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[Papyrus's eyes light up briefly as he takes in the details, compares to his mental record of the last time he'd seen Sans's soul whole.]

...That looks, uh, like it did last time. ['Right' is probably not the word he wants, here.] Okay. Okay, good! I don't know... the light was calling me 'brother', but maybe it was just echoing you. I thought... One of me thought... I was worried. [He crosses his arms, rubbing his hands on them in a mix of self-comforting and testing for mystery light residue.]

[Well, that's weird.] When I went in, uh, I kind of talked to myself? Or something that looked like me, anyway. I guess it was sticking around.

[He really doesn't want to go into specifics, now or ever. He thinks he's going to have to eventually--he's going to have to talk about a lot of things that he did the last week eventually--but he's great at putting this kind of thing off. Even if half of him had spent part of the week complaining about that.]

Three of you? [It has to be said - that's entirely too many of Sans.] Weird. It was... a human, when... we? I. Talked to it. Not another me or you.

[Papyrus shakes his head, coming to all the same conclusions - talking about all of this is difficult enough in the pronoun selection, let alone all the really difficult parts. The worse parts. The awful mistakes. The fighting. One of the hands he's hugging himself with goes tighter, and he glances off towards the stairs.]

There was a third me, then--uh, a fourth me. But that was after I'd gone back to being one person and the third me was--gone. [Sans still isn't sure if that counts as him having killed it. Probably not; he's pretty sure that was some projection of Okpaza. Still, it's uncomfortable to think about too hard. Sans starts fussing with his feathers. Papyrus looks strained.] We can talk about this later. You were gonna take a shower, right?

[The strain switches to incredulity as Papyrus tries to imagine a fourth Sans, and he shakes his head before he remembers to nod.] Yeah, I'm... Yes, I'm going to do that! A... thorough one. I'll be back out in a while!

[He is going to stand in the water, with the phone out on the shelf, and just listen to the trickle of electronics returning through the city. Try to let the water rinse away the film of guilt he imagines is floating on his soul.]

[When Papyrus heads off to take a shower, Sans closes all his eyes and spends a few moments in silence. He could probably sleep, if he stayed still. Instead, he stretches and grabs his phone. He has all this information rattling around, and he's tired of dealing with it. There are other people here who can do it. Some of it, anyway.

It goes worse than he expected. One conversation piles on top of another conversation of terrible decisions. Dinah's is the worst, sending him to his room after all, tucked up underneath his heated blanket like that'll keep the creatures under the bed at bay.

It doesn't. Of course it doesn't. When Sans finally ends up spat out on some sidewalk in the middle of the city, Dinah's soul in his hands, his thoughts are static and screaming. He doesn't know what to do. The fear is still there, like Okpaza might change its mind and drag him back down. Dinah's soul is just sitting there, exposed.

He's not thinking straight, which is why instead of just teleporting home, he barrages Papyrus with texts.]

papyrus
papyrus hey
are you still in the shower?
holy shit so much just happened
check the network

[It's a long shower. Far longer than usual, even compared to the spans of time in which Papyrus was outright showering in clothing that needed to be cleaned with the rest of him. The spray of water is like static on his casings, in a welcome way. It's a much-needed privacy, to try and wrangle with his feelings with some calming and assessing techniques.

His emotions... Ah, that tracker's still active, isn't it? And still sending Sans updates. He almost deletes it, then pauses - another thing best decided later. Right now, it might be giving Sans some much-needed reassurance. And fair's fair.

It's clear to him that the previous 28:35 split isn't active anymore - his positive self stopped caring about keeping emotions active and kept recording things, his negative self was so overwhelmed by emotions that it caused a couple smaller resets that he threw tantrums about. Until he does some backups, and sees if Sans is up for another round of that... There's just no conclusions to be drawn about his long-term emotional status. He'll just need to do the best he can with who he is. Kidnapper, would-be-torturer, concerned brother, determined to do better, and all.

Papyrus hears the phone buzz once or twice with a tracker-notification, but it's not until he has this sort of start of a handle on things and he hears multiple Sans-notifications in a row that he looks out of the shower to grab the phone. Something has his brother all riled up...? A network post - a long, informative, dancing on the edges of careful secrets post... Clips of that little girl Mary, talking about the thing underground wanting to be their friend. Clips of firey Dinah, going underground.

He tears the shower curtain open, racing to grab a towel and dry himself off enough to safely reattach the phone. Shoots a message at the network post itself, in case anyone's still reading it and willing to listen to a different skeleton's advice, before texting Sans directly.

I KNOW THIS ISN'T ALL MY FAULT,
BUT OH MY GOD,
I SHOULD HAVE SHARED THE VIDEO WITH EVERYONE
WHAT ARE THEY ALL -THINKING-??

