Backstory, backstory
Apr. 5th, 2016 08:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sansational At least for the version of Sans currently inhabiting ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
castle_perrault .
-Gaster is his older brother, Papyrus is the youngest. Sans doesn't really remember his parents. But it's hard enough for monsters to have children in the Underground. For them to have three was a minor miracle. Even then, all three had something a little bit wrong with them. This manifested especially in particularly pronounced "fonts" that, for Gaster, prevented him from even being understood by most other monsters. He quickly had to learn to communicate through sign language. Sans, meanwhile, was always a bit sickly and easily exhausted, but had more than 1 HP even back then. Papyrus was probably the most normal of the three of them.
-The strain of giving birth to a third child soon meant that both of Sans' parents fell down when he was still pretty young. Sans didn't really know how to deal with it. Gaster was busy with too many other things involved with suddenly finding himself solely responsible for the care of both brothers. So in the end, neither of them really dealt with the loss at all. As a result, Sans kind of just wound up pouring all his excess time and energy into the infant Papyrus. To him, if he had to lose his parents to gain his baby brother, then this was a fair trade. It had to be.
-He genuinely doesn't blame Papyrus for their deaths, though. The very idea that he might would appall Sans.
-Gaster wound up taking care of Sans and Papyrus for several years, running himself ragged trying to bring in enough work and enough money to keep them all fed. This left Sans at home quite often to keep the house in order, and especially to look after his brother. Ultimately, he became pretty good at it for still being fairly young himself. Sans tried to give to Papyrus everything he wished he could have for himself in a home.
-Gaster developed the plans for the CORE in secret, before finally submitting them to Asgore. The designs were enough to earn him the previously vacant position of Royal Scientist, and access to the personnel and resources he would need to see it to completion.
-Once the CORE was complete and operational, life got a little easier for everyone from there, even if Sans and Papyrus saw him less frequently than ever. Sans always tried to reassure Papyrus that this didn't mean his oldest brother didn't care, that in fact he cared a very great deal to work so hard for their sake. But Sans also started to take a small bit of pride in the fact that one thing he could do was always be there to tuck Papyrus in at night.
-Even so, upon growing a little older, and with a little more time for his own studies, Sans was able to prove himself worthy to join the Royal Lab alongside Gaster. The fact that he could translate directly between his brother's speech and that of other monsters was a plus.
-Papyrus really had no interest in joining the lab or pursuing a scientific career. He was certainly bright enough, but didn't want to walk a path that already demanded so much of his brother's time and attention. He already felt overshadowed by them at some times, or as though he was a burden to them at others. Before meeting Undyne, he never quite settled on what he wanted to do instead. Sans never had anything but utter confidence that Papyrus would be great at whatever he set out to do, though, and was never shy about expressing it.
-Sans always tried to make it a point to be home in time for dinner with Papyrus and to get him safely to bed. This was important to him, and yet often left him feeling as though he was split between two lives, with not enough time left to devote to either of his most important people. Occasional but pointed arguments with Gaster about leaving before work was done didn't help matters. For a while, he simply tried to content himself with the idea of being an ordinary guy who would work hard to support his two extraordinary siblings. In light of their energy and drive, Sans often felt himself overshadowed. Rather than blame either of the two of them, he grew to blame himself for not being a better or stronger person.
-Eventually, Gaster discovered the first signs of the anomaly's eventual effects on the timelines. Sans, as his immediate lab assistant, was the first to learn of this discovery. Together, the two of them put their heads together to try and work out a possible way to fight back. In the end, they decided to try and harness determination for the use of monsters, instead.
-That still eventually left the matter of a test subject. Sans volunteered himself, Gaster was hesitant, for obvious reasons, but Sans managed to persuade him that since they worked so well together anyway, since their souls were so similar, he would be the most efficient choice. He insisted that Gaster was a good enough scientist that, together, they could make sure nothing went wrong. At heart, however, Sans was consumed with the belief that here was his chance to do something meaningful, to do the sort of good for the Underground that Gaster had done and that Papyrus surely would do. Weak and ordinary as he otherwise was, taking this power for himself might let him keep his brothers safe against the terrifying threat the anomaly presented.
