaking of them where were they? Gaster made it sound like Sans was on his way but what about Papyrus? “Are they alright?”
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‘Ah well, it is the edge. More of a pocket really, a uh, go between. It is the only place in the void where I can be mostly solid since it is just on the edge of reality. A door in Waterfall occasionally appears. I can’t go through it but theoretically someone else can and-’ Gaster paused.
As he had been signing his movements were becoming more excited. Prioritize Dingus.
‘I do not have the faintest after that. But that is beside the point isn’t it. The short answer (to the first question) is yes and no.’
'and unfortunately the answer is the same for the other question. Yes they… WILL be alright but not in the same state. Sans told you why he could reset yes?’ He paused.
'This is a reset. Sans is heading back to the time machine.’ As he continued his hands slowed and the odd smile fell. He felt awful. His son took longer and longer with every reset, and he didn’t know what that meant…
'I’m proud of him you know,’ he signed suddenly. 'he won’t tell you this but he almost made it a year this time. All on his own he almost made it. Usually he dies within the first few months.’ He looked down.
Sans had seen so many resets. With a body so brittle that a single misstep could be his end.
So much of his son's pain and all he could do was tell him to not give up between resets. And he didn’t know if Sans could even hear him.
'He has not talked to another soul about anything for, what adds up to be around six and a half years. He felt… That he had a chance. So you crashing in was the best thing to happen since he found out he had Papyrus back.’ He tried again to make a friendly smile. This Sans had no idea just how much good he had done.
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“This is a reset?” He asked, instant regret filling his soul. If it really was one then that meant Sans had died. He died and he had been right there with him. Heh, he was some friend he was. He haven’t even done anything to prevent it.
Glass watched the rest of Gaster’s hand signals, “Wait, Sans hasn’t even made it past a year?” He let out a chuckle that held no humor, “Well I guess that makes sense then. Sorta sets the bar of 'best things to happen’ pretty low.” Even if he had somehow helped his double, it was still sad that he was the best thing to happen in over six years. “...Is there something I could do to help him?”
By the angel he had no idea why he asked. Whenever he tried to help out he somehow always managed to screw things up. He didn’t want to make the situation worse for his double but it wasn’t like he could just sit back and do nothing for him.
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Yup. He was a Sans alright. Stubborn in his own self image. Ah well. Most Sanses could barely see their own worth. 'You were willing to defend him and Papyrus. And if you have a Papyrus then you know how much that means to him.’
Ah, he should not be so rude. This wasn’t his kid.
However at Glass’ question Gaster looked a bit taken aback. Not that he wasn’t expecting it but the offer had come very quickly. 'Can you… Help him leave the capitol? It may take a while, since he will be very weak. And if not then maybe… Help him learn dodge.’ He laughed a bit. But that last request was half a joke. 'He doesn’t seem to get that he can’t take an attack in his state. I am not there to stabilize his condition.’
Suddenly the world began fizzling, static returning.
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Glass snorted, willing to and being able to are two separate things.
'Help him leave the Capitol’, That was going to be tricky to say the least but he had asked if there was a way to help. Dodging would be hard to teach him if he was as weak as Gaster said but not undoable. Avoiding attacks was actually something that came easy to him. He wasn’t much of a teacher, but it couldn’t hurt to try once Sans got some of his strength back.
He was about to respond when the room began filling with static. Looks like Sans finally reached the machine. Glass panicked slightly, not knowing how much time he had left to talk to this Gaster. “Get him safe, teach to dodge, got it. Anything else?”
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'Tell him that I’m proud and… Tell him…’ Crap. Of course now- “TeLl HiM hi.”
Then the room blipped out.
Gaster stood there for a moment staring. “TeLl HiM HI!?” he signed furiously at himself every synonym for idiot he could think of.
Glass on the other hand, appeared in the the labs. The hall was dark except the door furthest down where an eerie white light shone and the sound of a dying machine could be heard.
As the whirring died a new sound echoed down the hall, “SANS!!! SAAANS!!!”
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Glass blinked trying to adjust to the partially shadow filled hallway. It took his slightly muddled mind a moment to remember what just happened, but soon the memories flooded back, filling him with a sense of urgency. He dashed down the hall towards the white light and the cries that he could only assume were Papyrus’, pausing in the doorway.
The lab was a mess of notes, randomly placed tools, and wires. The machine itself was located on the far side of the room. To say it looked different from his own was a bit of an understatement as it was obviously in the earlier stages of being built.
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Papyrus stood in front of the door pounding his tiny fists and tears rolling down his face. “SAAANNNSS!!!” He turned at the new sound behind him, seeing Glass in the doorway.
The door had a small wheel which was not locked but too heavy for the tiny skeleton to open without effort.
“P-P-PLEASE HELP!!! MY BROTHER IS-”
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He hurried over to the machine and gripped the wheel with his hands. He pushed the wheel, grunting a bit with the effort, before it swung open. Glass peered into the machine to see Sans lying limp on the floor.
“Ah geez.” He mumbled putting one foot over the threshold of the machine so that he could reach in and pull him out. Once they were both out of it he gently laid Sans down on the floor.
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Sans looked worse off than before. The cracks from his right eye had spread to the left, reached down to the corners of his mouth and wrapped around the rest of his head. His arms also had cracks everywhere and the larger ones (on his head too) oozed a bright red liquid staining his clothes. Which hung off his tiny frame.
They were the clothes he had worn the day he fell into the core. They were similar if not the same clothes from the second picture. A lab coat, tie-printed t-shirt, now slightly damaged headphones, and sweats.
His eyes were already open when Glass pulled him out but they were black and he didn’t seem to be looking at anything. He was also shivering and twitching a bit. Something else Glass might notice was the occasional small spark of white energy jumping between his bones.
He tried saying something but he was stuttering so badly and mumbling that is was impossible to tell what he meant to say.
Papyrus had been watching from behind Glass, and was too terrified to make a sound. He looked absolutely horrified at the state of his brother.
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Shit this was bad. Trying to keep his voice calm he said, “Hey, hang in there for me will you? You’re going to be alright.” He really hopped he would be.
Glass hesitated a moment before positioning his hands, letting them hover over Sans’ head and chest. Trying to heal him wasn’t going to be easy but Sans needed it. Glass knew his limits. He wouldn’t be able to do much without frying his soul but even a little healing was better than none at all. He really wished his Papyrus was here. He was a lot better at this sort of thing than he could ever be.
He closed his eyes as he focused on healing the worst of the cracks. While they were closed, magic began to emit from his hands. It was a light, icy blue color tinted green from healing magic. Already, Glass’ hands began to tremble as he felt his soul strain to contain the rush of magic. Two minutes, he promised himself, just keep it up for two more minutes.
With his eyes closed, Glass failed to notice the white sparks, or the fact that they were becoming more active beneath his magic.
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Sans lay in a stupor. Subconsciously he went over the first month of a reset. The first day would always be the worst. He only knew he was alive by the blackness shot with shadows and the spark of Papyrus’ soul. He would only be able to hear a little bit the next day, when he would be in the most pain, and would have been blind in both eyes for about a week. His right eye never recovered but by week two his left could see more than just shadows…
But something was different.
Something cool, and soothing eased the darkness. It wrapped around his soul and bones giving relief. Sound, although faint could be heard after a moment more.
