The Time Before (Undertale)

51 ~ Seen the War

Several months had passed, and to Papyrus, it seemed that Sans was still missing his Fallen friend.

In truth, it was deeper than that.

Sans had done research, asked questions. No one remembered the previous Royal Scientist, except that he had built the CORE. Not even Alphys had met him- apparently, the True Lab had been empty for some time before she became Royal Scientist.

Sans had gone down to the tenth floor (he had taken a shortcut to avoid Alphys's attention) and into his creator's lab. It was...

Wrong. He didn't know how, but it was so wrong.

He left quickly.

Eventually, he decided to try resetting to before the... the machine had... done whatever it had done.

But when he went back, the hallway was already gone. Like...

Like Sans' creator hadn't even existed. The machine had never been built. That room had never even been there.

Months passed, and Sans couldn't comprehend it. The Royal Scientist , his creator, his dad was just...

Just... gone. He was... he had never even been there.

How...

So yes, Sans was grieving.

His father had never existed.

How do you get over something like that?

You don't.

His father had voluntarily jumped into the Void to save him.

So...

So it was--...

If Sans hadn't fallen in, then his dad wouldn't have jumped in to save him. Wouldn't have pushed him out--...

He had been erased from existence to save Sans.

Because of Sans.

This idea obviously didn't help Sans' state of mind, and he only got more depressed.

Once they hit the six-month mark, Papyrus decided it was time to get Sans up and out of the house (because he had been practically living on the couch the entire time) and talking to people. So Papyrus got Sans up, helped him clean up a bit. It was kinda difficult, because Sans absolutely refused to take off the blue jacket he was wearing, but eventually, Papyrus managed to get his brother looking a little less like a total slob.

Then he led his brother out the door, and into Snowdin town. There was a little restaurant there, and, although Papyrus never went there himself, the place seemed like it would fit Sans nicely.

"Just don't eat anything there, alright?" Papyrus told his brother right outside the door. "It's so greasy. We have standards, after all!"

Sans sighed a little. Really, he didn't want to go out. Didn't want to talk to anyone. He was really just doing this to humor his brother. "... 'kay, bro."

"And talk to people, Sans."

"'kay, bro."

"Don't just sit in a corner and mope!"

"'kay, bro."

"Sans, please."

Another sigh. "... alright, pap. i promise i'll talk to people."