spaghettimonster | Canyon: Inbox

Okay. Well. [That's one of his powers that Papyrus has picked up, then. So maybe it works the same way?] You've gotta focus on something solid that's familiar. [Good thing they're in the house, that's about as familiar as you can get in San Benedicto. Of course, Papyrus is the easiest focus for Sans, but that's embarrassing and--and Papyrus can hear his thoughts so now Papyrus knows that too. Extra embarrassing.]

Ny-yeh heh heh, I knew I was... A grounding influence for you! [Maybe not so literally that he's a focus for un-ghosting, but that's fine! Good to know he's valued! But sitting here talking with Sans isn't the same kind of grounding for him, maybe because his brother is always teleporting off for pranks and secrecy - it's an almost-accusation he'd take back if it weren't a little true too. Embarrassing and less kind than he wants to be! Don't notice these thoughts, and he'll agree not to notice the others, except for all the noticing they can't help doing.

He shakes his head, leaning a little harder against Sans as if to spite the train of thought, and tries to think. Something solid, and familiar. Not his own body, not this room of eyes and mess. Something material, from back underground...? Maybe they should go hang out on Papyrus's cool bed instead, or meditate on his battle body.]

[Sans will try not to notice those thoughts, at least more than he already noticed them. If nothing else he will do his best not to comment. (Anyway, it's not really news that Sans is unreliable. Wait, he said he wouldn't think about this.)]

So, your room, then? [It doesn't occur to him to not include himself in the "try stuff in Papyrus's room for grounding purposes" idea. But that's reasonable enough to explain as Sans being the one who had the intangibility powers to begin with, and--] Uh, it's probably bad that the sharing things thing is getting worse.

[That's an extremely belated thought, right there.]

[The sudden, dream-instigated increase in things like too many eyes (or at least many eyes, he's not insulting the eyes), or metallic body part replacements, or weirdly visible souls, or intangibility... It's not a great thing. But the worst thing about this situation has to be his brother hearing the thoughts that Papyrus doesn't want voiced - partly precisely for fear of needlessly hurting Sans's feelings - and feeling that muted self-denigration about it. The very outcome he didn't want, and so didn't say the thing, because it's only as true as Sans thinks and acts like it is!

He grumbles and scrubs at his face with his hands... well, no with one hand and the casing of one wrist, as his intangible hand goes through his skull. It's not enough pressure to scratch badly, just alarm him. Right, they're getting up and heading to his room instead.

It briefly occurs to him as he stands - because it occurs to Sans? - that he doesn't really question his brother coming along for it. Of course Sans is welcome to go with, it's uncomfortable being apart right now. They've been trying to keep to their own habits, because it's important to be able to when they have to, and every skeleton deserves privacy... But there's a time and place for that strain, and when things are actively getting more alarming and disorienting isn't really it. There's no sense making themselves especially miserable or alone. There's a little bit of a take that to Sans's not-thoughts of unreliability, as Papyrus actively pushes himself to think something that won't get him dwelling on the sense of helplessness in the face of the latest weirdness.]

W-Well... Yeah, probably! But... [The helplessness feeling is still very much present, as he struggles to think what to do about it. The one upside of the leech thing was that he was never indecisive. The downsides were more than he could count, of course, between the violent positivity and... everything. But it's hard to think what to do, proactively, about any of this. They haven't even figured out what's causing it.]

[With Papyrus indecisive, Sans finds it difficult to maintain the levels of wariness necessary to resist sticking close to Papyrus. Anyway, he wasn't wrong that intangibility is his power; Sans is the one who knows how it works. Letting Papyrus go try to figure it out on his own would be dumb. Sans stands up, too.]

Well, I should probably keep helpin' out with your hand problem anyway. And I guess I should practice walking around with these eyes in the room. [Will he be able to see his room as clearly as he does now when he's in Papyrus's? That's going to be weird.] Unless you want a shortcut.

[Sans knows Papyrus would think a shortcut that short would be ridiculous, which is why he offered.]