[He knows it isn't, but some of his feelings... Why did he wait, and let that research group do nothing with the information. He could have shared it himself! Bucked the authorities and followed his own conscience! He's going to be feeling guilty for ages if any of them get hurt.]

i don't know
that thing in the power plant must have been talking to them
dinah went down there

[A pause in Sans's rapid-pace texts. He can't talk about all of that over text, especially not when he's just standing in the middle of the city.]

i've got her soul right now
it's just
in my hands

[There's several levels of confusion to be had here - Papyrus's encounter with a talkative something in the power plant wasn't one that'd lead him into the caves for any reason, but Sans's had involved a fight with shadows and a self-defense that ended in excess light...

But more than any of that is that last set of texts.]

HER
IS SHE
WHERE ARE YOU??

in the city
it's the place with the least okpaza influence so
hang on

[Hang on, because Sans has only just started processing things enough to remember he can teleport again.]

i'm in the living room

[Specifically, he's standing in front of the couch with his cell phone appearing to float as he hangs onto it with one of his invisible hands and a glowing yellow soul carefully held in his normal ones. There are black blotches on the soul. That can't be good, but Sans doesn't know what to do about it or about Dinah's soul being here like this at all.]

[Heavy footsteps dance in place upstairs, then pound down the hall to the stairs, coming down in an undressed rush. (He has a towel around his waist, for all that it's needed, and the rest of his clothing bundled in hand. Pants can wait until this soul situation is figured out.) It's clear when he sees the soul himself - he freezes at the base of the stairs, then slowly approaches.]

Oh my god... oh my god. [His gaze focuses on the black spots, which certainly aren't the same problem as a chunk missing, but aren't promising either. Takes a few reflexive screenshots, saving on himself and phone alike for comparisons later if relevant.] Did... she... die...?

[Vaguely, he remembers seeing a red soul floating above a small body he'd been starting to think of as a friend. In the snow, at the foot of a dog or two. In waterfall, a ways ahead on the route into Hotland, at Undyne's feet and near Sans's surprised stare. Televised for all the underground to see, to Mettaton's brief shock and then sneering smile...]

No, she's still alive. I mean, she feels alive. [He can feel a presence, at least, that doesn't seem like it should be there if she's dead. He got an up close and personal look at the anomaly's soul a few times, and that was different from this.] We were underground, and--I didn't think when I teleported I'd just take her soul.

Under...? You went underground after her. [It can't be called an accusation, for all there's a thread of not again - that Sans didn't send him a notification, that Dinah didn't buzz that emergency transponder. Mostly, it's numb shock and grieving realization. Not dead, maybe, but. Souls aren't supposed to float around this far from their bodies.]

...That can't be healthy. [It's muttered, a contextless continuation of his train of thought, and he shakes his head. It's too much - well, it's a lot to follow so closely after everything.] W-Was she... Did she seem like she was... melting, like the others?

[The other ex-humans of the tunnels, he means. He assumes Dinah was starting to turn into one of them, if she went bodily down there. For that matter, is anything visibly wrong with Sans's body?]

Not on purpose. [Papyrus asked a question about Dinah, but that's what comes out first. He didn't want to go underground, wouldn't have if he had a choice.] I just--got pulled down. There was--it was--

[Papyrus asked him a question. He focuses on that.] Yeah. I didn't recognize her when I saw her. Most of her skin melted off, her bones looked charred-- [Sans is hardly one to be squeamish about seeing skeletons, but ones that look like they caught on fire are unpleasant.]

Only knew it was her 'cause she said my name. [Which is yet another thing he has yet to deal with. She did that for him. She said so on the network and she was still focused on that even when she was like that.]

[Papyrus lets out a slow, soft hiss at the description of her injuries, or changes, or whatever all that is. Not great. At least he's not seeing any sign of something like that on his brother, from here.

He keeps multitasking, a portion of his attention split off on a review of all the responses to that information dump - focusing on the short exchange with Dinah. Clearly walking down through the tunnels, Sans's confusion and Dinah's strange determination, the conversation cutting off in a way that could mean she stopped replying - or could mean it went private. Could mean she sent him a short clip for help, that the emergency transponder had melted too much to work...?]

Wait, Sans. You didn't mean to go down...? Did you... go down to try healing her?

[He'd thought that the one upside to Sans's behavior since the chunk of his soul got... torn out, eaten... was that he hasn't been compulsively healing people to his own detriment. Did that un-stop?]

No. I was in my room. [Hiding in his room, if he wants to be honest with himself. He usually doesn't. (But he tries to be more often these days anyway.)] Then something pulled me down. I think it was that piece of my soul, 'cause it was down there too.

