An explanation
Ludo strutted confidently into the Gambino family’s main headquarters and made his way to the library of the large estate where he knew Big Sam, the boss, was most likely sitting in his arm chair, sipping on a brandy while reading his copy of the Beautiful and the Dammed for the umpteenth goddamn time in a row. Ludo suppressed a sneer at how predictable the boss was becoming in his old age. As Ludo entered into the library he found that his prediction had been mostly correct, except for one detail. The boss appeared to have some company with him and some very interesting company at that.
Ludo paused briefly in surprise once he had locked eyes with the monster that was sitting in the arm chair directly across from Big Sam. When he was finished sweeping his gaze suspiciously over the tall unnamed monster Ludo thought it was time to announce his presence to the boss.
“Hey Sam.” Ludo called, gaining the plump grey haired middle aged man’s attention. “Who’s your new friend?” He asked with a concocted grin. He knew he had to play nice in front of the boss, even though the monster sitting across the room was starting to give him the hibby jibbies.
“Ah, Ludo I was expecting you a tad earlier.” Big Sam responded as he hoisted himself up from his arm chair and proceeded to make his way over to greet him. “Brandy?” He offered, and Ludo shook his head as he declined politely.
“I trust that you’re here about what happened with Alico?” Big Sam asked and Ludo nodded, not taking his eyes off the stranger in the shadows, who remained seated, sipping his own glass of brandy silently.
“Good.” Big Sam said. “Then I won’t have to explain it to you.” Sam then turned and sauntered back to his chair, retaking his seat with a grunt. Ludo followed behind him but remained standing as he continued to stare at the monster across from them.
“Ludo, I would like you to meet my new consigliere.” Big Sam said gesturing to the seated monster. Ludo’s eyes widened in shock, as he snapped his head back to his boss.
“You hired a monster?!” He asked, forgetting to hide his distaste. Big Sam raised an eyebrow at him in response and Ludo quickly remembered his placed and stifled his anger.
“Yes I did.” Big Sam replied sternly, holding his gaze firmly over Ludo. “I figured if the other team, was going to start fielding people from our side of town then I may as well play by the same rules.” Big Sam continued. “Besides, Doctor W.D Gaster here says he has the perfect solution to our little monster problem.” Ludo cocked an eyebrow as he turned his gaze back to the monster who was now rising from his seat.
“Pleased to make your acquaintance Ludo.” Gaster rasped as he extended a skeletal hand toward him. Ludo almost shuddered at the ghostly white face of the man, with his peering large black eye sockets and creepy thin smile. Ludo shoved the feeling down as he fashioned a slick grin on his own face and grasped Dr. Gaster’s hand firmly.
“A solution hu?” Ludo snickered. “ Well then W.D. I guess you’re just the man I wanted to see.”
Frisk shifted uncomfortably on the couch as she began to regain consciousness. She hissed in pain as she felt a splitting headache pound behind her eyes. Her throat was raw, and he her lips were chapped. Her dry mouth tasted like sand and bile. Frisk groaned as she tried to remember what happened as she pulled herself into a wobbly sitting position on the sofa. She still felt extremely weak and her vision was still slightly blurry. Frisk rubbed her eyes before the previous events started to come back to her. She remembered the monster candy and the awful, awful memories and emotions that had filled her head. Just thinking about them was enough to send her through another dizzy spell. She remembered vomiting, a lot, as she could still taste it in the back of her throat, and then….Sans. Frisk quickly snapped her head to her side as she remembered the angry skeleton brother and his deadly glare. She froze as she found him sitting and watching her from a chair only a few feet away.
“Glad to see you’re finally awake.” He said his tone still filled with crossness. Frisk stiffened and curled herself up under the blankets as she pressed herself into the back of the couch, as far away from Sans as she could get. Sans just continued to stare at her unimpressed. He then passed over a glass of water and held it out for Frisk to take. Frisk stared at the glass hesitantly, the gesture seamed kind enough, but the irritation radiating off of the shorter brother made Frisk want to reconsider excepting his offer. Soon enough however, Frisk gradually accepted the water as her throat was parched and she really wanted to wash the taste of bile out of her mouth. Sans let her guzzle the water greedily for a moment before he spoke again.
