forbarrayar | Application

[skelepun]

OOC
Name: Em
Preferred pronouns: She/her
Over 16?: y
Contact: safelybeds
Time zone: PST

IC
Type: CRAU (from post-savrou, so pretty much the same, i just get to skip some of the brother angst)
Name: Sans
Canon: Undertale
Canon point: lol what are canon points in undertale
Age: older than your aunt probably?

Appearance:


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.

Background/AU details: wiki

Sans is a CRAU from thisavrou, a space exploration game. During his time there, he broke slightly from his apathy, only to slide right back into it again near the end. Most of his personality is the same, though he is more detached from his home culture than he is in canon due to being separated from it for so long. It's still critically important to him, but he is able to deal with the practicalities of distance for all he does not like it.

In the end of his time at Sav, he made a choice to leave the ship with a small crew and look for alternatives to get home elsewhere, as he would very much like to get home to his family and people. It's an act of protactiveness that is rare for him and difficult to maintain, but that will be a goal he carries through into FB.

In addition, he's developed further interest in wormhole and timespace technology (already an interest of his, but furthered by seeing tech along these lines in savrou).

Strengths & weaknesses:

+ Laid back/not easily ruffled/easy to get along with
+ He's got Jokes™
+ Kinda hilariously smart, but it's kinda hilariously a secret. Was a scientist once upon a time.
+ A pretty kind dude, all things considered. Good with kids.
+ A very keen talent for reading others/his surroundings. Very observant dude. Comes with the science territory.
+ Great memory.
+ Patient aka bides his time
+ Manipulative (he's super good at it)
+ Super good at naps.
+ Makes friends easily. Makes a point to get to know everyone.
+ Hell of a poker face.

- Incredibly closed off. Like, buddy. You've got no idea.
- Apathetic like you wouldn't believe.
- Poor health. This is an extension of his life as a monster, where his constitution was comically poor. As a "human" this physical weakness manifests as chronic illness.
- Messy af
- Thinks he knows better than most people, and will act on those thoughts without asking your permission.
- Dude lies a lot.
- Spends all his time in bars, whatever that tells you. Sure is gonna be fun having a liver.
- Some sliiiight beef with humanity. Of course, he'd be plenty nice to your faces.
- Smells bad, probably.

Depowering/humanization:

Sans is a skeleton and, more accurately, he is a monster. As a monster, he has no "DNA" or much of any physical matter. His body is literally made of dust and magic, in a similar proportion as water in humans. Because monsters are "made of magic," they express themselves with that magic. They can defend themselves, mess around, and generally have a wide breadth of uses for their magical energy. It is literally as natural as breathing to them. Sans is a very powerful magical being. Despite his nonthreatening appearance, he's extremely lethal (even if he almost never bothers to act as such).

To better integrate into forbarrayar, his body will be reanimated as a human one so he has DNA. Likewise, without a monster body's inherent magic, he will no longer have access to his powers. In his new body, he will be functionally human, but there will be some noted issues with his health to reflect both being in the "wrong body" and the fact that Sans' health in his normal body is also very poor. Some of his health issues include arthritis, osteoporosis, respiratory issues, and a really cruddy immune system. Dude's gonna be sick, like, all the time.

In addition to his health issues, there are a few other physical earmarks of his otherness. His eyes are black with white pupils and despite his plump physique, his bones are often strangely visible in unnatural ways.

Sans also has a few unique powers, such as teleportation. His teleportation powers are a combination of magic and complex math. The magic will obviously be off the table, but the mathematical understanding that allowed him to comprehend teleportation is still present in him. He just will not have the means to "power" that ability at present.

Placement preference: Let's start in Ceta, why not. But I'm good with anything.
Character goals:

• DO SOME SCIENCE
• QUESTION SOME HUMAN MORALITY
• CAST HYPOCRITICAL JUDGMENTS ON ERRYONE, BUT PLAY IT OFF AS A JOKE
• LOTS OF SCIENCE
• MAYBE DEFECT AT SOME POINT, BUT THAT WOULD REQUIRE HIM THINKING EITHER SIDE WAS NOT SHITTY. MAYBE START UP HIS OWN THING? IDK MAN

Sample: boop