But summer has to come to an end sometime

[sansational]

Ever since S-4 talked Sans into sharing a room with him and Sans-Serif, sleep really has come a little easier. Not much - he still has bad dreams, they all do. But every little bit helps, especially when help is within arm's reach instead of on the other side of a door. Ever since hearing from Tauriel that the two babybones are also still suffering from bad dreams, Sans has been trying to find ways to help. But it's a problem that's stymied him for years to the point of giving up, so privately, he doesn't hold out too much hope.

It's been a relatively ordinary night - he read them both their story, tucked them in, and then curled up on the other side of S-4 from where Sans-Serif lay. Sleep came as quickly as it ever did. But whatever dreams Sans had, they were chased immediately from his head by the agony that awoke him, accompanied by the sharp crack of bone.

The pain jolts him upright, his hands scrabbling all over himself, searching for signs of damage. They finally come to rest on his own skull, and realize that it hasn't broken. It's just...shifted.

"no..."

More cracks like breaking twigs and shattered branches echo throughout the room. His fingers start to sharpen, he can feel his ribs expanding, each one accompanied by a gasp and a cry of pain from the skeleton. His marrow is on fire and burning him up from the inside out and no no no he has to get out of here...

Eventually, Sans makes it into the woods. But all that really does is ensure that he has enough room to finish transforming. By rights, it probably only takes a few hours, just like last time. But it's painful enough to feel as though it takes a lifetime. All he can do is lay on the ground and whimper and twitch, or else drag himself along in a futile attempt to escape the pain. All he can do is wait for it to finish happening.

Useless regrets and pointless despair chase themselves around his increasingly malformed skull. it's not fair, everything was supposed to be okay now, i was trying to be better, i promise i was...

Until even that level of thought is beyond him and he's reduced to begging senselessly. make it stop, please make it stop, i don't want to do this anymore, i made a mistake, please, Gaster...

At one point, he hears a voice in his head - a delusion, or a memory. it sounds like Frisk's voice, except not like their voice at all. Too late. Too late.


The forest has a new inhabitant, the next morning. The giant monster is something like a bear and something like a horse with a skull that more closely resembles that of a wolf. It's too big to go that deep into the trees, but it creeps around the edges of things. It keeps its distance from the castle, it treads carefully around any flowerbeds, but it's big enough to be easily noticed from a distance. Mostly, it can be found curled up in an apparent attempt to sleep, wherever the ground is clear enough for it to find room. Though whenever anyone approaches, one eyesocket opens to reveal a glowing blue orb of light within, and the creature lets out a wary growl. 

Otherwise, it can mostly be found trying to eat. The fruit trees in particular will find themselves frequently raided, with some of them picked entirely clean. Hopefully no one was in the mood for lemons this week. The creature barely has to stretch its neck to gobble fruit whole off the branches. 

This puts it somewhat at odds with the local birds, but even the most ornery peacock will beat a retreat whenever the beast parts its jaws just enough to let blue light bloom between its fangs. 

Comments

[dustless]

That--that makes them a little calmer, barely. Because they need to be. "'S not cruel, he's just-- he's dumb. Prob'ly didn't want to make me feel bad," Frisk mutters bitterly.

They whirl and walk towards the nearest inner window, glaring out as if they'll be able to spot Sans from so far away. (They can't, but it feels better than just standing and staring at Tauriel.)

[lightofthestars]

As Frisk calms, so does she. Her anger does not leave her, but no longer does it roar like a banked fire. That will change, she knows, when next she sees Sans, but for now, she can speak evenly again.

"He is foolish indeed if he thought this would not hurt you."

She steps toward Frisk. Her voice quiets. "I am sorry. I would have told you had I known."

[dustless]

"...I know."

That reply works for both of her statements, really.

"Gonna visit him soon," they say, a little grimly.

[lightofthestars]

"I will lead you to him, if you wish," she offers.

It is the least she can do.

[dustless]

Frisk's quiet for a bit, winding the end of their scarf around their fingers as they think.

She'd probably be able to find Sans-dragon faster than them. But he might figure something's up if they're both going in at the same time--in fact, he probably will, since Tauriel already knew when they didn't. They can't be sure what they'll talk about, still upset enough it's hard to think that far, but they don't think they're going to want anybody in earshot. They like talking in private.

"...'s okay. Think I can find him. He's pretty big."

[lightofthestars]

The corner of her lips lifts in a bitter smile. "So he is, now."

She wishes to speak with Sans, but first she must be sure: "Shall I stay with you, Frisk?"

Frisk has already been abandoned once this week. She will not do the same.

[dustless]

It takes a moment for her words to register. When they do, they just look puzzled when they glance back at her.

"...no? It's okay." They don't understand why she thinks she needs to.

[lightofthestars]

"Are you certain?" she asks. "Not often is it good to be alone after learning of something painful."

She hopes Frisk is not trying to be "strong," for that would be troubling indeed.

[dustless]

"...not gonna be alone. Gonna be visiting Sans."

[lightofthestars]

"That is not what I mean, hên vell." She shakes her head. "It is not good for the soul to carry a burden alone."

[dustless]

Frisk shrugs, still looking out the window. "...but I'm not. You already know what's wrong."

[lightofthestars]

"I do, but...." Ai, it is difficult to make Frisk understand.

She tries something else: "Will you not come sit with me for a time?"

[dustless]

They turn to glance at her again, looking blank, but they eventually do nod.

"'F you want." Hopefully nothing will happen to Sans in the meantime. They don't know if that's a possibility or not.

[lightofthestars]

"Thank you."

...Now she must consider what to do next. Ai, but she did not think this through.

