[They're not sure if they can believe that Alphys is the most qualified person. She lied to get the job. The thing that she was supposed to have discovered - determination? Sans already knew about it. Sans knew how to build a DT Extractor, so he knew what DT was, what it was used for, what it did. Sans knew more than her, in fact, because he knew about timelines and SAVEs and... whatever that machine he had was for. All she could actually claim her career consisted of was lying, ruining lives with her incompetence, and stealing the work of other scientists.
...And making Mettaton's body. So... okay. She had one good thing.]
Not being able to touch science without ruining something sure didn't stop Alphys.
[That's mean. They don't need to be mean about it. Push it away, move on.]
I won't ask more about... specific people. The past. You know.
[They can't even recall the name. Weren't they just thinking it a minute ago? Dr. Alphys, Dr. something-or-other, Dr. Sans? Maybe they're getting worse at recalling this stuff, now that they can't keep digging back into the bones of that left-behind world.]
But... isn't it supposed to be a good thing? Living your life for someone else's sake.
[Their own needles are moving on automatic now. Infinite rows of stockinette are easy like that. The dropped stitches and slip-ups in Sans' work go unnoticed. Learning to spot and fix your own mistakes is a big part of actually being able to knit something to completion, after all, and they've got their eyes staunchly fixed on their own work.]
Every narrative I can think of says it's good. Knights and saints and lovers all do it. Heroes do it.
[Anime magical girls do it.]
So how come devoting your future to that guy just meant you lost something you used to like doing?
[How come when Asriel did it, he lost his entire future? How come when Chara did it, they were evil, manipulative, just looking to start wars?]
Is it that caring about someone just means you'll set them back in the end, or... is it just that it turns out bad because you picked somebody who wasn't... really a good person?
[They don't even know what Dr. Something-or-other was really like. They sort of vaguely remember what he built, they can recite a sprite filename, but none of that really gives them a sense for who a person actually is. They said they wouldn't ask about the past or specific people, so they don't let themself ask how the two of them abused science or what about it had made science seem so joyless and dangerous. That's too personal. Better to keep it to vague, general, hypothetical terms.]
no subject
...And making Mettaton's body. So... okay. She had one good thing.]
Not being able to touch science without ruining something sure didn't stop Alphys.
[That's mean. They don't need to be mean about it. Push it away, move on.]
I won't ask more about... specific people. The past. You know.
[They can't even recall the name. Weren't they just thinking it a minute ago? Dr. Alphys, Dr. something-or-other, Dr. Sans? Maybe they're getting worse at recalling this stuff, now that they can't keep digging back into the bones of that left-behind world.]
But... isn't it supposed to be a good thing? Living your life for someone else's sake.
[Their own needles are moving on automatic now. Infinite rows of stockinette are easy like that. The dropped stitches and slip-ups in Sans' work go unnoticed. Learning to spot and fix your own mistakes is a big part of actually being able to knit something to completion, after all, and they've got their eyes staunchly fixed on their own work.]
Every narrative I can think of says it's good. Knights and saints and lovers all do it. Heroes do it.
[Anime magical girls do it.]
So how come devoting your future to that guy just meant you lost something you used to like doing?
[How come when Asriel did it, he lost his entire future? How come when Chara did it, they were evil, manipulative, just looking to start wars?]
Is it that caring about someone just means you'll set them back in the end, or... is it just that it turns out bad because you picked somebody who wasn't... really a good person?
[They don't even know what Dr. Something-or-other was really like. They sort of vaguely remember what he built, they can recite a sprite filename, but none of that really gives them a sense for who a person actually is. They said they wouldn't ask about the past or specific people, so they don't let themself ask how the two of them abused science or what about it had made science seem so joyless and dangerous. That's too personal. Better to keep it to vague, general, hypothetical terms.]