[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

[panspermia]

Greg's a little shocked by his own actions too, and for all his defiance in that moment he still flinches under Blanche's look.

He doesn't have a whole lot of time to spend being cowed, as suddenly there's yet another thing appearing out of nowhere in his room. Greg had seen the Blasters before, tiny little things that held stuff for you and burned as bright as a candle. They'd grown up. Had he done that--?

There's only a second to react, before the laser rips through his room. The force of it leaves Greg's ears ringing, spots of lights clouding his vision even after he'd shielded his eyes. He blinks at his green-tinted room--the maids had never kept it from being a cluttered mess, and what wasn't incinerated was strewn about the floor as debris.

Wait, green-tinted...? Greg presses his hands against the walls of the bubble he'd sealed himself inside. It doesn't yield under his touch. Oh god, there's no time to figure this thing out.

"Sans!" His voice is muffled through the bubble. "Hurry!"

[exhumerus]

The hell did Greg just do? Sans takes a moment to balk at Greg's second magic trick - some of the most overt stuff he's ever seen Greg do. A shield bubble, huh? Seems useful.

But he doesn't have any time. Any goodbyes seem fated to be even more truncated than expected, and instead of being able to think of anything to say Sans just immediately attempts to teleport again. He gets as far as actually disappearing, before being pulled out of the shortcut far too soon and plowing into the wall in the hallway outside of Greg's room. The one bright side is that when he sees Blanche appear again, he's already got his blaster summoned with him.

Another laser streaks down the hall, lighting up the space behind Greg's door. Sans tries to teleport again, but each time its like something reaches out and snares him each time, dragging him out before he can get where he's intending.

But that can't stop him from shooting up the HQ.

[panspermia]

The sounds are more than enough to tell Greg that it's not working. Even with Greg's help and the jumbo-sized blasters, it's not enough to do any more than hold Blanche off. There's only so long that'll work.

For a second, Greg can't move. The bubble that's protecting him keeps him in this room, unable to work any knobs or even fit through doors. Blanche is going to kill him for getting in his way, it's better for him to stay here, stay safe, minimize the damage he's done. Outside, the roar of laser blasting rattles his door on its hinges and makes him shudder.

The bubble pops, suddenly.

Greg sucks in a breath, and runs for the door. They're going to wreck this place and wind up dead if he can't protect Sans.

[exhumerus]

Sometimes the sounds stop completely, like the two of them have momentarily disappeared to a different part of the building, and then returning a minute later, mid strike. It doesn't take long for Sans to have a change in priorities. It's so obvious now - he's not making it out of this one after all.

But he's still going to be as big of a pain in the possible, biting Blanche's ankles until he can't anymore, because he realizes now that every second Blanche is here is a second he can't be searching for Rarity and the others. He's not going to be a winner here but maybe he can achieve being a distraction.

He fights for every moment in a way that feels both familiar and distant. He'll probably die, but...since when has that ever mattered?

But he's already so tired. He returns to the penthouse with all three blasters firing, and every attack feels like its draining the marrow from his bones. His exhaustion is obvious in his eyes and in the way his stance is increasingly lowered and unbalanced. This is what this fight is. Wearing him down until he breaks under the pressure, and he knows he will until the one moment he isn't quite fast enough.

Whatever grabbed him in the shortcut finally keeps hold - black like the void of space. It grabs him and pulls him to the ground as his bones shake and the light in his and his blaster's eyes flicker. His bone is drenched in sweat against all reason.

He tugs against the spacial rift locked into his legs and then collapses down onto his knees. His sockets are wide and terrified with inevitability of what's about to come next.

[interstellarnpcs]

It's only then that Blanche actually reappears, ostensibly capable of causing rifts from even a completely different location. His expression is stone-like he as he approaches, his hands crossed behind his back as if making it clear that he doesn't even really need to move to give the death blow.

Whatever he's going to do, he easily could have done it near instantaneously. The fact that he is letting this moment linger is quite likely purely out of sadism.

Tendrils of void-space latch onto Sans's arms and pull him down more completely, the rift lazily creeping along his clothing and body as he's held there. Whether or not Blanche is expecting an interruption in this moment is unclear.

[panspermia]

Greg never had any desire to learn teleportation after seeing it in action, but boy it would be useful just to keep up right now. He races over to them, but can't quite will himself to put his body between his boss and his friend. The most he can manage is putting out a hand.

"Wait! Blanche--Sir--w...wait..."

Some invisible, perhaps imaginary force is pushing against him. It weighs against him, trying to push him down and away from the power of the man in front of him. It's all Greg can do to keep his feet and not step back, ears ringing and head pounding from effort. His expression is tense, but confused; is he demanding and defiant, or desperate and pleading from his better? Everything hurts.

If Blanche wanted this to be over already, it would be. Greg's that convinced of the CEO's power. Which means Greg has some small, infinitesimal chance of... not fixing this, but at least saving Sans' life, right?

[exhumerus]

His bones rattle with how much he's shaking, from a combination of exhaustion and a deep, overwhelming fear. It's not like him to be this scared. He's never cared enough. But something about Blanche and the idea of the thing he could do to him chills Sans right down to his core.

Whatever Blanche is holding onto him with here feels like it's ready to pull him in completely at any moment, and the idea of what's on the other side of it fills him with dread. When Greg speaks up, all he can do is lift his head, shoulders heaving with exhaustion, and offer a frail and defeated grin.

This is his own fault for being an idiot.

"Heh... Not the goodbye I was hoping for, but..."

He doesn't know what else to say. He looks away from Greg again, and lowers his head with a flinch, his eyes going dark as the blasters dissipate from sight. He tried. Not that it really counts for anything.

[interstellarnpcs]

Blanche all but ignores Greg's objection. As far as he is concerned, there is nothing Greg could say that would change his mind in this situation. This has been a disaster - and one that could have been avoided.

He steps forward, and places his hand on Sans's head. With one solid push, the skeleton is swallowed by the void and both him and the rift vanish completely. It's a very tidy end to what was a very messy fight.

To Greg, he says nothing.

[panspermia]

"SANS!"

The word rips out of him in a shrill scream. Greg staggers forward two steps before it sinks in. Gone. He's gone. There's no one to run to. He's gone.

An instant later, the plants roil again, bursting from overturned pots and spilled dirt. This time they leap out at Blanche not with intent to hurt, but to bind, grasping at him to hold him still. It's an effort so useless it's practically juvenile, but Greg's too far gone to think it through. He can barely see straight between the tears and the burning, throbbing pain in his skull.

"Where is he?! "

[interstellarnpcs]

The vines dissolved into flames before they can ever reach him. Greg caught Blanche by surprise once - it won't happen again. He turns to Greg, his expression cutting.

"Gone, as far as you're concerned. And he won't be back."

[panspermia]

Greg steps closer. "You can't do this," he snarls. "You can't do this," he begs.

This is his fault. He did this to Sans. He wanted to help.

[interstellarnpcs]

"I can and I have," Blanche says simply, and then turns away. "I find myself most disappointed, Universe. You'll pay for your defiance later."

He looks around with a look of disgust.

"For now...clean this place up."

And then he's gone.