You gonna invite some friends over? [Sans shoves some chips into his mouth and talks with his mouth full, of course.] I'll leave my good socks in the living room.
Wow, thanks, you shouldn't. [Emphasis, shouldn't, accompanied by eye roll. Please do not. Cease and desist. While he contemplates alternative wordings for telling his brother to knock off the usual nonsense, he scoops the fork back down to cut a small piece off and skewer it. Pie, on his fork. Made by his brother. Still smells good.]
[Again Sans is struck by that "don't do anything weird" feeling. Nothing weird happens. As far as Sans can tell, he's feeling normal. But he generally didn't notice when he wasn't feeling normal. But Papyrus hasn't mentioned anything.] Yeah, you're right, we don't want the place to feel too formal. I'll stick with the regular one.
[He continues not mentioning anything, because this is an extremely normal flavor of annoying banter. Sock flavor. Just the kind of thing to ponder, when preparing to eat a thing. Just for that, he delays a little longer, the better to shoot Sans a skeptical look.] Do you even have formal socks? Why?
To round out the collection. [Not for wearing. Just for having. Also, this may or may not be true and these socks may or may not actually exist. Facts are irrelevant to this conversation.] Might get extra feet one of these days. [Actually possible here, though Sans prefers his current number of limbs.]
You do already have extra hands... But they're hard to put socks on. [If Sans can figure out how to make socks stay on the ghost hands, they could finally be visible. As is, not much good for socks. Seems likely any future legs Sans might sprout would also be ghost limbs. And as for the idea of growing more tangible limbs...]
...I could have extra feet any time I wanted. [He says this with a bit of wonder. As much as he complains about being a robot sometimes, the sudden sense of power this brings is considerable, and obvious in his voice.]
[There's this brief look in Sans's eyes when Papyrus mentions putting socks on Sans's extra limbs that promises floating sock puppets in the future. Before he can think on it more, though, Papyrus points out the modularity of his own body, and Sans is distracted.]
So you're gonna be a spider too? [Extra limb solidarity, except people would be able to see Papyrus's. It's weird to think about, but extra limbs being something Papyrus builds for himself because he now has that power is different from things being foisted onto him.]
[Papyrus makes a considering noise, not rushing to agree. On the one hand, he's still getting the muscular arms really up to snuff. There's emotional levels where he's not totally convinced that maybe the robot arms will just turn back to bone, and what if both arms are detached when such a day arrives? But on the other hand, the cool and muscular hand... Creating a new and improved him is the most effective way to embracing his body there is.]
...Well! Maybe. I'm sure that could only help me advance my programming skills. [Ask him why, Sans.]
Being a spider... It'd really help with spinning websites. [Nyeh heh heh. He laughs at his own joke, a little surprised Sans didn't jump to the punchline on him, but not so surprised that it's concerning. Just a triumph that tastes a lot better than talking about socks. Enough so that he gives the pie another sniff to be sure.]
[It's important to support your sibling when they tell jokes. Except when you're interrupting them to harass them, that's also important. It's most important to keep your sibling on their toes. But anyway, Sans laughs, too.] You'd really be crawling the web then, huh?
Crawling like I was born to it. [Which he didn't actually intend as a pun, but he snickers a little more when he catches it.] And then going even faster!
[The pie still smells good, there's no new red flags in this conversation, and... The hell with it, he wants to feel like things can get back to normal feelings even after weird bullshit brings upheaval. He brings the fork to his mouth, and the piece of pie disappears.]
[Sans is definitely curious about what Papyrus thinks about the pie, but if he asks it might sound like he put something weird in it. Again he inventories the recipe he used. Nothing weird. Of course, Papyrus probably hadn't thought it was weird to put bits of bone into the food he made when the leech was in him, but--well, he's not going to think about the leeches. And thinking the bone thing was gross is probably a good sign.]
If you've got eight legs, when you surf the web, you can hang eighty.
[Papyrus snorts at the notion of a spider surfing around with all limbs in the air. Would that be sledding, at that point? Whatever it is, he'll surely do it in a faster and more stylish way. With rocket boosters, maybe, or whatever the programming equivalent would be. He finishes swallowing the piece of pie, and muses aloud.] If only eighty was a good computer number... Maybe hang sixty-four.
[Wait, don't humans have two legs? Spiders should just be four times whatever humans hang. So hang forty, or maybe thirty-two. He shakes his head, and cuts a second piece of the pie with the edge of the fork tines. Says, with only a little nervousness:] ...It smells like it tastes, by the way! Good job.