-Gaster had his doubts about Sans' motivations even then, but never quite figured out a way to express them. Either way, especially so as to avoid causing a panic thorughout the Underground, he eventually agreed and the tests and modifications proceeded.
-No one but Sans remembers when the DT extraction machine was actually the DT injection machine, the culmination of their work. It injected him with their own approximation of that uniquely human force, distilled from research into the human souls that Asgore had already managed to gather. The process left Sans with 1 HP, but also his powers over time and space on top of the innate blue magic he had as a skeleton. Sans was overjoyed at the project's apparent success. Gaster had his doubts, but they weren't bad enough to prevent him for letting Sans go home as usual that day, despite Gaster's wishes that a proper medical team take a look at him.
-For a while, everything seemed to be okay. Sans enjoyed experimenting with his new powers, Gaster continued his studies into the anomaly. He even started to theorize that being left with 1 HP was a natural or even expected outcome, that perhaps a life of constant risk was necessary to manifest determination. Papyrus was unaware of what had been going on at the lab, but certainly appreciated Sans' high spirits.
-A few days later, however, Sans fell ill, and then appeared to fall down. The argument that resulted between Papyrus and Gaster was one that would never get the chance to be fully resolved. On some subconscious level, Papyrus remembers as much, and it did a lot to contribute to his naturally forgiving nature. The one time he refused to forgive someone was the one time that he never got the chance to change his mind.
-Unlike most monsters who fell down, Sans did eventually wake up. Unfortunately, it immediately preceded his transformation into an enormous, borderline-feral monster, something like a skeletal dragon. He caused a fair bit of property damage to Hotland, and some injuries among the Royal Guards who arrived to stop him, but the nature of his attacks meant that there were no fatalities. Even so, to this day, Sans has only hazy memories of that time.
-Gaster managed to get Sans returned to the lab, where he kept him sedated and largely in stasis while he worked to reverse the transformation. Eventually, he realized that their experiments had worked too well. Sans' power had overloaded his body. Since so much of a monster's form is determined by its soul, Sans' had forced his physical form to transform to accommodate the excess magic. Diminishing or limiting his power, therefore, proved to be the answer to changing him back.
-Eventually, Gaster was able to properly confirm that Sans' power manifested itself along with a particularly strong glow in his eyelights, and that it wasn't just an oddity of the "blaster" form. A skeleton's eyelights are strongly linked to their soul, and so Gaster removed one of his own to replace one of Sans', cutting the strength of that connection in half. As a result, he lost the ability to manifest his time powers as strongly.
-Sans finally changed back and regained consciousness. Even after he fully recovered, there was never any question about him returning to the lab. Gaster fired him in an attempt to make certain Sans stayed home and safe, where Papyrus could help him recover more fully. Meanwhile, Gaster redoubled his efforts to investigate the anomaly alone.
-Rationally, Sans was always aware that Gaster meant well by this, but he was also always hurt about being shut out of the one consistent connection to his older brother that he'd managed to hold on to for all these years.
-They never had the chance to talk about that much, however, because it was just a couple of weeks later that the accident happened that left Gaster scattered across time and space. Only Sans, with what remained of his own innate force of determination, was able to remember that his brother had ever existed at all. And only Sans, who still carried a piece of Gaster's soul inside his skull, was able to avoid being erased by all of space-time as a penalty for that knowledge.
