thisavrou_log | what did the skeleton say to the other skeleton

When it came to dispensing advice, Sans took a sort of lackadaisical pleasure in it. Nothing quite so rewarding as taking a seat on the sidelines and gently suggesting the real hero went one way or the other.

The greatest trick a slacker ever pulled was convincing someone else he's carefree out of some higher enlightenment, not just because they'd rather eat pizza cold than go through the trouble of microwaving it.

But teaching? That's a whole different beast.

For one, you have to be there at 9AM. Which means waking up at 8:55AM. And two, this isn't like any of the jobs he's held in the past. As a sentry, Sans may have held down something akin to six jobs at once, but his job description wasn't exactly demanding. Sit at a station, watch for humans that never came, maybe do a crossword puzzle, nap. All things he probably would've done anyway.

Garbage detail was much the same. A few quick mathematical equations and the garbage was either floating in space somewhere or chilling in the vents near the personnel offices. Easy.

Here though, people were expecting to learn something. About chemistry, no less. Not his field, per se, but every scientist has to know at least a little bit. That's the trouble with chemistry -- it makes up everything!

Heh, he'll have to remember that one.

Seated at the top of the class, Sans looks every inch as tired as he is. It's 9:10, and he came bumbling in late with slippers dragging and his pajamas still on. Before addressing anyone seated in the room, Sans thunks his skull down on the desk at the front of the room and grunts in vague greeting.

"You guys are here to learn chem, right?" He asks, skull still face down on the desk.

You know, Sans... most people, when faced with needing to be somewhere at 9 am... give themselves more than five minutes to wake up, get ready, and travel to their destination.

Of course, it appears that Sans has actually skipped the first two parts of that process, so...

Oh, also he's late. To his own class.

For shame.

It's probably also embarrassing to have Kaworu Nagisa poke his head in the door, studying Sans for a moment before Sans asks one, likely ill-fated question.

"Oh no, I was just walking by. I saw you lying there and thought I'd make sure you were all right."

Why would he want to learn chemistry? Science is the power of the mind... not something he cares about at all.

Edited 2016-05-17 04:56 (UTC)

Squinting at the intrusion, Sans raises a brow bone. He's tired, but at least he's supposed to be here. Unless...?

"I'm fine, kid. Are you takin' this class?" Initially, Sans seems a little apprehensive at the thought, but it washes away quickly. He still doesn't know much about the guy, after all. This could be a prime opportunity to do just that. "'Cuz if you ain't, you should think about it. We could really bond."

Heh. Little chemistry humor for you there, bud.

Just two days before, Kaworu would have turned that suggestion down no matter how it was offered. He still looks pretty dubious, but it's not the face that usually suggests Sans has unwittingly said something stupid which Kaworu found endearing.

Instead, he looks... unsure.

Admittedly, part of it is just that science is the power of the mind. It has little place with him, and he has little understanding of it, let alone use for it.

The other part stems from the fact that Sans is a monster--and from what little Frisk has told him, monsters have some inherent ability to 'sense' things about an individual's soul. That makes him unusually leery.

But what makes him reconsider is actually Sans' joke.

....really... bond?

Him and Sans?

And no, he hasn't forgotten Sans' threatening 'joke.' But that's exactly what gives him pause now.

A bond...

"...really?"

Now you've done it, Sans.

"In that case...."

If Sans is willing to try...

"Take a seat, kid."

He nods to the mostly empty desks in the classroom, without pointing out any one in particular. Which he picks will give its own insight.

"I guess I gotta ask what background you have in the subject. This is chemistry. Not my particular field, but, hey. Atoms have a few interesting things to say, even if they make up everything."

Kaworu weaves among the desks somewhat gingerly, finding a seat as directly in front of Sans as physically possible and smiling back at him.

It's probably a good thing that Kaworu is hearing Sans' words in Japanese, or there would no doubt have been hilarious confusion about the similarity of sound between 'Adam' and 'atom.' Instead, Kaworu just wonders privately at the personification of an inanimate structure.

"Nothing," He replies with all the tact of a brick, still smiling as though perhaps he hadn't just admitted to a gross ignorance of even basic science. "Is that a problem?"

Edited (Tablet wouldn't let me select an icon at all. Fun times!) 2016-05-22 15:27 (UTC)

"Not for me. For you, maybe." Sans leans back against his desk, wishing for all the world he could just take a nap and not deal with this particular smiling face so early in the morning.

Still. For Frisk. He could keep his eyes open for Frisk.

"What science background do you have? Are we talking punnet squares or, like, baking soda volcanos?"

Punnet squares? Baking soda volcanoes?

Kaworu blinks slowly back at him, a total zero. Sans could be combining totally random words--horse sink, or copper noun--and he would have derived the same amount of meaning from that question. Maybe Sans WAS combining random words. Kaworu would certainly be none the wiser.

"No," he replies calmly. "Nothing."

You'd think that saying 'nothing' would be taken to actually mean 'nothing,' but he doesn't mind repeating himself. Much.

Still, he wonders about that sometimes. Really, what are words even for if they don't mean what they're intended to?

"... Ah."