[It's well-established that Sans does not know the number of fingers on a spider. But he's distracted from that by the praise.] Y'think so? [He sounds somewhere between surprised, pleased, and a little embarrassed. Listen, he doesn't get a lot of praise for things he does, considering usually what he does is nap and slack off and annoy people.]
[In fairness, Papyrus doesn't know either. But if they do have four fingers per limb, then they're even more suited for computer comparisons than the web pun accounts for, a truly impressive feat. Of feet?
That said, he nods with only traces of cautious watchfulness still going on.] I do! Behold. [He takes another bite, willingly and with a little unnecessary flourish to cover his nerves. Takes a moment to experience the flavor, to check his own thought processes for signs of unusual things, then adds in an undertone:] This is no time for me to lie about culinary opinions, anyway.
[Ah, yeah, that reminder of the food situation in San Benedicto is pretty good for knocking Sans out of his moment of not actually thinking about all the potential pessimistic outcomes. But Papyrus still seems fine.] I guess now I can have pie whenever I want as long as I make it. [...] So still not that much.
What?? [More faux offense, accompanied by waving the fork around and scattering a couple of crumbs. He'll deal with them later.] I thought you were all empowered now, by my expertly selected pie tin! How quickly the baking craze fades...
[He's joking, and not hiding that he's using the joke to check Sans's outlook here. No baking spree to push it upon neighbors? Only a slight increase in proclivity-to-bake?]
I'll just go grocery shopping instead??? [Wasn't the point for it to be homemade for family times, or something? The answer's no. But at least this is still very reassuringly Sans.]
Oh my god. Maybe I'll make the pie next time! [Which, is an admission there'll be a next time, assuming nothing goes catastrophically wrong with this. His smile shifts to something uneasy but holding in there.]
[If Papyrus actually went out of his way to make a pie, Sans would eat it. It's hard to say no to Papyrus. But Sans is still trying not to directly address the food rule that they're sort of breaking, so.] I bet it'll be ap-pie-tizing.
Maybe it'll be an apple pie, at that. [Which isn't a pun, so much as making fun of the way Sans emphasized that for his pun. On one level of processing he actually starts searching for apple pie recipes, before the rest of him notices and he pauses. Not uncannily motionless, just staring vaguely at the pie for a moment, before looking sidelong at his brother.] ...You're still feeling okay too, right?
[When Papyrus pauses, Sans straightens up a little. It's a subtle thing; he's still mostly slouching. Is he doing something weird? He hates how often that happens and he can't tell. But dumb puns are something he's done as long as he's known what a pun was, and joking about slacking off is an old habit, too, and he feels okay, so...] Yeah. 'S far as I can tell. Are you feeling weird?
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...I could have extra feet any time I wanted. [He says this with a bit of wonder. As much as he complains about being a robot sometimes, the sudden sense of power this brings is considerable, and obvious in his voice.]
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So you're gonna be a spider too? [Extra limb solidarity, except people would be able to see Papyrus's. It's weird to think about, but extra limbs being something Papyrus builds for himself because he now has that power is different from things being foisted onto him.]
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...Well! Maybe. I'm sure that could only help me advance my programming skills. [Ask him why, Sans.]
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[The pie still smells good, there's no new red flags in this conversation, and... The hell with it, he wants to feel like things can get back to normal feelings even after weird bullshit brings upheaval. He brings the fork to his mouth, and the piece of pie disappears.]
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If you've got eight legs, when you surf the web, you can hang eighty.
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[Wait, don't humans have two legs? Spiders should just be four times whatever humans hang. So hang forty, or maybe thirty-two. He shakes his head, and cuts a second piece of the pie with the edge of the fork tines. Says, with only a little nervousness:] ...It smells like it tastes, by the way! Good job.
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That said, he nods with only traces of cautious watchfulness still going on.] I do! Behold. [He takes another bite, willingly and with a little unnecessary flourish to cover his nerves. Takes a moment to experience the flavor, to check his own thought processes for signs of unusual things, then adds in an undertone:] This is no time for me to lie about culinary opinions, anyway.
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[He's joking, and not hiding that he's using the joke to check Sans's outlook here. No baking spree to push it upon neighbors? Only a slight increase in proclivity-to-bake?]
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Papyrus is living out my yearning to stop social distancing I guess
skeletons have no lungs so they are safe
But are others safe from their hypothetical future hiveminds
only the mods know
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I don't think Papyrus will solve this mystery in time, ghost hands out of sight out of mind