How?
Sans listened. He couldn’t register what he was hearing at first. Papyrus whimpering, he knew that sound, but there was a new one. A labored, rattled breathing…
Light began filtering through the darkness on the left. A pale, calming light…
All at once he snapped the pieces together. Glass! What was he doing!? He thought, but he couldn’t move.
The white sparks danced below the magic for the first minute and a half gathering. Then a few bolts zipped up the light and raced over Glass’ hands. Then a few more joined. They tingled and buzzed through his bones, not quite painful but very unpleasant.
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Glass’ breathing hitched when the small sparks zapped his fingers, almost causing him to almost lose his concentration on healing. His eyes flew open and stared down at his hands. The bolts of energy were jumping between Sans’ form and his hands, running along his bones to his forearms. They left an odd, burning numbness in their wake.
Only 20 more seconds… 15… 10…
He counted down the seconds, trying to control his racing soul. His magic felt heavy and thick, like it was smothering him. Something wet was starting to drip down the left side of his face from his eye socket. He realized sort of detachedly that he was beginning to toe the line.
Just 5 more… 2… 1.
Glass stopped the healing magic as soon as the two minutes were up. When he tried to withdraw it from Sans’ body however, the strange energy clung to it and jumped through the magic link. It ran along his magic filled bones and went straight to his soul.
He cried out as the weird numbness gripped soul, gripping his chest with a hand and the other going to his left eye socket. Black spots blurred his vision, along with other strange things. Red, the gleam of a knife, a disturbing smile… Papyrus
Hehe... Acey again, now we get to the actual plot! Well, some of it. next part is when it REALLY picks up speed.
Just a reminder, @as-breakable-as-glass is italics, and I, @acesymetric, use normal. I hope you enjoy!!
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Glass hadn’t slept at all that night. It wasn’t because he was in an unfamiliar place or uncomfortable. He just… didn’t… want to. Even in his own universe he never slept that much.
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The next morning Papyrus was up far too early as usual, pulling his near comatose brother out of bed as silently as possible before setting up for breakfast.
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When Papyrus exited, pulling a barely conscious Sans behind him and began preparing for breakfast, Glass tried to look like he was just waking up himself. He didn’t know if he succeeded or not.
“Morning,” he greeted, “is there something I can do to help out?”
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Papyrus could tell he was at least pretending to just wake up but didn’t comment beyond a cheery “HELLO! I GOT IT! WE’RE JUST EATING BAGELS. Oh, wait…” then whispered “how’s your headache?”
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Glass smiled “It’s fine, a lot better than yesterday.” During the night his headache had gone down to a dull throb from his initial migraine. His soul still felt like a dam on the verge of breaking, but that had also dwindled somewhat over night. He was lucky he hadn’t had a full on burn out or it would have been a lot worse.
He sat up in the chair, slowly stretching his joints and cracking his knuckles with light snapping sounds. Sitting in the armchair all night probably hadn’t been good for his bones but hey, he’d been in worse places before.
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“OH GOOD! WANT TO COME TO THE TABLE AND EAT SOMETHING? SANS SAID WE WERE GOING TO HAVE NICE CREAM TODAY, RIGHT? AND THAT YOU WERE COMING TOO!”
Sans gave a hollow grunt in response which Pap seemed to take as a yes.
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He shrugged. He really should try to eat something, especially since he was still recovering from a jump. Ugh, he really hoped it didn’t come back up later.
Glass stood up and was pleased when his legs didn’t shake under his weight. He walked over to the small table and pulled out a chair.
He glanced sympathetically at Sans, who looked like the walking dead, (heh pun) “Sorry, I would have made coffee but I didn’t know if you had the stuff for it.”
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Sans mumbled something indistinctly as Papyrus placed a bagel smothered in too much cream cheese and honey in front of him.
Papyrus gave a plain one with knife and spread to Glass as he translated. “HE NORMALLY GETS SOME FROM THE CAFETERIA DOWNSTAIRS. IF HE GETS UP THAT DAY NYEH!”
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Glass set aside the knife and spread and just took a small bite of it plain. “Heh, I’m always up before my brother so I’m the one that makes us coffee in the morning.”
Sometimes he would even attempt to make breakfast but that was usually sort of pointless since Paps has to leave almost right away for training and he never did have much of an appetite.
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“OOOH! YOU HAVE A BROTHER TOO? THAT IS SO COOL!” He thought for a moment. “HE SOUNDS VERY BUSY…”
The rest of breakfast was spent with Papyrus talking about the field trip and waking Sans up when he started dozing. He tried not to pry too much into Glass’ personal life.
This went on until they were ready to leave.
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Glass let him do all the talking. He occasionally nodded his head to show he was listening but he didn’t have much to add. He was grateful Papyrus didn’t ask too many questions about his past mostly because a lot of it would have been hard to explain without leaving things out.
When it looked like everyone was done, Glass set down his half eaten bagel, “If you guys are done, I’m ready to go whenever you are.”
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Papyrus eyed the half eaten bagel for a second, smiling. He must be saving room for nice cream! Sans slipped from the stool, only one eye light was on right now, and it looked like he was just now fully conscious. He gave a vague thumbs up as he pulled on a pair of slippers made to look like shoes.
“WE’RE READY!!” and Paps jauntily lead the way out the door. Swinging his arms widely.
Papyrus lead them down a narrow hallway with doors on either side. Some of which had names or numbers on them, and all of them looked scuffed up and worn… like a bunch of kids lived there. As they passed some of the doors, the other early risers could be heard as sibling shouted, younger kids cried or just general pleasant mumbling.
After several flights of stairs, they left the tall building behind. From the outside it was made of a warm brown/orange brick and a sign on the front read, ‘KID’S SHELTER.’ The front entrance lead towards a normally busy street
“three guesses, who named it?” Sans mumbled to Glass.
He was trying hard not to show just how tired he was now. His right eye light was just barely showing, and a bead of sweat ran down his skull. Usually he would have just taken a shortcut. Pap hadn’t been kidding when he said Sans didn’t usually leave their room so he had gotten very little exercise since the last reset… That wasn’t the only reason but it was the most at play right then.
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Glass curiously looked around as they walked. By the sounds of it, the other residents in the building were just waking up, and most of them were kids. They really weren’t kidding when they said this place was some sort of orphanage. It was pretty sad knowing that they all lost their parents through some illness or natural disaster.
When they exited the building, Glass tried to find some sort of landmark or building he might recognize from his universe and was startled to discover that he couldn’t find anything familiar around him. It had been a few years since he visited New Home in his world but he still knew the place like the back of his hand. Glass had no idea what street he was on, or if the building they just left even existed back home. It was yet another reminder to him that he was in a completely different universe. It was sort of a weird feeling. Damn he hoped he would get used to this soon.
When asked to guess by his double, only one name came to mind, “Asgore.”
Now that he was paying attention to his double, he noticed how faint his damaged eye glowed. He really looked exhausted. All jokes about being dead aside he really did look ready to fall over.
He called to Papyrus who was walking just ahead of them, “ Hey kiddo, mind if we slow down? I think my head ache’s coming back. ...Why don’t you tell me about some of the places we pass? I don’t really come to this part of the underground often.”
He didn’t want to call Sans out on being tired. He seemed to care a lot about taking Papyrus out and if he really didn't feel up to doing it he would have said something. He had a Papyrus of his own, he could relate.
