Four days.
Four days, now, you've been pondering over Sans' words, struggling to figure it out, struggling to keep yourself from figuring it out and hurting Sans, struggling, struggling, struggling.
It's a losing battle. You know it is. Curiosity killed the cat, after all, and your hands are tied here. You can't do anything more, and if you don't do anything more, you swear you will explode.
Like, actually legitimately explode. You are certain, despite that Flowey tells you it isn't possible, that you will spontaneously combust.
In an attempt to take your mind off your curiosity, you go to research spontaneous human combustion. But that gets shut down quickly, before you even make it to the computer, when you mention the topic of your research to Toriel. She says it's far too gory.
"But Mom!" You complain. "I have to know how I'm gonna die!"
... That sounded better in your head.
Toriel looks confused, and a little shocked. "Frisk, why would you ever think you're going to... spontaneously combust?"
"Because," you gesture emphatically with your hands, your words tumbling from your mouth in a rushed jumble, "I wanna know but I can't do anything and curiosity killed the cat because Flowey says it doesn't have any thumbs and I can't do anything so I'm gonna EXPLODE!"
Toriel just blinks.
You frown. "That made more sense in my head."
"My child, are you feeling alright?"
"Yeah, I am, but I--" you cut yourself off with a heavy sigh. "Nevermind. I'll just... go talk to Flowey or something." You turn around to trudge upstairs to your room.
Toriel's dismissal of things has cooled you down a little, it seems, but still deep in your Soul, the curiosity sits, a bomb primed to explode. It's only a matter of time. A ticking time bomb.
Curiosity is a bomb. It will explode, and destroy everything.
And since you're a cat without thumbs, you can't defuse the bomb. Curiosity the bomb is going to kill you, the thumbless cat. You're going to spontaneously combust. Because you don't have thumbs.
You reach the top of the stairs, stop in the hallway, and look at your hands. You have thumbs.
You don't have metaphorical thumbs.
You wiggle your thumbs. They are there, most assuredly. You absolutely do have thumbs, right on the sides of your hands like always.
You don't want to spontaneously combust. You really don't.
You twiddle your thumbs a little.
And last you checked, you were a human, not a cat, not to mention a rather determined human. And you have thumbs.
Questions. Curiosity. Metaphorical bombs.
Determination.
Metaphorical thumbs.
And... So you're the metaphorical cat? But... but the cat doesn't have thumbs. You do. So. You can't be the cat. Does that mean the metaphor doesn't work? That's a shame. You were doing so well with it, too. Going somewhere with it.
Where-...
Where were you going with it, again?
...
Oh! Right. Questions. About Sans. Figuring things out.
You don't want to hurt Sans. You don't want to make things worse for him.
No. No, you want to make things better for him. How can you do that?
Figure out what's hurting him. Fix it. Make it better.
How?
... Let's review. You tell yourself, racing into your room, ignoring Flowey's questioning, and digging out your notebook. Let's review all we know.
•S scares F Something happened?
•F says S can "do things he shouldn't be able to"
•A found S unconscious, hurt in Watfall. S thought he knew A, and last RS? Delusion?
•S fought 4th
•A.D gave S job
•S's job secret to P. Why?
•S and P lived in NH. Hotel room?
•S worked hard. 2 jobs (h'dogs/jokes)
•moved to Sno when P was very small
•confirmed- P does NOT know about S's job.
•what's the age gap between S and P?
•Did S know last RS? Who was RS? How did S know RS?
•S can't open mouth. Always like that?
•S reset things, something didn't come back?
•dad lost in other timeline? Stuck there? Resets ineffective?
But that's not all. There's more. You add a few more points.
•S worked with RS, project with DT
•S is DTed, jaw melted, before P. RS stopped it, how?
•S has frequent nightmares. Past causes them. Trauma?
You sit back and think for a minute, looking at your notes.
...
... and look at them. Staring at them presents no more answers than you had originally.
So now you're back to square one. Curiosity. Bomb. Cat. Thumbs.
No. No.
You have determination!!
You also have thumbs!
And Sans told you to come to him with questions.
Well, you sure do have a lot of questions. And Sans...
Wait. Wait, if Sans has the answers to your questions...
Does that mean he's your metaphorical thumbs? The way to defuse curiosity the bomb?
You decide that's just a little too weird, and stop thinking about it.
Because, regardless...
Sans told you to just ask him questions. So that's what you're going to do.
You turn, continue ignoring Flowey's increasingly irritable shrieks, and run downstairs to ask Toriel if she can take you to the brothers' house.
§
A/N
Honestly, I'm surprised I managed to write this. Between vacation with my family (lots of hiking!), a new video game (fanmade alternate version of OFF!), and good, fast internet (finally watching Doctor Who!) I didn't think I'd have much time to write.
But, here ya go! A nice new chapter for y'all!
Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it! Comments and votes are my Favorite Things, and every notification I get makes my day!
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