Chapter Text
WDG-S1 systems powered on for the first time with a reverberating hum. It's sockets remained closed as it's processor hesitantly connected with it's limbs. Energy—magic, rushed in it's every circuit and awakened it's sleepy processor.
AUDIAL 1: ONLINE
AUDIAL 2: INACTIVE
“After all this time, to think that-”
Voices cut between the rush of code in S1's processor.
“A miracle”
Human. Male. approx. 30—45 yrs. Voice: reverence, awe, surprise, excitement-
Information rushed into S1’s new systems and they stalled before continuing the ‘waking’ up sequence. It translated to what S1’s social programming indicated to be a wince of displeasure, and the voices around him quieted.
S1 twitched and wiggled it’s phalanges and toes, then it carefully shifted it’s entire body to test the weight of it—a chime had a directive ringing in his newly awakened auditory system.
AWAKEN AND GREET THE WORLD
SYSTEMS: ONLINE
S1 complied.
It's sockets opened and optical sensors received their first rays of light—digesting the input eagerly.
Strings of code flashed in its HUD before clearing. Around it was a gathering of two human males and three females in white coats. The part of S1 that was still parsing through the encyclopedia in its processor found what it needed to, and gave it an answer.
Scientist.
The scientists all stood in what S1 inferred to most likely be a laboratory—if the context remained the same—and S1’s optics scanned the entirety of the room. It noted that the room itself was covered in a fine layer of dust and overall disuse. In fact, the only pristine part of the room seemed to be S1.
Suddenly, one of the scientists walked closer.
Caution. S1 read from the tight lines on this male scientist's face. For whatever reason, he approached S1 with an emotion bordering on fear. Something in S1—probably social programming—deemed it unacceptable.
“Uh, hello” he said.
It’s programming happily changed his status from afraid to uncertain the moment it properly registered the change in his expression.
S1 could fix that.
“hello” S1 stalled as though startled for a moment by it’s own voice, but was determined to continue “my designation is WDG-S1 and-”
“Holy shit!” a female scientist shouted from another corner of the room and pink bloomed onto her face indicating embarrassment, as all the eyes—and optics—in the room turned towards her.
S1 could understand that she felt some sort of social shame, but it was stuck on why. Why did blood rush to her face? What was embarrassment anyhow? How did you feel it? Could S1 feel it? Its still developing processor rushed to answer, but was unfortunately left lagging and S1 was stuck with hundreds of lines of reasoning that could not progress forward.
S1 needed more information.
It almost opened its mouth to ask, well everything, before it looked down for a moment and became entranced with it’s own body. S1 looked down and saw perfectly smooth ivory bones that gleamed in the bright lighting of the lab—the connection between each seemingly made out of nothing.
S1 at a subroutine curiosly before trigering it and the mirage of what was "bone" rippled across it's body until the metal underenath was revealed. The corner of it's bony mouth twitched upwards as it went from bone to metal, silver to white, white to silver—machine to monster. S1 settled on the white porcelain of a skeleton and paused as it's processor came to a grinding halt at a sudden conclusion.
For all intents and purposes, S1 looked identical to…someone, someone important, but it's memory files regarding the familiarity continued to read as corrupted.
“Huh, Oh! You’re naked” the male scientist in front of it exclaimed and hurriedly took off his white coat.
S1’s view was obscured for a moment by the sheet and it made a strangled beep before it could process anything else.
“what’s the point?” S1 couldn’t help but ask once it had gathered it’s bearings—it was like all the questions that it'd created in the short while since it'd been online were physically weighing on it.
“...Sorry?” The scientist had covered S1’s shoulders and most of its body underneath the fabric, but it couldn’t help but point out…
“it’s so thin, why put it on? why put anything on if it doesn’t even do anything-” S1 picked at the fabric with a scrunch of it’s nose ridge before it was interrupted by a snicker.
“Hah! Now that's a line I haven’t heard before.” the female scientist now read as amused rather than shameful and S1’s social programming gave it a warm ping of approval.