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“heh… you got it.” He winked his bad eye.
When Glass called out to Papyrus for a slow down he stopped dead in his tracks and turned, blushing hard, both hands balled into fists and held up to his cheeks, eyes shining with… tears? “I AM SO SORRY!!!! YES OF COURSE.” And he started an exaggerated, slow mo walk while the Sanses caught up.
When young Sans caught up to Glass he quietly said, “heh, thanks. i don’t move too well in the morning. or ever. wish i could say it was ‘cause i sleep like the dead.” He did feel a little embarrassed that he needed it but he knew he looked bad, so he was also grateful that Glass was helping him out.
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Glass shrugged his shoulders, “Eh, It’s no problem… I didn’t hurt Papyrus’ feelings did I?” He saw the tears but honestly didn’t know what to make of them. He hadn’t been mean had he?
Again he listened to the child’s chatter while looking at the places Papyrus pointed out. There really was a lot to see in this part of the city and Papyrus was an good, albeit energetic tour guide.
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Sans snorted then grinned, “nah, he’s just… excitable.” Sans had no idea why he did that, but it was pretty funny.
By then the two had caught up to Papyrus. On their way to the nice cream cart he happily blabbered about this building and that building where this friend lived, or that teacher was… he would also point down streets telling him where other things were like the market with “MY FAVORITE CANDY SHOP! HE GIVES ME FREE CANDY IF I SAY PLEASE AND THANK YOU!”
At one street, Sans spoke up, pulling a hand from his pocket to gesture to a larger road. “the king’s palace is that way. and the labs are towards hotland.”
“YUP! THAT’S WHERE WE’RE HEADING!”
Soon after, the trio headed for the nice cream cart where Papyrus started chatting happily with an older rabbit monster. Sans recognized their son beside them as he fumbled with the gold Sans handed too him.
“…AND THIS IS GLASS MY NEW FRIEND! OH YEAH! WHAT FLAVOR DO YOU WANT?”
There were just two flavors; chocolate and extra chocolate with a sign that said ‘Vanilla coming soon!’
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When asked what flavor he wanted, Glass grimaced slightly. “I’m good kid, not a big fan of sweets.” Food in general was difficult to keep down but sugary foods were just worse.
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When Glass refused the nice cream, Papyrus took it better, “AH. OKAY!”
“you sure you’re alright?” Sans mumbled quietly. It always took him several days to recover enough to even move when he jumped.
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Glass offered a small smile, “I’m fine. Been better, but as long as I don’t use my magic for a while I’m good.” He was honestly a little tired. Walking around had worn him out more than he had expected but he was fine. Definitely not the worst burnout he’d ever had. Definitely nothing to worry about.
When Sans and Papyrus ordered their nice creams Glass asked, “So, where to next? Were we going to head back or was there another place you were going to go?” He still didn’t have a full understanding on where he was and with nowhere to go he was just going to tag along wherever they went.
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“OOOH. CAN WE GO SOMEWHERE ELSE SANS. PLEASE?” Pap asked,eyes shining.
“eh, as long as there’s a bench. sure.” He was tired. But that wasn’t uncommon, and he could slowly feel himself waking up a bit more.
So it was tied close to his magic? That was interesting. He really wanted to talk to Glass more but that wasn’t going to happen soon.
Waving to the Nice Cream workers they went on their way. The trek back towards the park would be shorter than going all the way back to the room and Papyrus was happily leading the way already. Foot traffic was starting to pick up as monsters got up to go to work or bustled around running errands… Papyrus tried to stay closer now.
A few monsters began heading the same direction as they passed dwellings. At the moment one monster shuffled ahead of them, muttering darkly under their breath.
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Glass followed the two brothers as they made their way through the increasingly busy street. He couldn’t help but slump his shoulders slightly and pull his hood down a little further over his face. He really didn’t like crowds. Luckily one of the perks that came with living in Snowdin was that he didn’t have to deal with them often.
Call him paranoid but it always felt like all eyes were on him. Even now, knowing that no one knew him here, he felt slightly suffocated.
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Sans didn’t like crowds either for many reasons, chiefly (right now) because he could lose Papyrus which was a proven fear as he began pulling ahead. He brushed past the muttering monster who flinched violently.
“I’M SORRY!” Pap shouted and tried to continue.
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Papyrus’ shouted apology brought his downcast eyes upward to see the younger skeleton standing next to an oddly skittish monster. Glass couldn’t put his finger on exactly what it was, but something seemed off about them. He cast a nervous glance to his double, wondering if he felt it too.
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Sans eye lights went out for a second and his breath hitched.
Papyrus began to move past the monster who threw an arm out at him, wordlessly.
Sans threw up a wall of blue bones between them and his brother, and teleported beside him. “n o t t h i s t i m e.”
However the arm carried through the wall of bones towards the two brothers. Sans pushed Papyrus aside, turning his bad eye to the monster as he did so. He thought he was clear.
The next second, the monster’s arm cracked Sans in the chest throwing him back.
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Glass forced himself to move. He felt his eyes go pitch black as he stepped in between the monster and Sans and Papyrus. He tilted his head up just enough so they could see the emptiness in his eye sockets beneath his hood as he spoke in a dangerously low tone, “Hey buddy, you have seconds to b a c k o f f or you are going to have a real bad time.” Even as he said it, he felt his magic thrum uncomfortably beneath his bones.
Shit, if it came to a fight he was screwed. He hoped he could just scare the prick off but if they weren’t going to back down then he’d be forced to pull out the big guns. He really hoped it didn’t come to that, but like hell he was just going to stand there and do nothing.
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Papyrus stared bewildered at the monster looming over them, and to Glass in front of him, and then to the side, where Sans lay in a crumpled heap. His eye sockets wide in shock as he held hands to his damp chest as he tried to breathe. And he felt that it was his fault... That was all Papyrus registered.
Glass would have a very different experience.
While he remained the same, everything else seemed to slow down, and colors faded until everything was still and gray. No air, no light, no time, no sound. No magic. Nothing except the shattering of a single fragile soul. If Glass were to turn around, he would see the soul shatter, and the pained, terrified expression slacken as Sans turned to a fine pale dust. The only movement.
Suddenly, a static started. Like the silence was forming words, nothingness creating it's own sound.
“SaNs. Do NoT gIvE uP yEt. PlEaSe SoN, LiVe.” And the world also filled with static until it too blinked out of existence.
All except Glass who found himself standing in a dull gray room, across from a tall figure. Large black eyes, with two scars on a white face, clasped hollow disembodied hands over a hunched, and slowly shifting shadowy body… Dr. W.D. Gaster.
Wait, what's Glasstale and WHY DID YOU NEVER TELL ME
G: “Uh, hey there. Glasstale’s the name of my timeline. Apparently something about our personalities make everyone here slightly different from the original timeline. There’s also a lot of political crap that most other dimensions don’t have. Heh, lucky them.
While most universes’ Toriel is out of the picture, our queen is still very much an active ruler. She’s based in the ruins and is fighting Asgore strictly politically for leadership over the underground. Guess they don’t want to start a war or something. They’re doing a great job with that by the way.”
S: Yup. aaaaand gonna stop you there glass. you can keep going about this for hours.
G: Glass looked away and muttered, “Well not my fault everyone there is stupid.”
