[Weak, but there's an effort being made, and it's another relief upswing in the whiplash of these last several minutes. Is it obvious, when Papyrus's surprised static is more of a laugh than distress? Surely it shows in his face, anyway.]
Of cour-se I was, I'm al-ways righ-t.
[A little forced, but pushed it out fast enough to not let the joke go flat and awkward. He keeps a pained smile up as he sits back down - close enough to lean against, if Sans wants. Takes a little more time, as he had through the maybe super ill-advised investigation, to connect syllables more smoothly.]
However... in light of, your hard work... and injury. I am waiving all my lectures, about exercise, in favor of... getting some rest.
That's cool of you, bro. [Sans appreciates Papyrus going along with his attempt to smooth things over. He appreciates Papyrus's closeness, too; after a few moments of careful shifting Sans drops against his brother's side. He's a little bit colder than he really should be, and his arm still aches from trying to pick up the phone. Is it just going to be like that forever? Sans has no idea.]
It didn't do anything to you, did it? [Sans thinks he would have noticed if Papyrus had been there with him in any capacity, but he'd been--distracted.]
I don't... think so. [He examines his front appendages again, pushing past the discomfort with them to check for signs that the flower did anything. But it doesn't look to have had the same effect as that tendril of skin had on the car, so he shakes his head.]
You said... it grabbed you? I didn't, uh. Feel anything, like that. Or... pain.
[Is that because he thought to offer something, so it passed him by? Did Sans get grabbed because Papyrus offered something unsatisfying, piquing its curiosity and hunger, inspiring the idea to go for something... more to its taste? Obviously it's still that entity's fault, of course, no matter what maybe-Jonas said about sleeping and hunger and being too wonderful to have a mind to change, it has agency of its own. But... It's just been a few minutes, and already it feels like the idea's going to haunt him. Maybe all the worse because he feels fine, when sending the car down was his idea.]
Good, it sucked. [That's an understatement, but it's also true. He'd rather Papyrus not also have to deal with this.] It was like--it was holding me in the cave. Which I guess it was. [Part of him, anyway. He laughs, just once, a little too sharply.] Y'know, I could feel it? That part of my soul. Even though it wasn't attached anymore.
Y-Y-You... still, felt it. [Papyrus goes more still than usual, fans kicking in a little louder.
Felt it while it was torn off and eaten, Sans means? The only reason Papyrus doesn't shiver is because of how he's locked his bodily movements down for the second.] Past tense... Not anymore?
Not after it bit down. [Which isn't the right phrase, though it's good enough. It's not as if that thing had a comprehensible body. Of course, saying it like that does imply Sans saw the process. Sans's gaze is somewhere between himself and the far wall, unfocused.] 'S why I fell. The--the connection snapped.
[But until it snapped--He shouldn't be thinking about this. He hardly understands what he saw, but it hurts to think about in a dozen different ways.]
[Is that better, that he stopped feeling it after? That... whatever digestion process is happening, somewhere underground, Sans isn't screaming in pain through it? Papyrus can't bring himself to ask anything like that. Instead he commiserates, continuing to space himself between phrases so the syllables flow more smoothly.]
A... startling pain, for anyone. [Inconceivable pain, for anyone.] I did-n't... You were, here. It... bit you, from there?
[There's an edge of hopelessness to the question, though he tries not to let it show in his face. But if there's any truth to what maybe-Jonas has been saying. Feeding off their minds, their souls, all the time, from anywhere in the Canyon...]
[Sans goes quiet, staring infinitely far away, trying to work through how to explain it. It was there, and not there, and there infinitely many times and not there infinitely many times. Like him, the last few days, but not like him at all. Wrong.]
I saw it. [He's sure of that. He keeps talking, laying down words like a train track he's trying to build even as he careens along it.] It pulled that piece of my soul down through the rocks, and it--it hurt, it did something to it just touching it, I felt it, it--poisoned my soul, or something, but it was still, like--that piece of my soul was trying to get back to me, right? And then I saw it. And it bit down.
[Papyrus tries to picture this, to imagine it, and it's... well, he can imagine the trip through the rock, imagine something that hurts just by contact. But the notion of a separated piece of his essential self, changing and hurting and trying to get home, only to... He releases the lockdown on his bodily movements, to extend an arm around his brother. Gingerly, gingerly, trying not to jostle wings or anything else.
...Is it lucky, that Sans can't feel Papyrus's sympathetic heartbreak on top of his own literal soul injury? That Papyrus isn't feeling this pain, when they can't even see his soul for evidence of problems, anymore?]
I... I'm so so-rry.
