text @PAPYRUS - New Years

[spaghettimonster]

HAPPY 1962!!!

IT'S HARD TO CALL THIS A NEW YEAR... SINCE THIS SEEMS LIKE THE PAST TO ME.

BUT DECEMBER IS OVER! AND IT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE IT'S SUDDENLY FEBRUARY.

HOW ABOUT.

HAPPY NEW OLD YEAR!!!

[But don't be fooled - it's the start of 1961! Despite Papyrus optimistically posting this at midnight on the dot, everything from the TV countdown to physical calendars to outstanding bills says otherwise.]

Comments

now it's action and also a skeleton icon

[ribticklers]

[Sans hasn't actually moved at all, eyes on that date. He wonders, vaguely, if Sans being so still looks weird when he's a human. He's checking his memories, going over them and over them. It seems like they're still there.

This could be a lie. It's one TV program. They could be doing this on purpose, whoever they is.

He looks at Papyrus's message on the watch and gets up, which is the first movement he's made outside of breathing in nearly a minute. Papyrus wrote "1962", so it's not--it's probably not like--is it like--]

Check the TV again, bro, your post's got a typo.

good old lost soul time

[spaghettimonster]

[And here Papyrus was grabbing glasses for champagne for the human traditional new year's toast he's seen in ads through the last week. He scowls defensively at his brother, not yet recognizing the terrible tension.]

What? I clearly remembered, ninteen instead of twen...ty...

[He trails off mid-word as he does, indeed, check the television. Blinks, and keeps checking it. That's very clearly a 1 at the end of the date the partiers are celebrating against a backdrop of fireworks. But that doesn't make sense.]

...I think. The television has a typo.

[ribticklers]

[Sans is still moving--single-mindedly, absent-mindedly. Papyrus remembers. Okay. This isn't the same. No, he should have known that immediately, because a year ago he was underground. A year ago he wasn't here. The kid hadn't even dropped in yet.

Sans pulls the calendar down off the wall. January 1961. He checks December even though his mind has already landed on the worst, inevitable option. There's nothing written down on December 1961 at all.

Sans is listening to Papyrus, but he doesn't say anything. He's going to have to, soon. He can't worry Papyrus. (Papyrus is already worried.)]

[spaghettimonster]

[Clink, clink. The glasses rest on the coffee table - guess it's the champagne table now - and Papyrus settles onto the couch to better stare at the television. He glances at the wrist radio - still stubbornly displaying 1962 in his message - then back at the television. Still not matching. And Sans is being... entirely too quiet.]

I wonder. If it's like... How we don't remember November.

[That was strange, and still unexplained despite his somewhat distracted and not quite best efforts. He taps a finger on his cheek, drumming the yielding skin, grounding himself a little in that strangeness too. There's lots of strange things happening. No reason this should overwhelm him. Nyeh heh... heh.]

Maybe the skipped months... just slid forward. And they're happening now.

[That'd leave them with what, January through September, skipping October into November, and then into 1962? Sounds lengthy and convoluted. A time loop would be an easier explanation... but that's not a topic he wants to broach with Sans, already so prone to lethargic apathy.]

had to go get a new icon for this

[ribticklers]

[Sans is still staring at the calendar, but he knows he has to actually say something now.] They should warn us before they start sliding all the months around like that. A guy could lose track. [He doesn't put the calendar back up, just drops it with a fluttery little thump onto the nearest surface.]

@kipo, text

[purplejaguareye]

Happy new old year!!

[Kipo doesn't realize the year hasn't actually switched over either.]

[spaghettimonster]

[There's a brief delay, but that's surely no surprise - it's an evening for staying up and celebrating, and there's bound to be celebrations happening in the neighboring houses. Nothing to worry about.]

YEAH, HAPPY NEW OLD YEAR!!!!!!!

BY THE WAY. JUST ASKING.
DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT YEAR IT WAS IN DECEMBER?

[Nothing to worry about.]

[purplejaguareye]

It was 1961 if I remember right?

Why?

[spaghettimonster]

I'M WATCHING THE BIG CITY'S BIG CELEBRATION, WITH THE COUNTDOWN AND THE FIREWORKS.
AND THE NUMBER ALL LIT UP IS 1961, STILL.

WHAT AN EMBARRASSING ERROR, RIGHT??