“Kid, I think you and me have to have a little chat.” He said flatly, and Frisk felt her heart rate start to speed up, but she supposed that she couldn’t avoid this conversation, and if she was honest with herself she also had some questions that she needed answers to.
“I’m only gonna ask you this once pal, and I’m gonna let you know right now that I am not in the mood for any of your games, so don’t even think about trying anything crafty.” Sans warned fixing her with a serious glare. Frisk winced as she realized that Sans must have noticed her eyeing the window of the living room. It was only a few feet away, but Frisk didn’t think she wanted to chance it. She was sure Sans would catch her before she had even made it a single step forward, and by the look that he was giving her, she knew that if she did try she really wasn’t gonna like what happened next.
“Where did you get that candy from?” Sans demanded, holding Frisk firm with dark eye sockets. Frisk swallowed thickly as she tried to will her lips to formulate some kind of answer.
“I found it.” Was all she managed to stutter out. Sans just fixed her with a very unimpressed look.
“ I thought said I wasn't in the mood for games kid.” He repeated . “Now I’m gonna let you try that again.” Frisk willed her heart to calm down as she took a deep breath and prepared to answer Sans question.
“I wasn’t playing any game.” Frisk retorted. “I found it in the back of the Buick, after Papyrus made that pick up at Muffet’s. I thought it was just a regular candy that he bought from the bakery.” She replied, trying her best to counter Sans sinister stare. Sans just sat still and silent from the chair across the living room hands folded under his chin, dark sockets still trained intently on Frisk.
“You really expect me to buy that pal?” He asked darkly. Frisk furrowed her eyebrows as she felt a swell of frustration form in her chest. She was getting really tired of Sans constant suspicion. She hadn’t even done anything wrong, at least not intentionally.
“It’s the truth!” She replied with a determined glare. Sans continued to stare her down but Frisk refused to break. After a few moments, Sans let out a tried sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nasal cavity between his phalanges.
“Are you a toddler or something? You just stick whatever you get your hands on in your mouth?” He suddenly asked her with an irritated huff. Frisk was taken aback, and frankly insulted by his comment.
“I thought that it was infused with magic!” She retorted. “I thought that it might help me …” She said her voice trailing off.
“Help you what?” Sans asked, raising a brow bone at her.
“I don’t know!” Frisk shot back. “I just wanted something to help calm me down, so I could think straight.” She replied. “I ran in to someone today. They told me some unsettling news.”
“What news?” Sans questioned. Frisk was quite for a moment as she stubbornly averted her gaze from Sans. She didn’t want to tell him. She was angry at him for lecturing her like this, like she was a child, but she knew that she had to. She needed help.
“He told me that the work that I am doing for the Pansies is getting attention, a lot of attention. People are looking for me.” She said as she curled herself up tighter. Sans was silent for a moment as he took in her clearly fearful state.
“So you thought the candy would help with your nerves?” He asked. Frisk nodded.
“I thought that it would have an effect like the drink that you got for me from Grillbys, not like ….whatever that was.” She finished, a shudder running down her spine at the memory of the nasty experience.
Sans grumbled to himself as he got up out of the chair, and headed to the kitchen. He didn’t know what to think at this point, and now he had a very tough decision to make. Either he did his job, and reported this incident to Asgore, which would surly land the kid in some serious hot water, or he didn’t, which would by definition make him a traitor.
If the kid was telling the truth then it really was all a misunderstanding, and if she wasn’t well, Sans didn’t really want to think that way. He wanted to believe Frisk. He knew she was a good kid, and he knew that if he went to Asgore, very serious measures would be taken against her, possibly even deadly ones. Sans grabbed a bottle of ketchup from the door of the fridge and squirted half of its contents into his mouth in an effort to quell his frustration.
Of course something like this would happen! The universe just couldn’t give him a god damn break could it? Sans found himself thinking that someone better be having a good fucking laugh up there, because obviously somebody was playing one hell of a joke at his expense, Ha bloody Ha! Sans slammed the door in his anger and immediately regretted the action when he saw Frisk flinch in fear on the couch. He just couldn’t get anything right today, could he? He took a moment to stifle the worst of his rage as he walked back over to the couch. He sat in silence seething, as he tried to figure out what to do.
