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[ribticklers]

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this is the moment when Papyrus wants the thread to end, so he can escape Sans being Sans at him

[spaghettimonster]

Uggggghhhh. [Why this. He did a considerate thing and this is the thanks he gets. See if he installs more telescopes any time soon, Sans. But at least he can try to get the last word.] You should take another look at your gifts! Because, if you look closely, you will see. I didn't include any IOUs for humoring your bad puns. [Nyeh heh heh.]

[ribticklers]

[Heh. Luckily for Papyrus, the pizza gets here, and Sans heads off to obtain his delicious, greasy food. While that can't stop Sans entirely, it does slow it down a little as Sans focuses on eating. With the help of the sun lamp and the promise of looking at stars, Sans manages to stay awake without dozing even a little. He's quick to teleport Papyrus with him to the telescope as soon as it's dark enough. He may not have provided a ton of warning for that, but it's fine.]

[spaghettimonster]

[Papyrus's sandwich is satisfactory enough, and his battery acid smoothie does not - to the relief of them both - dissolve or explode the fridge in any way. There's a fizziness that would surely be lethal toxin for anyone else, but the acquired taste of batteries as foodstuff turns out to extend to the acid of used batteries. A brand new vista of 'food' possibility, though maybe not for sending around in the food cart.

The teleportation takes Papyrus by surprise, and he stiffens on landing.] Oh my god! Sans, a little more warning?? [Was there even a warning, or was it an unhelpful 'hold up bro' or something like that?]

[ribticklers]

I said hang on. [So yes, it was something unhelpful like that. Sans is already hooking the laptop up to the telescope; he's read the manual enough times by now.] This was faster than walking.

[spaghettimonster]

Yes, but who said there needed to be any walking?? [He didn't mention walking, or being on the roof again any time soon. Now they've gone and abandoned the blanket, and a little of his smoothie splashed onto his hand. He sighs and carefully wipes at it with the edge of his shirt, then takes a sip to unfill it a little more.]

Though, I guess... If there's any problems... Okay, yes, we should be up here. Tonight. [Papyrus shifts to settle himself down next to the telescope, the better to be in reach if any wires need unplugging and replugging.] And... we should build a new balcony, huh? [Maybe even one with a door to it, since they can't both teleport or levitate to it. Being a robot weighs him down so much, sometimes... That he couldn't levitate or teleport in the weeks before the transformations, doesn't need to be included in this mental complaining.]

[ribticklers]

I wanted to see the telescope. [And Papyrus had to go too? Look this is a bonding activity, or something. Sans plonks himself down on the roof once he's got everything hooked up and starts up the program properly. Once he sees the stars on the monitor, his wings flap a bit on their own--Sans is pretty excited about this.] Look, it's working. [Where else would Papyrus even be looking?]

[spaghettimonster]

[Well, okay, he can't argue with Sans wanting to see the telescope itself in person. A little more warning really would have been nice, he's aware of how far into the yard the trampoline currently is, but on the other hand...? Clearly, the gift is going over well.]

So it is! [And they haven't even needed to troubleshoot anything. He grins.] Naturally it's working, I set it up.

[ribticklers]

[Sans fusses with the controls, leaning in toward the laptop as if that will give him a better view. But it's not long before he leans back again.] Okay, see, there's the moon. Look, you can see the craters. [Look! Sans is pointing helpfully.]

[spaghettimonster]

[Leaning in closer to the screen might not make it zoom in further, but that doesn't stop Papyrus from doing the same thing at the prompting, and staring at the sight.]

The craters... That's a lot of craters. [The white-gray mottled shapes fills the screen, and as much as he knew there were a lot of the little shadowed indentations? There's many more visible now, too many to comfortably count. And that's just the craters on the one moon, which is far smaller than the whole planet, and minuscule compared to everything else up there... He gets the feeling he'll remember the sight for the rest of his life.]

[ribticklers]

Yeah, the moon gets hit by a lot of stuff. Most meteoroids burn up in Earth's atmosphere before they can hit the ground, and anyway the Earth is geologically active. [Which isn't really Sans's department so it doesn't matter beyond that.] Okay, there's the Oceanus Procellarum--that dark bit. They call the dark parts of the moon seas 'cause that's what old astronomers thought they were. But actually they're from old volcanoes. Go down from there and that crater there's Grimaldi. It's named after a guy who drew a map of the moon.

[spaghettimonster]

Old seas of molten rock... Un-molten rock. [Which one could just describe as 'rock', if one felt so inclined. It makes an interesting kind of gravestone, a huge crater too far away to sprinkle any remains on. Papyrus nudges the view down as directed, squinting in further at the dark bits in question.]