Well. That's something, at least, in a manner of speaking. Sans might've gone ahead and said as much, except for the inevitable merry-go-round of explaining how nothing could possibly equal something. It's too early.

"I guess then, uh... you ever have any questions about how the world works? Any curiosities at all?"

Honestly, that little paradox is more Kaworu's speed than basic chemistry. But no one really wants to get him going on the subject of 'meaning.'

"No." In what might be a small miracle, Kaworu continues talking after the first syllable--but it has nothing to do with an awareness of how much or little reply is helpful to Sans and everything to do with his immediate impulse.

"It's never really mattered much."

This little truth is delivered with a matching little smile. The kind of smile that radiates total disregard for time or context. But it is true.

"I don't really have the gift for that kind of thing," he elaborates, casually. And means it far more literally than the context would belie. "So teach me."

He... means that too.

It takes everything he has to bite back a joke -- oh trust me, it matters immensely -- and roll forward uninterrupted. Kaworu probably wouldn't get it, and like hell if he's wasting a setup that good on an unwilling audience.

"No offence, kid, but if you're as remedial as you say this class might be a little advanced for you. If you want me to set you up with a potato plant in a cup, I can do that, I'll even let you name it. But it's not gonna happen in one class period, pal, I'm sorry." He shrugs, laughing. "I'm just not that good a teacher."

Edited 2016-05-31 06:34 (UTC)

It's not that he's unwilling to be Sans' audience. He's just supremely ill-suited to it.

"Why would I name the potato plant?" You're confusing him here, Sans. It's already got a name, doesn't it? It's a potato plant. They don't have individuality, so why would it need a second one?

Is there something special about this potato plant that you're not telling him, Sans?

"But--" He cuts off sharply, steering them back to the real topic fast enough to give whiplash. "If I don't start here, then where do I start?" It's a genuine enough question, but Kaworu really only wants one of its possible answers.

He doesn't actually want to know about science. But he wants Sans to teach him about science.

Is that really so hard??

Potato plants are a source of great mystery, it's true. There are some things science can't define, and that list begins with solanum tuberosum.

"Well... the best place to start is a question. Anything you think about. Anything that makes you wonder." He rephrases the sentiment from before, hands sliding back and forth like opposite sides of a scale. As if he's literally weighing his own loose definition of scientific curiosity. "Anything at all."

A question?

A... question.

Kaworu doesn't have a lot of questions.

He doesn't wonder about the world around him, doesn't have an interest in how things work. The things he needs to know, he knows already. The nature of existence, the origins of life--not biologically, but metaphysically--that kind of thing is already known to him.

What else should he want to know?

Possession of the Fruit of Knowledge, the unlimited mind, is an impossible experience for him. It's the essential difference between him and Sans, concepts of individuality aside. It's the difference between Kaworu and Frisk, the difference between Kaworu and Shinji, the difference between Kaworu and every other living being on the Moira.

Well, maybe it would be better to say every living person.

He is probably not at much of a disadvantage with, say, bonsai kittens.

All he wants to know is what you know. What everyone around him knows.

Sans can't give him that. Not in so many words. That he already does know.

He is silent for a long moment. Thinking hard.

He can think of something.

But...

"Time... has nothing to do with chemistry."

That manages to quirk Sans' brow bone, smile jerking up along with it.

"I dunno if I'd go far as saying nothing, but... yeah. Not a whole lot." He slips his hands in his pockets, regarding the boy thoughtfully. "Time, then? Heh, can't really blame you for having questions about that whole mess."

"Mess?" Kaworu stops, looking briefly startled--then his face relaxes into a sort of serene smile. "Sort of. I have known... some things about it." It's weird, to feel like he only know a 'part' of something. To have what he knows is only a piece of an experience--is this what 'the human experience.' is like? To own only a fragment of something, and know that you will never be able to fully possess the entire thing?

It must be.

"I know it has a shape. Linear, or circular...."

He's staring up into space now--or at least the ceiling, searching for a sensation, an experience that does not kindly allow itself to be confined in words. Words are Lilim's creation... too difficult sometimes to contain what he thinks.

He looks back at Sans, searching for an understanding.

"Do you know anything about that?"

"Sure." Sans nods, easy as ever. The concepts of time's shape was something Sans contemplated deeply throughout his now defunct career. Needless to say, it was a pretty sophisticated question from a guy who barely knew how to find the area of a rectangle.

"And technically, it's both. Linear and circular, I mean."

It's a contradiction that's easily explained by the nature of Kaworu's being, but it is also true that Kaworu had never experienced the shape of a rectangle, or felt its area. It had no meaning to him. Time, on the hand hand, and its shape and movement, were a very intimate experience form him--he had a personal relationship to.

And though the human ability to visualise an abstract is something Kaworu really lacks access to, he can understand what Sans has described instinctively, even if not cognitively.

The cognitive part is somewhat required to put things into words, though.

"So it is continuous... but not inaccessible. The human mind allows them to navigate in space... can the heart be used to navigate in time? Or perhaps it is time that guides the heart."

He doesn't know how much of this can be understood by science, or if it is science at all--but isn't 'science' the ability of the human mind to understand the world around it? These definitions are really too vague, he thinks. But it's all he has to work with.