In which a smol skele is introduced, puns are exchanged, and important discussions take place.....
Hello my friends! Acey here! Now we have made it to part two. Just a reminder, @as-breakable-as-glass is italics, and I, @acesymetric, use normal. I hope you enjoy!!
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The door burst inwards with an enormous BANG, “SAAAAANS! I’M HOOOOME!!!” Papyrus rushed into the room, shouting shrilly at the top of his non-existent lungs.
This Papyrus was very young, no more than 6 or 7 maybe. He was about eye socket level with kid Sans standing up. And as soon as he saw his brother, grinning like an idiot on the floor he threw his backpack to one side, kicked the door closed (and a shoe) all in one movement, and tackle hugged Sans. Or tried to.
A second before he landed on top of his hapless brother, Sans threw up a hand, eye sparking blue and yellow and Papyrus hung suspended in the air with a PING.
“HEEEYYYYYY!!!!”
“sorry, still not feeling too well.” he dropped his hand and Papyrus gave him a much more gentle hug with no less enthusiasm.
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He was caught off guard when the door was thrown open and a young Papyrus came running into the room. His head slipped from the hand he had propped it up on and he had to jerk back quickly to avoid falling out of his seat.
He watched as this younger, more energetic version of his brother attempted to tackle his older sibling and felt a small smile creeping over his features.
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At the sudden movement, Papyrus’ eyes fell on the new guest, and looked confused for a moment.
“HI! WHO ARE YOU?” His voice was not quite as loud but it still made Sans’ head ring… He couldn’t imagine what it was like for Glass.
“OH WAIT!! YOU’RE THAT SKELETON FROM SANS’ PHONE!!” he shouted again. Standing up with a grin.
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His head gave another painful throb and Glass winced slightly at Papyrus’ loud tone. Out the corner of his eye, he noticed this counterpart do much the same. He frowned slightly, remembering how Sans said time traveling was difficult for him too. He hoped this Sans wasn’t sick like him. He wouldn’t wish his condition on anyone.
He was more than a little confused when Papyrus said he was on his double’s phone. “Uh… I guess?”
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Sans sat up a bit straighter, shi-ooot.
“uh, nope. different guy. but kinda similar? anyway. papyrus, he isn’t feeling too good right now, so can you show us your inside voice?” The tone Sans used was patient but not patronizing, and the fond grin never left his face.
It wasn’t entirely Papyrus’ fault he that he was loud, he had high functioning autism. He was just advanced enough to be mistaken for an overly hyper kid since he was a brilliant for his age, very articulate, and had all the kindness that his soul could bear. Also he was quick to pick up on things, especially people, and would do anything to help. But his mind always seemed to run on a different track and he didn’t really know what to do with all the energy that came with it.
“OH! Sorry.” Looking embarrassed, he stood and put out a hand. “My name is Papyrus! What’s yours?”
____________
He brought his hand out from its pocket, keeping it steady as possible, to shake Papyrus’ hand.
“Heh, don’t worry about it. You can call me Glass kiddo.”
He glanced in his double’s direction. A guy kind of like him? Was it was another Sans?
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Remembering his brother’s words, he shook the hand very gently, but felt the tremor in his fingers. He gasped.
“OH- oh. Are you doing alright? Has Sans fed you? Oh gosh Sans you haven’t given him a pillow or blanket! Or asked if he wanted to take his shoes off! Or-” before he could finish his thought he rushed to the closet/bedroom and disappeared. “The Great Papyrus will not leave you unattended my new friend! NYEH HEH HEH HEH!!”
Sans sat there just staring at the door with that same silly grin. “i knew i was forgetting something.” He chuckled, then turned back to the other Sans. “i bet you have questions for me?”
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Before he could answer the barade of questions or reassure him he was fine, Papyrus was already running into another room, leaving him to feel slightly disoriented and confused.
He literally appeared out of nowhere, crashing in their house, and both of them were worried about his well being.
“Uh, You guys do know that you don’t need to do anything for me right? I’ll be out of here in a bit, but yeah, I have a few. Who’s the skeleton in your phone? I’m assuming it’s another Sans because, apparently, he looks like me, or us…” Damn it was too confusing to think about with a headache.
_____________
He waved off his protests lightly, “heh. naw, we don't get much company so it's no trouble.”
Sans nodded at his question, his face falling slightly, “it’s complicated. but yeah, it’s me.” In answer he pulled out his phone- which was very advanced- and scrolled through a number of pictures before he selected one.
It looked like Sans had taken the photo; He stood in front of a tall, thin yet broad shouldered skeleton with cracks over his right eye and another running down his left towards his jaw… Gaster.
He had a surprised look on his face, blueprints in one hand, coffee mug in the other, obviously in mid sentence as Sans (who looked about Glass’ age) grinned, his visible hand dramatically thrown back towards the doctor.
He flipped to the next picture, muttering something about the ‘wrong pic.’
This time it was a photo of him and a team of other monsters, obviously in a lab due to everyone of them wearing a lab coat. Gaster did not appear in this one, but Sans was clearly visible: He wore a pair of nice headphones around his neck, a T-shirt with a printed tie, black sweats, and cheap tennis shoes. Short, stocky, an easy smile. And much older. Older than Glass even.
In the present, Sans watched his double closely. He had no idea if he had come across another Sans with this problem. Selfishly, he half hoped that he had, then maybe he would learn how to fix it.
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Glass’ eyes widened slightly upon seeing the first photo. For a moment, he had mistaken the people in it to be himself and his own Gaster but he quickly realized that there were some key differences between them and the people in the picture. When he was shown the second pic, he looked to his double.
“That’s you?” He asked, “and was that your Gaster? What happened?”
Just trying to think of the how messed up the timeline must be made his head hurt worse. He hoped he knew how to help this Sans but he doubted he did. He couldn’t ask for advice from his Gaster, he was gone, and he couldn’t even get his own stupid machine to work.
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Good, so there were Gasters… That meant maybe there would be hope for him too.
“it’s a really really long story. but very basically, gaster created pap and me, we grew up at the labs near hotland, then i moved out, and after a series of… incidents i started working with him on a time machine. we were in the core while the machine was hooked up to it and…”
His eyes turned dark. “gaster and i were- we fell into. the core. he… was thrown out of our timeline and i was… pushed...”
He fell silent. Wow this was harder to talk about than he thought. He knew he had to do it eventually but even that small amount of information caused the growing pit in his soul to feel like it would swallow him whole. He felt numb and couldn’t continue. How had the other hims talk about it?
Actually… They didn’t did they.
He sighed and put his head in his hands. He felt old. His voice sounding drained he said “anyway. i ended up back when i was a kid, back in time i mean, but no gaster... sorry, whenever i try to talk about it…”
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He listened to Sans’ explanation intently but just ended up with more questions. Like what did he mean when he said they were ‘created’ by Gaster? And while that was interesting, the thing that his mind kept his attention was the fact that Sans fell into the core and he was alive.
Glass tried not to be too optimistic, but hope bloomed in his chest at all the possibilities this implied. If his double was telling the truth, then his Gaster could still be alive.
He pushed his hope and excitement to the side when he noticed how tired his double looked. Just talking about had made his shoulders slump and he sounded exhausted, defeated.
“Hey… it’s alright. This would be hard for anyone to talk about.”
