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This time loop, it’s spinach. Last time loop, it was green tea.
Frisk asks for spinach every meal, saying how they read somewhere that it’s supposed to be good for you, and of course in their present circumstances Toriel would do anything to get it to them as often as they want. When Sans comes over to check out the situation himself, their fridge has more spinach than he’s ever seen in one place.
Spinach isn’t his favorite, but he can’t blame Frisk for trying.
They’ve already exhausted green tea, chicken soup, eggs, coconuts, three kinds of potatoes, sunflower seeds, and at least twenty other foods since they’ve been on this plan.
Besides switching up foods, they switch up who they talk to. Can Alphys come over? Can Papyrus come over? This loop they start with Sans.
It’s easier to talk to them at the start.
“Hey, kiddo.” Frisk isn’t precisely a kiddo any longer but, details. “How’s it going?”
Frisk lifts their head from their pillow. “I’m okay. You can sit down if you want.”
There’s a chair pulled up to Frisk’s bedside for convenience. Sans remembers that Undyne suplexed it in frustration once, but it’s whole right now, so he has a seat.
“How’s Plan Spinach working out for you?” he asks.
“Don’t know. When it comes to eating spinach, I’m still pretty green.” Frisk cracks a smile, and Sans chuckles. “Was that a good one?”
“Not bad. Guess you can’t be too sick if you’re still making puns like that.”
A Frisk that can joke around is one who’s still relatively healthy. A Frisk who’s only barely able to make conversation, who can’t focus on what Sans is saying and doesn’t laugh at any of his jokes…
...is one that’s about to reset the timeline.
It’s easier to think of it in those words, but not by much.
“What number loop is this? Lost track a while ago, back when you were eating sunflower seeds,” he says. Frisk doesn’t look at all surprised.
“I’m not counting anymore,” they say. “If I do it’s too depressing, and there’s a mental part to sickness. I read that once.”
“Got a point there. So you’re just gonna try every food there is ‘til you can’t think of anymore?” he asks.
Frisk is silent for a few moments. “I don’t want to die.”
Sans knows that. He doesn’t blame them for it either. It’s only that them not wanting to die has stuck everyone else in a constant repeat of the same few weeks, over and over again until Frisk finally finds a way to heal.
It’s exhausting for him, but every time a new loop starts, he thinks about Papyrus’s face if Frisk ever stopped resetting, if Frisk stopped using their power to save.
Or, in one of his more honest moments, about what his own response would be.
If you had just gone through without caring about anyone… You wouldn’t have to feel bad now.
He ruffles Frisk’s hair lightly. “Get well soon, kid.”