“Sans ?” Frisk asked cautiously from her protective position on the couch. Sans nodded in response.
“That candy …” Frisk began her voice sounding small and fragile all of a sudden “It – it wasn’t made from a human was it ?” She asked, and Sans felt the guilt take hold of him and completely dowse the flame of his rage. He looked up at Frisk and saw that she was actually trembling slightly in fear. He realized that the experience had really scared her, and of course it would! She had literally just eaten a soul candy! What did he expect her to feel, happy? Sans exhaled loudly as the guilt continued to overtake him. He knew he shouldn’t tell her, but he also knew that she had a right to know what had happened to her.
“Ya kiddo.” He replied sadly. “It was.” He saw Frisk go visibly pale as she swayed a bit. For a moment, he became very worried as he thought she was going to pass out again. Thankfully, to his relief the kid managed to stay conscious. She was quite for a while as she processed the information.
“Was that a human soul?” She asked and Sans felt himself grimace at her question.
“It’s a bit more complicated than that.” He said. “But basically, yes.”
“Complicated how?” Frisk asked, her voice growing steadier as her conviction to know the truth strengthened. Sans rubbed the back of his neck, not sure if he should answer her.
“Look kid.” He began. “I don’t really know if it is such a good idea to be telling you this. It’s bad enough that you even found out about soul candies.”
“Sans what happened to me?” Frisk demanded, her voice breaking slightly in fear, and Sans couldn’t, he just couldn’t take it. The kid looked terrified. Her eyes were watery, and he noticed her bottom lip quivering slightly. He realized that she was on the verge of a breakdown. Something inside of him snapped. He knew he wouldn’t be able to handle it if she started crying and He begrudgingly decided to tell her the truth, hoping silently that he wouldn’t end up regretting this decision in the near future.
“I’m guessing you know all the scary stories that humans like to tell about us monsters.” Sans began “About how we can steal a human’s soul?” Frisk nodded, and Sans noticed her trembling worsen slightly.
“Well, what they don’t tell you in those stories is that even though that soul might give a monster a lot of power, it also comes at a very steep cost.” Sans continued. “If a monster absorbs a human soul then they meld with another metaphysical being, and when that happens they lose themselves. It be like something similar to what you just experienced.” Sans explained, as Frisk face contorted at the memory.
“It’s also a process that can’t be undone.” He continued. “Not a lot of monsters would be willing to live in that state of mind for the rest of their lives, even if it meant all that power. In fact, most would rather die.” Frisk stiffened at Sans fierce tone.
“And see kid, that was the problem. Monsters were dying, a lot of monsters, in the shootouts and fighting between the gangs of Ebbot.” He said.
“So we came up with a solution.” Sans explained. “We found out that by extracting the essence of a human soul, and condensing it and only administering it in small doses, we could create a similar short term effect that would provide a monster with a boost of power, similar to the power that a monster would achieve by absorbing a real human soul, only it wouldn’t be permanent.” He said.
“The substance that we extracted from the soul we named determination, as we found that it was the main power source, the driving force that made human soles so powerful and resilient; But this substance was also very dangerous.” Sans continued. “Monster bodies aren’t strong enough to withstand high amounts of determination, we found that out the hard way.” He said his voice going sad and quite.
“Why make them into candies?” Frisk asked very confused.
“that was an interesting discovery we made.” Sans answered. “We found that the slow release of the determination when the sugar coating melted away was actually quite effective when introducing the substance to its user. It provided a little bit less of a shock to the body, and it helped with the bad aftertaste of the soul.” Frisk’s brows wrinkled as she tried to understand the concept of a physical soul as it was something very new to her.
“So that’s how the soul candy came to be.” Sans said with a shrug. “Everyone in the Pansies is issued them, though it’s their choice if they want to use it or not, and only in emergency situations. They contain just enough determination for a monster to hold enough power to be able to get themselves out of a jamb, without permanent damage or consequence.” Sans concluded. Frisk frowned, as she still had one last question, One that she was slightly afraid to know the answer to.
