[closed prompts] at the big finale i would tear my face away

[exhumerus]

Who: Sans and a whole shwack of people.
What: Sans’s skin falls off and so he decides it’s time to leave. If you want in, then hit me up OOC!
When: April 13th, 2055
Where: Various places, Virgo HQ
Warnings: Body horror and feelings.

Sans has been laying low the past few days - after another appointment with Silver, he has to be on his guard. Nothing manifested immediately, which means he is going to be in suspense until something does. A couple times that’s meant entire parts of his body melting off, and he has to be prepared for the idea that it might happen again.

He doesn’t have much flesh left, at this point. There can’t be much left to go.

He’s hoping for more of his magic back instead, but he’s never had much choice before. When he abruptly starts feeling ill early one evening, he instinctually goes straight for the bathroom. Instead of throwing up, he coughs up nothing but dust. And then it gets way, way worse.

The process would be nightmarish for anyone less prepared, and for him it still scores a solid ‘horrifying.’ Like his arms and his legs before, everything that made him humans seems to fall apart into dust all at once, except for this time there is just so much of it. It gets all over the floor and trails into the shower, where he feverishly attempts to wash the rest of it off.

When he’s done, he’s washed himself quite literally down to the bone. He doesn’t have much time to get used to what he catches sight of in the mirror, either. It’s done. He can’t stay here anymore. Not like this.

He has to act now.

Comments

FRISK

[exhumerus]

In the end the best he can do is to just wrap his face in a scarf, put on an oversized hoodie, and try to act like he belongs. He won’t be out and about for long, anyway. Who cares if someone sees him? They won’t believe it, anyway.

Right now he has to find the kid, or everything is fucked.

He teleports around with more abandon then every before, checking out the places he knows that Frisk is support to work and hang out. He’s being careless and he knows it. It’s just…if he doesn’t have anywhere to go, then there’s no chance that any of them will make it.

[determinate]

Frisk isn't in Pizza Planet. But - as Sans has probably observed - they're less inclined to explore here than otherwise. Vista City isn't as pretty or interesting in most places as the Underground, and the stakes are too high to take risks just for fun. So they are in one of their usual places: an out-of-the-way rock in the park, large enough to lie on and jutting out from the hill in a way that they can kinda sit underneath it, too.

When he arrives, they're sitting on the edge and kicking their feet in the air, humming to themself. Sometimes they just need a little quiet time.

Sans's sudden presence startles a short surprised sound out of them. Their voice catches in their throat then, and they hop up and run over. He's all covered, and he wouldn't just take shortcuts all over the city in front of everyone unless it was really important.

It's happening.

[exhumerus]

Heh. Smart kid. He doesn't even have to explain himself and he gets the sense they already know. He feels like he should be smirking at the thought, but the way that translates to his actual face feels weird. He's not actually sure what the deal with his mouth is at the moment.

"Hey," he says, and he doesn't bother hiding his eyes from them - two spots of white light showing from under his hood. He tugs down his scarf, too. Frisk is probably the only person he feels comfortable showing this off to right now. "Looks like your friend's chip theory was right."

His mouth doesn't move when he talks anymore, but his voice sounds the same as ever. It's a strange fucking thing.

"...If I'm gunna get anybody out, it's gotta be now, kid. Please tell me you got somewhere for them to go."

[determinate]

Frisk seems unbothered by any of it: the eyes, the face, the unmoving mouth. If anything, they're cheered. Now this is what they're used to.

They lift their head to scan the area, like a small animal on alert. Part of them wishes there was more warning, but they guess they kinda knew this was more likely. Sans wouldn't be able to hang around long as a skeleton. "Yeah. We stole the machines." They're back in the warehouse - Frisk knows the location and even how they hook up. They helped bring them there, and hadn't gone back home until Silver was satisfied. "They need to go to the warehouse first."

To get surgery. Frisk hopes Sans's friends are okay with Silver operating on them in a place like that. They'd be nervous about brain surgery anywhere, but it's not even a hospital.

They take out their phone and start texting quickly. "I can show you where. I'll tell Silver to meet us." Can he just teleport them, or will they need to walk? They've never been totally sure how the shortcuts work.

[exhumerus]

Shortcuts probably seemed a lot more omniscient when he was using them in an enclosed space he'd spent his whole life is. He can get to anywhere he can visualize, within spacial limits he's never actually had the opportunity to test the extent of. Not that he can remember, anyway.

But he faintly recalls knowing almost every inch of the underground.

He exhales uncertainly.

"If you can show me a picture of it, I think I can get us there. Otherwise I'll have to see it in person." Maps help, too. And physics equations. Sort of like figuring out how to fire yourself out of a trebuchet.

[determinate]

Frisk taps on their phone a few moments more, a faint crease forming between their brows. After a moment, they nod.