Shit he was really bad with this kind of stuff. He didn’t know what to do to help him.
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Sans didn’t move for a moment. Then he pulled his head from his hands looking at Glass, his eye lights returning.
He offered a weak smile, “thanks…”
Papyrus emerged from the room, arms full of blankets, pillows, and stuffed monsters. He had to turn to the side to view his brother and guest, a triumphant grin on his face, until he saw Sans. He dropped everything next to him and threw his bony arms wordlessly around Sans from behind in a tight hug.
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Glass smiled back at his double, hoping it was at least somewhat reassuring. When Papyrus came in and hugged he felt relieved. At least someone here knew what they were doing.
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Sans leaned into the hug, patting his hand and smiling a little more at Glass. He really appreciated having another adult to talk to about this.
“i’ll tell ya more later. but for now, pap, what are all those for?”
He stood up beaming. “OH THESE- *ahem* these are for Glass!” His voice dropped to what he must have thought was a whisper.
Then he picked up the mess and started lining the arm chair with pillows, making a nest around Glass. Then, satisfied, he tucked one particularly plush blanket neatly on his lap. Adding a stuffed dino monster for affect.
“uh pap-?” Sans looked at Glass apologetically. “sorry he does this when i get really sick.” Glass could stop him but Sans sure couldn’t once he set his mind to helping someone else.
“Nyeh heh! Or sad. Your turn!” Papyrus snatched the last blanket, a large stuffed comforter and wrapped himself and his brother up in a smaller nest.
“What were you two talking about?” He asked brightly. Then his eyes fell on the phone, “Oooh! Were you telling him about dad!? I wanna hear more about him too!”
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“It’s fine.” He could already tell that this Papyrus was just as kind and selfless as his own brother. His Paps would do just about anything if he thought it would help someone. Still, knowing this didn’t stop him from feeling a little… awkward. He didn’t want them to think he needed to be taken care of and he didn’t really know how to respond to their kindness.
“I really don’t need all of this though.” He said, shifting slightly under the pile of blankets and pillows. He could feel a slight blush creeping up his cheekbones and was thankful his magic was such a pale blue. Hopefully it wouldn’t be noticed.
He was curious about their Gaster too, but didn’t want to push the subject in case he didn’t want to talk about it. He knew how painful old memories could be. “You don’t need to tell me about him if you don’t want to.”
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Sans couldn’t help but grin a little wider at Glass, seeing the slight bluish tint on his cheekbones. Yup. Papyrus was adorable. “it’s easier to roll with it.” Maybe he’d give him trouble about it later.
“and nah,” Sans said as Papyrus snuggled against him. He didn’t mind if it was before the accident. “i like talking about the big nerd.”
“he was the most eccentric bag of bones in the underground. he always wore either a lab or trench coat, and big collared sweaters. he was real tall and skinny, and he could fight better than most in the underground. but he liked science more.” He chuckled. Already, Sans began to loosen up again. Gaster may be alive after all. The more Pap knew about him the better.
“around others he was really awkward and quiet, mostly because he spoke in wing-dings. but if you mentioned anything about science, magic or ‘sci-fi’ would start talking non stop. or if he got an idea for a new project or theory of some kind. then he would sign in wing-dings, and yell about whatever crap he was thinking about.”
Papyrus squeaked a bit, “Like me!?”
“yeah but you always do that.”
“I do not think of crap! All my ideas are great!” Papyrus pushed Sans lightly.
“heh heh! okay, true. anyway, but he was brilliant. just didn’t understand monsters at all.”
Clearly in a much better mood, he looked over at Glass, “anything else you’d like to know?”
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He chuckled softly at their bantering. Glass guessed it was a brother thing since he and his Papyrus did the exact same thing.
Speaking of his Papyrus, he really hoped time flowed differently between AUs because Papyrus would have come home to an empty house by now. He could only imagine how badly his brother would react to his disappearance.
Well there wasn’t much he could do about that now. He could only hope Paps wouldn’t accidentally kill him when he got home.
Glass shrugged when he was asked if he had a question. He had a lot of questions relating to time travel and the experiments Gaster was working on but he didn’t know how much this Papyrus knew about any of it, or if the Sans here wanted him to know about it at all.
“What do you guys do all the time?” He asked simply. He was still curious about their world and it seemed like a safe enough question to ask around Papyrus.
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“I go to school! My teacher is strict but very nice. They don’t like my ‘outside voice’ but that is alright! Sans usually stays home.” He glanced over at him.
“eh yeah, i tried school once, but it wasn’t my thing. you could say that i really got schooled.”
Pap groaned. “That wasn’t even a good one. Sans if you tell a pun it has to be good.” Then he frowned. “When did you try going to school?”
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Well, he couldn’t pass up an opportunity like that. “Heh, I don’t know, it was pretty pun-tastic to me.”
Glass listened to the rest of what Papyrus had to say. Oh, well that answered one of his questions at least. He looked to his double, hopping he had some sort of explanation because he sure didn’t.
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Sans gave his double a meaningful look. ‘later’ he signed with one of his hands. He didn’t know if Glass knew what it meant but tried anyway.
It wasn’t that he wanted to keep it secret from Papyrus, but how do you explain all this to a kid his age? No doubt he would accept it, it was Papyrus after all but he wanted him to have as normal of a childhood as possible.
At Glass’ pun, Papyrus groaned, “Not you too! You two are a couple of boneheads!”
Sans snorted, “heh heh heh heh… nice one bro. i bet we could make a skele-ton more puns.”
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Glass saw his double’s sign and nodded slightly in agreement. Really, he couldn’t judge. Their situation was completely different from his own.
A smile split his face when he heard what he took as a pun challenge. Puns were good, he could do puns.
“Tibia honest I doubt you can make more than me. Punning is like sleeping, it’s so easy, I can do it with my eyes closed.”
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Papyrus clapped his hands over the side of his skull. “NYOOOOO…..”
Oh it was on.
“wow that is pretty impressive, i’m too lazy for that. i guess i’m a little like a bike in that sense: two tired to stand it.”
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Hehe, something never change no matter what universe you’re in.
“Well becoming a pun master doesn’t happen overnight. You gotta work to the bone to be on my level.”
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Sans laughed. The irony!
“ah, true enough! but i have to ask. is this a pour time for a rain joke? i’m asking mostly because i-” he leaned forward, “don’t want to mist a good opportunity.”
“EEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeee!!!!” Papyrus threw himself under the comforter and it did little to stop the noise. In the process he also threw some of it over Sans.
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“Hey, it'snow problem as long as you don’t dampen the mood.”
He outright laughed at Papyrus’ reaction. Really, his response was even better than his own brother’s. “What’s wrong Papyrus? Don’t you have a funny bone?”
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Sans laughed again, oh gosh…
“I HAVE TWO, WHICH MORE THAN I CAN SAY ABOUT YOU!” he peeked from under the blanket to glare at the two of them. This comment caused Sans to laugh even harder.
“NYEH!! I’M GOING TO BED! SEE YOU IN THE MORNING!!!” He got up and threw the rest of the blanket over Sans and stormed into their room.
“aaaw pap!” Sans uncovered his head in time to see Papyrus close the door as ferociously as he could. “eh, he was smiling. hey pap! love you!”
“NYEH! ME TOO!”
