entranceway | e x p e r i m e n t #07 (voice)

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e x p e r i m e n t #07 (voice)

Hello Wonderland! This is Dr. Pines speaking.

Out of curiosity, how many of you have been to different dimensions, not counting this one? Alternate worlds? Other parallel planes of existence? Or... engaged in any form of time travel, for that matter. How did you do it? Was it even on purpose, or by some fluke?

I myself spent three decades adrift in the multiverse. Fascinating stuff.

[PRIVATE TO FIDDLEFORD & STAN]

Stanley, Fiddleford--

--We need to dismantle the portal in the basement and we have to do it as soon as possible. I can't just let that thing sit around being dangerous.

Fiddleford and I should be able to take it apart with no problems, but Stanley, since you did push to have it built in the first place I thought it was only fair to tell you what I want to do.

[There's a brief, awkward pause, and then...]

I've hurt enough people with my recklessness.

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[Hey, Ford. You had questions about time travel?]

What do you want to know?

Hey, kid. [He smiles, but he's a little uncertain about pestering Frisk of all people about this.] You sure you want to talk about it? You don't have to.

I've done it lots.

[They're the anomaly. They're the one that controls things. It'd be remiss not to say anything at all, wouldn't it?]

Been the cause of it, mostly.

I'm sorry if this is-- too personal, but... could you always?

It's okay.

[A small smile, a faint upward quirk of the lips, and they continue. He asks gently. Makes sure it's okay. They know he doesn't mean to hurt, to intrude, to trespass.
They trust him.
He cares too much.]

No. Not until I landed Underground.

[Ford nods. He suspected as much, because things would've--possibly--been different if they'd had that ability before. Maybe they wouldn't have headed to the mountain where people supposedly never returned from.

If he could RESET, things absolutely would have been different growing up.]

What does it feel like? You have a lot of... determination, so... is it like pulling at a very strong wish? [Ahh, it sounds silly when he says it like that, but...]

[Hard to explain. A very strong wish isn't entirely wrong, exactly.]

It's like...if you want something hard enough. [No, that's just a "wish" again. Their eyes screw shut. Concentrate. Be better.] You find a reason to Continue. And when you get hurt, when you die, you just...

You pull back.

[You LOAD.]

[You can practically hear and see the gears turning in Ford's mind.] ... I had something like that happen, once. It wasn't actual time travel, and it was in a dream...

When I was healing from my arm and I'd been treated, Bill paid me a visit. I was feverish and on medication for the pain, and so lucidity was very difficult. I straddled the line between waking and dreaming and it made things complicated.

[...This is when he switches the feed to private. He doesn't want everyone seeing this. Only Stan knows what happened. He trusts Frisk, so he doesn't mind telling them.]

I felt like I was breaking apart. He could have crushed me into dust. And then... I found a reason to... Continue.

[...] I pulled back. [His mouth twitches into a grin.] It terrified him. He was so angry.

[A dream, but maybe with a basis in some sort of reality? Or a basis in his capacity to be - Determined. And he can be, can't he? Dipper has that same capability, to remember things that have been LOADed away. It makes sense that it'd be, simply, a Pines trait.

They smile, faintly, in return.]

He doesn't like anyone other than him having control. Does he?

Nope! He hates it. Anyway... I've never had anything like that happen before or since. I doubt I could replicate it while awake unless I had the ability to alter reality but... that would defeat the purpose of trying to make it occur naturally.

Do you know how far back you can go?

Only to my last SAVE.

[If they SAVE over something and SAVE again after that, everything prior to then is simply...unreachable, unless they elect, instead, to RESET. And here, that's never going to happen. Not unless Wonderland decides to use it for its own ends. Again.]

How do you... SAVE? That has to do with determination, correct?

Mm.

[A hum of affirmation, and a brief nod. It's hard to explain, but for him - but for him, they can try. Cupping one hand, reaching invisibly for a point in space that ignites the air between their fingertips with a topaz glow that isn't there.]

You find...something. Something that means you keep going. Something that makes you determined.

[Leaves crinkling underfoot. The wind howling. The smell of ozone. Knowing that, inevitably, your journey will finally be over.]

So... something that's inspiring? Usually when something gives me a reason to keep going, it's like an emotional spark.

Like when I look up at the stars, or I see something that I don't understand.

[A nod.]

It can be anything. But you have to be determined enough for it to matter.

[You have to have a SOUL bursting and blistering with it, or a SOUL that has just a fraction more determination than is, perhaps, typical, even for a human. A SOUL with someone else's consciousness wisped into the cracks and edges, fusing them together when they should have burst.]

[Feels like Determination is the key factor in everything. INTERESTING...]

I see...

I think that's all the questions I have about it for now. I appreciate you answering them for me!

Okay.

[As long as he doesn't try to build a DT Extractor from Alphys's mnemonically purchased blueprints, because that - that did not go over well the last time it happened.]

Um...if you need anything else...?

[Just give 'em a ring, you old Grunkle you.]

Sure thing, kid. You too.

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e x p e r i m e n t #07 (voice)

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