S1 realized that it’s language module had finally downloaded and it was startled and jittery all at once—because it could read. It absorbed every word printed in all visible parts of the room in the half second it took it to process with relish. A warm hand suddenly came down on its skull in a gentle pat and it’s systems paused for a second before sending S1a rush of positive feedback as it subconciusly leaned in.
“You remind me of my niece. like a little kid” the male scientist, Dr. Jackson Moore chuckled before stepping off the raised platform S1 was stationed at.
Dr.
S1’s processor couldn’t—wouldn’t let go of the word and it was stuck turning it over in it's skull fruitlessly.
Doctor
Closer.
Doctor Ga-
“It’s almost difficult to believe that you’re a machine, I mean you must be the most ad-“
“-vanced piece a’ coding in the world i reckon” Sans continued on as he tried his best to not let the stares of the now five skeleton monsters in the room get to him—seriously, it was like they were pumping out differently colored clones every time he so much as blinked “my uh, social programming's very realistic, almost life-like from what I’ve been told”
He wasn’t even bragging when he said it, his coding was a complete mystery to everyone—even Sans.
Okay so he was bragging a little bit.
More importantly, Sans’ analytics still couldn’t decipher as to why the room was so damn tense and he could feel his stress levels climb in response as the silence stretched on into infinity. He forcefully relaxed his phalanges from where they were digging into the couch.
Stress level: 47%^
He wondered sometimes as to why he was even given simulated stress to begin with—well, Sans wasn’t an engineer. Social integration purposes maybe? Regardless, the directive loomed over his skull and glowed softly as though in warning.
Right.
FIND A WAY HOME
Stress level: 51%^
“well, i dunno man, ya’ seem a’ bit rattled for just a’ machine” the red guy leaned back in the armchair and flopped like a fish until he was sideways with a shit-eating grin.
Stress level: 37%⌄
Sans was briefly startled as the whole room erupted in near-simultanious groans of exasperation. He noted the reaction and forced down the edges of his mouth that were trying to quirk upwards without his consent.
Alright, no puns, got it—though Sans made no promises.
“SERIOUSLY? A PUN.” someone said, and Sans realized that all of their voices were more similar than they reasonably should have been.
He was just about to isolate the individual frequences for further investigation when he was interrupted by a shrill voice.
“YOU MONGREL! HOW DARE YOU-”
“whoops, sorry boss” Red guy said, looking not sorry at all.
Now this guy, "boss" was menacing, but in a very cool, spiky way. He was also the red guy’s brother and Sans noted in their shared profile that they had a theme—very important for efficiency purposes, he assured his programming.
Actually, now that Sans was staring at his narrow face, he kinda looked like-
“WELL, I’M PRETTY SURE THE HOUSE ACTUALLY BELONGS TO COMIC” The lighter-blue skeleton said somewhat cheerily and Sans almost groaned when he realized he would need to update his file.
The serious to excitable routine would definitely screw his expected reaction algorithm if it continued.
Damn.
All eyes were on the ground, where the blue-er skeleton Sans talked to initially lay half-asleep, or Comic as Sans was supposed he was called. He was the one that greeted him first when he had emerged into the homey living room and he carefully noted him as the highest authority in the room. Sans would take care and let his instructions take priority over other’s.
“uh, i think so?” it came out more as a question rather than a statement as Comic scratched his cheek with a phalange.
Still not the least competent boss Sans has been under, somehow.
“seriously?” a lanky skeleton that was drinking—and Sans wasn’t kidding when he said this—straight honey.
“DON’T TELL ME WE’RE SQUATTERS YOU UTTER BUFFOON-”
“...maybe the house belongs to my brother?” Comic was uncaring as he let his skull thump back to the carpeted floor.
Sans realized that he had been forgotten as the monsters began to squabble and took the time to order out his directives. Okay so he needed to-
FIND A WAY HOME
Yes, thank you processor, that. Sans recalled the machine in the basement from which he came and concluded pretty quickly that if anything could bring him home, it was probably that.