[He can remember the intense pressure on his soul while he was there, the way it shook and throbbed like it might crack under the weight. Even just remembering, he holds himself still, like a small animal in front of a predator. He laughs, nervous.] That sucked.

It... [Papyrus stares at him too blatantly for a second, off-balance and at a loss for words. The soul fragment's still there? Still floating around, not eaten, not gone? Retrievable...? He shakes it off. That's what Dinah was going for, apparently - and it sounds to him like it was left out as bait. If Sans is sure it was real, he guesses it wasn't a trick of the light or something, but that doesn't make it any less in a dangerous place.

Instead of saying any of that, he slowly reaches out to gently put a hand on Sans's shoulder, careful not to reach too close to the soul. (How easily can monsters absorb them, anyway...? Can they still do so, is their magic still compatible with that, or have they changed too much...?)]

...Sorry. That's... awful.

[Sans loosens fractionally when Papyrus touches him. He was underground again, but he's not right now.]

She was talking to Okpaza, I think. Said she'd trade herself for that piece of my soul. [Sans's expression is indiscernible, mostly because Sans can't discern his internal emotions, let alone put anything reasonable on his face.] I don't get it.

[Why would she do that? Sans still has no idea.]

She... must have recombined, with some really strong feelings in mind. [Strong and strange, which he can sort of relate to. He mistakes Sans's strange tone as disbelief that such an offer could succeed - he's certainly skeptical.] Did... Did it accept...?

[He assumes not, given the melting, and the fact that Sans was able to at least grab her soul - most of her soul? But wow, he's freshly aware of hope.]

Nah. [Sans's expression skews cynical, which feels much more familiar.] I tried grabbing it when I was down there and it didn't get any closer. Think it was just a lure. [He was far too close to Okpaza for comfort, thinking about it. Anywhere underground is somewhere he doesn't want to be, but to be close enough to see that piece of his soul that got eaten... Well. He's going to try not to think about that.]

[That's... unfortunately, what he figured. His hand squeezes Sans's shoulder sympathetically, not knowing if it was better thinking the fragment was just gone.]

...I'm watching those clips she sent. [It's not a safer topic, exactly, but one more relevant to the soul in the room with them.] Seems like... she really wanted to do something, about... everything.

[Impatient. Desperate. Lashing out from mixed desire to hurt and help. Did she recombine badly, her feelings all turned up to 11 and happening simultaneously, or something? He stares at the soul, but it sure doesn't seem to be offering any answers.]

[Sans remembers Dinah's insistence--she's said she was doing it for him before she ditched the phone. He's no closer to understanding the reasoning there. He focuses on something else.]

I don't know how she even knew my soul was down there. [Only he and Papyrus know, and even split up, Sans trusts that Papyrus wasn't going to go around telling people. Sans knows he didn't tell anyone, either, so...] If--if that thing's just going around telling people what it did now...

[It's not supposed to be something people can just find out. He doesn't want people to know. It's bad enough he has to know about it.]

It... might be.

[His hesitation isn't one of personal guilt (or guiltless recognition of the problem) - if he had any part spilling that information, he has no knowledge of it. Instead he's disconcerted, multitasking even harder.]

Some of them... Mary, she's talking like it's a friend? [Not the same way 'Jonas' had been, full of airy curiosity and saccharine friendliness and near-threats of inevitability. Like a kid who believes what she's saying.] Maybe it's telling people... all kinds of things.

Yeah. Just saying whatever gets them down there. [That's awful on its face, of course, but there's an extra layer of awful for Sans, thinking about his own soul being used as one of those whatevers. He's not something Okpaza can use. He's not. He refuses.] It's like they've never spent time around liars before. I should know.

[It's reflexive self-deprecation. But he notices, which is unusual, and says as uncertainly as he's said much more terrifying things in this conversation:] Well. I've got standards. There's stuff I wouldn't say.

[Papyrus doesn't quite pause his multitasking, but he pulls more of his attention back to physical reality at Sans's add-on. More specifically, at the continued uncertain tone - rather than something deliberately light and brushing the thing off. Seems like... Sans recombined in a weird way too, huh? Maybe not a bad thing.]

And stuff you wouldn't do. Different orders of magnitude altogether!

[Is the agreeing reassurance out of character for Papyrus, overcompensating positivity now that he can say encouraging things while the problems all matter to him...? At the least, they can both agree that complaining about Ozpaka has way more basis than complaining about anything either skeleton's done. A little basement kidnapping is a different scale of things too... Nyeh. Heh.]

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Sans: after my bro showers and i post to the network, it'll be calmer for talking

what could possibly go wrong

it's a mystery!

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