[Open] working your fingers to the bones, cause nobody loves you when you're gone

[coolskeletonnyehntyfive]

Who: Papyrus, Sans, and YOU!
When: March 12th and onwards
Where: Medbay
What: Papyrus had a really bad idea that nearly got himself and Sans killed. Sans put out a call for help. This log is for the general followup/aftermath.
Warnings: Broken bones and hearts, cracked skulls, life draining, will add more if necessary.

((OOC Note: The translator event will affect the skeletons, so anyone tagging in on the 13th will be in for a lively game of charades!))

Comments

[skelepun]

"Agree to disagree, then." Sans shrugs, his own personal certainties about just how deep Peter's soul went kept private, for now. "There's a lot to tell, but most of it isn't really mine to."

He leaned a little harder against his brother's bedside, touching a hand to his radius.

"I'm sure Pap'll tell you everything once he's up, but I'll give you the abridged version. Papyrus asked me to help him meet a friend, I said sure, friend turned out to be bad news. Kinda boring, huh?"

[takeitslow]

"Don't know if he'll want to tell me, honestly. I'm kind of stranger to him." If the situations were reversed, Peter would be willing to put a lot of faith in anyone who was friends with Wanda. But he doesn't know the extent of how the brothers work yet.

"If that's boring, I'd hate to see your idea of exciting." He watches the small interaction, smiles and looks away. "His friend been taken care of? Or are you going to need help dealing with this problem down the line?" There's an offer in there, a willingness to help in what ways he can.

[skelepun]

He can't help it, Sans laughs a little at Peter's understandable doubt. They really must be strangers, if Peter doesn't yet know just how little that matters to his brother. It's enough to make his smile relax into something a little more genuine, eye sockets still trained on his brother's closed ones.

"Still where we left him, behind that door up in one of the out of the way wings of the ship. As long as he's in there, I dunno if he'll be getting out any time soon. Not unless somebody lets him out."

[takeitslow]

"Might be something we need to start warning new people about. We can't have a repeat of this." Next time it might not be a broken bone, might not be just two people hurt. There's plenty of people on the ship Peter wouldn't want caught up in anymore harm. "Or find someone who can seal the room better. We've got enough magic folk on board."

He taps the foot of the bed, shifting from foot to foot. The hospital atmosphere makes him a little antsy. "Are you guys going to need anything? I don't know. Food or something? I feel like you're supposed to bring food to people who are bedridden. Not sure why. But, you know." He wants to be helpful, even if its something small. It's what is meant to be done, when having friends. "Mom would always bring me a ton of junk, whenever I busted something."

1/2

[skelepun]

"Heh, well, there is a warning." Sans rubs at an eye socket, hiding the guilt that threatened to seep in. "A big one, right on the door. Nothing wrong with the lock, either, it's pretty much sealed up tight."

Sans gestures between Peter and himself.

"Guys like us don't really need a key, do we."

2/2

[skelepun]

"They've got us set up pretty well around here." At first it might seem that Sans intended to stop there, but after a beat of pause he continues with a hopeful edge. "But if you can scrounge up some spaghetti, I'd owe you one."

[takeitslow]

"Speed doesn't do much against a wall." He says, confused. If there was a way around it sure, he could get in. Maybe hit fast enough to break something down. But he's not yet figured out how to replicate his experiment at the Pentagon with metal.

"Spaghetti?" It's not the weirdest comfort food he's heard of, and it makes him think of the canned stuff his mother bought for his little sister. "I know someone who knows the cooks, I can ask about it. See if they've got anything like that around." And if not, he's got some snacks still stashed away. He can dip into that for the brother of a friend.

[skelepun]

"Speed?" Sans asks, brow bone furrowed in bemusement. The incongruousness of that statement made him forget, briefly, about pasta. "What're you talking about?"

[takeitslow]

"My power. Your power." He crosses his arms over his chest, uncrosses them a second later and frowns. "What are you talking about?

[skelepun]

As if to demonstrate, Sans goes from in the chair to behind Peter, rapping his knuckles against the teenager's lower back.

"Y'know. Our power. Teleportation." Though the moment he says it, realization kicks in. He takes a step back, as if getting a fresh look at Peter. "Wait... how fast are you, kid?"

[takeitslow]

He jerks, spinning around to stare down at Sans. "No. I'm not- you teleport?"

It's cool. Objectively, Peter can think of teleportation as a cool power. He's excited about it really. The disappointment on his face is just a temporary thing. He didn't need Sans to be like him, honestly.

"Apparently fast enough people think I can teleport. Not the first time someone's made that mistake."

sorry for the delay, busy weekend!

[skelepun]

If pictures were worth a thousand words, Sans found that body language was worth a whole book. Fortunately (and occasionally unfortunately) for him, he's a fast reader.

"Wow... I mean, I know a few people who are pretty fast. But that's unreal, kid." Sans scratches at the back of his skull, looking up at Peter with fresh eye sockets. "Guess I'm findin' out new things about you every day, Petey."

Same here!

