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"This is, uh. It's Jay. Leave a message, and I'll try to get back to you."

[voice/text/video/action/anything]

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From:

burntvideocassette

[It was a relief, Sans says, like maybe this one time, Jay managed to do something right. He actually helped Sans feel a little better. Jay's not an emotional guy--he doesn't think he's an emotional guy--but that's a strange relief to hear.]

[But then he makes a request. He asks Jay not to tell anyone about the doctor--]

[The doctor? No, no, wait. It rings a bell. The experiment, and the doctor he mentioned. He mentioned an experiment, something about an experiment, something that went wrong, but it's--]

[No.]

[It's there. He knows it's there, but it's fragmented, like the memories won't connect up the way they're supposed to. Remembering one thing doesn't lead to the rest, and trying just sends a twinge of pain up the back of his neck. This isn't familiar. This isn't trying to think back to how he got here and coming up blank. It's like that time he yanked the SD card out while the camera was still running. It's like the times he had to piece together footage when the tapes were sun-damaged and caked with dirt.]

[It's like the memory's corrupted.]

[The information itself can hurt people, he says, and Jay's already starting to understand how. The decay hasn't spread beyond that one memory, not that he's noticed, but the idea that it could terrifies him.]

[What's even worse, though, is the idea he could forget it ever happened. There's this thing--this threat out there, whatever it is--and it could hurt more people, and if Jay lets himself forget, then he won't be able to do a thing about it. If he knows about it, then he can help. If people know, they can protect themselves.]

[After this conversation's over, he's winding back the tape.]

[His head's fucked enough already, right? If somebody else has to remember this, it might as well be him.]

[He's not going to let it infect Tim, though. He's not stupid. But he's not going to just let it "slip out of his head", either.]

[Finally, Jay sighs, lifting the phone again.]

Look, I get--I get why I shouldn't talk about it. I can feel--I mean, I get it.

But the thing with Tim is... [Jay runs a shaking hand through his hair, knocking the hat off his head.] Look, we've got kind of a history with hiding stuff from each other.

[His voice dips lower.] 'F you hadn't guessed that already.

[He continues, more sincere.] And I guess we're trying to make that...not happen so much. And I dunno, but if it were me, and I found out Tim knew about something this--this dangerous, I guess, and he didn't even, like...hint at it, I'd probably get kinda pissed off. 'Cause if I knew there was something, I'd know to be careful.

So--so I'm not asking to tell Tim...this. Because yeah, if he knows about it, it's probably gonna do to him the same thing it's doing to me.

[And there he goes, admitting it. Admitting this stuff got to him. He's not like Tim--not exactly, anyway--but sure. It got to him.]

Or worse, I guess.

But...look. If I tell him there's something he can't know, 'cause it's dangerous, I don't...like, he's not really the kind of guy to take that as an invitation. So, is it safe for me to say that much? To--to Tim, at least, not just anybody off the street.

From:

punful

[He can practically hear the gears in Jay's head turning from here. He wonders again if maybe he shouldn't have said anything at all. But then Jay would probably start feeling the memory start to fragment and dissipate and freak out, maybe assume that it had more to do with his own world's...issues, rather than Sans's. The guy doesn't need yet another thing to be paranoid about.]

[He answers eventually, and Sans stays quiet. Jay makes a good point. A very good point. Sans knows he's probably being overly cautious, since neither Tim nor Jay are from his world. There isn't the same context, the same problem of coming up against some horrific reality about how your world actually functions.]

[People have said before, right to Sans's face, that his world sounds like some kind of game. It's a thousand times easier to think that someone else's world might just be some kind of...fiction, than it is to think about your own. Sans can think about it these days without losing his freaking mind, at least, but that doesn't mean he likes it. Or ever does it willingly.]

[He just can't help but remember what both Chara and Frisk ended up doing with the information that an entire person can be excised, albeit imperfectly, from the universe. And he can't help but remember begging Tim not to go in the woods, before everything went so utterly wrong.]

[Jay even admits that it's already affecting him.]

i...

[He gives a very heavy, very tired sigh.]

i get it. i do. keeping secrets is... i'm trying to break that habit myself. and you're right. tim...understands this sorta thing. how knowledge itself can be--dangerous. and the fact that neither of you are from my world works to your benefit. shouldn't affect you nearly as bad.

so...it's probably safe to tell him that much. 'sides, if it ever came out some other way, i wouldn't want him to think it was connected to--your world's stuff. i saw how spooked you got. knowing about this stuff isn't gonna summon anything, not like that. it just--starts to get hazy, starts to slip out, and it makes folk wanna dig deeper. and trying to wrap your head around something that doesn't exist and never did? it's impossible. you can drive yourself crazy just trying.

[He remembers whole years where he felt like he was losing his mind just trying to hold onto the shreds of what he knew.]

as long as you don't try to dig into it. and just--don't tell him that a person can just be...erased like that. okay?

[The world functions perfectly without you. Haha. The thought terrifies me.]

just be careful. please.

From:

burntvideocassette

Wh--?

[He very nearly asks why Tim shouldn't know that detail. At first, he cuts himself off because, yeah, it's probably one of those things that gets corrupted, so Tim shouldn't know it. It'll mess his head up the same way it did Jay's.]

[Then, the other implication sets in.]

Yeah. Yeah, I'll be...I'll be careful.

[He won't give Tim the details. That's for him to remember.]

[For him to remember.]

[Remember what?]

[Goddamnit. He'll watch the footage again later.]

Thanks. Really, thanks. I'm not used to...being on this side of things, I guess.

[Sure, he's kept secrets before, but those were temporary. This is different.]

From:

punful

[He can hear it when it clicks in Jay's mind. He knows too. If he doesn't remember the rest of it, he'll remember that much, at least.]

yeah. and...you, too. i appreciate the discretion.

[He can't help a quiet, relieved sigh. It seems like things have gone better than he expected, for once.]

From:

burntvideocassette

[Jay nods, before realizing the communicator won't pick it up.]

Yeah.

[If you asked Tim (or the viewers), discretion isn't exactly his strong suit. But this time, he's got enough evidence to know this stuff is dangerous. This is different. He's the one with the information, not the one desperately trying to pry it out of other people.]

[He's still curious. He still wants to know how this happened, even though the majority of the evidence points to Sans's bullshit being pretty far removed from his and Tim's.]

[But now's not the right time to ask.]

You ever manage to get that nap?