video/action (forward-dated to 4/20); while collecting the stars, i connected the dots

[skelebro]

[The video wobbles a minute before it steadies, locking onto a grinning skull. It's your friendly neighborhood skeleton, Sans, looking undeniably pleased with himself as he comments to someone just off screen:]

'S lookin' great so far.

[There's a fumbling tapping as the feed gets jostled, and Sans is forced to set the thing onto the ground, face-down. At least the audio filters through, unimpeded if a bit muffled.]

All right. We ready?

[There's a distant sound of affirmation - two, actually, though one sounds a mite more stammered than the first. Kate, it seems, hadn't much wanted to take part in the announcement itself. So when the feed swings up again, there's two distinctively non-human shapes in the periphery - a yellow, lizardlike creature and a small black hedgehog that sharp-eyed cave-dwellers might recognize as Alphys and Shadow, respectively. The video jerks again, blurring the twin blazes of color into smeared linear streaks, and the cave gets a lovely shot of Sans's pink fuzzy slippers in preparation for the finale.

There's a click of fleshless fingers snapping; hundreds of tiny, glowing objects being displaced and then replaced, buried into the rock of the ceiling. Takes a lot out of a skeleton and leaves him a bit stooped from the effort, but it's worth it.

The camera swings up again to pan across the ceiling, now lit with a vast array of blue sparkling stones.]

It ain't Tranquility's illusions, but... [One last whip-pan back to Sans's face, and he winks at the camera, lookin' just a tiny bit more on the edge of exhaustion than usual. Just a hair.] You can consider it a good constellation prize.

[Enjoy the night sky, Hadriel. It'll last for quite a while. Sans, for his part, plans to be stargazing all night. Feel free to find him at the lake, if you're real interested.]

Comments

[skelebro]

Yeah. I was kinda wondering about that.

[But then again, it's Sans. He's got his concerns, his worries, his fears, his - assorted whatevers. It's no real big problem to tamp 'em far, far down deep and never let 'em get any headway. No problem at all.]

How've they been?

[journalname]

...perhaps as well as can be expected. [So. Not at all, really, but nobody's run off to Silent Hill again and we take what we can get here.] The two of them always were inseparable.

But I think having Frisk around has done them good.

[skelebro]

[Not well, then. Still, they ain't raring to go and off themself, to his knowledge - or at least, they ain't gone jumping off any walls since he spoke to 'em last. So that's for the best, he's pretty sure.

Sans, for his part, hums out a faint sound that lands somewhere between fond and tired.]

Sibs from different cribs, those two.

[journalname]

They are very close.

[It doesn't really surprise him, even though they've only met in Hadriel as far as he's aware. The two have always been kind of associated in his own brain, at least.]

They even look a bit alike, do they not...? [He wonders if Frisk remembers that he told them so.]

[skelebro]

Mixed 'em up for each other myself the first time. First few times, actually.

[Still ain't real clear on how much of each kid is...well, them. It was really only thanks to the fact that Chara wasn't wearing the same clothes as the kid was facin' up in the hall that cued him onto the fact that they were two separate people. That, and the LOVE they'd ceiling-ed out directly before ending up down here.]

[journalname]

[Asgore chuckles ruefully.] Yes. There was a moment when I first saw Frisk...

[But then, he is Chara's father. It's not difficult to distinguish his own child.]

[skelebro]

[It'd probably be rude to comment that humans more or less all look the same to Sans; it's only thanks to bein' down here as long as he has that he's gotten to be any good at picking apart the nuances of different people's facial tics and qualities.

Still, he can't imagine.]

Not sure anyone would blame for you that. [Maybe Frisk would, but they have - no standards. That's how the joke goes, right?] They're more than a little alike.

[journalname]

[He smiles.]

Yes, they do have a certain look in their eyes. Not to mention similar tastes in clothing.

[skelebro]

[Every kid loves striped shirts, it's true. Quick and easy way to categorize age groups, ain't it?]

Yeah. They looked after each other. Before, uh...before more people from home started showing. [aka the kids lived alone in a house because neither Sans nor Alphys count as responsible adults who can take care of children.]

[journalname]

They have both had to grow up too quickly.

[He knows. A little more about Chara's past, more by inference and observation than any real disclosure from them. Frisk, though, seems to have been through some difficulties as well, more than just what he and the Underground put them through.]

[skelebro]

Yeah. [He won't argue there.] They did, didn't they?

[He's keyed into observations of behaviors that don't tell a real nice or promising picture - sudden movements, an aversion to touch, breathless apologies. Falling from walls. Placing themselves in positions to be taken out easy. A complete lack of self-preservation.

A small spurt of something coils up inside him, nested in his SOUL, and his hands, buried in his pockets, briefly tighten into fists.]

Why'd we wanna get to the Surface so bad, anyway, when there's so many kids tryin' their damnedest to get away from it?

[journalname]

...I am not sure.

[He should not say things like this. It's on him to keep morale up, regardless of whether or not he thinks the Surface is worth all they have done to gain it. Without that promise, what will monsters have?

But then, he's already abandoned his duties by giving his soul to Frisk, hasn't he?]

[skelebro]

[He regrets saying it pretty much at once, even more so when Asgore agrees. His smile carries the suggestion of a grimace as he glances away - up at the ceiling, and the speckling of blue stones that glisten there.]

Maybe 's for the best.

That we ended up here instead.

[journalname]

[We're all just saying things we regret today.]

Perhaps it is. I have been glad for it. [Anyone could see that much, at least. He got to be with his children again.]

[skelebro]

Sounds strange, but, uh...me too.

[Even if Papyrus ain't here, it's - best, right? Best that he gets to live on the Surface, wind racing through his not-hair, instead of dealing with the assorted crap that goes on down here.]

Kinda like some sorta - second chance. [A faint hum of amusement, derisive and self-deprecating, 'cause it sounds pretty stupid now that he voices it.]

[journalname]

[Asgore feels that way, certainly. But what has happened with Sans that he requires a second chance? He looks a little askance at that, but decides not to question it.]

No, I think you are right. In some ways. It is...a change in scenery, at least.

[skelebro]

Well. It was.

[He gestures loosely at the ceiling with the cupping of one hand - with the seamless air of a joke that maybe gets lost in transit, as his levity tends to do these days.]

But at least here we ain't at war with any humans.

[journalname]

No. It is...good to be able to speak with them again. There was a time when I had friends among humans.

[Plenty of them, or so he had thought.]

[skelebro]

Yeah?

[That...huh. Weird to think about, even if, really, he shouldn't be so surprised in considering it when it was pretty retroactively obvious. Seeing as the Surface - well, he'd be one of the few monsters who'd still remember it.]

You made any friends here yet?

[journalname]

A few. I had thought they might be wary of monsters, knowing nothing of us, but most of them do not seem taken aback at all.

[Sans has been here for a while, of course, but Asgore knows he's generally more intimidating to meet, skeleton or no.]

Have you many friends here, Sans?

[skelebro]

A few.

[He's got a whole lotta acquaintances, people he's met and has learned to recognize at a glance, but some of the time it feels like there ain't much point in makin' friends. Not when there's a good chance they'll be gone soon enough.]

I guess I've just got one of those faces people remember.

[Can't imagine why.]

[journalname]

[He rumbles a chuckle.]

Golly, is that so?

[skelebro]

People don't always get that they're chattin' up monsters. Who'da thunk, right?

[journalname]

The Internet is useful for that. I never used it much before here, but it's very interesting!

[skelebro]

Oh man. [Sans looks, for a brief moment, like Gyftmas might'a just come early.] Alphys showed you how it all works, huh?