spaghettimonster | We're Still Here

Three hundred light years... [He remembers this term, from previous Sans enthusing about space times. Mainly he remembers because the scales involved were mind-blowing if he let himself think about it all for long.] The sun... is a star. But its light reaches the planet in... less than an hour?

Eight minutes, twenty seconds. Light's real fast, but with space, everything's just--big. [The kind of big Sans likes. Sans has read about space making people feel small, but for Sans, it's reassuring. There's an infinity of other things going on outside his own head.]

[Less than a tenth of an hour, so multiply all the distances he was thinking about by six... And he's not exactly how sure how far away the sun is, but whatever answer his brother offers will probably be way larger than anything Papyrus has had reason to really imagine. And that's not getting into:

...That's one of the brighter stars. Or. Triplet stars. Are the dimmer stars... further away...?

[Just how far away does space get, Sans. It's a little unsettling, standing on the outside of the world like this, without gravity magic... What if there was an earthquake, and he was knocked into orbit? Would he drift for thousands of years...?]

It's a combination. Farther away, or smaller, or both. The farthest star I've heard of is this blue supergiant fourteen billion light years away. You can't see that one with your eyes, though. Besides the sun, the closest one's like 4 light years away. [Everything is very big in space.]

"Bill"...? Sans. You accidentally said billion,, with a b. [Didn't he hear that the Earth was something like a few billion years old? How could there be "super giant" stars more than ten billion light years away? How... how big is space. He doesn't even look at Sans for the answer, just stares up at the seemingly dark spaces between the stars he can see. How many stars are too far, too tiny to see?]

Are there stars, we can't even see... because the light hasn't reached us yet...?

I said billion 'cause I meant billion. And that's just the farthest one humans have seen. There's all sorts of stars y'can't see 'cause the light isn't here yet. And 'cause the light we see's so old, some of those stars up there are already gone. [Like the soul of a boss monster, hanging around for just that little bit longer even with the body gone.]

Some of them...? Oh, wow. [That part gets a little more sincere wonder, even if the existential dread of it all is still underlying. The scale of things isn't exactly heartening for Papyrus, not the way it is for Sans. But that piece draws his attention somehow.

Like photos and books that people still see and read after the creators - or subjects - have fallen. History underground isn't the most popular subject, since it invariably dwells upon their captivity and loss... but it's the most popular with the elderly, those who are realizing that all they know is about to be forgotten, if people don't stop and listen. He's stopped and listened to Elder Puzzler more than a few times, and taken to the more classical schools of puzzle-building in part because of a solidarity of that fear.]

Is there any way to tell which ones are... already gone?

Nah, they're too far away. Even if the sun disappeared all of the sudden, we wouldn't know for eight minutes. Not that it's goin' anywhere any time soon. [In general. Sans can't say when a reset will happen and take it away from them specifically, but it's not as if they'll even remember having seen the sun, so it's fine.]

Uhhhhhhh. [Look at that, the existential dread is returning, and now it's bringing a friend. Papyrus's eyes drift down to the tree line, which seems reassuringly unlikely to wander away or burn out while he watches.] How long. Is the sun. Supposed to live.

[Is live even the right word for the sun? If it was secretly a very large and distant monster, it's not like humans could have done anything to stick it in a mountain.]

Like seven or eight billion years. Plenty of time left. [Especially if it keeps looping, but Sans isn't going to think about that right now.]

I see... That's billion with a b again. Okay! [As long as it's a length of time that's challenging to even conceive of, Papyrus can be pretty sure that everybody he's ever known, besides maybe Toriel, will be fine.]

It's space, the numbers are big too. [But the last thing anyone has to worry about right now is the sun dying.] 'S reliable like that.

[Time and distance scales that stretch so far beyond comprehension that the idea of one human with a lot of Determination even seems small by comparison. When Sans reaches for the barest grasp of the scale involved, the idea that the human could impact things on that scale is silly. He can't do anything about them, but they can't possibly do anything on the scale of the universe.]

Then why... is it such a small word? [There's other things on his mind, but this is the easiest to talk about while avoiding the more serious things.] 'Space.' Only five letters... It should be big to match. And capitalized all the time.

[You know, as if Papyrus was the one enthusing about space. As is, he tucks gloved hands into his pockets and continues looking up, feeling smaller than he's ever felt - even as a baby bones. Would it feel easier, if he was still a skeleton, aware of where his friends were at, on a surface with the technology he expected? Or would the enormity of space be just as disorienting?]

'Cause "the observable universe" is too long to say all the time. [Laziness! It's important.] And 'cause it's mostly just space. Empty with stuff scattered around here and there.

Super big emptiness... [If he spends long enough at it, maybe he'll think of P, A, and C words to substitute for big, and make a whole S.P.A.C.E. acronym.

But he's distracted entirely by a brief streak of white that flares and fades in hardly a blink.] What was that!?

[Sans lights up. This is a very rare Sans expression. Collect 'em all.] A meteor. Some people call 'em shooting stars. You saw it first, you get to make a wish.

[That is not scientific, but it reminds Sans of Waterfall when he was little, and so it's important in that way.]

A wish? [That does seem like the Waterfall room. See stars, make wishes. And they're not even crowded by creepy echo flowers. But.] Do I have to say it out loud...?

Is it somethin' embarrassing? [Of course Sans has to tease.] But nah, you don't have to.

[Papyrus grumbles wordlessly, which is probably twice the affirmative either of them need.]

A wish... [There's a lot of things to wish for. Seeing missing friends again. Seeing them, back underground, instead of seeing human faces with familiar voices. Everyone being above ground, happy and safe, without any hostile decor enforcers... More surprise nights like this one...

Well, there's a lot of options. He picks something or another, and even the narration will respect his privacy on that.]

We're Still Here - IC Inbox

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being human will not stop me from using this icon when I can

Extremely fair use of it tbh

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sad headcanons ahoy

good sad headcanon

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I thought I remembered December being good for meteor showers

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