Andlátkyn; Vandr Sanses unin Alagaësia

Determination Theories

Geno was rapidly bouncing his phalanges against his femur, impatient as the humans around them rode across the plain. The movement was slow, unbearably so in his opinion- even though they'd been riding at high speeds all day.
Horses were much too slow for his taste.

Dance drifted over, their Blasters hovering side by side. "You okay?"
He just shot him a look. "I'm fine."
Dance hesitated.
"You don't really look the part."
"I told you, the cut doesn't bother me."
"S'not about the cut."
Geno fell silent.

Dance leapt the distance between skulls and sat down next to Geno. "What's got you so riled up? You're worrying us."
Geno sighed, glaring off to the side.
"I'm worried." He mumbled irritably.
"Hey, it's fine. Things are hard, but we'll be okay." Dance assured, patting him on the shoulder.
Geno scoffed. "It's not you I'm worried about." Dance drew his hand back.
"Then what? What's wrong?"

"I.." He sighed. "Do you even know anything about my AU?"
"We share a merged copy, I'd say I have a pretty good idea."
"So you know that I'm just a shard of my Sans."
"... You're still a Sans, it's just a condition." Dance argued.

"I never said I wasn't." Geno replied easily, if not still annoyed. "I'm just a part of After, all the ragey bits." He chuckled weakly. "But still, I'm not someone who should exist."
"You have every right to exist, Geno."
"That's not the point."
"Then what is?"
Geno faced him, serious.
"Do you really think that if I'm in Alagaësia, After wouldn't be here, too?"

Dance stared at him, eyelights slowly blurring as he thought about it, before shrinking.
"If.. if he ain't here and he's supposed to be.. then where?"
Geno turned his face to stare out across the grasses ahead of the army, to the south.
"Aroughs, Dance. After's imprisoned in Aroughs."
The lilac eyelights winked out.
"Oh… oh shit."

"Yeah, oh shit. After dies, I die. And if After dies, there's a chance it could fuck Error over, too. And before you get excited, remember that Fresh is just a babybones and needs his mom."

"Why didn't you say something about this sooner?" Dance questioned, glancing back at the bloody glitch. Geno sighed, rubbing his face. "Because I didn't know. I didn't know he was here, we had a damn agreement not to mess with each others' minds, so I didn't know he was here." He groaned into his hands.
"And he'd completely forgotten we could do that at all in the stress."

"...Do what, though?"
He pointed at his skull, waving his phalange at the melted eyesocket as his glitch flickered away. "I'm literally just an extension of After, we can share thoughts sometimes. And I'll be frank with you, I should have figured it out sooner he was here in the first place."
"Because you have an ability of.. telepathy with him?"
"Not just that." He mumbled, burying his face in his scarf. Dance stared at him pointedly. "Then what?"

Geno shot him a look, shifting his clothes around his scar self-consciously.
"Please. We need to know in case you get hurt. Either of you."
"After's already been hurt."
"Wait, he has?"
"Yes. Broke his arm a while ago, something cut his ribs, he's hurt, and it's hurting me. They're fucking with him in there, and he doesn't know anything. I'm fucking terrified. I don't know what's going to happen, and he has no damn clue why it's happening. I can't tell him! Fuck, I can't tell him a damn thing and he's getting abused because he doesn't know a damn thing!" He hissed, lone eyelight flaring blue and red.

Dance hesitantly draped his arm around his shoulders. "We'll get him out of there…. I promise."
Geno snapped and stared at him, his gaze lancing through the violet one.
"You know better than to make promises you can't keep."
Dance gazed back evenly. "That's why I'm making one I can keep."