-Papyrus has a dim sense of loss, but his memories were fairly well scrambled. He remembered Sans' injuries as stemming from the lab accident itself, remembers all the other lost scientists as having been Sans' friends who'd died that day. As a result, he never raised a fuss when Sans moved them to Snowdin, as far away from Hotland as the Underground would allow. Gaster had left them a great deal of money, and since everyone could still at least remember Sans' time in the lab, no one ever questioned his right to it.
castle_perrault .-Gaster is his older brother, Papyrus is the youngest. Sans doesn't really remember his parents. But it's hard enough for monsters to have children in the Underground. For them to have three was a minor miracle. Even then, all three had something a little bit wrong with them. This manifested especially in particularly pronounced "fonts" that, for Gaster, prevented him from even being understood by most other monsters. He quickly had to learn to communicate through sign language. Sans, meanwhile, was always a bit sickly and easily exhausted, but had more than 1 HP even back then. Papyrus was probably the most normal of the three of them.
-The strain of giving birth to a third child soon meant that both of Sans' parents fell down when he was still pretty young. Sans didn't really know how to deal with it. Gaster was busy with too many other things involved with suddenly finding himself solely responsible for the care of both brothers. So in the end, neither of them really dealt with the loss at all. As a result, Sans kind of just wound up pouring all his excess time and energy into the infant Papyrus. To him, if he had to lose his parents to gain his baby brother, then this was a fair trade. It had to be.
-He genuinely doesn't blame Papyrus for their deaths, though. The very idea that he might would appall Sans.
-Gaster wound up taking care of Sans and Papyrus for several years, running himself ragged trying to bring in enough work and enough money to keep them all fed. This left Sans at home quite often to keep the house in order, and especially to look after his brother. Ultimately, he became pretty good at it for still being fairly young himself. Sans tried to give to Papyrus everything he wished he could have for himself in a home.
-Gaster developed the plans for the CORE in secret, before finally submitting them to Asgore. The designs were enough to earn him the previously vacant position of Royal Scientist, and access to the personnel and resources he would need to see it to completion.
-Once the CORE was complete and operational, life got a little easier for everyone from there, even if Sans and Papyrus saw him less frequently than ever. Sans always tried to reassure Papyrus that this didn't mean his oldest brother didn't care, that in fact he cared a very great deal to work so hard for their sake. But Sans also started to take a small bit of pride in the fact that one thing he could do was always be there to tuck Papyrus in at night.
-Even so, upon growing a little older, and with a little more time for his own studies, Sans was able to prove himself worthy to join the Royal Lab alongside Gaster. The fact that he could translate directly between his brother's speech and that of other monsters was a plus.
-Papyrus really had no interest in joining the lab or pursuing a scientific career. He was certainly bright enough, but didn't want to walk a path that already demanded so much of his brother's time and attention. He already felt overshadowed by them at some times, or as though he was a burden to them at others. Before meeting Undyne, he never quite settled on what he wanted to do instead. Sans never had anything but utter confidence that Papyrus would be great at whatever he set out to do, though, and was never shy about expressing it.
-Sans always tried to make it a point to be home in time for dinner with Papyrus and to get him safely to bed. This was important to him, and yet often left him feeling as though he was split between two lives, with not enough time left to devote to either of his most important people. Occasional but pointed arguments with Gaster about leaving before work was done didn't help matters. For a while, he simply tried to content himself with the idea of being an ordinary guy who would work hard to support his two extraordinary siblings. In light of their energy and drive, Sans often felt himself overshadowed. Rather than blame either of the two of them, he grew to blame himself for not being a better or stronger person.
-Eventually, Gaster discovered the first signs of the anomaly's eventual effects on the timelines. Sans, as his immediate lab assistant, was the first to learn of this discovery. Together, the two of them put their heads together to try and work out a possible way to fight back. In the end, they decided to try and harness determination for the use of monsters, instead.
-That still eventually left the matter of a test subject. Sans volunteered himself, Gaster was hesitant, for obvious reasons, but Sans managed to persuade him that since they worked so well together anyway, since their souls were so similar, he would be the most efficient choice. He insisted that Gaster was a good enough scientist that, together, they could make sure nothing went wrong. At heart, however, Sans was consumed with the belief that here was his chance to do something meaningful, to do the sort of good for the Underground that Gaster had done and that Papyrus surely would do. Weak and ordinary as he otherwise was, taking this power for himself might let him keep his brothers safe against the terrifying threat the anomaly presented.
