So later you can build a cool crawling RC car. [Later. Right now Papyrus has repairs to do. Wheels to put on his own body instead of a drone car.] Maybe one of those ones that works even if it gets flipped upside down.
\E4ABSOLUTELY&ONE OF THOSE!/THOSE CAVES&SOUND DIFFICULT&TO MOVE IN./
[Not to mention, the benefits of flight (maneuverability) would be offset by the cons (weight constraints, limited power source). Something that travels on the ground but retains a fair maneuverability can accomplish what he's looking for here.
Sans's deliberate drop of the word "later" is enough for him to continue working like he hadn't paused for this conversation, deliberately cool and nonchalant. On some level he opens a drafting file and starts plotting designs.]
Yeah. Didn't sound very spacious. [Not like back home. But Sans doesn't want to go down into any tunnels, personally. It's so dark down there. The one cave he likes is shallow. (If things reset, would that leave enough of an emotional impression for him to develop claustrophobia or be afraid of the dark or something and not have any idea why? It would make living underground again pretty complicated.)] We could just leave it alone. Pretend nothing's down there.
[But Sans's instincts won't let him, and that's not really Papyrus's style. (Sans hadn't been able to let the anomaly issue go either, even before he knew how awful it was.)]
[His expression is complicated, sardonic and embarrassed and sympathetic. He understands Sans not wanting to go into danger when it's not clearly necessary, or really at all.
But he's on the floor without legs, because he detached them out of discomfort with their existence. Half a year ago, it distressed him to even open his casing to take a look. The sudden shift to discomfort with even the imitation of his original body... He knows it's a sudden change, but it doesn't make the discomfort go away. That he's working on framework designs to replace them with more wheel and engine based appendages is only more proof for the concept - Papyrus hates sitting around doing nothing.]
[Yeah, ignoring it's not happening, huh? It'd sure be nice if one of the murderers would make themselves useful by throwing themselves down into the caves for science or something. (That's a mean thought. It's possible being here has made him meaner. It's possible the anomaly killing just about everyone he knew and a lot of people he didn't made him meaner. It's possible he's just mean.)]
Okay, RC car. [Not that saying no would stop Papyrus. Not that Sans even wanted to say no. Sans isn't good at blissful ignorance.]
[He'll want to set it up to run through a separate tower, showing on monitor and speakers where he can theoretically mute them if something hard to listen to comes through... But given the amount of research going into a journal, something slightly more documented could only be helpful to everyone in figuring this out, and maybe even preventing more people dissolving into dust-rust.]
[Disconnected from the internet, he'll grant, but this thing can't be completely removed.]
\E3I WON'T&CONNECT &TO IT, OKAY?/
[Which doesn't necessarily mean much, when he's never figured out how to block the ambient signals, and Kassabian can get in his head whenever she needs to get in touch. But he can at least sit several feet from the tower in question. Add a slight difficulty curve.]
Air gapped besides the car. [But yes, as long as it can't connect to Papyrus and infect him with gooey whisper cooties that's fine.] Maybe I can look up some old cave maps or something. [Little does he know they'll get a map later and it'll be totally useless.]
[Sans is distressingly optimistic about their ability to take measures against technology messing with Papyrus, but he doesn't want to completely break that sense of hope. Better to just go through the motions of airgapping it, maybe start looking into better EM shielding in the future. For now:]
\E0AN UNDENIABLE&ASSET IN&SEARCHING!/
[Finding that tunnel to drop off a chocolate bar would've been much harder if he was searching by drone the whole time.]
[Sans will take what he can get when it comes to keeping weird technology and Papyrus separate, okay.]
I'll talk to the guys at the dig site. [They're archeologists, they should know about stuff from the past. Hopefully useful cave stuff.] Been checking on Maka anyway.
[In varyingly distressing quantum states, but still. He brings her dinner.]
[Papyrus will continue not killing that hope just yet! No reason to advertise that he's maybe as vulnerable to weird computer things as he was to weird dusty murder children.]
\E5THAT'S GOOD.&I'M SURE&THEY'RE INTERESTED./AND SHE COULD&USE A FRIEND./
[Who wouldn't have lasting grief, after all, if one's disappeared science dad fell into his research? Who wouldn't be distressed if he suddenly reappeared years later as a melted undead mystery...?]
Edited (i was so amused with my lampshade hanging that i forgot an icon) 2022-03-21 22:03 (UTC)
[Yeah, that sort of trauma is the kind of thing you couldn't forget.]
Or at least a snack. Maybe a reminder to go home sometimes. [She really does work too hard. But if Sans is trying even a little bit to herd her this does mean they're basically friends, in the Sans tradition of expressing affection through food.]
[Like if she has family pictures around to be distressed by, or something. Somehow it reminds him of when they moved to Snowdin, the value of a fresh start in a place without baggage. If it had seemed like something was missing in those days, it was because something was, physically, and they got something to decorate with. Much better than unsettled days in his teenage years, when he'd started getting self conscious and frustrated by being raised by his brother since he disappeared there had never really been anyone else in their lives.]