[Internally, he pulls up the images saved of Sans's soul, in a mix of desperate distraction and double-checking. That poison Sans mentions... There isn't anything that looks like poison here, is there?]
[What's left of Sans's soul looks as it should, except for the missing piece. It's the same normal white color, with no sign of any poison or corruption.
Papyrus feels like the only solid thing in the world, with how off-balance Sans is. Sans's wings curl in just a little, mostly on the side opposite of Papyrus, so as not to hit him. Not the ones on his head, broken and still healing. His halo isn't bleeding anymore, even if the cracks are still there. Sans still hasn't even noticed that. Regardless, he knows he's a mess right now. He also knows it doesn't matter, because there's a thing existing underneath them waiting to eat them all. In the process of eating them all, maybe. Eating part of him, if nothing else.]
I, uh--I don't really know. What we're gonna do now.
[Is that really different from usual? Maybe not. But it's a different kind of hopelessness. New. Painful.]
[Papyrus's other arm wraps around his own torso, like he's trying to cross his arms with only one - or trying to hug himself. His fans pick up in volume.]
...May-be, they're... lying. A-bout, its pow-ers. [He offers the idea out of contrary hope, as there's no other standing theory for what brought them here... And no denying that Jonas and Eli, the puddle and pile remaining of them, were transformed. But those sure didn't look like controlled transformations, with the kind of skill he'd expect from something strong enough to pluck the dead from another universe and rebuild their bodies and souls. His claw grips at his shirt as he keeps grasping for ideas.] Or... it's hi-ding, to hide a weak-ness.
[Strong enough to hurt Sans, there's no denying, but maybe that doesn't mean invincible...? Jonas(?) complained about them resisting, about it being futile and all yes, but, complained. Maybe... maybe...
He doesn't really believe it yet, but trying hard to believe in something, and convincing Sans that he does, is something he desperately needs to do.]
[Sans makes a vague sound of acknowledgment. He has a hard time being optimistic on good days, let alone right now. It's nice to hear Papyrus still considering options, though; if Papyrus stopped doing that, Sans really doesn't know what he'd do.]
Don't think it likes light much. [Which is hardly anything.] Felt it trying to push me back.
[Though it hadn't been worried about that enough to not eat part of Sans. Maybe because even if it was permanently stuck out in his chest, his soul is still a regular monster soul as far as he can tell. Sans's original skillset didn't involve warding off abominations, or maybe the anomaly back home might have actually been scared of him.]
[Sans reaching into the screen with those arms, he remembers clearly enough. It was only several minutes ago, but a busy several minutes, and the timeline of some of this... He's going to need to rewatch the recording, isn't he? And confirm if the recording even worked, for that matter.
He has a brief, fleeting notion like he could just delete the recording, and they could pretend the whole matter was a dream. Put it out of mind, where it couldn't hurt. Why does it feel like forgetting things doesn't make them stop hurting?]
The first time I said it could feel me. [So it had started pretty early on. Maybe Sans should have been more clear, but he hadn't exactly been in the right frame of mind with the way the wrongness permeated the whole adventure and oozed right through the screen. He'd have gone entirely abstract if it wouldn't have meant leaving Papyrus alone. Of course, he hasn't done much of use being there; maybe it would have gone better if he hadn't been involved.
As his body eases out of its fight or flight instincts and the physical shock of having part of his body torn out, Sans is becoming more aware of the way his soul is throbbing. It's not bad right now, but it might be soon. Nothing to be done about it; he tries to ignore it.]
...I don't wa-nt to rewa-tch it, yet. [He says it like a slow confession, as he doesn't remember exactly when it said it could feel Sans and would need to review the conversation to get that timing down.
On some level, he means ever. It'd be easy to damage the file of the recording - if it even successfully recorded anything, given all that. But there might be a lot of other things he didn't catch, that maybe he'd only recognize when not busy making friendly (unnerved) conversation. Things that he wouldn't recognize, but someone else would... No, best not to. He'll have to check the recording quality, see if there were any parts he remembers not in it.]
But... It, uh. Didn't see-m to mi-nd the hea-dlights. [Not to say it might be an angel thing, but it might be an angel thing. Or something non-electronic-lights thing.]
[Sans doesn't want to rewatch it either, though when Papyrus brings up the idea of it Sans thinks he probably should, to make sure he didn't miss anything. But is there a point to that? Can they even do anything with this information? Sans starts working fretfully at his ruffled feathers, smoothing them out.]
Yeah, guess it was my light it has a problem with. Dunno why it'd bother changing me into this if it doesn't like it.
[Since that thing underground was the cause of the initial transformations, right? If it doesn't like (not angel, Sans isn't that) magical light, why transform some of them into something that radiates it?]