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Glass watched Papyrus stomp of to their room with a slight smile on his face. “Heh, he’s a good kid.”
He then started carefully setting the pillows on the floor near the chair in a relatively neat pile. He had really only kept them with him to amuse Papyrus. He placed everything down except the blanket, which he kept in his lap.
“So, I guess now would be a good time to ask me something if you have any questions for me, or we could start theorizing on the whereabouts of your Gaster. Whichever is good for you.”
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Sans grinned, “yeah he is.”
He turned back to Glass, his expression a little more serious “yeah, it sounds like you and i have at least some similarities. who knows, maybe we can help each other out a bit. i guess first off, where is your gaster? and how can you jump time lines?” He thought for a moment and frowned again. “oh… yeah. how many humans have fallen down in your time?”
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Glass sighed through his nasal cavity and leaned back in the chair. “My Gaster’s dead, or at least I thought he was. We were at the core facility and just like you and your Gaster, he fell.”
And I’m the one that caused it, he thought bitterly. He scowled, annoyed with himself. There was time for a guilt trip later. Now was not the time to think about it especially with the possibility of his father still being alive.
“Anyway everyone thought he died in the fall but you fell in too and lived. There’s a good chance that both our Gasters are stranded somewhere else in the multiverse.”
“Jumping timelines is something Gaster taught Paps and I how to do when we were kids. Heh, I remember my first jump… That wasn’t fun. Ended up crashing between worlds and dad had to come get me. Dimensional jumping is a rare magic in my world and it always has been. Even before we were sealed underground it was practically unheard of. It’s pretty strange that me, Gaster, and Papyrus all have the ability. I guess it runs in the family or something. And humans… So far there have been seven human children that have fallen down. One of them was adopted by the king and queen before it perished. The six others had their souls taken by King Asgore.”
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Sans looked at him sympathetically. He recognized that guilt. He had not met a Sans that didn’t feel like they were responsible for Gaster’s death, even if they weren’t at fault.
“ah, so gaster actually is your dad in your world. here, pap and i are clones of sorts. we were, eh not supposed to get a soul. or i wasn’t. we were his side project for a while.” He blinked, “ah, before you say anything, he really treated us really well. and eventually he- ah, let’s say he figured out that testing on kids is not good.“ He looked a little… Sheepish. “that’s a really long story that i’ll tell ya later.”
At the mention of his Gaster falling in the core he nodded. “as far as i can tell, my gaster is stuck in the void. when we first turned on the time machine we got detailed readings of literally nothing. there is no magic, light, air, time or substance but that in itself creates something. he’s… given me signals. he is alive though.”
As Glass spoke of the humans, his face darkened a bit. “so none of them got to your papyrus… that’s good. five have fallen down since the first.” He looked relieved after a second.
“pap….was killed by the fifth human. they were threatening some kids and and he refused to move while i froze…” He shook his head. “that’s the one good thing about the reset. i was able to get him back.”
When Glass described his experience with timeline jumping nodded, “at least you have help with yours. the jumping timelines is new for me and it nearly kills me everytime. that started happening after the first reset. pap has come with me to a couple of universes but he doesn’t remember it for long.”
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So, they were an… experiment? Glass had a hard time wrapping his mind around that, mostly because he would never imagine his Gaster doing something like that. It was hard to remember that his double’s Gaster wasn’t his.
He focused on the rest of what his double had to say. “You got your machine to work? Heh, I’ve been trying to get it to function for years. I thought those readings on the blank space were glitches…” Maybe it wasn’t completely trashed after all.
Glass blinked when his double continued, “Your Paps was killed?”
Just the mention of something happening to Papyrus, even if he wasn’t his Paps was enough to set him on edge. He understood the look on this Sans’ face. If something happened to Paps and he hadn’t protected him, he wouldn’t ever be able to forgive himself. Not like he’d be able to protect him from anything, he was the useless brother, but he sure as hell would try.
After his initial reaction the rest of his double’s statement sank in. “Wait, you remember the resets?” Glass only knew about them from reading the functional parts of the machine. There had been obvious backtracks in the timeline where it seemed that time had started, stopped, then repeated over and over again. He couldn’t remember the resets actually happening, but he just had this feeling the time line diagram wasn’t just a glitch from some faulty circuit in the machine. He swore he could feel the memories just at the edge of his mind.
His eye sockets widened slightly at the other’s confession. “Why do you do it if jumping is that bad for you? I mean sheesh, it’s bad for me too but as long as I don’t travel too far I don’t keel over.” He looked thoughtful for a moment, “How’d you even discover you could do it if it’s a new thing?” He hadn’t known you could gain the ability. He had just assumed you were born with it or not.
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“the time machine went through several prototypes so it wasn’t all at once. what’s the problem with your time machine, maybe i could give some pointers?” He had rather extensive knowledge on them since he worked on the later project although his job had mainly been crunching numbers. However if he had it his way he would never go near the first one ever again.
Papyrus had been killed when he was around 20, and just as Sans had started his internship. But he was alive now, and that was all that mattered.
And that was interesting… Glass didn’t remember the resets? He would probably ask him to see the data later…
Sans sat back after he told him about the resets. But instead of answering his first question he laughed bitterly, “i don’t jump on purpose. i ‘figured out’ i could do it because when i was about this age-” he tapped his chest, “the first time, i was shut in the prototype time machine. gaster had been working on the wiring in another room, i climbed in-” he grimaced. Honestly it was the dumbest mistake of his life, “and it started up while i was inside.”
“the prototype didn’t have shielding in place yet. and i was exposed to determination from two human souls and raw time energy. it infused with my soul but conflicts with my own magic and body.” Sans rubbed the damaged side of his skull absently.
“and that is why i remember the resets. because i cause them. whenever i have died it sends me back to when i was this age. and back into that machine.”
“and now, ever since the core, i have had one foot in the void- so to speak, and extra energy builds until i just blip out of existence. well, to another timeline.” He spoke lightly of it but his brow creased slightly. It was actually very painful. The pressure on his soul and body in the actual jump was unbearable and he usually couldn’t tell when he was about to jump until a day before. He would feel like he was on the verge of panic all day, as his soul was pressured more and more and his natural magic overridden.
Suddenly he had an idea. “can you teach me how to jump timelines? maybe if all the energy were not released at once i, well heh, i would have a lower chance at dying.”
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Glass suppressed the urge to groan and pinched the ridge of his nose, “As far as I can tell, everything is a problem. Just when I think I’m making progress, some part breaks down or gets overridden or it just starts receiving random signals and information…” yeah it was a mess.
He hadn’t been the one to create the current machine, that had been mostly Gaster’s work. He was a theorist, not a mechanic damn it! All he had to go on where his own assumptions and his father’s notes. He truly regretted not studying engineering more.
Glass winced in sympathy as he listened to the recount of his accident with the machine, “Geez, it’s a wonder you even survived that. Seriously, most monsters wouldn’t have.”
He frowned slightly and shrugged at the request for lessons, “Buddy, I am honestly not the right person to ask for lessons. I can hardly do it myself here.” He did want to help him but trying to teach him would only end up with a disaster. “I don’t know if this is even a teachable skill but if you really want to learn, you could ask my Papyrus if he could help you out. He’d be thrilled to try.”
