[Sans wasn't at the mission briefing today, if Wash happened to notice. He's not in the library, either, or actually anywhere accessible. But eventually Wash gets a text:]
there's dangerous magic items in the restricted section probably a good idea to figure out how people with access get around in there
[Wash definitely went looking when he saw Sans missing - it's not like Sans to miss a mission briefing. From what Wash can tell, there's a solid layer of Give A Fuck under Sans' cultivated laziness, which means it's not like him to miss something this important.]
[The text is welcome, to a point - it assuages some worries and creates more.]
[What did you do isn't even a question - he's been wondering about the restricted section for a while. Having more information means he probably made it in somehow, especially after the people with access comment.]
[The first part he'd pretty much figured out; the second part could denote either getting into trouble or bad things; the third pretty much puts the nail in the coffin, so to speak. Dangerous magic items, huh, and he already knew Sans was fragile.]
[He'd died. He'd fucking died, on base, where it's supposed to be safe, and he's the second person in three weeks to die on base, and-]
[And he shuts that train of thought down. Nope. That's not going anywhere good, so don't let it keep going.]
[It takes him a few seconds to pull himself together, and another few to figure out how to address this. Even then, he has to switch to text, because he doesn't trust his voice to be steady for this.]
[That way he can mysteriously teleport away if he wants to. It's weirder to mysteriously teleport out of your own room. (He probably won't, but Sans is always thinking about escape routes.)]
[Because fifteen minutes is about all he needs for a detour to the cafeteria before he heads back to his room. Well, ten for the detour and five to evict Eleanor if she happens to be sleeping on the couch again when he arrives. But she's not, and the extra five come in handy.]
[He's got the perpetually warm cookies he'd picked up on a plate by the sofa and is waiting, honestly not sure if he'll need to answer the door or if Sans will just teleport inside.]
[Sometimes Sans does just teleport into places, but this time he'll actually be polite and knock on the door. By the time Wash gets there to open it, though, Sans has both his hands (or one hand and one arm) stuffed into his hoodie pockets.]
Hey. [He peeks around Wash.] You got food?
[Sans would rather pretend this is just a normal, no big deal hangout. That's probably not a surprise.]
[There's something to be said for niceties, though given the situation, Wash honestly doesn't know what it is.]
[Though it looks like Sans might want to make it situation normal, whatever the hell that is now that Wash has spent the past two weeks in jail and Sans has died in the restricted section.]
Of course.
[He steps aside to let Sans in, and yep, that plate of cookies on the table by the sofa is in full view. Help yourself.]
[Sans makes a beeline to that couch and reaches for one of those cookies even as he collapses heavily onto the furniture. His right arm slips out of his hoodie finally. It's nothing particularly shocking, especially for someone who's seen as much as Wash. Sans's arm just stops where his wrist should be.]
Lucretia caught me up on the mission briefing.
[Something else he doesn't want to think about. It's all things he doesn't want to think about.]
[Wash shuts the door and follows him over, settling in a chair opposite the couch. To his credit, he doesn't stare; it's not the first time he's seen someone missing a limb, though he's used to seeing mechanical prosthetics replace it. Is that an option here? More to the point, does Sans even want one?]
[He's not about to dig, and Sans changes the subject. Good. The Director would be more thorough in her briefing than he'd likely manage to be, and honestly, the mission is something he wants to discuss anyway.]
That's good. Time loops is going to be interesting, though.
[Interesting is one way to put it. Of course, Wash doesn't know--and Sans prefers when people know as little about his personal history as possible. Of course, his personal history wasn't supposed to become to suddenly mission-relevant. It's weighing on him more than the whole death thing. Not that the death thing is helping his mood. Not that any of this is helping.]
Telling somebody they're gonna live in interesting times is a curse, y'know. [It's a joke, but it's not a lie, either.]
Nothing good. [Sans doesn't want more people to know, but maybe it will become obvious once they get there. He's hoping only he and Lucretia know how he reacted when she explained to him what the mission was--that he'd said he couldn't do it. And then, well, Lucretia had given him a lot of reasons to do it anyway, but he knows what that first reaction was. He can feel that fear licking at the back of his soul. It never went away, it was just easier for him to ignore as he got further from it. Until now.
Until it looped right around again.]
There's no guarantees with that kind of magic. Can't even say for sure we'll recognize when time resets.
[They could think it was their first loop over and over. Sans is going to have to watch for that. Who else would think to watch for that, if he wasn't there? He was going to just leave them all in there.]
Not necessarily. [No guarantees, not with time loops, not ever.] So even in the first loop, stay on your toes. Watch how people react, see if they seem to know you already, or expect what you're doing, or don't react as much to something that should surprise 'em.
Someone's gotta be. [That's who they're looking for, after all. Maybe there will be more than one person, but one of them is going to be the one with the relic. Sans sounds absolutely certain about this.]
[It's still a lot to wrap his head around, but he's still following along.]
[Speaking of:]
You've spent a lot of time thinking about this, huh.
[For having only had the briefing a few hours ago, Sans is pretty on top of the whole time loop business. Wash wouldn't be surprised if he's just quick on the uptake - because Sans usually is - but he is curious.]
[The pause and the abruptness are a pretty clear sign not to pry, and Wash can respect that. Knowing that Sans had his own personal Groundhog Day scenario is bad enough.]
