The Time Before (Undertale)

59 ~ The New Time

Sans' shock and fear tactics on Flowey seemed to have done the trick. Papyrus wasn't attacked, even across the resets.

Sans made sure to carry things on, though. Whenever his awareness of space alerted him to a small flower, he would be sure to turn in that direction, grinning unsettlingly, eyesockets blank, until the flower slipped away.

And Sans started to relax. He didn't let his guard down, he was still waiting constantly for the next attack, the next reset. But things got just a bit easier. He relaxed his constant vigilance over his brother.

He looked at the picture in the photo album frequently. When things got bad, tiring, just too much, he would sometimes go there instead of Papyrus. He would look at that picture, at the thick black words, and he knew that it was okay. Maybe not great, maybe not the best. Maybe not even good. But okay. That somewhere, someone understood, and didn't begrudge him for his pain.

Sans wasn't entirely sure how, but he also ended up with another sentry point in Waterfall, and two in Hotland. Once he figured out that he could just pull his entire sentry hut through shortcuts using Blue Magic, things became a little easier. Things got a lot more interesting when he started multitasking, selling hotdogs again, but now from his sentry stations.

He still took frequent breaks, though. Either to recuperate, refill his oversized Magic capacity, or to check in on Papyrus.

Papyrus had gotten the notion to build traps and puzzles all throughout Snowdin. He had become fixated with the idea of capturing a human, and was sure that was the best way to do it.

Sans was a little scared by this. He didn't want his brother anywhere near humans. But Papyrus insisted. They would be caught in his traps, and there would be no danger to anyone, monster or human.

Sans supposed the building of the traps was harmless enough. There was just that one pit, right at the switches-on-ice puzzle. Papyrus was tall enough that he could just step over, but Sans... he wasn't used to the idea that he actually needed to use shortcuts to get somewhere. And if he couldn't take a shortcut...

Well. He was able to take shortcuts, and that was a good thing. He would leave it at that.

And take shortcuts he did. Often. As he wasn't worrying about the machine anymore and he was letting up a little on his guard over Papyrus, he had a bit more time on his hands. He went frequently to the woman behind the door. She understood him. His pain. Not to mention that she told the best jokes, and she was the only one who truly laughed at his jokes.

... Until she didn't.

~o0o~

Sans blinked a little. He had just told a long string of puns, one after another, about half of which were totally impromptu, and the lady had barely laughed.

Sans shook his head, eyesockets closed. Maybe she had just missed something? So he moved on.

"knock knock."

"Who is there?"

"a broken pencil."

"A broken pencil who?"

"nevermind, it's pointless!"

Again, just a soft chuckle.

So Sans waited a moment, then, quietly asked, "hey, is everything alright?"

There was a pause, and then a slow answer. "... Yes. Everything is-... everything is fine."

Sans leaned his head back against the door, letting out a huff. "... i've heard that voice... those words... far too many times... from my own mouth for it to be convincing."