I'm pretty sure she's sleeping at the museum most of the time right now. [She's really working too hard. On the other hand, that might be safer than home, depending on where it is. There's a lot of chaos going on right now.] But I can talk to her about how great couch naps are.
[It's a sentiment Undyne expressed a few times, on putting the stop to combat-focused training before turning their time to something else. Talking about death and grief, one kind of nostalgia really leads to the next, huh? Maybe it's just the offer of the couch.]
I'm gonna remember that the next time you get mad at me for sleeping in. [The opportunity to carve a moment of normality, a dumb joke, out of everything that's going on, is something Sans can't resist.]
[He's too relieved by the return to relative normalcy to put on a proper show of annoyance with the prospect. But they have a plan for further trying to help Maka without needless exposure to creepy things. As for the not-dead feeling itself... He hesitates, not sure what he wants to say.]
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spaghettimonster) wrote2021-07-31 02:32 am
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[Not to mention, the benefits of flight (maneuverability) would be offset by the cons (weight constraints, limited power source). Something that travels on the ground but retains a fair maneuverability can accomplish what he's looking for here.
Sans's deliberate drop of the word "later" is enough for him to continue working like he hadn't paused for this conversation, deliberately cool and nonchalant. On some level he opens a drafting file and starts plotting designs.]
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[But Sans's instincts won't let him, and that's not really Papyrus's style. (Sans hadn't been able to let the anomaly issue go either, even before he knew how awful it was.)]
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[His expression is complicated, sardonic and embarrassed and sympathetic. He understands Sans not wanting to go into danger when it's not clearly necessary, or really at all.
But he's on the floor without legs, because he detached them out of discomfort with their existence. Half a year ago, it distressed him to even open his casing to take a look. The sudden shift to discomfort with even the imitation of his original body... He knows it's a sudden change, but it doesn't make the discomfort go away. That he's working on framework designs to replace them with more wheel and engine based appendages is only more proof for the concept - Papyrus hates sitting around doing nothing.]
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Okay, RC car. [Not that saying no would stop Papyrus. Not that Sans even wanted to say no. Sans isn't good at blissful ignorance.]
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[He'll want to set it up to run through a separate tower, showing on monitor and speakers where he can theoretically mute them if something hard to listen to comes through... But given the amount of research going into a journal, something slightly more documented could only be helpful to everyone in figuring this out, and maybe even preventing more people dissolving into dust-rust.]
\E3...ON A FRESH&HARD DRIVE./
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[Disconnected from the internet, he'll grant, but this thing can't be completely removed.]
\E3I WON'T&CONNECT &TO IT, OKAY?/
[Which doesn't necessarily mean much, when he's never figured out how to block the ambient signals, and Kassabian can get in his head whenever she needs to get in touch. But he can at least sit several feet from the tower in question. Add a slight difficulty curve.]
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\E0AN UNDENIABLE&ASSET IN&SEARCHING!/
[Finding that tunnel to drop off a chocolate bar would've been much harder if he was searching by drone the whole time.]
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I'll talk to the guys at the dig site. [They're archeologists, they should know about stuff from the past. Hopefully useful cave stuff.] Been checking on Maka anyway.
[In varyingly distressing quantum states, but still. He brings her dinner.]
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\E5THAT'S GOOD.&I'M SURE&THEY'RE INTERESTED./AND SHE COULD&USE A FRIEND./
[Who wouldn't have lasting grief, after all, if one's disappeared science dad fell into his research? Who wouldn't be distressed if he suddenly reappeared years later as a melted undead mystery...?]
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Or at least a snack. Maybe a reminder to go home sometimes. [She really does work too hard. But if Sans is trying even a little bit to herd her this does mean they're basically friends, in the Sans tradition of expressing affection through food.]
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[Like if she has family pictures around to be distressed by, or something. Somehow it reminds him of when they moved to Snowdin, the value of a fresh start in a place without baggage. If it had seemed like something was missing in those days, it was because something was, physically, and they got something to decorate with. Much better than unsettled days in his teenage years, when he'd started getting self conscious and frustrated by being raised by his brother since
he disappearedthere had never really been anyone else in their lives.]no subject
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[It's a sentiment Undyne expressed a few times, on putting the stop to combat-focused training before turning their time to something else. Talking about death and grief, one kind of nostalgia really leads to the next, huh? Maybe it's just the offer of the couch.]
\E2I'M SURE&ARCHEOLOGISTS&DO TOO./
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[He's too relieved by the return to relative normalcy to put on a proper show of annoyance with the prospect. But they have a plan for further trying to help Maka without needless exposure to creepy things. As for the not-dead feeling itself... He hesitates, not sure what he wants to say.]
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[Mandatory follow through on the teasing, hyperbolical backhanded praise.]