No One is Happy with This (Undertale)

29 ~ But We Do It Anyway

Sans doesn't work at all.

It's been a month since he Got Up- apparently the euphemism for when someone miraculously stops Falling Down- and he hasn't hardly touched anything in his workshop at all.

Oh, he's involved alright. He's there at all hours, usually sitting in his spinny chair and pushing himself around the room in that. He cracks jokes, comments on progress, participates in conversations. If you ask, he'll give you tips on how to do this, or suggest a better way to do that. For all intents and purposes, he seems involved.

But he doesn't do any of the work. He just stays in his chair. Only taking action if you ask for it.

And no one presses him to do otherwise. No one says it, but you all understand. You can all see it, in the way he clutches at the armrests of his seat. At the way sometimes he glances at the half-built machine, the white dots of his pupils skimming towards it, then quickly darting away across the darkness of his eyesockets.

He's scared. Sans is scared.

No one blames him. It's easy to understand. He doesn't want to get too involved, doesn't want to get too deep in the work because he doesn't want to get his hopes up.

He's deliberately keeping his HP down.

Because...

Because the last time he got his HOPE up, it all came crashing down and almost killed him.

He's scared.

Sometimes, you hear him mumbling, when he thinks no one is listening. You can never catch all his words, but it always sounds like he's apologizing. And... and something about promises. Promises to Papyrus. Broken promises.

Whenever you notice this, you always try to subtly get Papyrus's attention, and nod him over in Sans' direction.

Whenever you do this, Papyrus immediately drops whatever he's doing and rushes over to Sans.

And you realize Papyrus was right. Skeletons are cuddly. Especially with each other, at least. Papyrus never hesitates to lift Sans into a hug, and Sans always snuggles up against his brother. And sometimes they stay cuddled together for upwards of an hour.

Time progresses, and suddenly, it's Thanksgiving.

You think it's a little funny. Since coming to the surface, the monsters actually have two thanksgivings. The first is in November, celebrating with the rest of the United States. The second is in June, when the monster's were freed from the Underground.

That's another thing you love about monsters. They celebrate everything. So full of joy, and ready to share it.

With Thanksgiving comes a weeklong break from school, which you spend mostly at the brothers' house, helping Papyrus build the machine and encouraging Sans.

And then, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, it's ready.

And it doesn't go well. Twice, you reset, and then Dr. Gaster tells you to stop. He begs you to. You don't.

And he destroys it all again.

Before Sans can go from shock to despondency, you sit right in front of him and grab his shoulders. "Sans. Look at me."

Slowly, he does so.

"Sans, listen. Do you know what we're gonna do now?"

It takes a moment, but he shakes his head.

You give him a determined look. "We're gonna build it again."

A frown creases his brow. "but-... but he'll just destroy it again..."

And now you smile determinedly. "So we'll build it again. And if he breaks that one, then we'll just do it again. And again, and again, and again, until he gets the message. Because we're not gonna stop, Sans. We're gonna keep going, until we get there. Until we rescue Dr. Gaster."

You can see Sans is unconvinced.

Time for an analogy.

"Sans. Did you know that, in my final battle, with-- ... With Flowey, he could load save files? Every time I died, he just laughed and made me start all over again, or from some random point. And sometimes, just when I thought I had won, I had made it, he would load a save file where I had almost no HP. And I died. I died, again and again and again. But I kept going. I refused to give in, I was determined to make it. And I did. Because I was determined. Just as determined as we are now.

"We can do this, Sans. It doesn't matter how many times we have to, or how many times Dr. Gaster makes us start over. We just have to stay determined, and we can do this. Okay?"

Sans just gives you a small nod.

And you do. You build the machine again. And Dr. Gaster destroys it again. And then it all repeats. And repeats. And repeats.

Every time, Dr. Gaster asks you not to start the machine. Tells you not to. Begs you not to. And then he destroys it.

But you notice something. Each time, it takes him less time to start begging, and more time to actually destroy the machine.

If you didn't know any better, you'd say he was getting tired.

He still does it, though. Tries to get you to stop.

But you do it anyway.

§

A/N

I finished the fourth season of Doctor Who and now I think I'm suffering from 10th Doctor Withdrawal.

Don't tell me that's not a real thing because it totally is and I don't care what you say I mISS THE TENTH DOCTOR ALREADY.

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!