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It’s always been difficult for Sans to stay awake. He napped a lot as a baby bones, but as he got older, it only got worse. His energy slowly depleted over time, his magic (though strong) became more and more exhausting to wield, forcing him to use quick powerful bursts before he collapsed. His creator eventually discovered a link between his constant fatigue and his low HP. The lack of “health points” or HOPE caused not only fatigue but brain fog, lack of appetite, and full body aches. To G̸͆͝ͅȧ̶̹̑͘s̸̛̫͛̐͌t̵̳͊ĕ̴̤̈ṙ̵̜̹̖, this made Sans a failure. The next one would be improved. For now, he supposed, it would make a good assistant, even though it keeps collapsing.
…
Sans had his good and bad days. On most good days, he was able to stay awake most of the day, only dozing off at work a few times before heading home and resting on the couch until his brother got home and made a mess of the kitchen. Or he slept in before heading to work and pushing through his exhaustion until he got home and crashed. He often had good days.
On bad days, he needed the wheelchair. Something alphys built for him from studying human medical texts and various other works depicting mobility aids some humans needed. This chair allowed him to still be present during important events or trips while not exhausting him from the energy used to stay standing or walk around. He didn’t like needing the wheelchair. Too lazy to even stand? What kind of monster was he to make his brother push him around in a chair on wheels? It was bad enough he had to be carried on the days he went from good to worse. It felt awful to be so dependent on his younger brother, the one he was meant to protect and take care of. Papyrus never complained, always happy to help and excited to be there for his family.
The guilt of being so dependent on Papyrus combined with the need to feel useful inspired Sans to change the direction of his studies in science towards medicine. Diving deeper into the correlation between his fatigue and his HP. Something he had been working on was HP Candies, which held a high concentration of green magic, designed to increase energy temporarily, lasting around 6 hours.
The prototypes seemed to have some effect, but caused symptoms similar to magic overdose. Sans had felt like his body was on fire, ice blue sweat dripping down his bones and tickling his spine uncomfortably as he writhed on the floor of his lab. His soul was vibrating with that heat and his magic had lashed out, bones popping up on the surfaces of the lab, the reverberating sound of breaking glass and crashing metals overwhelming to his fevered skull. That's how a screaming Alphys found him, knocked out on the floor with a shining cool blue sheen across his bones.
Papyrus was pretty upset to learn that he’d been testing the candies on himself, and insisted on being there during the rest of the trial runs. If Papyrus was unavailable, Sans was to make sure someone else was, mainly Alphys. Now while there were a few hiccups, he had some back up to support him and make sure he didn’t accidentally hurt himself. He kept working at it until after only a couple of years he achieved the desired results. A candy that temporarily relieved moderate to severe exhaustion which in turn helped with the chronic pain. After that he kept going, constantly improving on his work, and creating new medications for a multitude of issues monsters might face.
Still, even with the candies, he had his bad days. They were a temporary relief, and often still caused him to crash after they wore off, so they were only to be used when necessary. His health also continued to worsen over time, causing him to sometimes enter deep sleep or coma like states eerily similar to Falling Down. He would not wake up for a long time, and nothing would rouse him. He was initially quarantined when this began for fear of an unknown virus, but when they found no other symptoms or causes aside from his usual, they had no choice to continue on with more precautions over his wellbeing.
Sans was at his station in Waterfall when he heard an unusual noise. Normally Waterfall has plenty of odd noises due to kids and teens messing around with the echo flowers, but this one set off alarms in his skull. It sounded eerily similar. Following it led him quite a distance from his station, and each step grew heavier but he assuaged himself thinking he’d not go much further and it wouldn't take long. Besides, this was Sans’ job. He’d be a pretty shoddy sentry if he couldn't deal with a little noise in the darkness. Not to mention he wasn’t Judge for nothing. This was one of his good days.
As he turned a corner in the caves, he finally found the source of the sound. One of the echo flowers had been echoing an odd, unnatural sound almost like static wheezing. In the dark and looming caverns, the sound traveled strangely and bounced off the walls to create a haunting effect. Looking closer, Sans noticed a strange black ichor dripping off the petals and pooling onto the ground below. He reached into his inventory to grab a spare collection tube from the lab, and knelt down to get a sample. As he did, he realized he was quickly getting drowsy, and his bones were growing weak. These were sure signs of a crash, and he was in a dangerous position, hidden away in a dark corner, far from his station.