And risk catching your enthusiasm for them, when-- [He cuts himself off from saying, he can't do them anymore anyway. But it's not like stopping the words stops the the impulsive thought. They're lazy and easy, but there's times when getting somewhere quickly really would be helpful...

...Not the very next room, though. He recovers with an exaggerated roll of the eyes, playing into Sans's ridiculous offer.] No, you can do that walking practice! And, find out if going out the doorway, is easier or harder than a shortcut.

[Papyrus genuinely expect it to be easier for him to just walk out, with the eyes watching Sans's body leave until they're out of sight, instead of losing all contact at once. But he's no longer used to the whiplash disorientation of teleportation, so, who knows. He steps forward gingerly, cautious testing his foot on one of the eyes - it seems likely he'd feel them, if feeling them is a thing, with how much more blended they've gotten since he came in.]

[Well, if they stay like this for long enough, maybe Papyrus will get teleportation back that way. That'd be temporary, though. (Probably. Don't think about the weird stuff here not stopping. This one isn't even really that bad, comparatively.) Sans does miss his usual magic, though, now that Papyrus is thinking about it. He's reflexively tried to use gravity magic a few times to no effect.

Sans can't feel anything physical in the drawn eyes, which is good, because Sans knows he isn't going to remember to dodge all of them all the time. At least while he's in the room, walking isn't too bad for him. He's used to multiple angles by now. He's not sure how he'll do when he's seeing two completely different places, but walking to the door he can manage.]

So far, this uses way more muscles. [Sans you do not even have muscles.]

Well, it's good for you! It's not like you're using any muscles smiling all the time. [Because, again, he does not even have any muscles. Papyrus is closer to having muscles than Sans, with all the parts for making his limbs move - physical pistons, actuators, servos, and so on, instead of outright magic.

Papyrus moves out to the door and past it, pausing just out of sight of the eyes - he can still feel Sans seeing him with his more physical eyes, but something changes. Enough that he doesn't want to get too far ahead, when Sans finally leaves his own line of sight.]

[Sans has to pause when he steps out of his room. He's seeing the hallway and he's seeing his room and he's seeing both like he's in both places and for a wild moment he's not sure where his body is. He's still hanging onto Papyrus's arm, but he has to use his other to brace himself against the wall.]

Okay. Wow. This is weird. [It's an understatement to how confused Sans feels. Understating his feelings is kind of a pointless gesture right now, but it's habit.]

Disorienting. [Agreement, as Papyrus feels a fair portion of the confusion himself. But he'd braced for it, so it's still easier for him than the unexpected shortcut had been. Which...]

But! At least! You can leave your room. [Unlike Kassabian, or the brief fears that had flitted through his mind when he first found Sans in there.] Even if it's, a learning curve, to being in two places at once? Or three, if I go somewhere different too... [He regrets saying it as soon as he does, because that's a nonsense thing to say, isn't it? Papyrus isn't part of Sans any more than Sans is part of him. But with everything leaking, how much will it take for being in different rooms to be disorienting in the same way?]

Yeah, let's wait to do that. [Sans isn't sure how disorienting Papyrus being in a third place would be, but he doesn't want to add even a little more disorientation to the pile right now. If it's yet another excuse to stick close to Papyrus, well--it doesn't matter. He starts walking again, slowly, and his mind starts to adjust. He's always processing a lot of visual imagery anyway, it's just a matter of getting that section of his mind to section off a bit more information. Maybe more than a bit. It's fine. His walking is getting steadier.]

This is easier'n when I first got my extra eyes. [Which is true. It's apparently easy to go from a little extra vision to a lot than it is to go from no extra vision to a little. (Never mind that he's already decided that his halo's viewpoint counts as "a little" extra vision compared to what he has now. If Sans prefers to watch as much as he can, that's not new information.)]

It's just a matter of scale! [A little, in the sense of a factor or two. But the prep work for adjusting to expanded vision is there, and surely makes a difference. The disorientation now is a far cry from what he recalls of Sans's discomfort about the halo starting out, and if later admissions of being used to it are any indication... Well, Sans's room now has the best security in the house. A robo-skeleton could stand to get some cameras up, just to have a hand in the game.]