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He couldn’t help but grin a little at the theorist part. “heck i know what you mean. i didn’t study engineering, but i tinkered with simple mechanics a little later just so i could understand what gaster was talking about.” He considered the rest of his information for a moment. “that sounds like a… problem to say the least. once i find out how to aim maybe i can take a look.”
Sans nodded after a second, “the only reason i survived the first time was because of gaster.” He smiled a bit despite himself. “that’s when he really started treating us like his kids.”
When Glass recommended talking to Papyrus he nodded again, understanding. Then snorted “well, that is if i get to meet him.”
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He smiled weakly, "If you wanted to, that’d be great. Don’t know why I haven’t scraped the whole thing yet.”
Glass listened to the rest of his response before speaking. “Hey, if my brother ever lets me out of the house again when I go back, I’ll bring him here and introduce the two of you.” He was only half joking when he said it. Paps might seriously try to lock him in his room for this.
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He grinned again, rubbing his eye sockets. “because all sans are stubborn, lazy idiots. and this pap works real hard to get me out of the house so maybe i should come visit.”
“look sorry to bail but i have got to sleep. or at least try to. need anything before i head off?”
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“If you figure out how to aim your jumps then sure.”
Glass shook his head, “Nah, I’m good. Sorry if I kept you up though.” He hadn’t actually realized how late it had gotten. He didn’t feel tired, or at least no more tired than expected after a jump.
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He suppressed a yawn, slowly standing up. “nah, i’ve been promising paps that i would take him for nice cream for weeks. figured i should be semi-conscious for that. you’re welcome to come.” He grinned then said, “paps would probably have a fit if i didn’t at least invite you.”
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He shrugged, “If you don’t mind me tagging along, then sure.” It would give him a chance to have a look around this world. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t the least bit curious how much their undergrounds differed.
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Sans gave up and finally yawned. “yeah, we’d love it. awright, see you in the morning.”
He shuffled over to their room, quietly opened the door and fell onto his bed. Sleep didn’t come to him really, but he was able to doze the rest of the night.
Hey all you wonderful people :3 This is the first part in the crossover between @acesymetric and myself, @as-breakable-as-glass AUs Undertable and Glasstale. My responses are going to be in italics while aces' are going to be in normal writing so you all know who is who. We both hope you enjoy it!
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Sans had no idea where he was going. All he knew was that he needed to get out. It was just too much, the suppressing quiet of the empty house, the mess of a machine in the lab, his own stir crazy mind.
He wasn’t thinking when he jumped without a destination in mind. He collapsing onto all fours on the other side of wherever he was. Damn that hadn’t been very smart. He could already feel the intense headache coming on, The edges of his vision blurring slightly with dizziness.
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It had been a quiet day for Sans. He did what he normally did on a bad week; lay in bed and stare up at the ceiling. Trying not to think. Trying not to think of the past, or the uncertain future if there even was one…
He sighed. There he went again.
He wanted Papyrus to come back home and fill the silence again. He was loud, boisterous, and the absolute highlight of his life. But right now he was on a class field trip to Waterfall. Sans chuckled to himself lightly, Papyrus had a leg up; he had already showed him Waterfall. But he would be getting the history part too.
His thoughts were interrupted as a crash sounded from the front room. Simultaneously, he felt spacetime… moving? That wasn’t right.
Slowly he got up and pressed the good side of his skull to the door listening…
The other Sans would have ended up in a cramped front room. it was homey and clean but he could tell someone lived there with a large lumpy armchair, books stacked precariously on the side, a table with three chairs, a mini fridge and microwave on top, and a tall sink with a step ladder.
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Sans tried to gain his bearing as he stumbled to shaky feet, using the armchair for support. He glanced around at his surrounding, not recognizing where he landed. He appeared to be alone but there could be someone near by. “Uh, hello?”He called out a bit uncertainly. Yep he should really start thinking before he pulled any more stunts like this. Papyrus was going to have his head when he got home.
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Sans lurched backwards… That sounded like him! From the past, well future… Crap.
Too complicated.
He had visited other time lines before but this was the first time something- rather someone, had come to his world.
He dithered for a moment before cautiously peeking around the door.
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Sans jerked around when he heard the door crack open only to be staring straight back at… himself? No, it was this world’s version of him, wherever ‘here’ was. Sans tried to look like he was casually leaning against the chair instead of slumping on it for support like he actually was. “Hey there, sorry for dropping in.”
He really hoped this wasn’t a hostile timeline because he doubted he could stand up against his double, even if he did look like a kid.
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When he saw it was definitely another Sans, he slowly pushed the door open. This younger version wore a light blue T-shirt with black sleeves that was at least one size too big and blue basketball shorts. His left eye had the usual white eye light, while the right was dim, flickering occasionally. The reason was apparent as spider web cracks spread around the socket.
They didn’t seem to bother him though as he stared at his counterpart curiously.
He tried to shake any leftover surprise and shrugged, grinning. “eh, no prob. i’m guessing knock knock jokes aren’t your favorite?”
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He wasn’t fazed by the other’s cracks. He had his own share of scars himself. Sans managed a small smile, “You kidding? I love ‘em.” He paused, regarding the other him with a cautious look, “You don’t seem all that surprised that a strange version of you is standing in the room though.”
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He tried really hard to not feel down about his pun falling flat, even though all of them did. He easily covered it.
“well, i figured if you’re a me you can’t be all bad.”
He had actually been watching him carefully for any sudden moves, but he couldn’t really bring himself to worry too much.
This Sans was a little taller than most, well it was either that or he was just thinner. He couldn’t really tell. He wore a long sleeved deep red shirt, a black vest with two large, horizontal white stripes, a pulled up fluffy hood, white sweats with a single black stripe on each leg, and gray laced boots with freshly melting snow.
He suddenly wished his eyesight wasn’t so bad, then he could get a better look at his face, but all he could tell for sure was he looked drawn with sharper features. He certainly looked tired judging by how he leaned on the couch.
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“Heh, who said all Sanses are good?” He put his hands up in a sign of peace. “I’m not here to start anything but I’ve heard a bit about some of the other timelines. Lets just say there are some real twisted worlds out there.”
He hoped he wouldn’t notice his hands shaking slightly now that they were in full view.
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Younger Sans hadn’t noticed the shaking yet. “huh, crazy.”
He hoped that his underreaction to the mention of timelines wouldn’t raise any flags. Playing dumb was usually easier at first. Especially when everyone thought you were a kid. And he knew about the less friendly timelines, but he didn’t really want to even think about what would happen if they somehow made it here…
Suddenly he remembered something.
“ah da- er. crap. you need anything? water, ketchup?” Papyrus would have been appalled. Only treating his new guest with puns?
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The thought of eating anything at the moment made his non-existent stomach twist. Sans shoved his hands back in his pockets, still leaning against the chair, “Nah, I’m good. Thanks though.”
His eyes continued to roam about the room in mild curiosity. “You mind telling me where I landed kid? I, uh, didn’t exactly plan on coming here.”
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He shrugged a bit, “you’re in our apartment, in the capitol,” and trudged over to the step ladder, pulling a cup from under the sink.
He hadn’t eaten all day, he just couldn’t bring himself to get out of bed, but he was thirsty, and he was up anyway so…
The only new thing he would notice were the three doors. One to the bathroom, one leading out, and an accordion door to what was supposed to be a large walk in closet. The brothers had converted it into a small but comfortable bedroom.
