❛ … … … am starvin’ . ❜ when did she last eat ? it feels like days ago .
* YOUR IVORY FINGERS SPLINTER ALONG THEIR SPINES , DANCING ON YOUR CHEEK IN RYTHYM TAP TAP TAP TAP . it was days ago . acri knows this better than he knows his own mind now , and watches the child with a steady eye over a steady mind .
he says nothing .
standing , ancient bones creak : spine snaps , those fingers bowed and crooked things that take a home in a dead eye . an ax is found by his feet , wood pressed with the memory of his carnage , fitting into the shape of a free palm .
he says nothing , but walks out of that house , rotten eye from starving child to the door , to the forest . she’s free to follow , free to stay , but he has dinner to find .
* IT IS , ISN’T IT ? he won’t answer obvious statements best left to die in the silence , best left withering where they stood : unsaid and unbothered , UNNECESSARY MOST OF ALL . slender fingers pick through the meat , buzzard claws through carrion painting the snow . there is a ghost at executioner’s back , here to haunt him for all his sentences passed . can you see it ? can you see it ? can you see it ?
sans can .
HE WILL NOT SPEAK TO SPECTERS , NOT WHEN THE DEAD HAUNT HIM ALREADY IN THE EYES OF SHIFTING SHADOWS , HUNGRY IN THE DARK . they are the scavengers , and in their desperate , snarling faces that crease in the depth of thin trees and stagnant air , sans sees the future : their rotting corpses , propagated by too many nightmares and too many lifetimes , their dust , choking the world like the snow does now .
so no , sans will say naught to creatures who speak in his ear or watch from the dark : after all , they all want something from him , but they will get nothing .
nothing , arm raises once more too heavy to carry in one piece , but an ax .
* YOU ARE A LONG WAY FROM HOME . whether it’s him or the child , it is unknown : from the moment bobbed hair and striped shirt flitted from between the slender trees , dancing between their gnashing teeth like a robin’s bright wings , he didn’t know .
sans didn’t know , not betwixt that rotten eye nor pained clutch of phalanx’s across tree bark , scrapping as he went by following , he was following , hands empty ( where was his ax ? had he left it in this panicked , entranced , horrified stupor ? ) and mind one tracked , WHAT DOES IT MATTER ? what does it matter , hunger cries !
i am afraid , something answers . afraid of what this means .
BECOMING THE HORROR . / a brief take on what’s happened to sans that led to his state today !
a skeleton monster standing at 5′4″ , once was a devoted brother , intuitive ex - scientist , lucky friend , and talented jokester . he is a direct take of my main sans @dunkedon only with a poor ending , verse as plain as they get .
it was the last time he stood in the judgement hall that his world came crashing down . resets themselves were nothing new : he takes everday with a smile even if he’s seen it a thousand times over , and ever a judge , his kid was currently nearing the end of a particularly long neutral run . they had killed most notably alphys , along with a handful of other monsters .
it was in that hall the rug was pulled out from under him . the child had grown bored , and it figured out the best way to end it . to leave and never return .
sans tried his best in making them reset , just one more time , anything - but the resulting fight left him with a blow that shattered his skull , caving it inwards . his memory broke , his magic becoming nothing more than a figment , and he was left to die .
it was by luck he was found and healed as best as possible , brought home shortly after : it was during most of undyne’s short and failed reign he spent healing - days and months of not even knowing his own name , who his brother was , grasping for memories and seeming to find nothing but nightmares .
eventually , sans reached a sort of equilibrium : his memory still subpar and slipping , sans pushed himself when it came to his brother’s safety and wellbeing .
he’s grown to be the cannibalistic predator he is today for his brother’s sake and nothing else .