Guess so. [Figures it'd be a burst through a whole room and not just a few eyes; magical control like that was always more Papyrus's thing, and anyway, the kind of magic Sans has now is... Intuitive, if he was going to describe it in one word. It's not that monster magic doesn't have that element to it, especially once you get it down, but (not angel) this magic... It enhances all the emotional, connection-based parts of monster magic. If Sans didn't also find some similarities in quantum mechanics to grasp at, he's not sure he'd be very good with his new magic at all.

Sometimes he wonders how he'd be able to handle his magic in a fight. He tries not to think about that, but he can't completely set the idea aside, between what happens here and how he died. But he's going to stop thinking about that now.]

Now if you try to sneak in and clean up my socks, I'll know.

[Intuitive has been, to an uncomfortable degree, the right word for his increasingly robotic body. Engineering was fine, if something of a hurdle to get used to human electrical engineering. Programming took some doing, but once he started treating it like magic and directing devices like he might bones or blasters it's been going smoothly. Other than, well, the question of how to fight like this. It's not like there's no need to know how - not all humans are harmless, they knew that from the get-go. It's not even like most humans are harmless, from the amount of police scanner chatter he overhears, or reports on what the police themselves get up to, or...

The point being, he wonders about how to fight with their new bodies and powers, too. If he had his healing magic back, he'd be the first to say they should spar a bit and figure themselves out. As is...]

S-So, you're saying you don't even see the mess, huh?

Just my sock collection. 'S not my fault you don't appreciate it. [Really, Sans knows he's messy, but he can't work up the energy to care about it.

As far as fighting, Sans knows his extra arms double as attacks. He knows they feel similar to his bone attacks when he lights them up. He hasn't used them like that yet, though, which is fine by him. Sans has never liked fighting. It made him nervous when he was a kid; whenever the other kids would drag him into something, he'd always hit too hard. He doesn't really have a speed that isn't fighting like his life depends on it, except for when he was helping Papyrus figure stuff out when he was a kid. That's different, though; Papyrus wouldn't hurt him. He's never been entirely able to trust that with other people. Comes with having 1 HP, even if intent is theoretically there to protect him from typical monster sparring.]

[As Papyrus takes two attempts to open his door - the first because he reflexively uses the intangible arm - he gives the weak excuse the scoffing sound it deserves. He'd surely notice if someone moved his action figures, even if it was him and he forgot, because he cares enough to notice where they're at! Which... doesn't counter so much as bolster the apathy coming from Sans. It'd be nice if some of his energy for caring about things would rub off.

Still, there are ways Sans's disinclination towards getting in scuffles has been just as well, through the years. Those hints of surviving a fight, with his fragility...]

...At least they won't see you coming! [If Sans really needs to fight, he means. Teleporting, intangibility, invisible and painful arms... His brother's probably safer than he's ever been. (The irony of this will not escape Papyrus, later).

Yeah, that's kind of my thing. [Sans does love lurking, teleporting, and teleporting into places where he can lurk. There's a brief memory of Sans popping into place behind the anomaly and catching them in the back with a blaster, but Sans shoos it away.] Even better if they don't see me coming 'cause I'm suddenly across town.

[Running away isn't cowardly, it's a good idea unless there's no other choice, thanks.]

[It is a good idea, one Papyrus sometimes wishes he'd taken. Right now, he flinches at the more vivid memory of the anomaly... or maybe at how one of his feet sinks a little into the floor at the reminder.]

Oh my god. [How is Sans not constantly intangible, if he idly remembers that fight this often? Papyrus grumbles, gingerly reaching out to Sans for support before he thinks twice about it.

