That's a fair point of confusion; even if Papyrus did recognize Julien, he would probably pretend not to. Or, tried to, with a few too pertinent slips of comments about the fight. But even in the best of times, he isn't great at recognizing faces, or remembering the names that go with those faces... And with his eagerness to put the whole matter behind them, he made a point of not looking closely at who had been killed. Who he had helped kill.

As is, his interest and optimism are pretty sincere, and he skips around to prod at the hole with a foot.

"Oh, right, because the ground's frozen... I can do that! I'm physically fit," Papyrus brags, glancing at the signs of weakness and illness Julien's indicating. "And, experienced to boot. Building puzzles takes a little bit of excavation, and construction."