@okuyasu, text

[righthandstand]

this is the saddest old year celebration I've been to

isn't there supposed to be some kind of event for the town?

[spaghettimonster]

I BET THERE IS.
IT SEEMS LIKE A BIG PARTY EVENT IN BIG CITIES.
BUT I HAVEN'T HEARD ABOUT ONE YET.
GUESS WE'LL FIND OUT.

BY THE WAY. HAVE YOU BEEN TO MANY OLD YEAR CELEBRATIONS BEFORE??

[If Okuyasu has experience with whatever mysterious time distortion is happening to his television and calendar, Papyrus wants him to share.]

[righthandstand]

nah just new year celebrations

but we'd at least go to the temple or go somewhere fun even if we were busy [At least they weren't staying in whatever temporary house they were living in at the time.]

I miss cities

[spaghettimonster]

I SEE, I SEE...
AND THIS ISN'T CITY ENOUGH TO CITYSFY.

[The attempt at a pun for levity's sake is rough in English, and likely falls apart entirely in translation, but he makes it anyway. Maybe Sans'll see it and laugh. He could use a laugh himself.]

@aragaki

[petsthedog]

[Time bullshit. Of course it's time bullshit. At least the sky isn't green, though. The last thing he needs to deal with is the fucking Dark Hour now.]

no it's still 1961
some new bullshit is going on

[spaghettimonster]

SO YOUR TV IS SAYING THE SAME THING...
GLAD TO KNOW THIS ONE'S NOT BUSTED.

[Because a glitch in an old analog television could definitely cause all the other hints of time loop on display around the house.]

[petsthedog]

either the people who run this place are fucking with us or this whole place exists because someone messed with crap they shouldn't have touched and we're in for some real shit

[spaghettimonster]

WELL, WHAT'S LIFE WITHOUT A LITTLE DABBLING IN FORCES BEST LEFT UNTOUCHED.
NOT VERY INTERESTING, I BET!

@erwinsmith

[13thcommander]

Happy New Year, Papyrus.

Is there another holiday coming that requires extra lights and decorations?

[Guess who had fun helping with the decoration war and wouldn't mind doing it again? He also hasn't noticed that the date stayed the same.]

[spaghettimonster]

IF THE HOLIDAYS ARE ANYTHING LIKE BACK HOME, THAT WAS THE BIG ONE...

[It has a different name, and some different details, but enough of the broad strokes were similar enough to be familiar. The carnivorous creatures and snowmen were horrifying, but seemingly not part of the normal celebration...? He doesn't want to think about that. Better to focus on literally brighter things.]

BUT, JACK-O-LANTERNS ARE MORE IMPORTANT HERE THAN I GUESSED.
SO WE CAN ONLY HOPE!

[13thcommander]

That's true. We'll have to see what happens in the coming months.

[A slight pause, as Erwin checks the date again.]

I don't suppose your television is still saying 1961 as well, is it?

[spaghettimonster]

IT DOES SEEM TO BE DOING THAT...
I'M SURE IT'S A BROADCASTING ERROR.
ACCIDENTALLY REPLAYING LAST YEAR'S TAPE. OR SOMETHING.

[Who's ever heard of time traveling more than once in the same year, and remembering much of any of it?]

@wrathion; text

[blackscales]

It seems we are fated to repeat ourselves, so you are correct: it is indeed a new old year.

[spaghettimonster]

INCREDIBLE, I WAS EVEN MORE CORRECT THAN I GUESSED!!
JUST ANOTHER INSIGHTFUL DAY FOR PAPYRUS.

[...Somehow, that's not as encouraging as usual.]

DO YOU THINK, THIS HAPPENED FOR A REASON?
MAYBE WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING, THAT WE MISSED.
AND NOW WE GET A WHOLE YEAR FOR DO-OVER.

[blackscales]

[ An... interesting concept. ]

Perhaps Father Christmas was disappointed in our behaviour.

[ Doubt.gif -- but there has to be some reason why. Wrathion just doesn't expect it to be anything good, like a second chance at fixing a mistake. ]

[spaghettimonster]

OH NO! BUT I HARDLY MISBEHAVED AT ALL.

[Obviously, Papyrus's contribution would be the most significant one, the one most involved in the decision to reset things to the beginning of the year.]