His room's cleaner, especially in terms of dirty (or clean) laundry lying out in the open. It's laid out a similarly to his old room, but with things rotated compared to the door - the closet is longer, dividing the space between the rooms for some sound privacy. The infrequently used bed sits on the far side from the door under a window, neatly made except for a few charging cables spread across the pillow. The majority of the mess is an expanded table space, with another computer, several action figures, and a couple of other RC vehicles - not yet souped up. A couple squadrons of the skeleton figures are arrayed around the layout, several on and in the vehicles. There's a bookshelf, but nearly empty compared to the one underground.]

[Sans hangs on more tightly when Papyrus's foot starts sinking into the floor. When Papyrus thinks about Sans's intangibility, Sans can't help but think about it too. It's comfortable. Sometimes he thinks he prefers it. He's taken naps like that a few times, just drifting around in between existence. But if he stays like that too long, it's hard to get back to reality. He hasn't really talked about how he feels about his intangibility, so he's not really sure how Papyrus is going to take that. Instead, he steers Papyrus toward the bed.]

You should sit down before you try bringing your foot back. [Trying to become tangible again while your foot is inside of something is a bad idea.]

Guess that's... one way, not to roll off a bed. [Floating intangibly, he means. Though it doesn't seem like that's the reason why Sans has been doing that, it does at least explain why Papyrus has found him haunting the kitchen a couple times. And if there's something familiar about the drifting between, from those ideas of being void gods... He shakes his head, takes the last tentative step to rest onto his bed and stare at his foot.]

...Have you tried? [Becoming tangible again, while within something else. For all the vivid impressions he's increasingly getting from Sans tonight (it's getting worse, it's getting stronger and more consistently), he didn't catch a sensory impression. It'd be uncomfortable for Papyrus, but he could if need be replace a foot. (Most of him is a little expendable, that way.) (Not really expendable, but... replaceable. It's fine.)]

Nah. [Sans figured the best case would be it not working and the worst case would be getting his body parts crushed and/or sliced off. Not worth the risk. Sans sits down next to Papyrus.] No point in maybe hurting yourself for no reason. [Papyrus better not try that right now, Sans does not consider any of Papyrus's body parts expendable.]

Of course not no reason. [He wasn't sincerely thinking to test it out, even with his curiosity what would result. Injuries are possible consequences in cool fights, or something that comes from preventing even worse injuries. Like the controlled damage he did to his skull, to prevent the fracturing Sans went through. Or hypothetically protecting Sans or someone else, from something bones couldn't stand up to but metal could. His modular parts are expendable, of course they are. There's already pieces he's swapped out and replaced, pieces he's designing with that intention...]

[Sans's thoughts skitter away from that thought about Papyrus opening up those ports on his skull like they could cause physical damage. Not that the idea of Papyrus taking an attack for Sans is that much better, even if Papyrus isn't wrong that he's more durable. Papyrus has always been more durable. That didn't really help back at home, when--no. He's not going to think about that. He's not thinking about it. He's locked down his expression entirely, leaving it in its usual blank grin.

Papyrus's parts are fixable, that's the point. Sometimes with replacement stuff. But expendable's the wrong word.]

Okay, so, let's work on getting your body parts back on this plane. [Sans is going to think about that instead.]

[Papyrus doesn't flinch with Sans's feelings as badly as Sans does, fortunately. He doesn't go even more intangible with the impulse to avoid it all. But his attention hovers obstinately on the difference about fixable and expendable, because it's... it's... He'd normally be the first to insist every part of him matters, even the removed parts, wouldn't he? To insist despite his own doubts about it. But...]

Y-Yeah, okay. So I... sit here, very solidly, thinking about... old times? [There's a lot of thoughts flowing around, and focusing on Sans's quick explanation about the transition back is difficult.]

Good ones. [Not something he might have to specify to Papyrus under different circumstances, but their shared thought space is kind of weird right now. Sans is aggressively focusing on just this one moment in time. No past thoughts, no future thoughts.] Ones that'd make you want to come back. [Intangibility isn't quite leaving, but it feels very similar to Sans. Going maybe half a step away from reality.]

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given he's going intangible out of wanting to avoid things

whoops

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