[video] time and time again and time again and time again

[punful]

[Sans is sitting on the floor of his room, methodically tearing pages out of a plain-looking notebook. There's clearly writing on the pages, but he's propped his device on a table a few feet away, so it's impossible to tell what it is. He balls up each page and chucks them forward, and from the angle it looks like he's throwing them out into the hallway. There's a watery plap every time.]

anyone opened their door yet? some pretty crazy water physics happening. it just kinda stays there. my cat doesn't know what to do about it. he's kinda freaking out.

[Said cat goes running past the screen with a "mrrbbllggmmb" sound. Sans keeps chucking wads of paper, looking as calm and collected as he always does.]

so, second time trying to post this. we'll see if it takes this time, i guess. dunno if wonderland's just gonna erase it once it's posted or not, but whatever. i'm guessing people have noticed the, uh, weird time stuff going on by now, right?

[Maybe a stumble-jolt feeling, like missing the last step on a staircase? A sense of deja vu?]

yeah, that's my bad. looks like wonderland's giving us a twofer this time.

[Tear. Wad. Toss. Plap.]

listen, i'd just try to ignore it if you can. focus on surviving. might mess with your head a bit, but just try to roll with it. you're gonna get used to it after a day or so. no point in trying to remember what you've forgotten, cause trust me, it's gone. trying to make heads or tails of it's just gonna give you a headache, heh.

[It's not his fault, he keeps telling himself, but haha, it's real easy to just say that. Then it's your event messing everyone up and--well, anyway.]

also, if anyone needs help moving rooms or getting to the kitchen or whatever, hit me up. i'm good with shortcuts. you won't even have to get wet. [He sighs a bit.] can't help everyone, though. you can't make a shortcut to somewhere you've never been. so...

[So.]

and if this is your second or third time hearing this? sorry. sometimes you gotta repeat yourself to make it stick, heh.

Comments

video

[punful]

[He just sort of shrugs. Sympathies aren't really his thing. He appreciates the gesture, but sympathy as a general concept mostly just makes him uncomfortable.]

heh, well considering you've only just met me, i guess you're free to draw whatever conclusions you want, huh?

[You really do get used to it. Live through a few dozen, hundred, thousand, whatever of these things and eventually you learn to stop gaslighting yourself, to stop second-guessing what you know and what you forgot, and you just figure out how to roll with it. Because what the hell else are you supposed to do?]

it shouldn't, i don't think. events don't usually...evolve much? they kinda just kick off and then that's just your life for a couple days. and there isn't really much else to it. it's the conceptualization of one particular facet of a given memory, and that facet just happens to be--cycling time.

[There's a better way to phrase it, but it's lost on him. Literally.]

[He tears out another page and throws it into the water.]

that's all there is to it, i guess. not that i'm really an expert.

Re: video

[directed]

[Silent shrugs are indication enough to Rip to drop it; he’s said what he will, and is content to focus on more practical concerns.]

I suppose I am. [And in the end, does it truly matter? This event would end, and ideally, the time loops with it. Still, the feeling nags at him, even as it settles into being a simple awareness in the back of his mind.

Perhaps because it sounds so much like Wonderland itself—or more accurately, like surrendering to the slow stripping away of memories and time.]

Yes, well. Last time we were all racing towards some odd pyramid, and then suddenly visions of our supposed past lives came into play. [Meaning there had been a distinct change. Rip does, however, appreciate the framework Sans provides.] But in that context, what you’ve suggested does seem far more likely.

[So not just a talking skeleton, but a rather clever one. It makes Rip all the more curious when he hears the sound of ripping paper once more.]

Is there a particular reason why you've been doing that?

video

[punful]

yeah, don't think past lives are gonna crop up here. unless you mean a past self from an hour ago.

[His tone is entirely casual. This is all so rote at this point. Resets weren't supposed to be able to happen here but, hey, it's Wonderland and Wonderland likes to make up its own rules. All bets are off when an event is happening.]

what. this?

[He wads up another sheet of paper.]

eh, getting rid of some junk. plus the reset's less jarring if you're doing repetitive actions. makes it feel almost seamless.

[Almost.]

Re: video

[directed]

No, not quite. [The blandness of the skeleton’s voice earns him a slight frown from Rip. It’s perhaps the worst kind of acceptance, Rip thinks. To merely sit by and accept that what is is what must be. Yet Rip certainly cannot say he has not fallen into a similar pattern himself before.

After all, time wants to happen.

A truth that holds in Wonderland as well, at least for the present. He watches, considering, while Sans continues his routine.]

You truly are prepared to simply wait this out.

video

[punful]

[Is he detecting some judgment? That's fine. People can judge him all he wants.]

[In response to the question, all he does is give the most languid, boneless shrug that a guy made of bone definitely should not be capable of. He punctuates it with a wry grin.]