“I’LL FLAY YOU, YOU WRETCHED-”
A machine the skeleton monsters in front of him were already working on, and Sans zoomed in on his memory files to the messy notes next to the machine. Interestingly enough, they seemed to be in some sort of symbol-code and not one any of Sans’ databases could decipher at first glance. He paused befpre noting that he was completely disconnected from the internet—it looked like Sans was stuck with what he had directly downloaded to his processor.
“PERHAPS LET’S LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE! IF WE GET RID OF HIM TOGETHER-”
They didn’t seem too hostile, so Sans figured he was safe so long as he was compliant. This stayed the same across universes apparently–
Wait.
“ugh, would you nitwits tone it down? stars-”
The distant part of Sans’ processor that had been cataloging and reasoning out inconsistencies from his very eventful morning pinged him as it came to a conclusion. Oh. Sans was in an alternate universe, which explained why everyone only came in only two models of skeleton. He had been wondering actually, but his social programming told him it was probably one of those things that would offend people if he asked for no apparent reason.
“WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY-”
Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth
Someone told Sans that once, if only he could remember who.
“uh, my bad boss, i meant comic n’-”
If Sans was right—which he had a 98.56% chance of being—then that meant the tall skeletons were actually-
“papyrus” Sans spoke aloud “you guys are alternates of me and papyrus”
“ERR, YES WE ARE ACTUALLY!” the sometimes-cheery one said with slightly furrowed brows—confusion, Sans’ programming willfully supplied as said skeleton looked around the room accusingly “DID NO ONE TELL YOU?...OF COURSE THEY DIDN’T. SIGH.”
“...well, he seemed to figure it out jus’ fine on 'is own” red guy said before being properly cowed by his brother’s well placed glare—serves him right.
Blue guy pinched his nose ridge and put a gloved hand on his hip
“HONESTLY PAPY! I THOUGHT YOU AT THE VERY LEAST WOULD THINK TO TELL HIM—STRETCH IF YOU DON’T KNOW” he said as though that last comment wasn’t directly aimed at Sans and no one else.
Sans left some very positive notes in his file—as a thank you.
“whoops” the newly dubbed Stretch said as a glob of honey ran down his chin “sorry blue, i guess he was so co’operative that i figured razz told ‘im”
“...YES, WELL. PERHAPS WE SHOULDN’T ASSUME.” Blue gave Sans a glance before looking away—woah, serious again.
Sans mourned his algorithm.
“you’re papyrus” Sans repeated as though in a daze and the red guy’s brother paused from where he held a sleeping Comic by the scruff.
“I ASSUME YOU’RE ASKING FOR YOUR BROTHER?” maybe someone else wouldn’t have noticed, but Sans tracked the way his expression had softened ever so slightly.
Huh.
“yeah, all th’ papyrus’ come a few days after th’ sans does” the red guy said from where he was still half asleep on the recliner “probably. i mean damn machine’s so temperamental-”
Blue gave him a very pointed look before looking at Sans in a way that was probably supposed to be reassuring. Red guy let his mouth clack shut and gave Blue an exaggerated movement as though sealing lips that he didn’t actually have.
“DON’T LISTEN TO RED” Red mumbled out a half-hearted protest before going back to lazing on the chair “YOUR BROTHER WILL COME IN ABOUT A WEEK! NO NEED TO WORRY FRIEND”
His eyelights swirled around in his sockets like a whirlpool as he gave Sans an encouraging grin and thumbs up.
And uh, that was cool and all, but-
“i don’t have a brother” he said—and promptly regretted it at the way everyone laser-focused on him.
“huh?” Stretch said dumbly around another gulp of honey and Sans wondered if he even enjoyed it.
“machines can’t have brothers” Sans'vocalizer evened out his voice the best that it could.
Sans was getting tired of the dramatic silences and almost sighed as his social programming decided to freak out.
Again.
“THAT'S IT.” Red’s brother stomped over to Sans with some immaculate heeled boots and nabbed him by the collar of his shirt, lifting him a few inches off the floor “I AM THE TERRIBLE EDGE, AND I HAVE GROWN TIRED OF YOUR OPEN-ENDED COMMENTS. I DEMAND AN EXPLANATION FOR YOUR ODD BEHAVIOR AT ONCE!”