And humans know this stuff, because... they've really been there. [A couple of them, anyway. Not anyone from this canyon - especially not this canyon. It's wild to think about.] I wonder how blue magic would work in space...

[ribticklers]

[Sans pauses to consider it.] It'd probably depend on where you were. We're used to working with Earth gravity, so if we went to the moon, we'd have to compensate for there being less to work with or around. So, theoretically, you'd have to work a bit harder to keep someone held down, but if you tried to throw them, they'd really rocket up. 'Course, blue magic messes with spacetime on its own, and it evolved on Earth, so there could be other side effects. [Sans is off on a science tangent. This used to not be unusual for him, but it is now. Such is the power of space on a Spiritual.]

[spaghettimonster]

Accidentally flinging people into orbit... Maybe it's better if we don't visit the moon. Especially if magic might not work right off Earth? [The last is said with confusion - he isn't following the reasoning of why off-Earth might be different. It's all the same universe, isn't it? Sure, inside the caves had the perpetual snowfall in a way that nowhere in the canyon seems to have, like the local magic just did that... But things like that don't seem like cause to assume the moon wouldn't play nice with blue magic.]

[ribticklers]

It probably wouldn't be anything crazy. [Probably.] But no monsters have been to space, and it ain't like the humans could test out the magic much. [At all, maybe. Alphys's anime certainly treats magic as completely out of the norm, so maybe humans don't have magic at all anymore?] So, you figure out how to make a spaceship, and I'll work out the experiments, and we'll have a whole thing going. [This is stupid they cannot just build a spaceship.]

Papyrus: not yet aware of Sans's chat with the mayor, possibly because it hasn't happened yet

[spaghettimonster]

Make a spaceship, huh...? [Stupid, or brilliant? Papyrus already sounds intrigued by the notion, leaning back to scratch at his chin before remembering it's not there. He recovers, adding:] I bet remote-controlled rockets wouldn't have the same problems. Or maybe a pre-planned flight path...

[Probably best not to risk controlling something remotely with his own mind, if there's any chance that being mentally in the "bad air" could have the same effect. They could at least personally see if it does the same thing to simple machines.]

[ribticklers]

Like a drone? [Okay, that's actually not a bad idea, if you ignore the idea of it going into space and just think about it getting out of the canyon.]

[spaghettimonster]

Uhh... Yeah, I guess so. A regular drone would be a good starting point! [Maybe there's some trashed drones he could scavenge from in the dump. Or some blueprints online to use as a basis, instead of going directly for the chemical reactions involved in rocketry... Sans may not realize what he's just unwittingly deflected.]

[ribticklers]

[It's true, Sans is unaware. He'd probably support Papyrus's forays into rocket science anyway, though.] You should grab one of those remote controlled toy helicopters and mess with that to start. You could paint some fire on it or something. [Really it's just that this would be the lazy way to start and therefore what Sans would do.]

[spaghettimonster]

Those little things?? And yet, with a cool paint job... [It would be small, and he'd need to rig something up to properly control it remotely, but it seems inexpensive and well within his wheelhouse these days. Not a bad idea for a first step, Sans.] And then you can try picking it out of the sky with the telescope! [Like the world's most needless game of hide-and-seek, or something.]

[ribticklers]

[Needless? Yes, absolutely. But as soon as Papyrus suggests it Sans lights up. Metaphorically. He's always literally lit up.] You've gotta get one now.

[spaghettimonster]

[Papyrus cackles a triumphant NYEH HEH HEH of a laugh, happy with Sans's ongoing delight. This was a great birthday full of great ideas.] Yeah, okay! I'll let you know when it's ready.

[ribticklers]

Awesome. [Sans looks back at the telescope display.] Oh hey, you can see my favorite lunar mare from here. Y'know... Mare Humorum. [That is a real location on the moon. It's Latin for Sea of Moisture but I mean since when has "what a word actually means" stopped Sans from making terrible jokes.]

[spaghettimonster]

Oh my god. [Of course that's Sans's favorite whatever-it-is.] If that's a skeleton horse crater, I don't even want to look at it.

[ribticklers]

Nah, just another one of those volcano seas. [Sans will point it out, helpfully.] But if I find a skeleton horse crater, I'll name it after you.

[spaghettimonster]

Wow, thanks. Just what I've always aspired to... A horse-shaped hole, named after me. [Maybe keep one of those many eyes out for a crater shaped like a cool skeleton instead? At least 25% cooler than horses. Papyrus looks at the volcano sea anyway, nodding at the sight.]