He managed to cap off the tube and replace it in his inventory before leaning back and sitting against the cave wall and reaching for his phone. Papyrus’ number was on speed dial and usually he answered within 2 rings, but as it kept going he recalled that his brother was planning to go to Undyne’s house for training and cooking lessons today and it had likely gotten so chaotic you couldn't hear a siren let alone the phone ringing. The call dropped as he hung up and tried for a text, but his fingers got clumsier as the seconds went by and his eye sockets struggled to focus. The phone slipped from his hand, message unsent, as he tipped over, asleep.
…
He missed a call.
Papyrus never misses a call, he makes it a point not to miss any calls, especially from his brother. It had been a few hours since the call and nothing since, so either it was a coccyx dial or something had happened. When calling him back, he received no answer and texting achieved the same result, though sans is usually pretty lazy about texting, so he wasn't too worried about that. Nonetheless this was quickly becoming a Situation. Sans should still be at work so that's where papyrus headed first. He debated on if he needed to bring anything just in case but figured home isn't too far from where sans is stationed and he’s the fastest runner in snowdin, not to brag. What was important was making sure his brother was alright.
When he got to the other side of waterfall, he immediately noticed the absence of sans in his station, which is abnormal.. Unless he took the rest of the day off? Perhaps that's why he called? But he didn't leave a voice message or even a text. Asking around yielded no results as no one had seen the shorter skeleton in quite a while, and none could remember the direction he ambled off to. Curse his brother for being so sneaky! The next stop will be home to see if he was feeling too tired to finish his shift after all.
The house was empty.
The House Was Empty. And Sans wasn’t at his station. And he wasn’t answering his phone.
Papyrus didn’t know what to do. Sunset colored sweat began to bead at his skull. If his brother wasn’t at work, and he wasn’t at home, where in the underground could he be? Was there an emergency? Did something awful happen? What could it have been? Where is Sans?- Papyrus needed to calm down. As his thoughts derailed his breathing had also sped up and his soul had begun to pulse frantically. He needed to practice the breathing exercises Undyne taught him and calm down or he would never focus enough to find Sans.
In for 4. Hold for 4. Out for 4. Hold for 4. Repeat… Okay…
Step one. Call Alphys, and ask if Sans went to the lab for any reason, then call Undyne and let her know the situation and head to Grillby’s to see if maybe, just maybe, Sans just took another lunch break and his phone died or something. Yeah. Papyrus pulled his phone out of his pocket and started dialling.
…”Hello? This is Dr. Alphys speaking.”
“Hello Dr. Alphys, this is The Great Papyrus calling to ask about the whereabouts of my brother! Have you seen Sans at the Lab today?” Papyrus tried to keep his voice calm and collected, as he didn’t want to worry Alphys if it really was just nothing. But on the inside his soul was still pulsing almost painfully in his ribcage.
“Um. Um, no, I haven’t seen him, is everything alright?” She sounded quite nervous, more so than her usual. Rightly so if what she just said was true. Which it was.
“Ah, it's just that I can't seem to find him at his station, or at home, and he’s not answering his phone, but! I'm sure everything is just fine! Nyeh heh!” He chuckled nervously. Hanging up, he tried calling Sans again but it went to voicemail. Alrighty then! Off to Grillby’s, where he’s sure his brother must have fallen asleep at the bar again, that silly skeleton!
…
The world came back slowly. As it always does when he passes out like this. It was a struggle to focus his eyelights, and everything took on a strange Cyan hue. His bones felt more sore than normal, and incredibly stiff. He must have been out a while. As his surroundings finally came into focus he noticed the glow. Everything around him had been covered in some sort of bioluminescent moss or vines, which had overtaken the entrance to the little corner he was in and almost completely covered him. Glowing dust particles danced in the air with his breath. The strange echo flower he remembered checking out before his impromptu nap was still there, now copying his soft breathing, and the odd inky goop was nowhere to be found. His vision was still a little blurry and blocked off by something in his left eye socket, but as he went to rub it he noticed the mushrooms.
They were all over his sleeves, and when he looked closer, along his bones and between his ligaments, glowing cyan moss and mushrooms had started to grow. His once white slipper boots had been dyed a bright cyan by the spores, and his jacket had been similarly dyed, though a much darker shade due to them being blue to begin with. The shrooms had also started growing around the hood.