Stress level: 42%^
Sans distantly heard Blue make a sound of protest from behind The Terrible Edge and Comic snored obnoxiously from where he had been dropped onto the floor on favor of Sans. There was a bone portrait slightly behind Edge’s skull and Sans tried his best to look at that instead of the wispy red magic coming out of his captor’s sockets.
“WELL? I WOULD ADVISE YOU NOT-”
Sans still didn't know what he was asking, but whatever, fuck him he supposed-
Oh.
Sans felt his overtaxed systems heave a sigh of relief as he realized what all the fuss was about. They didn’t know he was a machine—and fair enough, Sans gave them no reason to believe him to be anything other than a monster off his rocker. Well, that wouldn’t do, who knew what kind of misunderstandings could come about if they took Sans at face value?
His social programming niggled at him and Sans wondered about how everything could go from relatively okay to critical in just a few seconds. Programming still demanded that he fix what he had created.
“-ARE YOU IGNORING ME RAT?” yeesh, just a half second and Edge already had his gloved fists practically tearing holes in Sans’ new shirt—generally, Sans tried not to make property damage a habit.
He peeked behind him to a very tense crew of skeletons watching Edge like a hawk—though notably not making any actual effort to stop him—and almost sighed again. Sans briefly thanked his absent creator that he could think so quickly, another few seconds and Edge might actually have killed–er, deactivated him.
“i think…that there's been a misunderstandin'" Sans gave what was hopefully an understanding smile and let the mirage of his porcelain ‘bone’ ripple across his body until the metal underneath was visible–it gleamed gold underneath the warm yellow lighting.
“YOU-” Edge’s sockets widened and he looked absolutely flabbergasted—Sans would’ve snorted if he wouldn't get maimed for it.
“let’s start over. my name’s WDG-S1, but you can call me sans, no bones about it” Sans let the illusion fall back into place and he gave a cheeky wink to effectively diffuse the situation—his script had never failed him before and there was no reason that it would now “i don’ have a brother, but-”
“WHAT ABOUT PAPYRUS?” Blue spoke up again, his gaze sharp enough to cut through the metal that Sans was made out of “YOU MENTIONED PAPYRUS, BUT IF YOU DON’T HAVE A BROTHER THEN…WHAT IS HE TO YOU?”
Blue was quick and Sans made note to be careful if he needed to lie around him. Comic had long since stopped snoring and Sans once again had the attention of all the skeletons in the room. It was already getting old, but he didn’t count on it being an uncommon occurrence.
“my primary objective” Sans said easily and he ignored the negative feedback he got at the thought that Papyrus was in his universe being taken care of by someone who wasn’t Sans “he’s the reason i was created, my main function is the continued physical an’ emotional well being of papyrus”
PROTECT PAPYRUS
-FIND A WAY HOME
The words flickered in his vision along with his secondary directive as though to remind him of its existence—blah, literally every single action Sans took was in service of his main goal and he didn't need the reminder. All it served to do is keep Sans wondering about how Papyrus was doing without him; of course he was being taken care of, but it wasn't the same.
Did they keep his room at the right temperature? Were they keeping up with the feedings or did they delegate it to some intern—ugh, Sans needed to stop thinking about it, but he found his thoughts straying back no matter what he tried. Papyrus was picky about what fabrics touched his bones, Sans hoped they stuck to the outfits he had for him-
“huh, guess some things stay th’ same” Red whispered almost too quietly to hear and Edge finally let Sans fall back onto the couch with an oof.
Stress level: 36%⌄
“THAT WAS…INCREDIBLY SAPPY, YOU DISGUST ME” he said, but both him and his brother had a subtle red flush to their cheeks.
Blue giggled in the background now completely devoid his serious mood and Sans wondered if he was a little…uh, manic maybe? Stretch—who Sans had deduced to be his brother, probably (70.56% chance)—continued to stare at Sans with something like, oh. Pity.
Joy.
“SHUT UP! YOU-, YOU CRETINS! HOW DARE YOU LAUGH AT THE TERRIBLE-” Edge shrieked as he thwippedhis skull around to the various amused monsters in the room before he was interrupted by The Dreadful Razzberry.
