No One is Happy with This (Undertale)

6 ~ A Momentary Lapse

Sans is... strange, you decide.

It's been a few hours since your conversation with him, and now that your shock has worn off, certain things are beginning to sink in.

Sans is clever. You know that. He watches his tongue (metaphorically, of course) and is careful about the words he uses. But there were a few things in that conversation that you can't decide if he was just speaking in his usual strange way, if they were slips of the tongue, accidental hints dropped, or...

Or if he wants you to keep going, if he wants you to know a few things.

Well.

Regardless.

You have a few more clues to add to your notebook.

First is his warning. "Resetting can't always bring everything back."

Seems kind of odd, that he would say that specifically. Wouldn't it have been easier to say "resetting can't fix everything"?

But that's not what he said. "Resetting can't always bring everything back."

Had something gotten lost? And... and Sans... had somehow gotten things to reset, to try to get that thing back? Had he gotten Flowey to reset? Or had there been someone else?

But-...

So if Sans lost something, and somehow got things to reset, and it didn't work... how...?

And what had he lost? Something important, obviously, if Sans wanted it to reset. Something like--...

Like a family member. His dad.

So Sans' and Papyrus's dad had died and Sans had...

But that didn't make sense. You know from experience that resetting brings dead monsters back. Dead anything back. It brings everything back. So how could it not bring something back?

... It didn't make sense. Why would Sans say it specifically like that?

Well...

Moving on.

The other thing.

...he's gone. and as unhappy as i am about that, as much as i'd like to see him again...

Sans never said that his dad was dead. Just gone. And the whole "much as I'd like to see him again" thing. Was there some possibility that Sans and Papyrus's dad was still alive, just--

... oh! What if--

What if their dad somehow got stuck in another timeline? And then when things got reset, he didn't come back with Sans and Papyrus, because he was stuck there, so now he's in one timeline and Sans and Papyrus are in another one?

But that still doesn't make sense. How could something like that happen? How could someone possibly get stuck in one timeline? And why does that mean Sans wouldn't remember him? Especially because Sans has obviously proven that he can remember things across timelines.

It just doesn't make sense! You don't get it!

Maybe...

You sigh.

This is too big for a kid and a flower. Too big even for a super-detective kid and flower.

Maybe...

You should just...

... give up...?