[takeitslow]

He’s always been easy for a little flattery. The nickname, the simple praise, both have Peter’s disappointment lifting a little. Enough that it’s more disgruntled teenager than pouting child.

“Not as fast as me,” he says. No one ever knew of anyone as fast as him, expect for those who’d known Pietro. “It’s the mutation. Kind of surprised it’s not the same for you. Let me guess, the teleporting is part of the magic?”

[skelepun]

"Kinda. It's mostly math, actually. If you have any magic in you, I could probably teach you to do it." Sans drums his bony fingers against his skull, thoughtful. "I gotta ask, though. What do you mean by mutation?"

[takeitslow]

"There's no magic where I'm from." None that he's heard of, at least. He runs a hand through his hair, sighs. It's always a little awkward explaining being a mutant. At least there's no fear in talking about it now. He doubts monsters care about the DNA politics of humans. "I'm a mutant. We're people who have different DNA, mutated from humans. Some of us get powers from it. Or, you know, weird stuff like gray hair. I don't know a whole lot about it, the science parts of it or how it works."

[skelepun]

There's a beat of pause while Sans processes that, looking from Peter back down to his brother. With a noise that comes somewhere between a sigh and a chuckle, Sans squeezes Papyrus's hand.

"I'll bet they just love you for that." Sarcasm isn't Sans' favorite when it comes to jokes, but he's also not feeling particularly funny right now. Humans are humans. Neither all good nor all bad, but certainly easily frightened.

[takeitslow]

"Oh yeah, we're just everyone's favorite." He snorts, smile turning brittle. "Most of them don't know about us, you know? We keep it hidden. You just can't risk the neighbor's finding out and calling in the feds to take you away. Or starting a mob and burning down your house just because they realize you're the town freak."

"Some people don't care," he says, because it wouldn't be right to let Sans think all humans were against them. His family had never been anything but understanding. "But to most, we're, I don't know, abominations. I don't think you'd like my world much."

[skelepun]

"To be honest, it doesn't sound too different from mine. And I like mine well enough." It's a bland over generalization, but it's true-ish. Living underground came with awful consequences -- bad education, bad general health, bad overcrowding, bad food shortages -- but there was plenty to like, too. His brother, for once. His house. Grillby's. It's a monster tradition to keep smiling, no matter how many blinders you have to strap on.

At the very least, they were safe from human cruelty. Until they weren't, of course.

"Then again, I don't have to live with 'em."

[takeitslow]

"You'd be the only one though, where I'm from. At least you had other monsters back home. Right?" Sans had his brother, at least. "Being the only one, it's shit dude. A lot different than having a community."

He sighs. "That's what I'm saying. You'd stand out, if you did live there." Peter doesn't say it to be cruel, it's just the fact of the matter. Looking different was a sure way to get attacked back in his day, being different wasn't to far off. There was a reason he'd already warned Wanda about ever visiting his world, if the chance came. "You have to be able to hide it, to make it by. And it sucks."

[skelepun]

That gives Sans pause.

"You're the only one?" That makes him frown. A community of people, it's what made the Underground bearable. For a young kid, Peter could really hit to the heart of things. "Yeesh, kid."

[takeitslow]

"Not the only one in the world. It's just, people keep it hidden. So you really just hear the rumors, you never actually meet them." It's the same as being the only one, in all the ways it counts for a kid. Even knowing others must exist doesn't make the world feel any less lonely when none ever show up. "I met a few, the day before I came here. It was the first time I'd ever seen another mutant."

[skelepun]

"Were they everything you hoped they'd be?"

If there's a bit of cynicism under that statement, Sans hopes it doesn't show.

[takeitslow]

"No," he says, openly honest. Everything he hoped would have meant another speedster, would have meant finally meeting his dad. It would have meant not just being something for them to use. But he's not bitter about it. He'd still gotten that moment of the world sliding into place when he saw Logan bring out the claws. "But it was worth it. It's different, knowing you're not the only one and actually getting to see it."

[skelepun]

"Heh, that sounds about right." Sans nods, looking a little wistful. His experiences with displacement never ran along the same lines as Peter -- he's always had his brother, and one other skeleton was more than enough.

There are other ways to stand out, of course, even among monsters. Subconsciously, Sans lets his fingers ghost across his left eye socket.

"I'm betting you've found a lot more of that belonging around here, seems like half the humans I meet can use some sort of magic."

[takeitslow]

He watches Papyrus a moment, thinking about what Sans is saying. He can't help but smile a little, thought the expression comes off as embarrassed. As gratifying as it's been to have some form of acceptance, there's some part of him that knows it shouldn't have taken him so long to find it. That makes him feel a little weird that he's so pleased with all the attention he's never gotten before and that he's so inexperienced in dealing with it.

"Yeah. Most people don't seem to care too much. They freak out a little when they first see me run and then they're okay with it. Maybe it's like you said, they're used to weird stuff in their own world." He hesitates, still refusing to look Sans's way. "It's kind of nice though, that they don't care what I am. I'm practically normal here."