May-be tha-t's proof, and it was ly-ing. [Turning people into immortal flesh puddles in a seemingly permanent hivemind isn't exactly the same as turning people into functional robots, or bird/ghost/spider/whatevers, after all. He clings to the hope that something else might actually be behind their situations - that maybe the voice down there was something else.]
Maybe... that was ju-st a bi-g lee-ch. [Hivemind weirdness, where the bodies' own voices faded after a while in favor of the one in charge, check. Lurking down in the damp, check. Wanting to eat people, check.]
[Sans goes quiet, thinking about what it was. What it is. He's still trying not to think about that, but the reminder sets his mind spinning. And yet, the comparison to the leeches isn't inaccurate.]
I didn't like how those felt either. [Something crawling up out of the lake, another spot with particularly bad energy as far as Sans can tell. Something forcing its way into you and feeding off of you and making you different. Of course those leeches live here.] But. It looked different.
[Papyrus's clawed appendage tightens around his torso, as he looks sidelong at Sans. Did he hear that right? He takes a few extra seconds to arrange syllables cleanly, the better not to have static or jumps that might confuse the question.]
...Looked?
[Well, it's not a long question, but the tone of concerned skepticism - as near as he could get it - is important. Just how far did Sans abstract himself underground, or... did he see something when it grabbed him...?]
When it dragged me down to eat me. [Or part of him, anyway. It doesn't matter when it comes to how he experienced it.] It was all--slippery. In and out of reality. Not like me, I understood that, I understood how I was working, but it was-- I don't know what it looked like, but I saw it, and it, it was, I don't know--
[Sans goes rigid again. He saw it, and even scraping at the barest outlines of comprehension had driven him into senselessness, and he can remember that. Black tentacles and chanting he couldn't stop. He's dizzy and shaky just thinking about it. If he keeps thinking about it is it going to happen again? He needs to stop thinking about it. He needs to stop, but he can't, he can't do anything--]
[The more Sans's words ramble and loop in on themselves, the more Papyrus lets out a distressed static - and it only picks up when Sans goes stiff. He should be talking to reassure his brother, but it's an effort just to string syllables together at a nearly conversational speed, let alone as quick as he needs to talk here!
At least he's still offering that half hug. Easy to squeeze a little tighter, in hopes of pulling Sans's attention back from wherever it's gone. It's fine if Sans panics and attacks him before realizing - Papyrus is sturdy, now more than ever. Even if he damages something, they can just replace it with something even better.
And as he loosens up on the hug, he shifts that arm so his... his hand, the distress of it is barely a blip compared to this, is freed to stroke down Sans's wing. He's seen his brother do that when trying to calm down enough times, and knows how comforting it feels.]
everyone needs to be reassured on a couch sometimes
[Sans doesn't need to breathe, but his chest feels humid and stuffy anyway, leaving him trying to suck in air like it'll do something to fix it. He feels like he's going to die again, but in a different way, because now he feels like he's going to jitter out of his own bones before anything else can kill him first.
When Papyrus tightens his grip just a little, Sans's wings snap forward just once, smacking into Papyrus's back. It's unfocused, and Sans is hardly the strongest guy around. It gets Sans to stop talking in circles, though, and that slows Sans's thoughts enough to process Papyrus's hand on his wing. It is comforting; by slow degrees, he eases out of his full-body flinch. He's not underground, he's at home. Papyrus is right there. Sans is--is broken, a little more than he was before, but he's not more dead. Papyrus didn't get hurt.]
I'm. [His words feel strange. But it's getting better.] I'm really tired.
what are couches for if not sitting and having feelings, then taking a nap
[The smack is only a surprise in the exact timing and location, but less impactful than he'd been bracing for, so he lets it go without complaint. There's more important things, like nodding and continuing to try grounding him.]
If... you want, to slee-p. I'll keep wa-tch.
[There's reasons why he sometimes wants Sans to read him stories before he sleeps, after all. It feels safer, knowing his brother's there and safe. Like it reassures some deep worry about his family disappearing, that otherwise leads to nightmares. But there's not much point to thinking about it.]
Dunno if I can. [Sans's grin quirks ever so slightly lopsided.] Funny, right? [But Papyrus probably won't think so. Regardless, Sans slouches down on the couch again after his flapping shifted him around a little. He could use some sleep. Might as well give it a shot. He's great at doing nothing.]
Of all the tim-es... [It's too forced to be genuine agreement, but playing along a little. He considers, glancing around the room, and settles on a pile of discs scavenged in various dump dives.] ...Put on a mov-ie?