Blinking slow, Sans takes a moment to process that highly poetic take on time. And here he thought he was being overly sentimental when he referred to the Schrödinger equation as beautiful.

"Time is a measurable quantity, just like space. We use those measurements to predict future events. But really, understanding it as a concept... I guess you could say that? Sounds more like monster science than human science, though."

They were a lot more concerned with magical energy, which in turn was more concerned with emotional power.

Edited 2016-07-09 18:59 (UTC)

(no subject)

braceforimpact - 2016-07-11 17:58 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

skelepun - 2016-07-20 19:34 (UTC) - Expand

I'm going to hit Hideaki Anno with my car

braceforimpact - 2016-07-22 01:35 (UTC) - Expand

jesus

skelepun - 2016-07-30 16:37 (UTC) - Expand

I'm so sorry

braceforimpact - 2016-07-31 02:27 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

skelepun - 2016-08-04 21:49 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

braceforimpact - 2016-08-04 22:43 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

skelepun - 2016-08-06 16:40 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

braceforimpact - 2016-08-08 18:08 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

skelepun - 2016-08-20 01:41 (UTC) - Expand

Three classes. That's all he'd ever promised Alice. He'd show up for three classes, then she'd hand over the goods, and he'd say goodbye to education for the rest of the trip. That had been months ago and he still showed up. Not everyday, not always on time, but he still came for Alice. It was a point of loyalty.

But this time it wasn't Alice sitting at the front of the room.

Peter stops in the door way, takes one look at the skeleton at the desk and thinks about running. With everything that happened in that dark place and how they argued before and the idea that Sans might still be angry and-

He sits in the front seat anyway, stares at the tops of his shoes.

"I think one of my Chem teachers said something about breaking bonds once. Something about energy and atoms, I don't know. I asked to go to the bathroom and raided a gas station instead coming back." He shrugs, face red. He's not good at this, never has been. Not even when he's trying metaphors to avoid saying the words. "Can you put them back together or is that it? You break it and it's over."

Peter's arrival did not go unnoticed. Peeking out groggily from the safe prison of his crossed arms, Sans has to bite back the urge to groan. Yet another person on the long list of people he's trying to avoid. Not out of anger or distrust or anything concrete, just...

Well...

He isn't used to being seen that way.

Of course, there's no ignoring him, especially not when Sans doesn't even particularly want to. Things aren't that different. He still likes the kid -- one of the more unfortunate side effects of loving someone.

But Sans only gets as far as rising up in his chair before Peter starts in on his own fumbling speech. Groggy confusion, fondness, and faint amusement play across Sans' face, and in that order, before settling into something thoughtful and blank.

Rounding his desk, he walks forward enough to take Peter's hands in his own, inspecting them critically.

"Hey, kid, are these made of osmium?"

He peeks up at Sans, guilt written all over his face. Apologizing to J had been so much easier, words slipping out before he even knew what he was saying. This felt so much harder, even with whatever Sans was saying to smooth it over. Maybe that was the difference in hurting someone cared about and someone loved, one hurt cut deeper.

"I'm not exactly a science wiz. I don't even know what that is." His gaze drops to the hands holding his. "You might have to explain the joke."

"I'm saying your metaphor is heavy handed." He says, voice achingly fond despite the gentle teasing. "Osmium's the heaviest metal. Not really a need-to-know chemistry fact, but hey... I've always been able to relate to density."

Squeezing his hands almost imperceptibly one more time, Sans lets him go.

"It takes a lot more than a fight to break up family, kid."

"I thought you'd appreciate it." And the round about way was so much easier than just spitting it out. Peter smiles because he can hear the affection there still, proof Sans hadn't gone back yet on what he'd said that day during their argument.

"I'm still, you know," he shrugs a shoulder, pressing his lips together thinly. The word family echoes in his head. "Sorry. I shouldn't have been shitty to you just because I was mad. I wasn't really mad at you."

"I know you weren't." He says, and means it. A boy like Peter, well... there was a lot of rage there. A lot of hurt. A few kind words from someone who loved him wasn't going to heal that overnight. "And I'm not mad, either. You'd have to do a whole lot worse to piss me off for good, kid. I'm talking throw all the condiments in the airlock level worse."

He chuckles, rolling his shoulders back as if working the tension out of them for good.

"We all say things we don't mean when we're scared."

what did the skeleton say to the other skeleton

OTA - ᴄʟᴀssʀᴏᴏᴍs (ᴛʜʀᴏᴜɢʜᴏᴜᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴇɴᴅ ᴏғ ᴍᴀʏ)

May... uh, 16th? /wiggly hand gesture

LET'S MAKE IT 18TH, sans is still in the void on the 16th

HILARIOUSLY that means Sans now has to deal with a 'yes' instead of a no

'unwittingly stupid'? rude.....

Don't take it so PERSONAL, gosh!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Potato Plant for Class Mascot 2k16

no subject

Oh my god

no subject

This isn't a month late shhhh

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

I'm going to hit Hideaki Anno with my car

jesus

I'm so sorry

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

/rolls in here years later

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject