futurology | APP

[skelepun]

APPLICANT INFO.
NAME: Em
CONTACT: safelybeds
CURRENT CHARACTERS: N/A
ACTIVITY PROOFS: N/A

CHARACTER INFO.
NAME: Sans
CANON: Undertale
AGE: 35. (This is undetermined, but based on canon info I put him around this age.)
APPEARANCE: A short, stocky skeleton monster. That just about sums it up.
CANON POINT: Sans is coming from one of Undertale's Neutral Endings -- specifically, the ending in which Undyne has become Empress of the Underground. In this ending, Sans' brother is dead and he has moved in with Toriel after her banishment to the Ruins. He's been living in this ending around a year, waiting for a reset.

BACKGROUND: wiki link

PERSONALITY:

To understand Sans, it's important to understand the realities of his world. Monsters possess very little physical matter, composed of little more than dust, magic, and an innate will to live. Without the will that magic draws on, the dust cannot hold together. In addition, their "universe" can be likened to a snowglobe -- self contained, but visible and alterable by outside parties. Outside parties meaning, in this case, the player of the "game" they inhabit. The digital code of their game is as important to their continued existence as atomic compounds are to ours. As a result, normal video game actions (such as saving, reloading, and resetting) have real-world implications for the monsters in the Underground. And, to monsters with the scientific understanding to interpret these game mechanics, these implications can be very grave indeed.

In Undertale, Sans is one of the few monsters to possess that understanding.

At first glance, Sans is a charmingly affable skeleton who loves a good bad joke and will do anything to get out of work. And, to be fair, these observations are absolutely true -- it's mining beyond those important (yet surface level) characteristics that can be a bit tricky. In the words of his brother, Sans never tells anyone about anything... Especially not about himself. A master of talking in intentionally obfuscating circles, Sans' priorities are shrouded in fog.

However, a few points are nakedly clear: Sans adores his brother, loves to eat and sleep, and has a real fondness for puns. Beyond that, he has little interest in letting anyone in too close. As the player manipulates the world further in increasingly varied (and destructive) ways, the true nature of Sans's awareness slowly comes to bear.

While his memories are reset along with everyone else's (though the degree to which memories are truly erased is not absolute), Sans is a scientist and attuned to the observation of his world. As a result, he is deeply aware of the constant rewinding and resetting of his universe. Unfortunately, this awareness is not knowledge Sans relishes. The futility of his actions (and even the inevitability of his own death) has plunged Sans into deep nihilistic apathy. His laziness, overeating, and constant sleep are symptoms of the futility of his actions to save his race rather than innate personality traits. In fact, it is implied that Sans was once happy, motivated, and working as a scientist... But that those days are long gone, and Sans has stopped searching for a way to manipulate time and return there.

In his own words, Sans has given up.

However, there are still pieces of Sans's life that give him joy and the motivation to keep going. His brother, of course, but also his desire to keep a promise made to a friend. Sans hates making promises, likely due to his understanding of multiverses and the incredibly slim chance he'll be able to keep it across all of them, but his word is very important to him nonetheless. Even in the face of incredible heartache, he will attempt to keep his promises until he has literally no alternative but to break it.

Sans is a complicated, mysterious figure, disguised as a simple jokester. And while it may take literally the threat of his world's destruction to get him to act, when he does it is with all the will of someone who does not care about the technicalities of living and dying. To him, they are just that -- technicalities.

That ties into yet another important facet of Sans' personality, and one often undercut by the ease of his jokes and ambiguity of his words: Sans has deep respect for sincerity. Sarcasm, cynicism, and their many cousins are characteristics he does not treat lightly. While possessing a few of them himself, they are not sources of frivolity for him. If Sans makes a cutting remark in your direction, even while grinning, you can be sure it is not meant in jest. In his own words, sarcasm isn't funny, and it certainly isn't intended as such on the rare occasion Sans uses it.

Sincerity, hope, optimism -- these are features Sans values, even if he struggles to find them in his own life from time to time. All the most important people in his world exemplify these traits, and Sans bends over backwards to preserve them in these loved ones. Even if it means hiding darker truths at the expense of those same loved one's agency. At day's end, Sans has issues with treating the people he cares about like they can "handle" the realities of their world.