"Shall we visit Grune's garden? It would be pleasing to sit among the flowers."

[dustless]

Well, it's outside. Which is going to be closer to where they want to be, so they nod, and move to follow.

But they'll be distracted the entire time. She might need to talk more than once for Frisk to even hear her.

[sansational]

The universe has a strange sense of humor, sometimes. It will probably become quite apparent when they're still a fair distance away that Tauriel isn't the only one who finds it pleasant to be in Grune's garden. Though in Sans' case, he tends to nap along the edges of the flowerbeds nowadays, so as not to damage or crush any of Grune's hard work.

He's stretched out fully, his eyesockets closed and his tail flicking idly at whatever phantoms are chasing themselves through his dreams. The snoring that rumbles in his ribcage is keeping birds from bothering the blossoms, at least.

[lightofthestars]

Tauriel hears his snores even before she sees him. Her steps check; then, she walks on. There is no way to act as if she had changed her mind without Frisk suspecting her, for they are a very bright child.

Blast Sans! She had wanted to give Frisk a moment of peace, and now he must take even that from them.

Her attempts to speak fall to nothing. She will let Frisk find Sans on their own time.

not BLAST sans, BLASTER sans!

[dustless]

Frisk doesn't mind all that much once they spot him. Which in and of itself takes a while, so lost in their own feelings they are.

Tauriel will definitely be able to tell when they do, since their footsteps in the grass and flowers go silent as they stop dead.

And then they turn and head directly towards him, not stopping until they're standing barely a foot in front of his nose.

...

...

...

...

"Sans."

And his nap spots are currently limited

[sansational]

Sans keeps snoring away even as Frisk marches up to him. He doesn't so much as twitch until he hears...

The creature half-opens its eyesockets and...then they fly open wide as it realizes just what it's looking at. There is a tiny human standing in front of its face. Close enough that it almost has to cross its eyelights to keep them properly in sight. How did they sneak up on it?

The monster half-rises into a crouch, its claws digging into the ground, moving far more quickly than something that size really has a right to. If it had ears, they would be plastered flat against its head. As it is, it just lets out a soft growl that's equal parts surprised and warning, before it takes a step back. Only then does it feel safe enough to bother trying to understand what had been said, only then does it take a second look and realize that this isn't just a human, this is...

"...Frisk?"

Did Frisk just...call him by name?

Then Sans looks up further, and sees Tauriel standing there. Half-asleep and half-lucid, it still doesn't take a quantum physicist to start putting pieces together. At the least, it's certainly easy enough to see that she does not look pleased. He seems to wilt a little from his previously wary stance, trying to look as nonthreatening and non-bestial as possible.

Blast Blaster Sans, because dude, you are in So Much Trouble right now.

[lightofthestars]

Tauriel's knives are in her hands the moment Sans acts as a dangerous animal startled awake, not a member of her family. Only when he calms and his eye-lights rest upon her does she sheathe her weapons.

Her movements are very deliberate. She says nothing.

[dustless]

Frisk is fearlessly still during that little display. (They can't see Tauriel, too busy looking at Sans, but she'd be getting a disapproving look if they'd seen those knives.)

They cross their arms in front of them and lean forward, until they're quite literally leaning on his face. Rude, maybe, but they're not feeling particularly polite right now.

"Yeah. 'M still just Frisk. And you're a science dragon now. And you didn't tell me."

[sansational]

Rude and uncomfortable and dangerous, and Sans shakes his head to try and get them to stop doing that. Then he takes another few steps back for good measure, trying to hold his head out of Frisk's reach, even if that puts him more firmly in Tauriel's line of sight.

Tauriel is mad, and Frisk is mad, and Sans feels about three inches tall and he doesn't know why, at first, until it sinks in that Frisk hasn't just guessed that he's a Sans, they've figured out that he's their Sans. And it only takes another look at Tauriel's face to figure out how.

Fear he could understand, confusion, questions, but...why are they angry?

"Sorry," he says, and he sounds it, but he also sounds confused, lost. He lifts a shoulder in a close approximation to a shrug. "Hard to explain." Barely possible to explain when he can string a full sentence together, let alone now.

[lightofthestars]

"You could have tried."

She keeps her temper leashed only for the sake of Frisk. She does not wish to scare them.

Later, when she and Sans are alone, she will scare Sans just as much as he deserves.

[dustless]

Frisk stays where they are, sharply pulling their arms against their chest and holding themselves angrily.

"Didn't need to make me think you were a stranger. That there was another lab baby. Didn't need to lie right when i talked to you. Didn't need to disappear. Didn't need to make me think you left."

Ah. And there's the crux of the matter.

There's very little they can think of that would be worse than Sans disappearing.

[sansational]

Ah. And there's the crux of the matter. Even Sans can see it now. Because that's right, isn't it? He is one of the Sanses that's dead back home.

He can't help but let out a faint whine at the use of the word "left". That's not the right word, it can't be the right word. Because he doesn't want to leave, the only way he could ever be gone from this place was if he was sent away. If people can leave, that means Gaster left, that Gaster abandoned S-4 and Sans again and he can't believe that.

"Didn't mean to." Mostly, he didn't mean to disappear. He didn't mean for this to happen, not even back when he'd been half out of his mind with grief. He supposes he had meant to make them think he'd left, if only because that might have been a safer alternative. "Not all lies." He wasn't all that different from Sans-Serif, after all. The big differences were that Sans had volunteered, and Sans had been a failure.

He's even more sensitive to human souls now than he normally is, enough that Frisk's distress is plain enough even without their voice rising. "Sorry," Sans whimpers, and means it rather more this time.