CURRENT HORROR ! SANS HCS . / an accounting and list of some minor and major , mostly unconnected , headcannons !
sans is , more often than not , a civil monster when not face to face . without a direct way to access you , it’s easy for him to fall into a more relaxed role . any other way , and he wouldn’t take chances for granted .
a skilled user of his now trusty ax , sans dominates the “ meat trade ” in snowdin , often seen wandering the forests . more often than not he’s checking traps or stalking his prey in a manner that resembles persuit preditation , a gait that neither falters nor hastens . he’ll catch up to you . he always does .
sans has learned to take the many caverns and spaces of the underground he can for what they are : he’s weakened the cavern ceiling as much as he can , easy pitfalls for the unsuspecting hikers and creatures above .
make no mistake , sans is a killer , a cannibal and a murderer . somedays he doesn’t remember near enough to know he hates this , hates what he’s become , who he is - and on those rare days , he can enjoy it thinking it’s just who he is . on others , he does what he has to . for his brother . his LOVE is too high to go back .
sans has a poor habit of hooking his phalanges into his eye - socket as a way to ground himself : it’s a funny coping method , but it works . some days . little ticks and twitches are also common : they soothe him , somehow .
his magic is extremely volatile : somedays it’s too much to bare and others it’s just enough to check the traps he’s set for the day . he can’t teleport often or far , but maybe , on a very good day , he could hop verses . ( this is a chance he takes rarely and only in desperation , afraid not to have the energy to return )
every so often sans makes the trip to the core and alphys’ lab so he can make sure the essential functions are still running : without electricity , they’d be left in the dark , and starving is bad enough as is .
sans used to be close friends with alphys , but after hearing all that happened in his absence , on days he remembers , he holds a bitter resentment for undyne .
he’s often used to giving his brother the only or bigger portions : his brother is usually only given humans remnants or other “ meats ” - as of yet , his brother hasn’t consumed another monster ( after all , post death they dust , don’t they ? ) .
however , sans has caught a live monster more than once and scarfed them down before they could dust . all to keep the strength to keep his brother alive .
sans has certain “ anchors ” that help him keep mentally stable , things he clings to for certainty and guidance , some being : his ax and his brother .
the head wound he suffers from has yet to heal , and sans refuses to clean it out . it is a festering open wound which affects his mental , physical , and magical health day by day . he’s afraid to touch it , and at the attempt of anyone to do as such , is to ask for death .
when it comes to said skull , infection isn’t uncommon . often enough he has to take special care to keep it clean when he does bother , but with the inaccess to proper care , it’s inevitable . these days , if not weeks , is where sans’ memory and magic is weakest : struggling through the forest in an attempt to get at least something on the table for both him and his brother .
as for recovery , the very starvation that has made his bones brittle refuses to allow his skull to heal , causing minute cracks of pressure around the edges . perhaps , if well fed enough and with proper medical attention , it could at least stabilize somewhat - physically at least . there’s no telling how permanent the magical and mental damage this end has done to him .
not only starving , sans is touch starved and craves company in a way he can’t have : most everyone he meets and knows that isn’t his brother sans actively avoids or attacks unless he needs something - beyond taking care of his “ prey ” , he hasn’t had any kind of physical contact in any way with anyone par his brother in years .
due to the starvation of both monster food and the magic within , sans’ bones have grown extremely thin and brittle : easy to bruise and break . it’s a problem he’s run into more than once , resulting in the loss of a few of his ribs and toes - wounds much like the shattering of his skull .
sans’ magic may be mostly messed up , and while teleportation may seem a rarity , gravity magic was , and still is , his strong suit . it’s a good tactic while doing his new job , a way to easily put a certain weight behind his now weak blows that isn’t usually there . all in all , it’s at least one aspect of his magic he has minor more control than others .
TIMELINE . / a cleaned up accounting of my personal horrortale timeline , but flexible to mutuals / writing partner’s individual ideas and headcannons !
a verse long past the resets , sans managed to survive the onslaught of children playing god . the only issue ? they left after a long reigning pacifist run , tearing out the six souls and cutting asgore down in his garden . now undyne sits upon the throne with a crown of broken bones , with the true sovereign of the land being hunger .
perhaps had frisk not cut down the royal scientist alphys , in their rapid departure , the empress would’ve had enough hope to keep the kingdom whole . without her , undyne was ruthless , more than determined to break the barrier with her own two hands alone . for a few years she ruled justly , but mercilessly .
