☠ VIDEO (dated october 15)

[skelepun]

[Normally, Sans prefers text. It helped him sidestep the inevitable set of questions that arose when most humans got a look at him. Of course, text had its limitations. There was something about the old book that couldn't be directly translated through a roughshod filter of comic sans.

Lack of experience translates to poor focus when the video starts streaming, but aside from that blurriness the feed is notably steady. No gaps, no garbled words, no sudden disconnects. A nice change of pace for anyone who attempted network communication in the past couple weeks.]

Testing, one, two. [The video is focused on an old book, open to a few blurry pages.] Seems like the Nerd Herd came through, so here's hoping I am too. [Anyway.] These last few weeks I've been pretty booked checking out the library. There're some racy tomes in there, fyi, for those of you into that kinda thing.

[He flips the page. And, while blurry, the hand doing the flipping is definitely... fleshless. The page itself is hard to pick out specifics, but a lot of it appears to be annotated with handwritten notes.]

This one's a bit on the dry side, but for all the former Thisavrou residents... Well, looks like whoever survived came up with a nifty name for what went down with Mother. The Great Catastrophe. Catchy, right?

I'm gonna upload some pages. I get the feeling people who lived through it might be able to speak to its accuracy more than me. [The pages come in later, thankfully much more readable than the video.] Reason I'm wondering is, uh...

[He uploads another page. This one mentioning a passage of light. It bluntly details how several crew members walked into, but did not return.]

Look, I get the Ingress's been gone for three hundred years, but... sound familiar to anyone else?

Comments

[skelepun]

[You don't have to tell him twice re: dogs. He's got a fondness for his fuzzy coworkers back home, even if they do cheat at cards.]

Yeah? I gotta admit, I haven't really done a headcount. How many of the old crew is still around?

[warandpeace]

Of the ones that remember the past?

Fifteen or sixteen. And even then, some of those left and returned.

[skelepun]

... Yikes.

[It's a small number. Smaller than Sans ever would have guessed.]

That few, huh?

[warandpeace]

That few.

I don't know which ones left willingly, though. On Kauto and Chioni most of the crew went their separate ways, even if we stayed in some communication.

Which is what makes this unusual. Being singled out by the Ingress again, in its dying breath. [If it was that.]

[skelepun]

Heh, well. Wasn't just me. Ratchet's here, too. Just got lucky, I guess.

[That's one word for it, anyway. Whatever happened to their crew, Sans couldn't guess. Didn't want to guess, honestly. There were too many possibilities, and too many of them grim.]

New guys, they alright? Anybody I should keep an eyesocket out for?

[It's a joke. Maybe. Sans punctuates it with a wink, anyway.]

[warandpeace]

No one any worse than usual. [The same capacity for violence still exists.]

What you might want to note is that when the storms hit, there were a lot more people like Ploiatos that came out of it. And it could corrupt animals as well.

[skelepun]

Ploiatos? [Sans blinks, confused, before--] Oh, Palatino? Yeesh.

[... Perhaps not the best name for the guy who nearly killed his brother, but old habits died hard.]

By people, do you mean skeletons...?

[warandpeace]

No. I meant that almost anyone, any person can become something like Ploiatos.

Monster, human, elf, program. I suspect the storms can twist up anything.

[skelepun]

[All this time, Palatino was always described to him as a monster, a skeleton, a creature. It was part of what spurred sympathy, before they met him face to face and realized the truth of what he was.

Empty. Hungry. Soulless.

Seems the definition had broadened beyond appearances now.]

Sounds like this whole mess is full of twists, huh?

[warandpeace]

Twists that you could kind of see coming after you watched hard enough.

I don't expect this place will be permanent for us. [Judging from the information they have know.] But I think we should be here long enough that restoring the facilities would be to our advantage.

[skelepun]

[Well, there's the Kaz he knew. Proactive until the end.]

You volunteering?

[warandpeace]

[He is, indeed, a workaholic even to this day.]

With what I can do. Unfortunately in this situation, I'm ill-equipped to assist.

Just trying to work with security and clean up the living areas.

[skelepun]

Heh, well, I'll make sure you never run out of work to do.

[A statement punctuated by a bite of nutrition block, crumbs falling down onto his chest.]

But if you ever need anything, y'know. Might not happen, but old time's sake is a powerful motivator for a sentimental guy like me.

[warandpeace]

Sans, you make me regret that I no longer own a business where I could offer you a liberal supply of ketchup.

[His diner was good, dammit.]

I appreciate the offer. I might take you up on it sometime.

[skelepun]

[Trust him, he mourns it more than you could ever know, considering he didn't know about it until this very moment.

Sans holds up the book, jostling it lightly with a quick wink.]

You know where to find me.