"I don't have pictures." It's true; they certainly have the sense not to take selfies of themself in the secret medical warehouse. "It's here." They angle the phone to show him a map with an address marked - the building doesn't exactly look like a warehouse, but it's in that general area of the city. "Can you use the satellite picture?" That app just gives you a picture of the street, which is a bad idea. They don't think there's usually a lot of people walking around down there, but only one is enough. You can sort of see into an alleyway, though?

[exhumerus]

"Lemme see," he says, and takes the phone in hand. He spent about thirty seconds looking at it, figuring out the calculations in his head. He thinks about the path between where they are and where they're trying to go.

He hands the phone back to Frisk.

"Guess we're about to find out, huh?" He cracks his knuckles. He puts a hand on their shoulder, just in case. "Ready?"

[determinate]

It occurs to Frisk that every time they've taken a shortcut with Sans, it was to a place he knew really well, like Grillby's. They don't even really know what's in this building Silver's sending them to. And he never bothered to touch them before.

Whatever. It'll probably be okay - and what are they going to do, walk? They lift their other hand to place on Sans's shoulder as well and nod.

[exhumerus]

He could probably pull off the no touching shortcut variety in Virgo HQ, but that's about it. It's all about concentration, and he doesn't exactly want to lose anybody in the void right now. The only reason he's not more worried about this is because he's not letting himself be.

It happens instantaneously, just like always. One moment they are in a park, and the next they are in an alleyway - about a foot off the ground. The drop isn't painful so much as its alarming.

It takes a moment for Sans to get his wind back.

"Look right to you, kid?"

He doesn't have a good idea what he's looking for.

[determinate]

Frisk draws in a sharp breath as they drop, but lands like someone used to being unexpectedly airborne. Tucking the phone away, they look around the alley.

...well, it looks about the same as the one in the picture. Concrete and pavement, it's clean in a way that seems like it's just because no one's been back here in a while. There's only businesses and storage places down in this area of town; they use big dumpsters instead of the little metal cans tucked up against the wall. Frisk gestures for Sans to stay where he is as they approach the end and peer up and down the street.

"Okay." It's clear. They dart out and right, up to the door of the nearest building. This is the right address - but they've never been here before in their life. Is it a building Silver owns, or just one he picked? All they can do is trust his instructions. They try the door to see if it's unlocked.

[exhumerus]

The door opens. It just looks like some empty office/storage space that someone leased and then never did anything with. There doesn't seem to be anything of value inside.

Sans approaches and peers in after Frisk, trying to commit the details to memory. It will be a lot easier to shortcut to somewhere he's seen in person, and doing it indoors gets rid of that pesky witness problem.

"Is this really where they're doing the debuggings?" he asks.

[determinate]

Frisk shakes their head in the negative, a corner of their mouth quirking downwards. They understand the need for secrecy in this, and they've been doing their best to keep to it. But they don't like suddenly having to dodge around Sans. He's breaking people out - he's pretty much doing their job for them right now. The escaped musicians are going to have to live with the rescuers anyway. It seems like they should start trusting them.

"Silver wants them here first," is the only explanation they give. They're sure he'll figure it out. "Then someone's gonna take them there."

Perhaps that someone is meant to be Frisk themself. Of course they'll do whatever they need to, but they'd much rather wait here for Sans to be done.

[exhumerus]

Ah. Yeah, it's not hard to imagine why that is. Sans understands the caution, honestly, based on everything he's seen...he just hopes that the indirect approach actually works. He settles back, apparently fine with it even if Frisk isn't.

"Gotcha. So you're the middle man, huh?" he asks, ostensibly unaffected by the difference. He pauses for a moment before adding: "Thanks."

[determinate]

Frisk nods. They're glad Sans is okay with it, at least; they were worried he'd think they didn't trust him after all. There's a lot of secrets they keep from their friends, but that's better done entirely, from the start. Not by telling them there's a secret warehouse and then taking them next door. No one outside of maybe Sans even knows they've got secrets they keep to begin with.

At least, they hope not.

"It's okay." They smile. It's what they came here for: to help. "Will you wait for him to come?" It might make sense to, but Frisk isn't inclined to try and stop Sans if he wants to leave. He's on a tight schedule.

[exhumerus]

Sans considers that for a moment, but then shakes his head. He can't risk losing any more time. As much as the idea of going back to the HQ now terrifies him.

"Nah...I can't risk the time. I don't know if they've got something up their sleeve I don't know about, so catching them by surprise is my best bet. 'Sides, I've got someone in particular there waiting for me."

Rarity already knows this is happening, so he doesn't want to leave her in suspense any longer than he has to. He really should just go and get this done, but something is making him linger.

He honestly doesn't know if he'll see Frisk again.