it wasn’t until the famine truly set in that the kingdom crumpled . the core was set on the brink , their engineered food supply dwindling without the royal scientist and no one currently viable to help . undyne’s rule was therefor a disaster - turning a terrified , frenzied population upon the falling of the first human so many years later .
they were eaten .
it was by royal decree that the souls and bodies of fallen humans were to be taken to the capital , but outrage spread fast : it was with that final act undyne knew the kingdom had reached a breaking point and locked all entry in and out of the capital .
the rest of the underground was left to fend for itself .
many years have passed , leaving a wasteland filled with starving monsters with nothing but their own hunger to guide them . live cannibalism is common , survivors both grouping together or working on their lonesome . humans and wildlife are a rarity , scraps and bones traded like diamonds to their long gone currency of gold . as for their souls ? who knows : perhaps those too , are swallowed whole in the frenzy for food .
the ruins are silent ; rural towns like snowdin are shady death traps built on hierarchies ; waterfall is for the feral ; alphys’ lab and the core have been torn into and barely function ; mtt’s resort is a fortress , perhaps the last withstanding piece of the civilization so close to the capital . as of recent , to the best of knowledge , the heart of the underground has gone dead and silent .
* YOU ARE INFESTED . it shows , from teeth pulled back at the skull , to grime - coated phalanx’s that keep close ( as if afraid they too , in his wayward mind , might be lost ) . this apparition ? this “ STRANGER ” ? does not help .
distress coils his voice tight , words reared back from lashings , “ * what are you doing here? ”
if you don’t know what horrortale is , basically the results of a neutral run gone wrong . i write it as frisk / chara leaves the underground one last time after having grown bored , killing alphys / asgore / crippling the underground in terms of survivability before confronting sans with the fact that this is the last time . after this they will not return nor reset , and in sans’ attempt to stop them , they leave him crippled from a major blow to the head .
sans spends nearly two years in states of recovery , his memory and magic shattered , only to emerge into a world on the edge of collapse . things only get worse from there food is scarce , monsters are going insane , ect . i have a fully fleshed out world for this universe , from waterfall being a place full of cannibals and those broken , while mettaton’s resort is one of the last strongholds in the underground . the capital is sealed off , snowdin a town ruled by the meat trade of whatever remains .
sans is a cannibal , and while many monsters know or suspect this , no one is strong or reckless enough to try and banish him to waterfall . he’s their main source of food , from his abilities to the traps he’s set . he’s taken on the name acri for purposes when it comes to timeline hopping , and while he can do so , it’s rare and takes up far too much of his sporadic magic .
* IT CREEPS INTO YOUR BONES LIKE A DISEASE . he would know : his marrow is rotten and thick with infection like maggots under flesh , curdled blood that sits thick and congealed under fingers , he would know , for all that pristine ivory of his bones , what disease feels like .
they speak , and sans pays no mind : not at first , it’s a stupid thing to say , worthless in meaning and they both know it . winter ? winter like snowfall fresh in the forest and the squealing laughter of children and fires made for the shared warmth ? winter like home , smelling of sweets and thick wool ?
or winter like ice and cold , like the dark chill you can never tear from your spine , frozen over you in a bad taste you will never get out of your mouth : fear . with winter comes the dark and night and the terrors , and with winter comes all things men fear : monsters .
( they present frisk with the options, of course, but it’s a choice they make as well, mouth splitting open and their mouth teeming over with teeth and ebony mire, spilling out at the edges where the flesh of their cheek splits. )
( frisk signs something out to them, looking up, and chara translates, just in case the skeleton can’t read the little one’s hands. )
‘ so that was your brother, then? ‘
* YOU HAVE LITTLE LOVE FOR CHILDREN . they are the things best left rotting in the shadows , best left to be protected from the real MONSTERS like him . but human children ? they draw a snarl before he can even speak , slit across his teeth in a way sans can not hide , breathing a disdain into every word .
“ * yes. ” it’s all he can do to keep the ax at his side , fingers drilling into the surface of his sentry stand one two three four one two three four . he’s hungry . they all are . “ * ...you left the ruins. why? ”
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