“Where do you get the souls from?” She asked, and Sans found himself struggling to come up with an answer. Frisk felt a surge of anger suddenly take hold of her. She knew that the Pansies were a gang. She knew they were a criminal organization. She knew that most of the monsters that she had come to consider friends had even probably taken human life, and she had come to accept all of this, but to take a human soul? To take the culmination of someone’s entire being? Their hopes, and fears, and dreams, everything that they were and turn it into some cheap candy? That crossed a line.
“So do you just take them from people off the street? Or is it like some sick contest to see how many you can collect from rival gangs?” Frisk spat. “Is there a tally system somewhere? Do you guys place bets on it?” She said, absolutely furious. Sans shot his head up in surprise at her sudden rage.
“What? Frisk no, it’s nothing like that!” Sans said in defense.
“Then what’s it like?” Frisk shot back. “Please enlighten me on the methods you use to steal a person’s soul!”
“Look kid.” Sans growled. “We may be criminals, but even we know the value of a soul. We do have a moral code.” Frisk just narrowed her eyes, not backing down from her accusations. Sans sighed.
“We only take a soul if it is absolutely rotten to the core.” Sans continued, and Frisk rolled her eyes at him and scoffed.
“And how do you judge that?” She sneered. “How do you judge if someone’s soul is rotten enough for you to take it away?”
“We can see them.” Sans answered, and Frisk was silent for a moment in surprise.
“You can see them?” She repeated and Sans nodded.
“I know it’s a strange concept for humans, but monsters can draw out a person’s soul and they can see everything that makes up who and what that person is. It’s how we judge them.” He continued.
Frisk averted her gaze, now unsure where she stood on the matter. She knew that the soul that she had gotten a taste of was definitely not from a good person. It was actually from a rather terrible person in fact, but did that mean that they deserved to have it taken away? Their life was one thing and Frisk knew that every mobster gambled with that at their own risk, but their soul?
“Look pal I don’t expect you to be on bored with all of this, you really weren’t even supposed to find out about soul candies.” Sans continued. “But as bad as the taste that they leave behind in your mouth, they have saved a lot of good monsters lives. It’s a tradeoff that we are willing to make.” Frisk frowned and continued to stare at the floor.
She was right to be worried about asking that question as she found that she really didn’t want to know the answer. She didn’t want to know any of this! What had she gotten herself into? She shouldn’t have been so greedy, she knew that the deal that Asgore offered was too good to be true, and now she was about to really be paying for it, either by the monsters hands, or by the other human gangs of Ebbot when they found out who she was and who she was working for.
“This was all a mistake.” Frisk said quietly, still refusing to look at Sans. “I should have never taken this deal. I have to get out of here.” She said as she suddenly felt the very strong urge to flee. She could do it. She could leave. She could run away, go a few towns over, start again from scratch, and leave all of this miserable business behind her.
“I don’t think that would be a very smart move pal.” Sans drawled, breaking Frisk away from her train of thought. “You made a contract with us remember?” He said, fixing her with a lazy pinprick.
“If you leave before your agreed time is up, Asgore will send someone after you. Heh, and with your luck he will probably be sending me.” Sans said a tone of warning very evident in his voice. Frisk shivered as she remembered the last time she had tried to run from Sans, back when they had first met. It had not gone very well for her. Frisk now realized how trapped she really was.
“I’ll talk to Asgore tomorrow about your problem with the other gangs.” Sans suddenly said, breaking the heavy silence. “See if I can’t get him to lighten your load for a little while, until things calm down.” Sans then got off his chair. He paused for a moment to look back over his shoulder at Frisk.
“I’m guessing that I don’t need to tell you to keep this little incident a secret?” He questioned raising a brow bone at her. Frisk just nodded curtly. He remained still for a few seconds more, before giving up on his attempts to get so much as a word out of her. He then turned back to continue to his room.
“Thank you.” Frisk suddenly said, and Sans snapped his head back in her direction. He was surprised to see that she was actually looking at him now, albeit her gaze was far from happy. He just stared back at her in slight confusion.
“Thank you for deciding not to tell Asgore about this.” She clarified. “I’m guessing that I would be in a lot of trouble if he knew.” Sans chuckled softly.
“Ya, you and me both kid.” He said as he turned and headed into his room for hopefully at least a few hours of undisturbed rest before Papyrus came home. However, after the events that had transpired today Sans didn’t think that he was going to be so lucky.