this damn game wrecked me

sans takes pictures.

he has one of those old school fancy cameras he stores in between two of his ribs and carries around sometimes, and he has his phone, and he has a book, in his room, where he puts the pictures.

he takes pictures of all of them— of undyne and her undying, sort of misplaced passion for cooking, and her not at all misplaced passion for fighting; of alphys, in her pajamas watching her weird cartoons, in her lab coat, in her single dress with undyne's arm draped over her shoulder (he saw that one coming from a mile away, and he doesn't even have actual eyes); of his brother, a lot of his very cool brother, the two of them pressed against each other so they can both fit in the shot, of papyrus standing all tall and excited in all his confident glory; of the kid, a bunch of the kid, because sometimes they're nice, and sometimes they're not. sometimes all frisk does is spare and spare and have lunch with him like and they chat like regular old pals, sometimes frisk make friends with everyone, even undyne somehow, which seems a bit a fishy, if you ask him. sometimes they try to save everyone, sometimes they make papyrus happier than he's been in a long time, what with the best friends thing, making the permanent grin on his face more genuine.

but sometimes the kid isn't so nice. sometimes the kid doesn't feel up to humoring papyrus's puzzles, sometimes the kid doesn't care about saving everyone- more intent on destroying everyone, actually. and sometimes he has to fight the kid. and he doesn't like it, but he has to do it, and it's been a long time since he's had a proper fight, since someone's had a bone to pick with him, and so he fights, and eventually he looses (the fight, and his brother, and his friends, and the kid and sometimes his life).

but most of the time the kid is pretty chill, pretty good, and sans records those times with snaps of his camera or the shutter on the cell.

he is not a very sentimental person, too bone-weary to bother very much anymore, but sans takes pictures, because. he never knows when it might reset. when everything will rewind all over again, different timelines thrown together and ripped apart in all sorts of new and exciting ways, all the time, so much more than it should. the kid's pretty reset-happy.

he takes pictures, because all of that could disappear in an instant, and even though pap will still talk up a storm and laugh and undyne will fight with bone-chilling grace and toriel will talk with him back and forth for hours from the other side of the door, it's always slightly different.

but he'll take what he can get— though he prefers the times when the kid gets out and things are good, when everyone survives, when his brother survives, because he has pap and he has the kid and sometimes he has toriel, and he has his pictures and his two totally in love with each other friends, and that is everything he has in the world, and that is everything he needs.

he takes pictures, because he needs something to remind him that some realities are better than whichever one he's living in, and that that reality will happen sooner or later or maybe it already has. he needs something to help him remember every time the kid first meets him in the snow.

because it will all reset, and they'll never reach the surface, and he doesn't really care about reaching the surface anymore, he gave a long time ago. it will all reset, and he will have his pictures, and those people smiling up at him will remind him to keep going.