“OH SAVE IT. JUST ADMIT THAT YOU HAVE GOTTEN SOFT SINCE COMING TO THIS UNIVERSE.” Razzberry appeared from what was probably the kitchen to Sans’ left like an omen.
This time when Edge spoke, Sans’ social analysis warned him that the anger was a lot more genuine. He watched the slow tick of his stress levels continue to rise and let his eyelights scan the room again as though some escape hatch would magically appear. Speaking of magic, the built hostility in the air between Edge and Razz was lurking just out of range for the monsters in the room, but Sans could most certainly feel it.
He concealed the shudder that went down his spine.
Comic waved a hand from where he and Red were apparently staring at him and Sans’ shoulders released a tension he didn’t know he had at the distraction. These two had the highest chances of being the skeleton’s working on the machine and Sans carefully didn’t let his eyelights linger at the soot stains on Red’s sleeve. This at the very least, Sans could do—he literally lived in a lab back home, after all.
“don’t worry about those two, i swear if they could spend the whole day squabbling they probablywould” Comic yawned and settled criss-cross applesauce on the side of Red’s chair.
Sans mimicked Comic’s position right across from where he sat. He was sure to keep an eye on Red—no matter how lax he looked—as he kept careful notice on the conversation in the kitchen.
“really?” Sans tilted his skull and looked back at still bickering skeletons.
“yep, though i was wondering about-” Sans almost jumped at the easy segway into a topic that he was still planning on how to bring up into the conversation naturally.
“the machine, right?” his stress levels began to even out, but he knew that his circlet would probably stay yellow until he could figure out what he was even going to do—Sans never did well without instruction.
“...right” damn, too eager—it had only been a few minutes and Sans was already mucking this one up.
Nevertheless, he straightened his posture and continued on.
“i’m faster than any computer, i don’t need to sleep or eat, an’ I…” stating all of Sans’ optimized features was typically the way to go, but the odd look on Comic’s face had him harshly switching gears “my main priority is getting back to papyrus—my papyrus, if sabotage is what you’re worried about, then-”
“nah, s’not that” his expression was still off, stars, what did it take to-
“he meant to say we would be glad to have yer help” Red flicked Comic's skull and gave him sidewys look.
Whatever message Sans didn’t get, Comic apparently caught. He paused and grinned lazily at Sans—even his mildly perturbed magic smoothed out to a mellow indifference.
“yeeeep, with you around the work’ll get done lickety split” Comic gave him a thumbs up in a movement eerily similar to the one Blue had made earlier—78.87% match.
Sans gave him a sharp nod and almost groaned as the pinging of his social programming finally ceased completely.
“i can download any digital file you need me to if you’ve got any an’ i’m usually connected to the internet for quick searches” Sans was practically drunk as his stress levels lingered around 50% and didn’t move—it was the best Sans could hope for at this point “that an’ i’ve been workin’ in a lab my whole existence , so you don’ need to teach me any-”
“mhm, an’ how long has that been?”
“uh, depends on what you’re-”
“your existence. how long’s it been?” Sans tilted his skull in response and once again felt his analytics go haywire as they tried to decipher why Comic would need to know something so trivial—stars, he hadn’t been so clumsy with this sort of thing since he’d first onlined.
“a few years give or take…maybe four?” Actually, Sans had been online for exactly-
4 YEARS 7 MONTHS 17 DAYS 6 HOURS 9 MINUTES 32 SECONDS, 33 SECON-
Yep, thanks chronometer, what would Sans do without you?
“i figured.” Comic’s face looked uncharacteristically grim for a split second before resetting back to his normal cheshire grin.
“did ya’ really?” Red questioned and let a leg dangle off an arm of the chair.
“heh, felt it in my bones-”
Sans turned his face away to hide the crinkle of his sockets, but the distinctly satisfied look on Comic told him that he failed to completely hide the reaction.
Darn.
“REALLY, ANOTHER PUN?” Edge shrieked from where he was still at odds with Razz and Sans waved at Blue doing a crossword with a, uh, Papyrus he hadn’t met yet on the dining room table to his right.