-Gaster had his doubts about Sans' motivations even then, but never quite figured out a way to express them. Either way, especially so as to avoid causing a panic thorughout the Underground, he eventually agreed and the tests and modifications proceeded.
-No one but Sans remembers when the DT extraction machine was actually the DT injection machine, the culmination of their work. It injected him with their own approximation of that uniquely human force, distilled from research into the human souls that Asgore had already managed to gather. The process left Sans with 1 HP, but also his powers over time and space on top of the innate blue magic he had as a skeleton. Sans was overjoyed at the project's apparent success. Gaster had his doubts, but they weren't bad enough to prevent him for letting Sans go home as usual that day, despite Gaster's wishes that a proper medical team take a look at him.
-For a while, everything seemed to be okay. Sans enjoyed experimenting with his new powers, Gaster continued his studies into the anomaly. He even started to theorize that being left with 1 HP was a natural or even expected outcome, that perhaps a life of constant risk was necessary to manifest determination. Papyrus was unaware of what had been going on at the lab, but certainly appreciated Sans' high spirits.
-A few days later, however, Sans fell ill, and then appeared to fall down. The argument that resulted between Papyrus and Gaster was one that would never get the chance to be fully resolved. On some subconscious level, Papyrus remembers as much, and it did a lot to contribute to his naturally forgiving nature. The one time he refused to forgive someone was the one time that he never got the chance to change his mind.
-Unlike most monsters who fell down, Sans did eventually wake up. Unfortunately, it immediately preceded his transformation into an enormous, borderline-feral monster, something like a skeletal dragon. He caused a fair bit of property damage to Hotland, and some injuries among the Royal Guards who arrived to stop him, but the nature of his attacks meant that there were no fatalities. Even so, to this day, Sans has only hazy memories of that time.
-Gaster managed to get Sans returned to the lab, where he kept him sedated and largely in stasis while he worked to reverse the transformation. Eventually, he realized that their experiments had worked too well. Sans' power had overloaded his body. Since so much of a monster's form is determined by its soul, Sans' had forced his physical form to transform to accommodate the excess magic. Diminishing or limiting his power, therefore, proved to be the answer to changing him back.
-Eventually, Gaster was able to properly confirm that Sans' power manifested itself along with a particularly strong glow in his eyelights, and that it wasn't just an oddity of the "blaster" form. A skeleton's eyelights are strongly linked to their soul, and so Gaster removed one of his own to replace one of Sans', cutting the strength of that connection in half. As a result, he lost the ability to manifest his time powers as strongly.
-Sans finally changed back and regained consciousness. Even after he fully recovered, there was never any question about him returning to the lab. Gaster fired him in an attempt to make certain Sans stayed home and safe, where Papyrus could help him recover more fully. Meanwhile, Gaster redoubled his efforts to investigate the anomaly alone.
-Rationally, Sans was always aware that Gaster meant well by this, but he was also always hurt about being shut out of the one consistent connection to his older brother that he'd managed to hold on to for all these years.
-They never had the chance to talk about that much, however, because it was just a couple of weeks later that the accident happened that left Gaster scattered across time and space. Only Sans, with what remained of his own innate force of determination, was able to remember that his brother had ever existed at all. And only Sans, who still carried a piece of Gaster's soul inside his skull, was able to avoid being erased by all of space-time as a penalty for that knowledge.
-Papyrus has a dim sense of loss, but his memories were fairly well scrambled. He remembered Sans' injuries as stemming from the lab accident itself, remembers all the other lost scientists as having been Sans' friends who'd died that day. As a result, he never raised a fuss when Sans moved them to Snowdin, as far away from Hotland as the Underground would allow. Gaster had left them a great deal of money, and since everyone could still at least remember Sans' time in the lab, no one ever questioned his right to it.