“by we i mean me and papyrus.” he said turning on the ladder to face Sans. Mostly he wanted to gauge his reaction. Also it had occurred to him that jumping time and space to another world was probably not the most pleasant experience.
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He watched his movements with a close eye, still not sure what to expect from him. At the mention of them living alone, he raised an eye ridge, “Really, just the two of you? No parents? Don’t you have a Gas-” he cut himself off.
Oh. If this world’s Sans and Papyrus were on their own then that meant that their a Gaster was either dead or… not… nice.
He looked away, hoping he hadn’t hit a nerve. “Heh, never mind.”
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Sans’ eyes widened slightly at the mention of Ga- However he hid all his other feelings: excitement, hope, fear… He didn’t want to get excited over nothing. Quickly he took another sip of water to hide his momentary break in expression.
Instead he decided to focus on the first part of the question. “it isn’t really an apartment so much as an orphanage. i’m sure it used to be one. if kids can take care of themselves- or think they can at least, then they get their own place. and it was this, be separated, or live at the dump, so… ” He finished with a shrug.
…but he still felt curious… Was he about to suggest Gaster? He knew other Sanses sometimes had Gasters. Was this one of them?
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Fleeting as it was, Sans was sure he saw something change in the other Sans’ expression. He couldn’t quite tell what it was but there was definitely a story there. Who was he kidding, when was there not something suspicious going on where a Gaster was involved?
He was tempted to ask more about it, but his head was still swimming and the ringing in his ears was making it hard to focus.
“So… This whole building is full of kids?” He asked slipping down a few inches on the chair.
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“i- yeah… hey are you alright?” He set the cup down behind him hastily.
Sans had noticed him leaning a little too much for comfort but he thought it was the usual tiredness. He shuffled over to him and noticed how strained his expression was.
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Shoot, he had hopped he hadn’t looked that bad. He tried to offer a smile but turned out to be more of a grimace. “Eh, like I said, I didn’t really mean to crash here. Jumping through the multiverse is… a bit harder for me than it probably is for others.”
Wow, real understatement of the year.
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Oh. So the weird time-thing was him. Actually now that he was closer he could almost feel it. A slight energy that was hard to describe but pulled at his soul just a bit…
“look sit down, before you fall over.” He threw a neatly placed pillow on the floor and motioned to the chair being leaned on.
“The multiverse? oh so you’re not just from another timeline, you’re from a different universe.” Shoot. Slip of the figurative tongue. He really needed to work on his lying skills.
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Yep. He definitely looked as bad as he felt if the kid thought he was about to fall over. He might not be that far off actually, if he were being completely honest. Sans stumbled around the chair so he could sit down in it, grateful for the chance to rest. He was too tired to notice that this kid knew a lot more than he probably should about dimensional travel.
“I’m guessing so.” He replied, “Don’t know exactly where I am, but in my world there aren’t a lot of parentless children. If the king and queen can agree on one thing, it’s the well being of their subjects.”
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He watched him stumble into the chair, creasing his brow in concern.
“huh. your world sounds pretty nice then.” he said absentmindedly. There were a lot of problems with earthquakes, flooding, power outages and other… things.
“most monsters just tend to take care of each other but that is really hard to do in a big city.”
At the mention of the royal family Sans said, “oh the king cares alright. he visits this place to read stories and helps out how he can. i think he likes being around kids since…anyway. no one’s seen the queen for a while though.”
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He pulled a hand out of his pockets and leaned forward so that he could prop his head up on it. “Just because everyone in my world has food and shelter doesn’t mean it’s any better off than yours. The people here sound friendly enough and while no one is outright hostile in mine, heh, I guess you could say there’s some unrest back where I come from.”
San nodded his head a bit at the mention of the King liking kids. “Yeah, sounds like him. Both of the royal family members adore kids, they just have different ways of showing it. They don’t really agree with each other a lot.”
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“heh yeah…so is there anything i can do? i mean for you right now.” This Sans was really worrying him. Now that he was close, he could see his hand trembling and the fatigue etched into the other’s features.
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Sans shrugged his shoulders and looked away. “I’m fine. Just need to rest a bit.”
It had been so long since his last jump, he had almost forgotten how crappy the aftereffects could be. He should probably sleep but there was no way in hell he was going to do that so the best thing he could do was to relax and try not to use any magic for a while.
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If Sans had lips he would be pursing them. In it’s place he just frowned ever so slightly. “well alright then.”
He blinked and glanced around for a clock. As he did so he said, “hey, my bro is gonna be home soon (i hope) so what should i call ya? calling you ‘sans’ is gonna be really confusing for him.” Then he chuckled, “hell it’s confusing for me.”
Crap. He really needed to stop that. He had worked so hard to stop cursing…
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Sans could tell he didn’t quite believe him, but thankfully he didn’t press the subject.
At the question of what to call him, Sans chuckled a bit as well. “Yeah, guess it’s kind of weird.” He shrugged his shoulders again, “I don’t really care what you call me. Call me Glass if you want.”
Glass was as good of a name as he was going to come up with at the moment and hey, it sort of fit. He couldn’t even jump timelines without falling apart. It was a good idea to have an alias to go by anyway in case he ever met another Sans
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“alright, nice ta meet'chya glass.”
Why ‘Glass,’ he wondered. Sans sat down on the floor. Better not push his luck. He was still pretty curious but if he wasn’t willing to talk he wouldn’t make him.
“so, got anymore questions in the meantime?”
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“Like I said tensions are kind of high in my world and heh, you see what happens to me after a jump. My magic doesn’t tend to agree with me.” He didn’t really like going into his health but it was the main reason he picked his name.
“Tibia honest I’m kind of curious why there are so many parentless kids.” He winced slightly when he realized he was talking to one of those said kids. Nice, real nice. “Uh, you don’t have to answer that if you don’t want to.”
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“heh, nah, i’m over it. er, just don’t mention it to paps… i haven’t figured out how to tell him yet.” Like heck he was over it, but he had managed to bury those feelings deep down a while ago.
“mainly it’s been natural disasters: earthquakes, floods, lava runs and the like. but there have been other problems. a sickness of some kind was making monsters lose control of their magic, then their minds. the king reformed the royal guard to keep us safe but there are still casualties… especially in the more crowded areas.” He conveniently left out which one his parental figure had been lost too.
Sans looked at him sympathetically as he mentioned his health, “yeah, jumping aus doesn’t agree much with me either.” Also an understatement. (may as well tell the guy, Glass was giving him an awful lot of personal info.)
Then Glass mentioned tensions… In the Underground? That was hard to see but is made sense. Who was he kidding. With a whole population of widely diverse monsters all stuck under a mountain, he was surprised that there weren’t more issues. “sounds a little… inTENSE.”
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Glass frowned as he heard the state the underground was in but couldn’t help but chuckle a bit at the other Sans’ pun. “I guess it is. It’s mostly just our messed up government and a lot of overconfident monsters. Honestly, this place sounds more on edge than mine.”
He was curious why it was hard for this version of him to jump to different AUs, but he figured he didn’t have a right to ask. He didn’t really want to talk about his own problems so it was only fair he didn’t ask someone else to.
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At that moment a pattering noise came from the hall, which turned into thumping. Then into fast, heavy stomping.