It is perhaps those same issues that cause him to be so secretive about his own experiences in the first place.

ABILITIES:

As a monster, Sans can perform magic (he's made up of the stuff, after all). His in-game stats, however, are comically poor -- 1 ATK 1 DEF. He also possesses only 1 HP, making him (in the flavor texts' words) the easiest enemy in the game. Of course, this assessment winds up being an ironic one.

What Sans lacks in stats, he makes up for in sheer power. He is capable of launching incredibly complex attacks, hitting for one damage 42 times a second -- damage that slowly ticks down until bringing his victim to the brink of death. His attacks take the form of magic bones, much like his brother. However, he also possesses the ability to summon giant animal skulls that fire immense beams of magical energy. This is an attack not replicated by any other monster in the game and has connections to anomalies in the game's code (fitting, as Sans is frequently shown to "cheat" with game code to give himself an advantage both in and outside of battle).

In addition, Sans is able to shift "gravity." He's capable of turning souls "blue," a status effect that literally changes the way gravity and physics interact with the afflicted party. This is an ability he shares with his brother. But, unlike Papyrus, Sans' control of his opponent is much more absolute. Instead of just increasing the pull of gravity downwards onto an opponent, he can alter the pull of gravity itself with a flick of his hand. This enables Sans to not only inhibit his opponents movements, but hold them in place, slam them against walls and ceilings, or put them on the ceiling if he so chose to. In addition to this stronger blue magic, Sans' left eye socket pings with magic light whenever he performs these advanced magical tricks. It is unclear why, but this is another anomaly not observed elsewhere and seems to sync up with intense effort and emotion-fueled magical exertion.

Because of Sans's scientific background and his knowledge of time mechanics, alternate realities, and quantum physics, he has developed many "powers" that go beyond using magic. The most dramatic of these abilities is teleportation, or "shortcuts" as Sans calls them. He is able to transport himself and others to new locations with seemingly little effort (beats walking). However, since his teleportation is a blend of science and magic, his ability to do this will be limited until he becomes accustomed to his new surroundings (and even then, teleporting into places he has never been will be inherently risky).

As for less fantastical skills, Sans holds down upwards of four jobs (enough to pay the rent on a very large house for him and his brother without help) while still managing to accomplish very little work at all. He performs the bare minimum at each to not get fired, though still spends a lot of his time on the job. In the words of his brother Papyrus, Sans's skill in slacking off is simply unparalleled.

He also plays a mean trombone. Good luck getting him to play more than this.

INVENTORY:

• Blue, fur lined hoodie/parka
• Fuzzy slippers
• Basketball shorts
• A small key
• A bottle of ketchup, half drunk
• Car magazine
• An assortment of whoopie cushions, varying sizes.
• A few spare bones

WRITING SAMPLES.
NETWORK SAMPLE: link to network post
LOG SAMPLE:

The words training and center really weren't Sans' favorites. To train meant long, sustained effort in personal betterment -- and there wasn't even one part of that definition he liked. Center was a little more ambiguous. Center of a corndog was just about the best thing ever. Center of a donut? Well, lacking is how he'd describe it.

Put those two fascinating concepts together and all Sans' jokes went right out the window, drowned out by the drag of his heels down the hall. This was the last time he let someone else pick the place they would hang out. And, as Sans arrived to find the room deserted, this was the last time he showed up anywhere early. Talk about blighting a perfectly maintained record of tardiness.

The glowing pads were too numerous, dim, and evenly spaced to cast any deep shadows, but Sans found himself squinting anyway. It really was a pretty incredible machine. More than he could ever attempt, that was for sure. What Alphys would give to look under the hood of this bad boy, he could only imagine. Even the dim coals of his own curiosity were stoked; prodded into lazy action by his imagination's most insistent poker.

Ghosting his carpels across one of the panels, sure enough, a book appeared in front of him. Well, less a book, more a thick spiral bound manual. Lifting it up, Sans didn't bother suppressing a chuckle.

Magitek Schematics: The Training Center. Welp. This place sure had his number.

Hopefully his intended companion -- or whoever else walked in on him first -- had loftier destinations in mind for them.