Edge had a bone shiv in his grip and Razz sipped on coffee he had acquired—as cool as a cucumber. Sans noted the subtle stiffness in his posture as a sign that he wasn’t as careless as he seemed.
The corners of Comic’s sockets squinted in amusement and Red snicked dully from where he was still on the same recliner—7.56% chance that he was incapable of leaving and 92.44% chance that he was just a slob. Sans paused and sniffed the air for a second as his olfactory sensors caught something distinctly sharp before he realized it was Red. Ew.
“HAVE WE NAMED THE NEWBIE YET?” the new Papyrus cut through the silence and Sans took in his oddly delicate-looking…structure, for lack of a better word.
Sans didn’t realize how much he had relied on Thesaurus until he was disconnected from basic Google searches. Any who, this new guy had more cracks on him than all of the others combined—and Sans’ systems registered this as the effects of long term magic-deprivation. Huh. Weird he didn’t need some sort of monster encyclopedia for that.
“nah jupiter, we were just about’a get to it till’ ya came” Red lazily craned his neck up to meet Jupiter’s gaze, who only huffed before sending Sans a brilliant smile.
“WELL THEN! I SUPPOSE WE MUST BEGIN CONSIDERING OUR OPTIONS” Jupiter rubbed his phalanges together in front of his glasses—that were somehow still on his face despite him not having a nose—hey, he kinda reminded Sans of a comic-book villain, and Edge of course.
Blue put down the crossword puzzle and sauntered over to the living room before stopping in front of Sans. He put down his gloved hand to presumably help him up—Sans took it and tried not to be weird about the sensation of contact from a hand so similar to his own.
“HMMMM” Blue squinted and looked him up or down as though deliberating very carefully.
Sans squared his shoulders and raised his head almost on instinct alone—as someone who had been examined a ton in his relatively short not-life, he was familiar with what people typically wanted to see.
At least he wasn’t naked—small victories!
“I BELIEVE THAT WE HAVE EXHAUSTED ALL THE COLOR NAMES, SO THAT’S PROBABLY OUT” Jupiter held his chin in between two fingers exactly like Blue did and everyone seemed to forget about their housing situation when they switched topics.
“we don’ got a green, do we?” Red intoned.
“IT’S THE PRINCIPLE OF THE MATTER-” came from Razz’s direction as he took over the crossword at the dining room table from Blue and Jupiter.
“AND WHAT WOULD YOU KNOW ABOUT PRINCIPLES, YOU-”
“he kinda seems like a RAM to me” Stretch reappeared—wait, no, that was more like Stretch’s evil cousin.
Red and Comic snickered in tandem and Blue dragged a hand down his face in exasperation—surprisingly enough, Jupiter tried to muffle a chuckle. Sans’ algorithm was steadily losing its accuracy and he suppressed a pout.
Sans decided to make a wild guess and say that evil Stretch was Razz’s-
“YOU WHELP! I CAN’T BELIEVE-”
Woah, that was eerily similar to Edge—even more so than Blue had been to Comic—98.35% match to be exact. Sans was so caught up in stupid analytics, that he almost missed the pun. He quickly averted his skull for the umpteenth time and strangled the odd grumble that tried to claw out of his vocalizer. Slapping a hand to his mouth would have been too obvious, but Sans was sorely tempted to do so anyway.
“you can jus’ call me S1 y’know” Sans said quietly once he had gathered himself to Comic “it’s my name”
“...nah, that’s a little lame don’tcha think?” Red said mildly and Sans was struck by the urge to look away from his probing gaze.
Out of the corner of his socket Sans zoomed in on Blue and Jupiter making a series of wriggly faces towards each other and he wondered if they thought they were being subtle.
“WELL I’M SURE THERE WILL BE PLENTY OF TIME TO NAME OUR NEW FRIEND LATER! YOU MUST BE EXHAUSTED" Blue said with a conspiratorial wink to Sans, who found himself confused for the hundreth time today as Jupiter nodded almost violently next to him “I’LL TAKE YOU TO THE SPARE ROOM, IT’S RIGHT NEXT TO MINE!”