He tried to pull off one of the mushrooms blocking the vision in his eye socket, but felt both a sharp pain, and the realization that they were attached to him, growing from his bones and leeching off of his magic.
His bones continued to ache with a concerning stiffness as he sat up, slowly stretching. It was becoming readily apparent that he had been asleep for a very long time.
Where was Papyrus? Was he okay? Surely his brother would have found him by now, he wasn’t too far from his station, was he? Didn’t he text Papyrus before he fell asleep..? Sans looked through his pockets before catching a glimpse of his phone through the moss that had overtaken his little area. Dead. not to mention un-useable thanks to the little ecosystem growing out of everything. All that was left to do was head home. If his brother wasn’t there, he had a spare phone somewhere he could use to contact him. He slowly stood, clinging to the cave wall for support, and weakly tore away the foliage in his path as he started walking.
…
The atmosphere of Grillbys was always warm and inviting, especially compared to the eternal winter that was their home town. Papyrus walked in, and, greeted by the usual patrons, immediately started scanning the bar for his brother. He had desperately hoped on the way here that his brother was just snoring away, skull pillowed on his sleeves at his usual spot on the bartop, but as he looked to Sans’ spot, it sat empty.
He still walked up to the bar and got Grillby’s attention, asking if sans had shown up within the last 3 hours. Grillby shook his head no. Panic started setting in once again, and a sinking pit joined it deep in his non-existent belly. Shaking phalanges pulled out his phone and numbly started punching in the name for Undyne's contact. It rang. And rang. His soul was rattling around in his ribcage. It continued to ring. And finally-
“Hey, Pap! What's up? You forget something?” Papyrus let out a gust of breath.
“Undyne, Sans is missing.”
… “WHAT”
“HES MISSING!” The patrons all turned their heads (or the equivalent) and gave him strange looks and Grillby started to flare up in concern so he started whisper yelling. “I can't find him anywhere! I checked the house, the bar, I called Alphys at the lab! He’s nowhere to be found! He won’t even answer his phone!” He walked out of the restaurant and headed back towards waterfall as he spoke, planning on searching the sentry station for any clues.
“Okay okay, calm down. We’ll figure this out, I'll call some of the guards and get a phone tree going to have everyone keep an eye out for wayward sleepy skeletons. Okay? And I'll meet you at the lab so we can check the camera systems for any sign of where he could have gone.”
Undyne continued to speak but Papyrus was distracted from her by the warmth of Grillby’s flame coming up next to him as the patrons started grumpily leaving. It was before closing time? What’s going on? Grillby flipped the sign outside to closed as the last customer left and locked up for the night before turning to Papyrus, flames crackling.
“You- you want to help?” Papyrus mumbled. Grillby calmly nodded his head and the sound of fire blazing grew louder once more.
‘It would be a shame if something happened to him before he paid his tab. And… I have grown quite fond of him.’ Papyrus couldn’t contain his grateful smile, sparkling orange lighting up his cheekbones. Suddenly he remembered he was on the phone and tuned back in just in time to hear Undyne yelling goodbye.
“Allrighty! To Hotland we go!” He shouted with optimism and marched off, Grillby following at his heels easily.
…
As he made his way back home slowly, staggering step by step, leaning against the walls of the cavern, Sans started to notice how quiet it was. Not a monster in sight, and none of the Echo flowers were speaking. There was a feeling of dread in his ribs as he got closer to civilization, realizing quickly that he had initially wandered much farther than he thought. It was no wonder no one had found him, but it made him think, how could he have heard that flower from so far away?
The quiet persisted. When he finally reached the border between Snowdin and Waterfall, he noticed for the first time, a pile of dust.
…
It had been months. And still no sign of his brother. Papyrus had been looking every single day since the cameras at the lab yielded no results. He still called Alphys daily to ask if anything new had popped up to no avail. He patrolled with vigour, checking every place he can get to, asking around, putting up missing posters. Nothing. He couldn’t sleep tonight, too anxious for his brother’s safety. As he headed into the snow to do another round of searching, he saw something in the distance. It looked like a child. All alone? At this time of night? His instincts flared up, and he started to approach, a friendly smile on his face.
The child was h o l d i n g a k n i f e…