[Of course, that'd take getting up from the hug for a minute or two, but it'd be something to look at, maybe laugh at. He is not even slightly going to risk turning the TV on directly and risk exposing Sans to info about some other terrible thing happening for them to feel even more helpless about. There's enough distressed calls and texts about the eye flowers, religious folks expressing hopes and fears, and so on as is.]
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spaghettimonster) wrote2021-07-31 02:32 am
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Of cour-se I was, I'm al-ways righ-t.
[A little forced, but pushed it out fast enough to not let the joke go flat and awkward. He keeps a pained smile up as he sits back down - close enough to lean against, if Sans wants. Takes a little more time, as he had through the maybe super ill-advised investigation, to connect syllables more smoothly.]
However... in light of, your hard work... and injury. I am waiving all my lectures, about exercise, in favor of... getting some rest.
makes up soul damage symptoms on the fly
It didn't do anything to you, did it? [Sans thinks he would have noticed if Papyrus had been there with him in any capacity, but he'd been--distracted.]
good reason to bundle up in hoodie and wings
You said... it grabbed you? I didn't, uh. Feel anything, like that. Or... pain.
[Is that because he thought to offer something, so it passed him by? Did Sans get grabbed because Papyrus offered something unsatisfying, piquing its curiosity and hunger, inspiring the idea to go for something... more to its taste? Obviously it's still that entity's fault, of course, no matter what maybe-Jonas said about sleeping and hunger and being too wonderful to have a mind to change, it has agency of its own. But... It's just been a few minutes, and already it feels like the idea's going to haunt him. Maybe all the worse because he feels fine, when sending the car down was his idea.]
become coze
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Felt it while it was torn off and eaten, Sans means? The only reason Papyrus doesn't shiver is because of how he's locked his bodily movements down for the second.] Past tense... Not anymore?
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[But until it snapped--He shouldn't be thinking about this. He hardly understands what he saw, but it hurts to think about in a dozen different ways.]
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A... startling pain, for anyone. [Inconceivable pain, for anyone.] I did-n't... You were, here. It... bit you, from there?
[There's an edge of hopelessness to the question, though he tries not to let it show in his face. But if there's any truth to what maybe-Jonas has been saying. Feeding off their minds, their souls, all the time, from anywhere in the Canyon...]
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I saw it. [He's sure of that. He keeps talking, laying down words like a train track he's trying to build even as he careens along it.] It pulled that piece of my soul down through the rocks, and it--it hurt, it did something to it just touching it, I felt it, it--poisoned my soul, or something, but it was still, like--that piece of my soul was trying to get back to me, right? And then I saw it. And it bit down.
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...Is it lucky, that Sans can't feel Papyrus's sympathetic heartbreak on top of his own literal soul injury? That Papyrus isn't feeling this pain, when they can't even see his soul for evidence of problems, anymore?]
I... I'm so so-rry.
[Internally, he pulls up the images saved of Sans's soul, in a mix of desperate distraction and double-checking. That poison Sans mentions... There isn't anything that looks like poison here, is there?]
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Papyrus feels like the only solid thing in the world, with how off-balance Sans is. Sans's wings curl in just a little, mostly on the side opposite of Papyrus, so as not to hit him. Not the ones on his head, broken and still healing. His halo isn't bleeding anymore, even if the cracks are still there. Sans still hasn't even noticed that. Regardless, he knows he's a mess right now. He also knows it doesn't matter, because there's a thing existing underneath them waiting to eat them all. In the process of eating them all, maybe. Eating part of him, if nothing else.]
I, uh--I don't really know. What we're gonna do now.
[Is that really different from usual? Maybe not. But it's a different kind of hopelessness. New. Painful.]
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...May-be, they're... lying. A-bout, its pow-ers. [He offers the idea out of contrary hope, as there's no other standing theory for what brought them here... And no denying that Jonas and Eli, the puddle and pile remaining of them, were transformed. But those sure didn't look like controlled transformations, with the kind of skill he'd expect from something strong enough to pluck the dead from another universe and rebuild their bodies and souls. His claw grips at his shirt as he keeps grasping for ideas.] Or... it's hi-ding, to hide a weak-ness.
[Strong enough to hurt Sans, there's no denying, but maybe that doesn't mean invincible...? Jonas(?) complained about them resisting, about it being futile and all yes, but, complained. Maybe... maybe...
He doesn't really believe it yet, but trying hard to believe in something, and convincing Sans that he does, is something he desperately needs to do.]
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Don't think it likes light much. [Which is hardly anything.] Felt it trying to push me back.