Confused as he was, Sans could hardly stop his shoulders from sagging. Finally, he could sit in whatever shed or storage cupboard they were about to put him in and sort out all the logic trees that had long since spiraled out of control. Blue was going at the tippy top of his helpful-people list and Sans trailed after him like a lost puppy.
Up the stairs they went and Sans only had a split second to snag all the photos that they passed once they reached the bedrooms into his memory banks. One human child and a variety of different monsters. Surprisingly, Sans found himself registering a face that his systems noted as familiar. A yellow lizard stuck in a noogie delivered via fish monster—she looked embarrassed, yet happy all at once and Sans heard the echo of negative-feedback without knowing why.
These glitches of his were annoying as all hell, but Sans also didn't count on getting rid of them anytime soon. Dr. Moore figured it was just a wierd quirk of his programming, one that simulated the "Deja-vu" phenomenon perhaps?But the situation around Sans' general existence ensure that no one could ever really be sure.
Sans huffed and stored the various photos in his memory banks for further examination as they both passed a cozy reading nook next to a bookshelf. Sans wondered why nothing matched and if bad sense in decorating was contagious somehow, but before he ran those chances Sans really needed to take a closer look at these photos-
“...ARE YOU ALRIGHT FRIEND?” whoops, Blue had already stopped at a door and Sans was still stuck analyzing the photos like a stalker—his social programming was getting sloppy.
“yep, jus’ lookin’ around” Sans popped the ‘p’ and looked through the now ajar doorway to…a regular room? “oh. who uh, lives here? Is it yours?”
Sans was a little stumped as to why Blue was opening some random room, but wasn’t about to risk upsetting him. Stars know how easily these guys got weird about the strangest things. He took another peek into the unfurnished room at the soft-looking bed at the center,singular window and desk that completed the space. It was the only room in the entire house that wasn’t homey, the only room that felt distinctly un-lived in.
It was probably Sans’.
“...IT’S YOURS.” Blue blinked and the corners of his bright grin wriggled down a little bit—damnit what was it this time? This was starting to get ridiculous “JUST FOR NOW! I’M SURE IT WON’T BE TOO LONG UNTIL THE MACHINE IS FIXED!”
Sans could feel his phalanges start to jitter as he realized what he needed to ask for next if Papyrus was going to come as soon as Red and Comic thought he was. Regardless, Sans needed to ask—on this he couldn’t compromise.
Stress level: 52%
“MY DOOR IS RIGHT NEXT TO YOURS, SEE!” Blue’s hands moved as he framed the bedazzled door covered in colors so gaudy that Sans briefly considered if Blue was color-blind.
On it there was a circular sign that read “NO PUNS ALLOWED!” and underneath it a crossed out sentence underneath in janky writing that Sans deduced to be a pun. Blue put a hand on his shoulder as he approached the door and the thrum of his sweet-river magic quieted Sans’ systems.
“IF YOU NEED ANYTHING, YOU KNOW WHERE I AM. ANYTHING AT ALL! EVEN IF JUST SOMEONE TO TALK TO!” Blue said and his booming voice dropped a few decibels to a normal-speaking voice.
When Sans asked about what he needed for Papyrus, he found himself not as cautious as he probably should’ve been. He didn’t know these people—ironically enough considering they were him. He probably shouldn't have let his guard down at all, but Blue made it easy. He seemed surprised, but not unwilling, and Sans figured that was the best he could ever hope for.
Then, he was alone.
Sans let his systems go on standby and set himself to wake up when Blue told him that dinner started. He stood with a direct view of the singular window, cracked open just enough to let in a cool breeze. The sun was as bright as it always was and Sans had no opinions on it, but he took a moment to lean into the warmth on his face before his optics powered off completely.
He would sort this out, he would, for Papyrus if nothing else.
But how?
He was stuck in a completely different reality among people that defied the expectations that he had been building for his entire existence. For the first time in his non-life he didn’t know what to say or even who to say it to, Sans found that he knew nothing.
He might’ve said that it was an unpleasant feeling, but he wouldn’t, because Sans wasn’t a creature who could feel anything at all.