[And here Wash had been trying to distract him from the trauma of dying. Dragging Sans into his own personal trauma is probably not the most humane way of accomplishing that.]
No kidding.
I'm guessing you don't want the whole world to know about it.
[Sans shrugs.] I've never been good at talkin' about that kind of stuff.
[It's more than that, of course. There's trauma and difficulty reaching out for help and depression all tangled up together just like all those twisting timelines. If there's nothing anyone can do, why make people upset for no reason?]
Never liked pity, either. [Not that he thinks Wash is pitying him. But if everyone knows, some people will.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
text; November 6
there's dangerous magic items in the restricted section
probably a good idea to figure out how people with access get around in there
Voice
[The text is welcome, to a point - it assuages some worries and creates more.]
[What did you do isn't even a question - he's been wondering about the restricted section for a while. Having more information means he probably made it in somehow, especially after the people with access comment.]
Well, it's a pocket dimension, right? It's probably got controlled access.
...are you okay?
no subject
lucretia gave me a hand getting out
which was good cause it looks like i lost one of mine
[This is possibly the most Sans way of saying "the restricted section killed me".]
Text
[He'd died. He'd fucking died, on base, where it's supposed to be safe, and he's the second person in three weeks to die on base, and-]
[And he shuts that train of thought down. Nope. That's not going anywhere good, so don't let it keep going.]
[It takes him a few seconds to pull himself together, and another few to figure out how to address this. Even then, he has to switch to text, because he doesn't trust his voice to be steady for this.]
guess you found it pretty disarming
where are you?
no subject
just left lucretia's
guess dr tank can't reanimate skeletons
he should probably look into that
[Luckily, Lucretia apparently has this ability.]
no subject
no kidding
my place or yours?
[Yeah no he plans on tracking down Sans to check in on him in person.]
no subject
i can drop by your place
[That way he can mysteriously teleport away if he wants to. It's weirder to mysteriously teleport out of your own room. (He probably won't, but Sans is always thinking about escape routes.)]
no subject
[Because fifteen minutes is about all he needs for a detour to the cafeteria before he heads back to his room. Well, ten for the detour and five to evict Eleanor if she happens to be sleeping on the couch again when he arrives. But she's not, and the extra five come in handy.]
[He's got the perpetually warm cookies he'd picked up on a plate by the sofa and is waiting, honestly not sure if he'll need to answer the door or if Sans will just teleport inside.]
no subject
Hey. [He peeks around Wash.] You got food?
[Sans would rather pretend this is just a normal, no big deal hangout. That's probably not a surprise.]
no subject
[Though it looks like Sans might want to make it situation normal, whatever the hell that is now that Wash has spent the past two weeks in jail and Sans has died in the restricted section.]
Of course.
[He steps aside to let Sans in, and yep, that plate of cookies on the table by the sofa is in full view. Help yourself.]
no subject
Lucretia caught me up on the mission briefing.
[Something else he doesn't want to think about. It's all things he doesn't want to think about.]
no subject
[He's not about to dig, and Sans changes the subject. Good. The Director would be more thorough in her briefing than he'd likely manage to be, and honestly, the mission is something he wants to discuss anyway.]
That's good. Time loops is going to be interesting, though.
[For certain definitions of "interesting."]
[He has no idea.]
no subject
Telling somebody they're gonna live in interesting times is a curse, y'know. [It's a joke, but it's not a lie, either.]
no subject
[Not that any particular mission had been good, but some had been markedly less horrifying than others.]
Back home, time loops weren't really a thing outside of science fiction. What do you make of it?
no subject
Until it looped right around again.]
There's no guarantees with that kind of magic. Can't even say for sure we'll recognize when time resets.
[They could think it was their first loop over and over. Sans is going to have to watch for that. Who else would think to watch for that, if he wasn't there? He was going to just leave them all in there.]
no subject
You don't think that knowing we're in a time loop scenario would protect us from being sucked in by it?
no subject
[For example, see how they react to a bad joke.]
no subject
If they react like that on what we think is the first loop, wouldn't that make them aware of the loops?
[The locals aware of the loops and the Reclaimers unaware: the ultimate nightmare scenario.]
no subject
no subject
[It's still a lot to wrap his head around, but he's still following along.]
[Speaking of:]
You've spent a lot of time thinking about this, huh.
[For having only had the briefing a few hours ago, Sans is pretty on top of the whole time loop business. Wash wouldn't be surprised if he's just quick on the uptake - because Sans usually is - but he is curious.]
no subject
no subject
[Wash's eyes widen slightly as he looks at Sans.]
Here or back home?
no subject
Back home. Wonderland gave me hell for it. Little bit unfair to go back to back, y'know?
no subject
[And here Wash had been trying to distract him from the trauma of dying. Dragging Sans into his own personal trauma is probably not the most humane way of accomplishing that.]
No kidding.
I'm guessing you don't want the whole world to know about it.
no subject
[It's more than that, of course. There's trauma and difficulty reaching out for help and depression all tangled up together just like all those twisting timelines. If there's nothing anyone can do, why make people upset for no reason?]
Never liked pity, either. [Not that he thinks Wash is pitying him. But if everyone knows, some people will.]