[Though it hadn't been worried about that enough to not eat part of Sans. Maybe because even if it was permanently stuck out in his chest, his soul is still a regular monster soul as far as he can tell. Sans's original skillset didn't involve warding off abominations, or maybe the anomaly back home might have actually been scared of him.]
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[Sans reaching into the screen with those arms, he remembers clearly enough. It was only several minutes ago, but a busy several minutes, and the timeline of some of this... He's going to need to rewatch the recording, isn't he? And confirm if the recording even worked, for that matter.
He has a brief, fleeting notion like he could just delete the recording, and they could pretend the whole matter was a dream. Put it out of mind, where it couldn't hurt.
Why does it feel like forgetting things doesn't make them stop hurting?]Whe-n, was it push-ing?
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As his body eases out of its fight or flight instincts and the physical shock of having part of his body torn out, Sans is becoming more aware of the way his soul is throbbing. It's not bad right now, but it might be soon. Nothing to be done about it; he tries to ignore it.]
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On some level, he means ever. It'd be easy to damage the file of the recording - if it even successfully recorded anything, given all that. But there might be a lot of other things he didn't catch, that maybe he'd only recognize when not busy making friendly (unnerved) conversation. Things that he wouldn't recognize, but someone else would... No, best not to. He'll have to check the recording quality, see if there were any parts he remembers not in it.]
But... It, uh. Didn't see-m to mi-nd the hea-dlights. [Not to say it might be an angel thing, but it might be an angel thing. Or something non-electronic-lights thing.]
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Yeah, guess it was my light it has a problem with. Dunno why it'd bother changing me into this if it doesn't like it.
[Since that thing underground was the cause of the initial transformations, right? If it doesn't like (not angel, Sans isn't that) magical light, why transform some of them into something that radiates it?]
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Maybe... that was ju-st a bi-g lee-ch. [Hivemind weirdness, where the bodies' own voices faded after a while in favor of the one in charge, check. Lurking down in the damp, check. Wanting to eat people, check.]
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I didn't like how those felt either. [Something crawling up out of the lake, another spot with particularly bad energy as far as Sans can tell. Something forcing its way into you and feeding off of you and making you different. Of course those leeches live here.] But. It looked different.
[Sans meant it when he said he saw it.]
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...Looked?
[Well, it's not a long question, but the tone of concerned skepticism - as near as he could get it - is important. Just how far did Sans abstract himself underground, or... did he see something when it grabbed him...?]
cw: panic attack... again
[Sans goes rigid again. He saw it, and even scraping at the barest outlines of comprehension had driven him into senselessness, and he can remember that. Black tentacles and chanting he couldn't stop. He's dizzy and shaky just thinking about it. If he keeps thinking about it is it going to happen again? He needs to stop thinking about it. He needs to stop, but he can't, he can't do anything--]
pretend their positions are swapped in this icon
At least he's still offering that half hug. Easy to squeeze a little tighter, in hopes of pulling Sans's attention back from wherever it's gone. It's fine if Sans panics and attacks him before realizing - Papyrus is sturdy, now more than ever. Even if he damages something, they can just replace it with something even better.
And as he loosens up on the hug, he shifts that arm so his... his hand, the distress of it is barely a blip compared to this, is freed to stroke down Sans's wing. He's seen his brother do that when trying to calm down enough times, and knows how comforting it feels.]
everyone needs to be reassured on a couch sometimes
When Papyrus tightens his grip just a little, Sans's wings snap forward just once, smacking into Papyrus's back. It's unfocused, and Sans is hardly the strongest guy around. It gets Sans to stop talking in circles, though, and that slows Sans's thoughts enough to process Papyrus's hand on his wing. It is comforting; by slow degrees, he eases out of his full-body flinch. He's not underground, he's at home. Papyrus is right there. Sans is--is broken, a little more than he was before, but he's not more dead. Papyrus didn't get hurt.]
I'm. [His words feel strange. But it's getting better.] I'm really tired.
what are couches for if not sitting and having feelings, then taking a nap
If... you want, to slee-p. I'll keep wa-tch.
[There's reasons why he sometimes wants Sans to read him stories before he sleeps, after all. It feels safer, knowing his brother's there and safe. Like it reassures some deep worry about his family disappearing, that otherwise leads to nightmares.
But there's not much point to thinking about it.]no subject
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[Of course, that'd take getting up from the hug for a minute or two, but it'd be something to look at, maybe laugh at. He is not even slightly going to risk turning the TV on directly and risk exposing Sans to info about some other terrible thing happening for them to feel even more helpless about. There's enough distressed calls and texts about the eye flowers, religious folks expressing hopes and fears, and so on as is.]
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Papyrus'll talk next tag, after seeing how well he caught him
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small text, small voice, shhh
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