Re: video

[directed]

[He means to leave it at that. Rip almost does, the silence of Sans' reply seemingly open invitation to just end the conversation then and there.

Yet he can't. He simply can't bring himself to just cut off the video without saying something.]

I'm sorry, but you can't be serious. [Perhaps it is the fact that he's only been in Wonderland a month and hasn't yet given into the inevitability of this wicked realm--or because not all that long ago, he'd learned that time had been used to manipulate his life, to murder his family.

Either way.]

You are truly just going to sit there and not even try to do anything about this? Is that how things work in whatever world you come from? Time happens on an endless loop, so you just shrug your shoulders and wad up papers and take it?

video

[punful]

[He laughs. He actually just laughs, because--damn, you know, he's a pretty secretive guy. Plays shit close to the vest, never asks for help. Sans never tells anybody anything. Ask anyone. And yet here he is. Over a year in Wonderland, and an event from the Underground finally hits, and of course it's this. Of course it's Resets. Of course his one big secret is right there out in the open for literally everyone to see. And sure, he could have just kept quiet, not said a word and let the event just pass by, leave everyone asking just what the hell was going on with time, leave the guy who's responsible for the water portion of this event to field all those questions.]

[But people not explaining events got his brother killed in the worst possible way. He's a hypocrite, sure, but you have to draw the line somewhere. This is what he gets for trying to do a little better.]

[So, yeah. The big secret out there for Wonderland to see, and at the end of the day it's really not going to matter, since for all he knows a Reset might come and erase this entire conversation, maybe the network post itself. And even if it doesn't, who really cares anymore? Everyone's gonna focus more on the water thing anyway.]

[And then here comes this total stranger, hitting the nail right on the goddamn head.]

[It's hilarious. Best punchline he could've hoped for. Is this how things work in whatever world you're from? Time happens on an endless loop, so you just shrug your shoulders and wad up papers and take it?]

man, heh, you uh. you got no idea. it's almost impressive. you've known me about ten minutes, give or take time shenanigans, and you already got me pegged.

Re: video

[directed]

Actually, I have more of an idea than you might think.

[To be a victim of the manipulations of time, after all, is something Rip has a lifetime's worth of experience with--although he only so recently has come to realize it. That might explain why he hasn't been able to mind his own business in this once instance, when normally he is quite good at looking the other way.

For a brief period of time, Rip had likewise let resignation overwhelm him. The truth of his family's murder, the promise of Raymond's death. The unveiling of his status as nothing more than a bloody puppet, used to aid the single man he hated most in the entirety of time.

It had almost destroyed him too.]

You might indeed be right about not being able to fight back here, but you should hardly resign yourself as if it's meant to be fate. Doing so only ensures your imprisonment within time.

video

[punful]

yeah. gettin' that sense.

[This guy knows about time...circles or whatever they're called, for one thing. He can recognize that Resets are happening, seems to feel them happening. Humans and their Determination. Assuming this guy is even human, which he supposes is a pretty big assumption to make. Lotta different types in this place.]

oh, nah, i don't believe in fate. fate's different from inevitability.

[Like gravity. Like the heat death of the universe. Like Resets.]

[From out of nowhere, a black cat jumps into Sans's lap. He starts petting him idly and the cat makes biscuits on the hem of his hoodie.]

anyway, if you're telling me to get on my feet and commit to the feat of fighting fate, well--yanno, i got this cat on me now. i'd hate to give him claws to be upset, heh.

Re: video

[directed]

[Oh, Rip is entirely human. Just one who has been well-trained, and is in turn quite good at what he does.]

Is it? Well, I suppose whatever you want to call it doesn’t change the fact that you seem to have embraced it with open arms.

[Or an open lap, as it were. Rip of course takes note of the cat, and the flurry of puns that follow. It’s all meant to be dismissive, leaving the man to simply shake his head. If that is what Sans truly wants, who is Rip to stop him? This is hardly his fight.

Even if that part of him so strongly wants Sans to take up arms regardless.]

As you wish, then. I’m afraid it’s nearly time for me to move on anyway. [Meaning his air is running low and Rip needs to change rooms.

Before he hangs up, however, he hesitates. So strange; even he doesn’t quite understand why he can’t leave it alone.]

Rip Hunter. In case we get the chance to talk again.

video

[punful]

well, yeah. us skeletons are real good huggers.

[At least Papyrus is.]

[A well-placed cat can start or end any conversation, and 4 has done his job. Sans scritches him between the ears.]

i was just about to ask. i'm gettin' the sense that we're gonna talk again.

[Call it a hunch. Or maybe more like one of those inevitabilities. This conversation might Reset soon, after all.]

the name's sans. good luck out there.